How we are spending our Saturday Mornings

Family Traditions

Bill and I are at the age where we get to define our own family traditions. The importance of traditions hit us last year as Collin was old enough to communicate what he was looking forward to, questions he had and he was showing off his ability to remember.

Thanksgiving:
We've been going a bit light on this one. I'm not a big fan of glorifying the pilgrims and the destruction of the first nations. We focus on being thankful for the year, the 'harvest' and our family. Collins has been a sous chef since year 1 so we will keep that tradition alive. Perhaps Bridget can sniff spices or drop things into the pot this year. We wait until after dinner to put us Christmas items. We did make gingerbread and a gingerbread house this year before Thanksgiving. I like the timing of that because it keeps the Christmas season from getting too busy. I would say this is the season where we start playing Christmas music and sitting in front of the fire. One could argue this isn't Thanksgiving-specific, but it does happen in the T-day time frame.

Christmas:
This one is an active season. Up this year: Santa Parade with Christmas Caroling and Tree lighting in downtown Auburn. Making paper chains. Putting up Christmas decorations-Collin did get his way and put us the stockings before Thanksgiving this year. Advent wreath lighting. Putting up a nativity and waiting to put out Jesus until Christmas. Last year we did a children's mass, but we didn't like the church. I anticipate the new church to be much more welcoming and fun.

What fun things do you do for the holidays that we are missing out on?

Little Old Man who Lived in a Boot

Collin: Mama, I had a dream. Grandpa Bill and I lived in a boot.
Erin: Neat.
Collin: And there were lots of nice Children and Babies.

A little funny

We couldn't figure out why the bathroom smelled so strongly. Then one morning I walked in to find Collin trying to pee in the garbage can. Evidently it had been going on for a while.

Needless to say we corrected that behavior and the bathroom is smelling better.

Bridget, little Miss 10 months

Little Miss Squishy Princess is a true walker. She can dart in and out of rooms, pivot and pick items up. She now loves to dig in Collin's cupboard so we are always picking up plastic cutlery, plates and cups off the floor.

She still only 6 teeth, but she is biting everything and everyone. Hopefully this month we can stretch out her sleeping into 3-4 hour blocks, Mama is getting tired waking up every 1- 1 1/2!

We can't wait to see what the next few months bring us!

Collin

Our little man is becoming a fantastic story teller. Here he explains how he got his hair. He still wants 4-6 MORE brothers and sisters, but I told him that will not happen.

He is loving school and his schoolmates. Recently they started Sound Sharing where he gets to bring an item in a bag and give 3 clues to his classmates to have them guess the item. It has been fun to select the items, and Collin is an excellent clue creator.

We all got over being sick this last week. I enjoyed Collin was old enough to use the puke bucket efficiently!

Today he started gymnastics again. He is in the older preschoool class and it is more structured. He didn't like it as much as a the toddler class where he and Bill got to run around and try out all the equipment, but we will see how it goes.

Babes is trying to walk

Bridget (a.k.a. Babes) is trying her darndest to walk around. We give her an A for effort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkSIAUu0SG8

There has been too much going on to jot it all down, but here's a list:
-Roadtrip to Wyoming for Monika and Steve's wedding.
-School starting back up and Collin moved upto the next room with the "big kids"
-Bridget went to her first birthday party for her little boyfriend, Lane
-Garden went crazy and we have tomato plants the size of bushes
-Iwent to Fort Collins for work and Dad held down the house and kids all by himself!
-Thomas the Train rail trip was enjoyed by the whole family