Apparently, my children love to be in tight-fitting places.  It must be more fun to have your legs and bottom all squished together in a box, corner of the couch, etc. 

One of our favorite things to do is make a train out of those plastic shoe boxes and I pull the kids all over the living room.  I’m not sure how many 3 year olds will actually fit into one of these things, but I have a feeling Rachel’s bottom will outgrow it before Ethan’s does.

We discovered at my Meme’s house that Ethan will also fit into one of those fold-up toy baskets.

While we were at Bryan and Ginny’s a couple of weekends ago, Rachel discovered the Cozy Coupe.  However, she much preferred sliding out the seat and under the car.  Every time I sat her up she worked hard to just slide right down again.

And if any of you are drawing a blank on what to get your child for Christmas, get this dump truck.  My parents got it for Ethan a couple of years ago and he finds new uses for it every day.

Last night the kids and I enjoyed an evening with Nicole and her girls since our husbands are away on business for the week.  Instead of reinventing the wheel, here’s a link to Nicole’s perfect rendition of the evening.  Thanks, girls, for a fun night!!!

Just wanted to say happy birthday to the best brother in the world.  We celebrated Saturday night at my parents house and it was so nice to be with his family.  I contemplated listing all of the ridiculous, embarrassing, crazy things my brother has done to me or made me witness over the years, but some things really are best left in the family.  Bryan – just know that you’ve made my life much more interesting than it would have been without you.  I love you and I think you’re the best, and I hope you had a wonderful 40th birthday. 

I’m working on getting the Thanksgiving pictures sorted, but wanted to make sure I capture these recent conversations with Ethan…

(In the living room looking at a Christmas book)
E:  Mommy, I want Santa Claus to bring me this train for Christmas!
Me:  Okay.  You’ll have to tell him so he’ll know.
E:  Or he might say, “No, I don’t want to bring that train to you.”

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(In the car with Clay who forgot his garage door opener)
E:  Daddy, where’s your garage button?
Clay:  I don’t know, bud.  I guess I forgot it.
E:  Or maybe you were mean to mommy and she got mad at you and went to your car and took your garage button.

(We’re so thankful that he’s learning the true nature of Santa Claus and mommy)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love the mail.  I know it’s becoming a lost art, but I love checking the mail, sending the mail, buying stamps, etc.  Weird, I know.  But even more than my love for checking the mail is seeing something like this on my front porch:

What a beautiful sight!  A unexpected box full of girly goodies from Jessica…there aren’t many things better than that!  There were dresses galore, pajamas, cute winter outfits, shoes, tights…you get the idea.  Rachel first discovery in the box was the pink hat:

And one of my favorite things is this dress that was inside:

Thank you so much, Jessica, for the box and for thinking of us.  You made our day!

Looks like we may have a Shirley Temple on our hands.  Just in the past month or so have these curls really come to life and I love them!  We should probably go ahead and buy a good diffuser, some stock in Frizzease, and a flat iron because inevitably she’ll hate them when she’s in junior high.  (and don’t even ask about the pacifer…that’s for another post)

If anyone wants a fever, just come on over!  Rachel has learned the importance of sharing by passing her fever to Ethan.  She finally got over the bronchitis, and I guess she figured the whole normal naptime/bedtime routine wasn’t going to happen so she got some kind of virus that resulted in fever and vomiting.  Well, she kicked that around Monday…and then of course E got it.  Poor guy has to miss his Thanksgiving feast at school tomorrow, but at least he doesn’t know the difference.  So, all of this sickness is my excuse for not posting more often.  I do, however, have several things to post about. 

First and foremost…my brother and his family are officially Texans again!!!  They moved into their beautiful home in Frisco last weekend and we had so much fun hanging out with them.  My parents and Ethan and I spent most of the day with them unpacking and looking around the house and neighborhood (unfortunately Clay had to stay home with Rachel since she was still contagious).  It was SO nice to just do normal family things with them instead of having to cram lots of things into a couple of days like we usually do.  I just love that family and can’t wait to lots of normal things with them like birthday parties and soccer games.  Two houses down from theirs is an awesome playground with a splash park, and next to that is the elementary school.  I’m so happy for them, and I hope Addi and Libby get adjusted soon to their new home and new life. 

