Merry Christmas!

6:04 a.m.  That's the time that Will woke us up this morning.  We told him last night that the time on the clock had to start with a 6 before he could wake anyone up. He came into our room at 5:45 because he had a headache. I sent him back to bed but that only lasted for 19 more minutes. He and I spent a few minutes watching tv before the rest of the family trickled downstairs. Grandma and Pop-pop spent the night with us and Unce Matt and Aunt Vicky and the star of the show came over bright and early to open presents.  It was a great day, one of those magical Christmas' where everything seemed to go as planned.  The kids were buck wild yesterday and brimming with excitement and a fair helping of cranky/naughty, but today, after the presents were unwrapped we just had a nice day.  Both kids received the present that they were most hoping for and we spent the day assembling said presents, eating yummy food and napping.  What a lovely end to the year. 

This was taken a few weeks ago and looked much different this morning.  Dangit!  I didn't get a picture of the tree with the mountain of presents underneath. Maybe next year?

Meet Cuddles, Reina's most-wanted toy also known as monkey-with-a-diaper.  This thing makes 100 noises and is motion-activated.  Fun for the whole family! 

Will and one of his top toys (he had a big list).  A battery operated nerf gun.  Now that IS fun for the whole family. 

The cutest Santa Baby on the planet.  She brought a different kind of joy to our holiday.  And she fell asleep on my shoulder.  Snuggles! 

These pictures are out of order but I'm too tired (see 6:04 a.m.) to rearrange anything.  This was the beginning of the present-opening. 

Yeeeeehaw!!  Yep, it's dark outside. 

Merry Christmas friends and family!  Here's hoping your Christmas was the equivalent of a 6-yr old boy opening a 1,175 piece lego set.  Yeeeehaw! 

You oughta be in pictures

We are in the middle of Christmas pageant extravaganzas.  Reina's program was last week, the church's program was Sunday and Will's school program was Tuesday.  AND W and R will fill in angel and shepherd duty at Aunt Vicky's church on Christmas Eve.  It's a fun week.  

Last Sunday, we had one excited participant and one not-so excited.  Can you tell which is which?  

To his credit, he perked up for the actual performance and sang *most* of the songs. 

Earlier in the week at Reina's preschool program, the kids had a surprise visitor.  These pictures are out of chronological order but I'm too tired to fix it. 

Shy Will meeting Santa.  He wants a Star Wars Lego and mumble mumble mumble.

If I make eye contact with Santa, does that up my odds of getting what I want? 

During her program, Reina sang her heart out.  

I was trying to get a good picture of her outfit but this is all I came up with. She had a cute charcoal grey skirt, with the white shirt and gold cardigan.  She would've worn it to church on Sunday but I made the mistake of letting her eat breakfast in it.  It was a charcoal grey skirt and gold cardigan with toast and jam. 

December

It's December 8th and I'm woefully behind on my Christmas to-do list, and that includes blogging.  Christmas Card, you are next.  We had a busy week and now it's that whirlwind time of Christmas programs, shopping and baking and whatever else we can squeeze into the month. Here's the last week in pictures. 

 

Saturday, Reina and I did some holiday shopping (for me) while Will hung out with the Hansen grandparents and Glenn hunted.  Reina was an enthusiastic shopping partner even though she wanted me to limit my selections to pink, purple and yellow. Not really my signature color(s), especially for work clothes.  She also enthusiastically liked everything I tried on which was great for my ego, but not so great for the budget. 

 

I'm helping! 

 Saturday night, we braved the local Christmas parade.  It wasn't as chilly as in previous years.  Will had left his jacket at school for the long weekend so he wore one of my fleeces.  It didn't fit as well as it could have. 

Trigger would've loved this float - a giant pheasant made out of twinkly lights.

My little hearty Wyoming parade watchers.  It's not cold! 

 A few days after the parade (luckily) we had a crazy cold front come through and drop our temperatures and drop a bunch of the white stuff for good measure.  As I write this, it's -2.6 which is a little balmy considering we had lows in the negative teens and twenties with the wind chill.  The dogs are stir crazy and we're all a little chilled to the bone but we have a heat wave coming this week - it's actually going to get above freezing.  Yeah! 

