Advent Calendars and Outside Lights

I thought I would combine two tiny blogs into one.  Lon got a wonderful advent calendar from his Godmother.  He LOVES it. It is a Lego City advent calendar. So far, there has been a snow man, a kid with a sword, a skateboard and ramp, a chainsaw and a drum set with a chair. Some very fun stuff!

Opening the snow man, day 1

This is how you put it together. Lon is becoming a lego expert

Putting it away and getting ready for school. (this is right before he hurt himself and came back and put his jammies back on and cuddled most of the day) See previous blog

Today, we saw three of our squirrels enjoying breakfast together. Turns out we now have 5. I thought I was being clever by putting the bird feeder on a hook just outside the kitchen window. Well, no. they now know to jump from the rail to the kitchen window screen, climb that, then jump to the feeder. Silly squirrels. 

Lon really really wanted to get on the roof with me to hang lights.. I would not let him get on the upper roof. That is not safe. (well, not really even for me). When I got up on the garage roof to hang the lights on Lon's window I told him if he sat on the roof he could be with me.  Literally, he jumped at that!  It did not take him too long to figure out this was not so fun. and it was time to get down.  He just wanted to see what it felt like to be on the roof like Santa. He even brought a Reindeer with him.

What it looks like at night.  I am going to get 10 more lumiarios to go across the front of the porch, and another garland for the rail. But I think that will be it for this year.  The window were so much easier this year. Since I lost the second outlet for lights due to the new garage fridge, I called Mr. Heyde to see about putting in a new outlet at the end of the porch. It was easy! He did a great job and it works perfectly! I like the way the house looks. Now, it can rain. After I go to the post office on Wednesday, it can snow!

Face Plant

On the way to school today Lon tripped, landing on his face. What a way to get out of class for the day!

Santa Picture Preview

I will get the Santa Photo uploaded soon, until then, we have this photo of Lon about to leave for his photo.

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas

At least in Lon's room and bath! He wanted to have his room decorated today, since I brought up some of the Christmas stuff this afternoon.  I figured since I was putting the Thanksgiving boxes away, it would be silly to make the return trips empty handed...

The first thing we did was open the BIG box from Grandma. She sent Lon a new Christmas comforter set. We wanted to get this last year but it was sold out!

It came with a matching valance! I like it

Lon's little tree. He will use it as a night light now. I like trees to be brightly lit. The colored lights on the tree blink.

He wanted to make sure his Alaskan Nativity was out and looked nice. He thought that was important. He was right. The mickey mouse wreath we will hang on the wall as soon as I get a hook up for it

Lon hung most of the ornaments himself. Until we ran out of hooks. We will find more hooks in the morning. Lon is looking forward to sleeping in his room tonight. New sheets, comforter, and the tree!  He said he would not have nightmares tonight since the baby Jesus is in his room with him now.
Such a sweet boy

Happy Thanksgiving!

We love Thanksgiving! I, of course, had enough food for 30 people. It was good. Brian and Kayla brought their parents, and Dan and a friend of his came.  It was nice meeting her.

The kids all played well together. Even Uncle Chong.
Brian wore the shirt I made him for his birthday. That was nice.

Our turkey. The HUGE turkey. We looked at the 16 pound turkey and it looked so small. Sort of like a big chicken. We got this one, 22 pounds worth of turkey goodness

I did not get a chance to get any photos as dinner was being put on the table, or during the feast, but I did get this one snapped. Everyone was full and happy. Then there was dessert! Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pecan Pie and Mincemeat Tassies

Lon said he would try the cranberry sparkling cider if we let him try it in the crystal. Okay. He liked it. He also tried turkey this year and will eat it again I am so glad he has started trying things again.

Kayla eating her sock. She was having a wonderful time at our house. Most of the times she visits she is so shy and just wants to be with Mom. Tonight she was running around. Being chased or chasing Lon. She was laughing, it was so cute

She was playing with Mark too. Laughing like crazy!

More laughing with Lon

Lon and I made chocolate turkey lollipops. Lon wanted Kayla and Brian to have theirs before they left. I think we gave them out a little bit early. Kayla really liked hers and wanted to know if there was anymore chocolate in that bag!