And Rachel finally felt well enough for a 9 month and a bear photo shoot a couple of days ago.  While I don’t normally do these in her pajamas, I love these Gymmies and had to get her picture in them before she outgrows them (although I don’t think this will happen any time soon considering she lost about 1.5 pounds in the last 2 weeks).  I know I get to hold her every day, but looking at these pictures makes me want to just go in there and kiss all over her…and then my sanity pill kicks back in and I remember that you NEVER wake a sleeping baby. 


And Ethan’s making a really goofy face in this one, but – as always – he had to get in on the monthly picture:

Ray-Bug has also been very proud of showing everyone how big she is.  I don’t remember how old Ethan was when he started doing “so big,” but I just love this stage. 

I’m sure I’ll think of several other things that I wanted to say as soon as I publish this post, and quite frankly I’ll be way to lazy to come back and modify it after that.  So, off to the living room to watch a movie with Clay. 

Yesterday was a day of celebration here…Rachel’s 9 month birthday and Clay’s 372 month birthday!  Rachel got to celebrate by going to the doctor for a checkup (thankfully no shots), and she got a clean bill of health.  She weighed in at 20 pounds-1 ounce, 28.5 inches long, and has an 18 inch head (apparently this is a really big head…thank you, Lord, for C-sections).  It’s hard to believe, but Ethan actually weighed more than her at 9 months!  She’s really enjoying her mobility…crawling, scooting, and cruising a little around the furniture.  She is 100% a momma’s girl, and doesn’t like it when she can’t see me.  She loves attention, and still really enjoys playing peek-a-boo and singing songs.  Unfortunately, with everything going on yesterday, I completely forgot to take her bear picture, so I’ll take it tonight and get it posted soon.  Stinks to be a second child!

We had fun celebrating Clay’s 372 month birthday.  Tuesday night his mom came over and brought us dinner and cheesecake…the birthday boy’s favorite.  Then the kids and I surprised him at his office for lunch yesterday, and had another surprise when a bunch of church friends met us for dinner at Chick-fil-A before church.  Right before we left for dinner I gave him his present…another surprise…tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins concert in a couple of weeks.  We LOVE concerts and Clay is a Pumpkins fan, so we’re super excited about this.  Clay – I could write for hours about how amazing, wonderful, loving, supportive, encouraging, patient, dedicated, etc. you are.  You know how much I love you, and I really do thank God for you every day.  I would give examples of how sweet you are, but I wouldn’t want people to think that you’re a softie.  Just know that given the choice of every man in the entire world, my choice is you…always you.

Leave it to Clay and Ethan to find out the dangers of a tent boat.  Last weekend was our annual church camping trip, and we have been so excited about it.  Well, life happened and Rachel got bronchitis so I stayed home with her while the boys went.  They took a tent, but it worked out for them to sleep in the camper with some friends of ours.  I can’t really explain the logistics of it all, but their bed was hanging over the edge of the camper with this tent-like canvas covering it up.  Long story short, Ethan fell out of bed in the middle of the cold night…through the hole in the canvas and right onto the ground.  While it’s not funny to think about poor Ethan being woken up like that, the funny part is that he said, “Daddy, I just fell out of the tent boat.”  I guess it does resemble a boat, and we have been on their boat before, but it still cracks me up that his trauma (no real bodily damage besides a bruised up back) was recounted by him saying he fell out of the tent boat.  Despite some effort, Clay wasn’t able to get any good pictures of the trip, but I don’t think we’ll ever forget it.

Also wanted to put up a couple of pictures of the kids…in NOVEMBER…playing in the wagon with no shirts on because it was so hot.  I know I should be thankful for some reason, but I’m just having a hard time keeping Ethan’s shorts out and keeping his sweatshirts packed away.