This was my workout over the lunch hour on Wednesday.

It was a 2-dog night.  Cold pups love to snuggle! 

We had a great weekend, busy with basketball and shopping and a birthday party and football. In the midst of all of that, Will decided to open up a little shop to sell some toys and make room for new Christmas presents.  The catch was that he'd only sell to people in our house with the understanding that he'd take the toys back when he was done.  So not exactly capitalism, but I appreciated his entrepreneurial spirit, and that cute face. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year's Thanksgiving was a potluck affair at Aunt Vicky's house.  The turkey was delicious thanks to Uncle Matt, Vicky made a yummy appetizer, Grandma contributed delicious homegrown mashed potatoes, Glenn made a giant salad and I remembered the sugar in the pumpkin pie.  We were stuffed.  The theme of the day was BABY COUSIN as we all angled for as much Baby Cousin time as we could. 

This big cousin is very interested in baby cousin.  He loves to hold her, even though I'm still holding on to her wobbly head.  Will always reaches for her hand and sits there perfectly still as long as she holds it.  It's very sweet. 

When he's not holding his baby cousin, Will's holding on to my Ipad.  Uncle Matt had just finished bandaging Will's knee because it's not a trip to the aunt and uncle's house without some sort of bloodshed.  Or maybe it's not a day in the life of a 6-yr old without something needing a bandaid?  This time, he found the biggest rock in the front yard and whacked his knee on it.  After we tried a bandaid that didn't do much to hold in the blood (yuck), Uncle Matt wrapped up the knee in a concoction that would've made a field surgeon proud and certainly brightened the spirits of the warrior on the sofa.  He's hoping the bandage will last until Monday when he can show it off to school. 

If 4-yr olds were allowed to babysit solo, Reina would be all over that.  She loooooooves to help with baby cousin.  She even assisted me on a couple of diaper changes. 

The highlight of my day was a giant smile from Baby Genius.  I had heard of the smiles but hadn't seem them in person yet.  You can tell how much I love that little smile by my willingness to post a picture of my wrinkled face and nose.  Look at that cute little grin!! 

Lots of love in this picture. 

After Thanksgiving was over, Will left with the grandparents and the rest of us came home.  Reina had a slight cough during the afternoon which turned into croup overnight.  We avoided a trip to the ER but took her to the doctor this morning where she got her own inhaler and she's already feeling better.  She and I stayed home today and cleaned up (me) and watched cartoons (her) and turned every doll and stuffed animal into a baby.  The best part about today?  It's only Friday and we still have a nice weekend stretched out ahead of us.  What a great way to kick off the holidays. 

Sportsmens' banquets and dinner dates

Last weekend we attended a fundraiser for a local sportsman's conservation group. It was a family-friendly event so we all made an evening out of it.  There were activities for the kids and silent auctions and raffles for the grown-ups. I continued my streak of winning things that I don't need but that other people like (a welder, a gun and now a fly rod).  We had a nice time even though at one point, we had to have a five minute conversation about whether our meal was a piece of fish or chicken (it was chicken).

It's Hunting Girl!  She looks concerned because she was mad that she didn't have enough prizes yet but it was early.  This girl has grown about 3 inches in the last few months and all of her dresses are now micro-minis.  Time to go shopping! 

This is the face I get when I ask Will to smile for the camera these days.  Sigh.  First-graders. 

Last night, Will and I had dinner at a local fast-food restaurant (actually my favorite fast-food restaurant) because it was Spirit Night for his school and each class has a competition to see who can collect the most receipts.  It was a tough sacrifice but I had to do it.  It's for the kids!  Reina was spending the night with the grandparents and Glenn was eating a healthy meal so it was just the two of us.  Afterwards we walked around for a few minutes and talked about Christmas.  I still can't believe it's time for that.  Bring on December!  