Brian leaving with his new Thomas train carrier. Lon has too many trains to really use it anymore and Brian really liked it!  Brian is such a cutie!

Thanksgiving was wonderful, we all ate too much! The dishes are now done and this is my last task of the day!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

Snow Days

Monday it started snowing. Usually it lasts maybe a day or two, well, so far we still have snow and it is cold. Today we did not get above freezing. This does not mean we did not have fun this past week. We most certainly did!

All ready to go! Two pair of fleece sweat pants on!

It is so much fun to be outside! Even though there is not too much snow, there is SNOW

Working on a snow dog, since we did not have enough snow to make a snowman

Adding the spots. Grandma sent us this snow dog kit. It is foam dots, black, and blue, tongue, ears, paws, tail, and collar. It is so cool.

Finished puppy

It was still snowing on Tuesday. I found a metal bowl that Grandmother had given me, and it worked out great as a squirrel feeding station. The best part is, I can bring it in at night. No feeding the raccoons and possums.

Snow is falling, picture postcard pretty

I had to take the hummingbird feeder inside, it had frozen solid. Once I got it thawed out, I put it back out. The pretty little birds were happy. I have seen three different hummingbirds. I am enjoying watching them.

So far our snow total is about 3 inches.

Can we go outside? Can we? It is tough being stuck at home for days when we were not planning it. Lon has been home since Saturday. Daddy took off Tuesday and today.  We will all be home till Monday, they say a thaw is coming tomorrow.

Sarah, from across the street, came over to play outside.

Snow Angels

Lon was having a great time making snow angels with Sarah all over the front yard

Good Friends

Even though we were not going to take my car anywhere until the roads clear, Lon was determined to clean off my car. He did a good job. My car is now snow free, but there is a frame of snow on the ground around the car.
We came back inside, warmed up and we are getting ready for Thanksgiving!

Mowing in the Snow, and a Blogging Milestone

Today got cold, in the 30s. Brrr. There were some snow flurries coming down. This did not stop Mark and Lon from taking care of the yard. The last mowing of the year, to get up the leaves mainly.

Watching Daddy work. Someday it will be reversed.

I am not sure what Daddy was showing Lon, but it seemed important. The yard was starting to look great!

Stomping down the leaves and grass. I think this is Lon's favorite part of yard work.
I did my part too, I cleared off the planters from the deck, swept, put the gardenia and jasmine inside. Then I watched football and worked on Christmas presents.  Steelers won, Seahawks did not.

It did not show up on the pictures before, but I finally got a picture of the snow coming down. It did not stick and so far Lon is going to school in the morning.  It is 11pm as I type this and it is 25 degrees F outside.  This is cold.

After the boys took a nice hot bath, they played trains. It was a good Sunday




The blogging milestone? This is the 800th post!

Brian is 4!

Today we celebrated Brian's Fourth Birthday! WoW!
This is the cake I made for him. A white cake, with lots of sprinkles added to the batter! Between the train cake and the base there was a cherry filling. It turned out yummy!

Brian was very excited to show Lon that he got the movie Cars! He wants to watch it when he comes over to Lon's house. Brian enjoys playing with Lon's Car's cars. 

Grace arrived just a bit after we did and Lon and Grace decided they needed a private chat before the party really got started.  They did not want anyone else to be around. I am not sure exactly what they talked about. Lon just said they talked about the wedding.

Brian had a puppet show! The kids thought it was great fun. Lon and Grace were back in time to watch the whole show

Watching the show cuddled up with Dad.

It was a very interesting show, about a possum who had a great announcement but needed to be woken up.

Brian, of course, was the only one who could wake the possum up. At the end, each child was given a glow in the dark fringy ball.  Lon could not wait to try it out when we got home. Yes, it really glowed in the dark

Cheese Pizza! yummy!!

The kids played for a little bit after the pizza

Then it was time for CAKE!  Lon  looked up at me and said Mom, I  just really like cake.
Brian is so cute!

Blowing out the candles

After cake, Brian opened his presents.   The Fisher-Price Imaginext Toy Story 3 toy was the hit of the party with the boys. They all wanted to play with it.
It was a fun party, everyone had a fun time.