I'm sick of those eggs!

I haven't had time to download my camera in a long time, but I feel the need to get the picture of those eggs off the blog so I will tell you about a brief conversation I had with Luke this morning. We had about an hour before we needed to pick up Jackson at school so we ran to the mall to get a Christmas present or two. On the way Luke kept asking me if we could get a smoothie, and I said we could if we had time. So he asked me, "What does time mean?" I said, "Time is how you measure how long something takes." And then he asked, "What does 'measure how long something takes' mean?" I thought about it for a second, and then just told him we could get a smoothie.

For those of you following the saga of Luke's foot...He broke it last Thursday afternoon jumping off the stairs. Here's a proud picture of him with his cast.



And here he is getting the cast removed four days later after an unfortunate dunk in the tub.



We all hated the cast, and he's got a boot now so the bathtub incident was probably a blessing in disguise. Hopefully this will be our first and last broken bone. More pictures to come!

Last thing about the animals...

The chickens had a half a dozen eggs ready for us when we went to take care of them tonight, so we had breakfast for supper.

Dottie

Finished scooping donkey poop and we're about to drop off the boys and head out to the movies.

Kindergarten Update

I can't believe how fast the last few months of school have gone by. I was thinking back to the first week of school and how worried I was that we would never be able to get there on time. Amazingly, we have completely adjusted to the new schedule of getting up early. I was also worried that Jackson would eventually get tired of going to school, but really the opposite has happened. This morning at breakfast he even told me that he thought school was too short and sometimes he wishes he could stay longer! Jackson is loving school. The children in his class have grown so close that it's hard to believe they've only known each other for a few months. It turns out that Jackson takes all the schoolwork very seriously which was not a surprise to me, and he behaves very well in class which was. Here are some highlights from the last few weeks.

Jackson's class was chosen to recite Psalm 23 at the school open house. I was nervous...he wasn't.







Grammy and Papa came to watch the open house. Jackson enjoyed showing off his reading to them while they were here.



Last Friday the Kindergartners and First Graders celebrated Thanksgiving together. The Kindergartners were native Americans and the First Graders were pilgrims. The pilgrims hosted and served a real Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, pumpkin pie and all the usual sides.







And we have enjoyed having Caleb as our carpool buddy. I love talking to the boys about school on the way home.



One of the things I'm thankful for during this season is all of our friends from church, school, and our neighborhood. God has blessed us with these relationships (old and new) and with a smooth transition into this new phase of our lives.

Halloween, finally!

We had so many pictures from Halloween that it was hard to choose.

Eeny


Meeny


Miney


Moe


Catch a tiger by the toe.


Okay we didn't have a tiger in our trick or treat gang, but we did have a cute Dalmation. It was a fun week and we loved spending Halloween with our wonderful neighbors/friends.

Calm down donkey

This is one of the animals at Jackson's school that we are in charge of taking care of this week. All three donkeys kept coming up to tell me about how the sheep (Dottie) chased them out of their pen and stole their food. Mat chased Dottie around with a broom, but she still would not cooperate. I'm going get a picture of Dottie tonight. She's a punk, but the donkeys and chickens were all very friendly.

I'm about to download my big camera and hopefully catch up on blogging.

Jackson's first recital at school

Jackson's class recited a scripture yesterday in chapel. He did such an awesome job that I had to share. He's going to do a different chapter at the school open house next week, so I'm sure I will have to post that as well. Enjoy the cuteness.

I'm a Failure

This morning at breakfast Lukey said, "Tee-tee really feels kind of like...warm." At that moment I was disgusted, but relieved that he was wearing a Pull-Up. About 2 minutes later he said, "Mommy! Why are my feet all wet?" At THAT moment I was disgusted and highly irritated that the Pull-Up did not do the job that I paid it to do!

