Thanksgiving in Oklahoma

Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a whirlwind week up in Oklahoma to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with our families.  It is nice to travel to one place and see everyone, but we came home exhausted!  The kids did great, it is getting so much easier now that we don't have to travel with baby food, bottles, etc.  We spent 4 nights with Rick and Sue, and then 4 nights with Mom and Dad.  The kids were spoiled by their grandparents with numerous treats and fun things to do.  We had a wonderful time, and the kids went non-stop everyday, even Jacob (who hasn't napped in over a year) would fall asleep going from one place to another.  Jacob and Gwyn camped out with Rick and Sue in a tent in their room, they thought that was just great.  We were able to see Nick and Erika and their kids Rafael and Blythe (who looks exactly like Nick!).  We got to see Neely and her precious girls, Ava and Catherine, and I forgot my camera, so I don't have any of the kids playing together:(  I got to have lunch with my good friend Anna, who lives in Baltimore and I hadn't seen in years, but it was like we hadn't ever stopped hanging out.  We got to hang out with Nick, Emily and their girls, Grace and Sadie (who is 6 days younger than Annie).  The kids got to visit Sue at her school, go to the gym, music room, cafeteria and playground.  We were able to go to a reunion for my mom's side of the family and see cousins and their kids that I hadn't seen in years!  With only making a couple of trips up to Tulsa a year, it is hard to see everyone that we want to, but I was happy that the kids got to spend a good amount of time with each set of Grandparents.  You could tell they had fun and Jacob and Gwyn both really loved being there.  The weather was great while we were there, it got a little chilly for a couple of days, and you can tell we have lived in Houston for too long because we froze!  The trip was great til the ride home...12 hours due to a stop in Frisco to see Em (so worth it) and a wreck on 45 South at Conroe which cost us at least 2 hours.  This would have been bearable if Gwyn hadn't thrown up all over herself and her car seat while we still had about 2 hours to go.  Seriously, our last 2 hours we drove home smelling puke.  I think she just got car sick, she does that sometimes, but this was awful timing and I don't know if we'll be allowed to ride with Jason anytime soon!  Here are pictures from our week in Oklahoma:
The kids making a gingerbread house:

 Gwyn has perfected a somersault, she has been working on this for awhile!

 Little snaggle-tooth Annie loved the slide at Emily's house:

 Thanksgiving at my parents (Susie was there, but didn't get in the picture...the kids had so much fun with Susie.  They would say, "you're busted, you got a chicken in your ear" and then die laughing (they are kind of crazy).  Susie would say, "that makes no sense."

 Annie looking precious in her Christmas outfit:

 Gwyn having fun outside:

 Jacob and Brian before bed:

 Brian after eating his second Thanksgiving feast in two days:

 Annie cheering for football (such a sad loss OSU!):

Riding Papa:

 Gwyn whining...I put this picture in here to show how beautiful and long her hair is...I'm planning on getting it cut this week (we've never cut it):

Getting ready to play outside:

 The Katt kids and the Huff kids:

 Mr. Muscles:

 Jacob and Annie playing with Grace and Sadie:

 Thanksgiving with Brian's family:

 Jacob in action:

 Sweet little Gwyn in her Christmas outfit:

 The kids with Rick and Sue posing:

 Give two kids one bottle of shaving cream and 4 minutes and you get this:

We did put up Christmas decorations at the house, and we have 4 trees.  The big one, and then Jacob, Gwyn and Annie each have their own.  After we put them up, you could hear them talking about how Santa was coming the next day.  I think Jacob has asked me 5 times today when our advent calendar starts, where they get to open one door per day til Christmas.  I explained several times about days of the week, and months, and how it is Monday, and on Wednesday it will be December 1st and we can start then.  He later told Gwyn that not tomorrow, but the next day it is Christmas, ha!  I'll have to get pictures of the kids with their Christmas trees, it is pretty funny how they decorated it.  Gwyn's has one spot with about 20 ornaments and the rest of her tree is bare.  Jacob has them all over the place, and keeps going over to our big tree trying to find just one more unbreakable ornament that he can switch to his tree.  Our tree has no ornaments from about 3 ft off the ground on down...little Annie is mesmerized!  I put up the Christmas village, and we could not find any of my cords.  I was so upset, and just on a whim, I texted the guy who bought our old house and sure enough they were in the attic (even though Brian told me over and over that he took them all out and put them in a box), I'm just so relieved, I'm going to go pick them up Wednesday morning!!  The kids will freak out after I get it set up with lights, everyday they pull their little stools over and just look at the village and repeatedly tell each other not to touch.  Oh yes, we have entered a tattle telling zone at our house.  It is a daily competition on who can tattle the most.  Jacob even told on Gwyn for telling on him, seriously, they are masters, except for when one of them tells on the other and ends up telling on themselves too (ha!). 