My toothless dinner date

 

Will's Thanksgiving Speech

Will had to give a speech in class today about his family's Thanksgiving traditions.  We've been practicing it for a few weeks and yesterday we made a poster collage (pics of that later.)  For all of posterity, here's the speech (cute misspellings included):

Will's Speech

We eat pie- but I do not like pie.  Mom forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie year.  Yuc.

We eat turkey. My Uncle Matt cooks the turkey.  Yum. My dad likes to hunt turkeys.

We spend the day with our aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma and Pop-Pop.

We watch a movie after we eat.  I like to watch Star Wars.

My favorite food to eat is the turkey.  This year I want to have ice cream.

My mom likes to watch football on Thanksgiving afternoon.

I hope you have a happe Thanksgiving.

A list of things the dogs have eaten in the last month*

Several potatoes, raw.  Mostly chewed into tiny pieces and not necessarily digested.
1 loaf of bread, minus the plastic bag
2 bananas carefully peeled.  (I would've actually paid to see Trigger peel a banana.  I believe It was Trigger because Tootsie was much, MUCH too humble about the whole thing)
1 of Reina's art projects from school but shhhhhhh, don't tell her. She hasn't noticed.
2 tomatoes
1 sizeable bag of leftover Halloween candy, also Reina's so shhhhhhhh......

*besides dog food and dog biscuits and food mysteriously falling from the table.

Next time, our plans for making sure the dogs are never, ever left alone in the house again.

Toothless

Will came home from his after school program yesterday minus that one dangly front tooth.    Apparently it came out with little drama and a little help from the after school snack.  He couldn't look more like a first-grader if he tried.  According to Glenn, Will also plotted on the way home about the best way to gross me out.  He finally decided that Glenn would tell me that Will won a prize yesterday, I'd close my eyes and Will would drop the tooth in my hand.  He pulled it off without a hitch and while I wasn't as freaked out as he wanted me to be, I'm sure glad that tooth is out. 

Go Broncos!

Glenn and I braved the chilly temperatures and the late start (6:30 p.m.!) and headed to Denver yesterday for the Broncos vs. KC game.  It was a great game!  It was probably the best game I've been too since we've had season tickets - and not just because the final score was favorable to our favorite team.  The crowd was loud, the game was exciting and none of our extremities froze.  And we made it on to the jumbotron! 

Not our actual jumbotron picture but it probably looked similar.  Although the camera was focused on a guy a few rows ahead of us so we looked more like the guy in binoculars behind us in this picture.  This is before the game started because I was still warm enough to not have zipped up my giant parka. 

Our view from the almost-top of the stadium.  The new giant tv screen helps bring you closer to the action but it doesn't do much to block the wind.  It was downright chilly by the second half. 

Who needs a tv when you have a pair of hunting binoculars.  Glenn was as vocal and animated as I've ever seen him at a football game.  Look at that intensity!  That focus!  He even let out a energetic but moderately toned "Whooooooo!" at the appropriate time.  AND he wore an orange hat. 

We stayed until the final buzzer sounded which meant we rolled back into town around 12:30 this morning.  A late night but a great game. 

Basketball boy

Since I wasn't fast enough to get any basketball pictures of Will last week, I planned ahead this week and took pictures of Will during Reina's game.  Here's my first shot. 

Hey Will, show me your basketball face! 

And then after some pleading, cajoling and finally "Just turn around already!" I got this pose.  It's his crazy basketball face! 

For the record, those two top teeth are hanging in his mouth by a thread.  An ever so tiny thread.  The tooth on the right is so loose that's actually sitting in there at an angle and it gives me the heebie-jeebies every time I look at it.  We offered Will all sorts of incentives* to yank that tooth out this afternoon but he wouldn't budge.  *Cash, a new game on the Ipad, more cash.

Will stayed home from school again yesterday but his fever was down and his stomach was feeling better.  He was pretty tired and still needs a little bit of rest.  This morning, he played basketball and scored one basket.  His coach said he did a great job coming off of the injured reserve.  I could tell he had a little less energy than the week before but he sure tried hard.  Knock on wood, we are done with stomach flu for 2013. 

Pop Quiz

Can you guess which one of these guys had to get some blood drawn this afternoon?  (Hint - it's the really scowl-y one.)