I don't know why I can't get a 3-year-old boy who communicates so well to tell me when he has to go to the bathroom. And you may be thinking, "Oh, well you just need to take him to the bathroom all the time since he won't tell you when he needs to go." To which I would reply, "I have done that and he cries and screams and has a tantrum when I take him to the bathroom for #1, and he won't go."

On Friday I took him to the toy store to pick out a big boy bike, and I told him that I would buy it for him when he starts wearing underwear. After riding it all around the store he told me that he really didn't want it. He also doesn't care about receiving candy or treats for going to the bathroom. He's not bothered by the fact that he has much younger friends who are already potty-trained. And this is the one and only thing that Jackson does that he doesn't want to copy! Dr. Patil said we should have him wear underwear inside the Pull-Up, so we're going to try that strategy this week.

Don't worry, btw. If you come to my house to eat, I will make sure you don't have to sit in Luke's chair.

Fall Weekend Fun

We've had some fun times over the past few weekends.

The first picture is when we got to visit my brother and sister's property in Gordon, Texas. We got a lesson in deer hunting and then shooting. Cody brought out the little gun.



And then Uncle David brought out the BIG (loud!) gun. Glad I'm not a deer.



We enjoyed seeing the rest of the Foster cousins too. Here's Luke with Emily. Can you tell that he's a little bit fond of her?



And Rob...too cute for his own good.



One of the highlights of the next weekend was Skyping with Charlie. This is Jackson's friend from preschool that moved to Brazil last year. They talked for so long that everyone even had to take bathroom breaks. Both little brothers got in on the action too.



We went to a football game at Jackson's school. This might have been the best night of Jackson's life. The boys loved running around behind the bleachers and playing with school friends. The score was 56 to zip when we left at half-time. I didn't catch the final score, but I'm pretty sure we won.



Then we went to the Hollows last weekend and stopped at Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls on the way. There were approximately 9 million people there, but we managed to find a photo op without any other kids in it before we got outta there and headed to the Bluebonnet Cafe for a large butter with a side of lard smothered in gravy.



Then today I took the boys to the Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 double feature in 3D. It was great. The 3D stuff was blowing their minds for a long time until they got used to it. Jackson had a couple of funny quotes. Before the movies started he asked me which one I thought they would show first. :-) When he found out we got to keep the 3D glasses he was disproportionately excited. I later understood why! He thought they were going to transform the whole world to 3D, and it was a sad few minutes when he finally realized that the glasses didn't work anywhere except in the theater.



Good times. I love my boyzees.

Funny Luke

Luke has had some funny quotes lately. Here are a few. Most of these fall into the category of misunderstood phrases, and please pardon the bathroom humor.

One day he asked me: "Mommy can you give me a pig ride?" I didn't take it personally.

When we pray before we eat, I often say something like "Help this food to nourish our bodies" or "Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies." One day we were eating outside at Chipotle and Luke and Jackson wanted to sit at a table by themselves. I overheard Luke earnestly praying: "Help this food turn to poop in our bodies."

One night I was asking the boys what their favorite part of the day was. Luke started to answer and got his words mixed up and said "My pavorite fart of the day..." Sorry to be so immature, but it cracked me up.

At church one Sunday morning a girl was being baptized. Luke whispered to me: "Is that man going to appetize her?" Oooh I hope not.

The first week of school Jackson's class received Spanish names in Spanish class. Jackson told us that his name for the year is Jorge. Luke (who is not jealous of Jackson at all :-) quickly chimed in that HIS Spanish name is "Sand." Oooookay.

As I type, Jackson is having a playdate with a friend from school. The older boys are trying as hard as they can to ignore him, but it's just impossible. I can hear him in the other room screaming over and over "HEY LEYTON, HEY JACKSON, HEY LEYTON, HEY JACKSON. HEY LOOK AT ME. I CAN DO THIS COOL TRICK. HEY LOOK AT ME, I CAN DO A FLIP!"