Funny things the kids said this week:
Jacob:  Is that a sticker?
Me:  Yes.
Jacob:  Are you going to put it on your shirt?
Me:  No, it is a $73 inspection sticker I'm going to put it on our car.
Jacob:  You are only supposed to put stickers on paper or on yourself
Me:  That is true, except for your hair (bad experience with getting 20+ stickers out of Gwyn's hair once), but this is a special expensive sticker we have to put on our car.
Jacob:  You aren't supposed to put stickers on the car (I know!)
Jacob (who always asks me to tell him a secret, whispered this in my ear when I told him to tell me one):  We are going to Chuck E Cheese.  (He has since then told this secret to anyone who will listen...we still haven't gone to CEC, poor kid!)
Gwyn:  Why did God make boogers?  (seriously!)
Jacob (at dinner tonight):  Thank you mommy for cooking me these noodles that I like (he's so sweet!).
Jacob (after my dad told him a story about his grandson who could swim):  Is it me?
Me (to Jacob):  Don't give Annie that (a nut), she doesn't have any teeth.
Jacob:  Yes she does, she has one on the top and two on the bottom.
Jacob (after getting in trouble and I told him our rules about being nice to our brothers and sisters):  But I don't have a brother (he's so technical!)
Gwyn (as we passed some cows while driving to Oklahoma):  I didn't know they had animals in Oklahoma!
Jacob (after I said that Jason got back home to my parents house while we were in OK):  This isn't his home.
Jacob: Mommy, Annie can have strawberries because they are soft, she only can't have things that are hard.

Pop, pop, pop that Turkey!

A real turkey visited Jacob and Gwyn's school this week.  I asked Gwyn if his name was Tom, and she said, "No Mommy, that is a train." I think she was thinking of Thomas the train.  We decided we thought his name was probably Sam.  She went on to tell me about how that turkey would pop that mirror, apparently, they held a mirror up to the turkey and he would peck it and the kids thought that was just great.  So, we sang a song all week that goes Pop, pop, pop that turkey, pop, pop, pop that turkey, pop, pop, pop that turkey, pop that turkey on the mirror.  Gwyn says turkey like tukey without an r, it is pretty cute.  Jacob came home with a very elaborate tale of a turkey that was running away from the cook who wanted to put that turkey in the oven to cook it for Thanksgiving.  He got really excited about telling us when all the people would cheer for the turkey as he was running away and say, "Go turkey go!"  Here is some of this week's artwork:

Jacob's class also got to take part in Thanksgiving Experience at his preschool.  This consisted of bead/necklace making, face painting, butter churning, corn grinding, and bread making.  I didn't know it at the time, but when I signed up at the beginning of the year to coordinate with what I thought was a Thanksgiving party, it was to coordinate the corn grinding and bread making stations for all the 4 yr old, Transition, and Kindergarten classes.  So, I was up at school helping set up, work, and take down those stations, as well as getting supplies and making 90 mini cornbread muffins for the kids to taste.  I made enough muffins for 1 / kid, only to find out that one of the Kindergarten dads handed out multiple muffins to each kid (the coordinator said one kid had 6 muffins!), so we ran out of muffins and had to get some store bought corn bread for the second day (oh the corn muffin drama!).  It was fun, but I did learn to read the fine print before volunteering to coordinate again!  Here is Jacob after he painted his face, he tried to copy an Indian symbol:

We are always talking about letters around here.  Jacob is learning to write and spell his name, and we surprisingly still had all the letters needed in their names from our alphabet puzzle (this is a huge feat, since Annie likes to take individual puzzle pieces and place them all over the house):

Gwyn knows how to spell her name, and after I asked her how to spell it one time, she quickly answered, "wxyz, no, gwyn."  It was pretty funny:

The weather has still been gorgeous, so we hit the park multiple times this week, this is the best picture I could get with my cell phone camera of Gwyn holding Annie down a slide:

Sweet little Annie is doing so much, her babbling has turned into what sounds like her repeating lots of words, she is spitting, clapping, waving, pointing, and mostly stomping.  We say, stomp it out Annie!  She likes to stomp, for fun, and also when she is mad, especially if Jacob or Gwyn take something from her, I'll have to get that on video.  She also tries to mimic you, if I brush my hair, and then her hair, I'll give her the brush, and she'll try to brush her own hair:

Other than that, not much else is going on.  It was N letter this week in Jacob's class, they do a different letter each week.  He cut out pictures from magazines of nuts, necks, noses, and a necklace.  He also brought his dinosaur necklace to school for show and tell.  He had a new pack of silly bands and wore about 15 to school and came home with 2, and he told me he gave them to his friends.  He's so sweet.  Our craft box is going to need some major supplies soon, these kids can use so many stickers in one week!  I finally had to say, no craft box today, the other day and just stick to some regular old paper and crayons, I told them it was old school (they looked at me like I was crazy).  Oh, and Gwyn got ahold of a sharpie on my office desk...once again, cheap white toothpaste took it off (mostly), score one for me, ha!  I love google!

Here is a video where the kids and I were having so much fun with Annie making noises with her mouth:

Funny things the kids said this week:
Jacob:  If I lay down on the grass real still, then I'm gonna catch a bird.
Me:  Oh really.
Jacob:  If I catch a bird, will you cook it for dinner?
Me:  Yes, if you catch a bird like that, then I'll cook it for dinner (please, Lord, don't let him catch a pigeon at the park anytime soon!)
Gwyn (after seeing me get 2 squirts of soap when I washed my hands):  Only 1 squirt mommy!
Jacob (after I told Jacob to stand back and let Gwyn shut the car door by herself):  We do teamwork at my school, and you didn't let me do teamwork with Gwyn.
Me:  Lucky for you, there is lots of teamwork time when we go inside and clean the house!
Jacob:  What comes after Fall?
Me:  Winter
Jacob:  No it doesn't, it's Thanksgiving!
Gwyn  (After breaking yet another dollar bin toy):  My daddy gonna fix it for me.

Claudia visits and Brian gets a getaway!

Can you believe what a great picture we got from last week?  All 3 kids looking at the camera, and 2 of them are smiling?  It will be on my Christmas cards, but I had to post it here since this has NEVER happened before, and since I'm sure it might be a few years before it happens again, I had to document it! 

We had a wonderful week and an even more fantastic weekend with a visit from Claudia!  Brian flew to Tampa to have a guys weekend with John, and Claudia (although a day late due to being sick) thankfully felt better and came to spend the weekend with us on Friday.  We picked her up and went to Hermann park to ride the train around the zoo and have a picnic lunch.  The kids had a great time, and since the weather has cooled off and been beautiful here, it has made many a park days very enjoyable.  We had a fun filled weekend with Claudia, Jason watched the kids so we could go to lunch and we were able to make the Nutcracker Market on Sunday.  The kids got to pick out ornaments for their tree, we went to Chick Fil A, they got new stuffed animals (Gilbert the guinea pig for Jacob and giraffe the giraffe for Gwyn - they each named their own) and she spoiled the kids rotten.  We loved having her here, and we had a wonderful time.  Brian did miss us, but he had a great time with John.  They got to catch up, sleep in, swim, and go out to dinner a few times.We decided next time that John should come to Houston with Brian and they can watch the kids and I could fly to Tampa to have a girls weekend of our own, ha!  I took just a few pictures, here is Gwyn on the train:

Jacob and Gwyn on the lookout for some ducks to terrorize.  There were ducks and tons of pigeons around and Jacob would take off running after them with Gwyn trailing right behind.  They were always on the edge of the water (which was only about 1 ft deep around the edge), so they were keeping us on our toes:

 Annie enjoying the craziness of her brother and sister:

Jacob with his transformer (that Daddy was able to transform into a car when he got home):

We have spent several days over the past week at the park after school with play dates, and we discovered that Annie LOVES to slide.  She gets all giddy as she is going down.  I didn't have a camera with me, but I can't wait to catch it next time.  Annie loves all things surrounding the dishwasher...her latest is arranging the plates, just right...here she is hard at work:

I did have to take all three kids to the grocery store last week.  I get the race car grocery cart (this is a HUGE deal, and I sometimes circle the parking lot til I can find one!), and I carry Annie while pushing the kids, and then Jacob helps me out by holding Annie if I need two hands for some things.  Jacob kept busy with taking pictures on my phone, I didn't even realize he was doing this until halfway through the grocery store, and I later found 78 new photos on my phone...here are the highlights of a grocery store ride through the eyes of a 4 yr old.  One of many shots down an aisle:

 Orange Juice...too many choices for one item:

 I get the sign of the cow, which was by the milk, but why a penguin over the yogurt/cream cheese section?

 Jacob's steering wheel:

 Gwyn's steering wheel:

The store Christmas tree (Jacob was holding Annie when I passed this, and he was upset he missed it, so after checking out, I pushed our loaded down cart back over so he could get a good shot, he said, "I GOT IT!"):

Here are just a couple of the kids at the house this week.  They are so busy and are playing together so well.  This picture was just too cute of Annie and Gwyn sharing a seat in the playroom:

Annie playing behind a chair (she is just so used to being put inside these made up houses that Jacob and Gwyn box her in with that she did this one on her own):

The kids after they saw Annie and wanted inside too:

Sweet little Gwyn, she was so proud of this tee pee she made at school and wanted to show it to everyone:

Jacob got to go on a field trip to the grocery store with his preschool this week.  I wasn't able to go with him this time, but he had a great time and came back telling stories of going in a big freezer and getting to hold a crab that didn't pinch you because it had rubber bands around its claws.  Here he is the morning before his field trip, he wanted his hair spiked up and I asked him if another kid in his class spikes his hair up, and he said, "No, just me."  So, of course I spiked it for him, how awesome is that that he wasn't trying to copy anyone else, he just wanted to be cool all by himself!:

A friend gave Gwyn several princess jibbits (the things you put on crocs to decorate them), and Jacob didn't have any on his.  We had lost his crocs at a park (haven't you ever seen someones shoe at a park and think how did someone just leave a shoe here, they had to walk in here with them on and left with them off, so how did they not notice that - well, I'll tell you, when your kid steps in a fire ant hill when you are all packed up and about to leave, then one parent runs over and picks him up and takes his shoes off to make sure there aren't any ants on him and the other parent is rounding up the other two kids and all the stuff, the shoes get left behind since the kid is carried to the car crying because he was bit by an ant...and you later realize after you've gotten upset with your kid because his crocs aren't in his cubby and he can't find them that you actually left them at the park).  Back to Jacob.  When I bought his new crocs, they didn't have jibbits, so he was jibbitless (this is devastating to a kid whose previous crocs had a batman AND a light up buzz light year).  So, if you are still reading this after all this jibbit background information, then I really applaud you for being such an awesome blog follower!  So, he had mentioned several times that he wanted some more jibbits after Gwyn was given several (at this point Gwyn has probably 10 on her shoes!).  That night before bed, we had read a book about wishing for something on a star, and Gwyn wished for a nightgown (??) and Jacob wished for "those things you put in your crocs like Gwynnie has."  Break my heart, he's so mistreated, and when I looked up at him, he gave me this sad look, but it really did look like he knew what he was doing.  Needless to say, Brian came home from Florida with a Buzzlight year, Wolverine, and he now also has a batman too! 