Well, Will and I succumbed to the great stomach flu virus of 2013 that Reina so generously brought home and shared. I felt great until early yesterday morning.  Will came home from school Monday afternoon with a very grumpy demeanor that usually foretells trouble.    By yesterday afternoon (two days later), he was feeling pretty chipper and we sent him to school today even though his stomach was still hurting.  By 9:00 a.m., Glenn had a phone call from the school nurse where letting us know that Will had thrown up three times.  I think that's still a badge of honor to a first grader - to throw up at school!  And have one of your friends have to go get the teacher!  As I spent the afternoon at home with him (Glenn had taken the early shift), I noticed his temperature was rising and he was really complaining about stomach pain.  After a phone call with Glenn, I took him to the local urgent care.  The doctor there was worried about appendicitis so they wanted to draw some blood. I called in for reinforcements and also because when Will cries about medical stuff, I usually cry and that's probably not the most helpful thing in the world.  Will was not interested in being reminded how brave he was when he got his shot, that was so last week lady.  But he survived the bloodletting and the good news is that there wasn't anything alarming about the lab results.  We are still watching out for appendicitis because apparently in kids it can simmer for a few days and most kids who get it have recently had the stomach flu.  Who knew?!  He also received some anti-nausea medicine and he seems to be doing better tonight.  Fingers crossed that tomorrow's blog pots is a recounting of all of Reina's precociousness and not a retelling of a midnight trip to the ER. 

Autumn

Our neighbor took this picture of our front yard a few weeks ago.  She wanted to capture the light coming through the autumn leaves.  I love to watch this tree go through the seasons.  In the Spring, it blooms with a pretty pink flower that inevitably gets covered up in snow.  In summertime, Will and Reina turn the lower branches into a fort or try to throw footballs over the top.  By September, it's a beautiful mix of brown and orange and red.  Great picture.  I also love that you can see our garage door open and a bunch of kid stuff scattered around.  All that's missing is the blur of two dogs who just popped the front door open and are now racing down the street.  It wouldn't be our front yard any other way.  Today, the leaves are all down and this weekend I trimmed back the roses and the clematis and according to Reina, everything in the yard is now sleeping.  Night night. 

Veterans' Day

I'm going to take a short break from documenting the intricacies of Will and Reina's daily life to talk about Veterans' Day for a minute.  I was filling out a worksheet for Reina's preschool last week and we had to list family members who had served in the military - each class was making stars to honor all of the Veterans.  I listed her great-grandfathers Dunlap and Pauley (my grandfather and Glenn's respectively) who had served in WWII.  Talking to my mom this week, I was reminded that my great-grandfather Smith served in WWI. I knew that we had a relative (great-great-?) who fought the Confederacy in the Civil War.  This summer, my aunt sent me a copy of my grandmother's DAR application and I was able to read a little about my however-many-great grandfather who fought in the American Revolution - Colonel Whitmell Hill of North Carolina.  I have relatives (AW - I'm looking at you!) who know much, much more about this than I do, but I hope to learn more about the Colonel and the generations that came after him. For fun, I did google his name and found that not only does he have his own Wikipedia page but he also has a historical marker - http://www.stoppingpoints.com/north-carolina/sights.cgi?marker=Whitmel+Hill&cnty=Halifax

Cool.  So to the Colonel and all of the other Veterans today, thank you for your service! 