Even though Luke is still Jackson's little shadow and repeats everything he says...his personality is coming out. He's very independent. He usually wants to do everything by himself - his way - especially sticky things like pouring syrup and spreading jelly. (fun.) He is also very funny. I mean not just cute-kid funny, but he genuinely makes me laugh on a regular basis. He refuses (refuses!!) to wear underwear. And I never thought there could be a kid louder than Jackson, but I was wrong. Yesterday me and the boys were watching a show and he fell asleep in my arms. I needed to get up and fix supper, but I decided to cherish it as long as I could because the quiet, still moments are few a far between these days.

Donuts!

We've learned that getting up early can be sweet!

Our day in Rockwall

After breakfast we went to the farmer's market with Grammy and Papa.

Then we went to the park, but I forgot to take a picture. Then we went to the airport and watched the little planes come in.




The pilot of this plane let the boys have a look inside.



After nap we went fishing and caught one right after another.



We probably caught 20 of these poor little perch. Then we went to Chick-Fil-A, then had bath, books, and bed. Thanks Grammy and Papa for showing us such a good time!

Second First Day of School

Today Luke started at his new preschool. He's had a lot of emotions lately with Jackson starting school and getting a lot of attention. But this morning his main emotion as you can see was happiness! The last few weeks, I've been dreading today because he is a master at torturing me at "the drop-off" with crying, hanging onto the legs, reaching out as he's being carried away, screaming, etc. But today he didn't cry at all and was totally fine! He even wants to go back on Thursday, so I'd call that a successful first day.

First Day of School

We did it! One day of school down and 15 more years to go! We have all been so excited and anxious about this week. The boys went down to sleep last night pretty easily, but they both ended up in bed with us in the wee hours of the morning. Then, this morning at about 6:00, Jackson tapped me on the shoulder to wake me up, "Mommy! I forgot my carpool number! What is it!?!" I told him it was 39H and he relaxed and went back to sleep for another 30 minutes or so. So I knew that he had probably spent the night with his mind racing about school.




As you can see he woke up in a good mood anyway. He nagged everyone quite a bit this morning because he didn't want to be late. He was ready to go at least 20 minutes before it was time. I could tell he was so excited to just get on with it! As we were walking up to school he told Mat that his heart was beating really fast.




We of course wanted to take lots of pictures and Jackson didn't have very much patience for it. So Mat kept reminding him that he would get a special treat tonight after dinner if he cooperated with the camera. That plan backfired a little bit because every time he said it, Luke would jump into the picture smiling his best smile and scream, "I WANT A TREAT!"




We've already had a couple of opportunities to get to know some of the families from our class. When he got to class Jackson ran up to his friend (the tall blond kid) and said, "Hey we have the same belt!" (I guess he didn't notice the shirt and pants and shoes...haha :-)










Jackson's teacher is so sweet, and she's from East Texas!




After school we went to Chick-Fil-A and had lunch. It was packed, and we saw some friends from both church and school. We couldn't have asked for a better first day.

Headed home

We made a last minute desicion to go home by way of Kansas and Oklahoma. So we have a lot of this ahead of us.

Megan's Turning Two!

While Mat and Steve are hiking Chapin, Chaquita, and Ypsilon today Jenny and I took the kids to town to shop. Megan got a special treat at lunch since it's her b-day. Isn't she precious!?!

The Stanley Hotel

Yesterday Mat and I did a ghost tour of The Stanley. This is supposed to be one of the most haunted hotels in the world. It's also the place where Stephen King stayed in the 70's that inspired the book The Shining.

The first pic is the exterior and the second is the door of room 217. If you've read the book you'll remember this room. It was a really fun, spooky tour. REDRUM!!!!!!

Little Explorers

Yesterday the boys took a class to learn how to tell directions and read a map. They followed a map that took them all around the camp finding clues and using mountains and landmarks to tell the direction. Here they are looking at the map, starting to hike to the next clue, and having a spontaneous hugging attack.