She says, "I love you so much" just out of the blue:

Funny things the kids said this week:
Jacob (after Brian read him a story about aardvarks):  We need to get an aardvark so it will eat our fire ants so they won't bite us.
Gwyn (she talks to Annie like she understands everything she says):  It's okay, Annie, I'm here.
Jacob (when I told him I couldn't go on his field trip):  But you won't have any fun mommy?
Jacob (after seeing his plate at dinner):  Thank you mommy for not cooking me peas!
Jacob:  What are those things you get in your eyes when you sleep?
Me:  Sleepies?
Jacob:  Ya, can you plant those and they can grow into a tree?
Me:  No, sleepies aren't seeds. (I guess they do kind of look like them!)
Gwyn (after hearing Annie on the monitor wake up):  Annie likes me so much...hang on Annie, I'm coming!
At night we always talk about our favorite part of the day, here is what they said a couple of nights ago:
Gwyn:  Going to chick fil a with you mommy.
Jacob:  When I got my new guinea pig Gilbert.
Me (to Gwyn as we were leaving):  Come on little ornery.
Gwyn:  I'm not ornery, I'm Gwyn (oh, I forgot).

The Daily Grind

Nothing too special to report on this week.  This picture we took before bath time the other night.  Jacob and Gwyn have had a few sleepovers recently, 5 of the 6 nights went perfect.  The 6th and last night went horrendous, so I'm not sure when we will be doing it again.  During the night, I think Jacob woke up and stood up and stepped on Gwyn, which lead to them both screaming and coming out of Jacob's room, which of course lead to Annie crying.  15 minutes later everyone was calmed down and back to bed, and then about an hour after that it happened again!  It was a horrible night!  Jacob and Gwyn were so excited about it and I turned them sideways so that they slept together in Jacob's queen size bed.  They keep asking when the next time will be...we will see!  I am happy to report that we have been getting consist sleep from all the kids (after 4 years of sleep deprivation this is a major accomplishment!!).  Gwyn has her issues with a number of excuses that last for about 10 minutes after she goes to bed (her arm/eye/hair/leg/foot hurts, no one told her good night, she can't find lamby/hello kitty, etc), and one time, I walked by the stairs on the way to the bathroom and say her asleep at the top of the stairs, and another time asleep on the stairs.  She can be pretty sneaky, and will stand at her door and then peek out and then shut it...it is a dead giveaway when her hair gets shut in the door and you can see it from the outside! 

I've wanted to take a picture of all 3 kids in the bath for some time now, but it always ends up getting forgotten.  I know it won't be much longer before they start bathing separately, at least Jacob is already wanting to take showers (he's growing up too fast!). Here the kids are in the bath:

I had a cat scan this past week and went to see the Dr because I was convinced that I had kidney stones again.  It turns out that my cat scan was clear (praise God!), and my Dr said he thought it was muscular from holding Annie, that I probably pulled or strained something and that it doesn't ever get a chance to heal since I always carry Annie on my right side.  He gave me some medicine, so hopefully I will be feeling better soon!  Here is Annie at the Dr with me in her cape (thanks Jason!):

I took the kids to get their pictures taken this week...bad planning on my part.  The first time it rained here in 35 days was on the day we were scheduled, so we had to reschedule.  Gwyn was sick, I think we gave her about 9 breathing treatments over the course of 2 days and she is thankfully feeling much better.  But, on the reschedule date, I had given her 2 breathing treatments before we went.  She ate breakfast fine and was acting great.  I contemplated not putting them in their clothes for the pictures before we got there, but decided it was just a 20 minute drive, what could happen if they didn't have any snacks, right?  Well, Gwyn puked all over herself on the way over.  Then she felt great, but smelt awful and her shirt was soaked.  Thankfully, she was wearing a plain brown shirt, and I just turned it around backwards, so that the puke was on the back of her.  We finished the pictures in about 15 minutes...Annie lasted all of about 5 minutes, and packed up and went back home.  A miserable experience, and I am somewhat dreading the results, which may lead to some retakes!  Ha!

Both Brian and I made it to vote on Tuesday.  We both had very different experiences.  Brian was in and out in 5 minutes, no line waiting.  Me, with all 3 kids, waited in line for 10 minutes, my two lollipops for Jacob and Gwyn lasted about 1 minute...Jacob showed Gwyn how to chew it up instead of suck on it (thank you Jacob for that), and Annie (who I thought would have been the best behaved) was the worst behaved, cried and wanted out of the stroller.  I picked her up, but she basically wrestled with me and cried the entire time trying to get down to where Jacob and Gwyn were.  I made Jacob and Gwyn sit on the floor while I voted (the LONGEST 14 pages of my life), fought Annie the whole time, only to turn around and see Gwyn doing snow angels on the floor.  Everyone there felt sorry for me, and a couple told me how brave I was to bring them all to vote.  When we left, Gwyn was crying, "I didn't get to vote!" and Jacob asked, "Why can't I vote?"  I told him because he wasn't 18, to which he replied..."Are you 18?"  Ha, I love that little boy!

Gwyn got stung by a bee.  After filtering through her screaming crying gibberish, I got out of it that Jacob let it sting her, which lead me to ask what did Jacob have to do with her getting stung??? Well, apparently, Jacob told her to pick it up.  I asked him why didn't he pick it up.  He said he wasn't sure it was real and didn't think it would sting her.  I told her next time someone is mean to her and tells her to pick a bee up then she should say, no and not do it.  She put her hands on her hips, turned around to Jacob and said, "No, Jacob!  I'm not going to do it!"  Later Jacob asked me why God made bees and wasps if they sting and hurt people.  I told him that bees help pollinate the flowers and make honey, but I really couldn't think of a good reason why God made wasps, so we'll just have to ask him when we get to heaven.  They are quite the pair, here they are in time out (they aren't supposed to be together, but Jacob got in trouble and Gwyn went over to be with him):

Other things that went on this week include Brian's lawnmower dying, which lead to an exhaustive comparison and analysis for the best deal on a lawnmower, resulting in another mower that will hopefully last us another 9 years.  We took the kids up to their preschool for a family fun night.  We had burgers/hot dogs and the kids got to play.  We also did a family craft and made a place mat of things we were thankful for:  Annie (we assume):  milk, Gwyn:  Daddy, Jacob:  Maddy, Daddy: Hermit crabs, Mommy: family and take-out. They had a book fair while we were there, so the kids each got two new books.  Gwyn's picks: Dora and a Princess book.  Jacob's picks: Corduroy and one about dinosaurs.  We went up to Brian's aunt and uncle's house in the Woodlands and had dinner.  It took the kids awhile to warm up to their two dogs, one was a huge lab that Dennis hooked up to a wagon and pulled the kids around in.  We also got a sitter to watch Annie, and Brian and I took the kids to see Megamind.  It was pretty good.  Jacob loved it, and Gwyn got a little tired of it after about an hour.  It was funny, she would make comments about one part where Megamind's fish wasn't giving him his keys to his car.  Gwyn would say loudly "He won't give him the keys, he's not sharing!"  I eventually gave her my phone to let her play games, and she kept asking if Jacob wanted to play.  It was only her second movie, so her movie watching etiquette isn't yet up to snuff.  Here is a picture of the kids in the wagon:

Here are some pictures of artwork this week.  Gwyn's circle art in the center says she is thankful for Mommy.  She is so sweet, and when asked every night what she wants to pray for she says Mommy.  Every single night, no matter who lays her down, she wants to pray for me, I love that little girl!  And check out Jacob's leaf person and his pig.  He cut those ears for the pig by himself and they are perfect triangles, I mean perfect (seriously, his whole class's pigs were hanging in the halls and Jacob's pig had the BEST ears...I know, I'm bragging about my son's triangle ears on his pig, but seriously, the BEST!):

Here is a monster by Jacob, after they read a book, they drew a monster and said what they would do if a monster came to their house (oh, and yes, again, his monster was pretty good too!):

Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob (when Brian asked what his favorite part of Megamind was):  All of it.
Jacob (when I was laying him down to bed):  I didn't like that Gwyn got stung by that bee.