We Interrupt this Blog to Bring You a Post about The Stomach Flu

The Bronco Baby Mom is stinking, stinking tired.  What started off as a quiet night (Glenn was hunting) evolved into a (for lack of a better word) Giant Vomit Fest starring one Reina Pauley.  I'll spare you the gory details but I have to say that this kid is a trooper. I was dozing on the couch trying to stay up for a late football game when I heard her calling for me at about 10:30 p.m.  I went upstairs to find her quietly sitting in the bathroom with a bunch of that that-shall-not-be-named on the floor around her.  No crying, no drama, just a very pale face and a quiet "I'm sorry Mommy" that nearly broke my heart.  I cleaned her up, cleaned up the floor and brought her downstairs for what I was hoping would be a quiet night. I had given her some Tylenol at bed because she said her head hurt and I thought that maybe the you-know-what was caused by a tummy sensitive to the pain medicine.  Well, no such luck.  She was a regular you-know-what machine last night, on the hour, on the half hour.  Sometimes taking a break for more than an hour but then making up for it during the next hour.  To add to the horror of this story, I had already taken my shingles medicine that makes me super tired and kind of wonky so for a few of the episodes, I woke up to see her bravely using The Bucket (seriously, a real bucket.  From the garage) and then laying back down by herself.  Mother of the Year!  What's so amazing is that she never cried, she always said that she felt better and she didn't think she would barf again and that she just wanted to lay down for a while.  A very, very stoic 4-yr old.  She's perked up throughout the day and seems to be feeling much better now. Thankfully no one else shows any signs of joining the GVF tonight.  Fingers crossed! 

Basketball girl

Reina the Falcon.  Yes, it's Veteran's weekend so that's appropriate, but as a Wyoming fan, hmmmm.  But blue is her color. 

This is our first weekend of basketball.  Will had practice on Thursday and both kids had games this morning.  Reina was first.  She's the only girl on her team and was the only girl on the court during her game.  She was not too crazy about that.  She's going through a very 'division of the sexes' theme lately.  Not that girls should be cooking, cleaning, etc., more that anything 'boy' is yucky.  She came home in a huff earlier in the week because one of her classmates dared to suggest that Reina's little stuffed bunny was a boy.  The audacity of that kid!  Bunny clearly has pink ears.  So anyway, Reina took a few minutes to warm up to basketball but by mid-practice/game, she was running up and down the court and having a good time.  She made a few baskets during the practice.  The 3-4 yr old games are pretty crazy --- there's not a lot of actual basketball going on but they are getting exercise and that equals long naps so I'm on board. 

Will's first game was right after Reina's and he did a great job!  He made two baskets during the game and his team won 8-0.  I'm pretty sure he's now scored just as many points as I did during my entire high school career.  I was also pretty proud of him for making a few good passes to his teammates and understanding how to play defense.  He's made such strides since last year and the best part is that he's really having fun out there.  Go Celtics! 

The Stoics

So, despite my pronouncement last year that Glenn would be in charge of the juvenile flu shots this year, (remember last year's ordeal?  http://www.williamfrederick.blogspot.com/2012/12/we-call-them-immunizations.html) I made an appointment for both kiddos to get immunized this afternoon.  Will didn't have school and I took the afternoon off to run errands, wash the car, alienate my children, you know, regular Thursday afternoon stuff. After a quick visit with cousin Ainsley, where Will actually patted her head and held her hand this time and sat right night next to me so that he could pat said head and hold said hand, we picked Reina up and headed to the doctor.  I avoided Will's "Reina, you are getting a shot" announcement that caused so much consternation last year by telling her in the parking lot on the way out of the school.  She took the news pretty well and Will was surprisingly unmoved when I told him earlier.  So off we went to the doctor's office.  When it was our turn to be called back, the kids were quiet but calm.  Will volunteered to go first and warning bells clanged in my brain because that's what he did last year, but he sat up on the table, covered his eyes for the actual injection and didn't make a peep.  I was floored.  First graders are the new sixth graders apparently.  When it was her turn, Reina calmly laid back on the table and only was slightly alarmed when she bled a little bit afterwards.  She happily got a sparkly star sticker to put on her upper leg (I barked, "Don't show that sticker to your friends, Reina!") and we went about our afternoon.  What a difference 12 months makes.   I think I'll have Glenn take next year's shift, just in case it's one of those "Have a giant freak-out in even years" kind of event. 

Candy Land and other mishaps from Day 5

A rare sighting of the Bronco Baby Mom but only to show off my healing shingles.

So I missed Day 5 of this whole blogging thing.  I intended to log in and write something but my head was hurting and Glenn told me to go to bed even thought it was only 9:20 and then I took some shingles medicine that would supposedly make me drowsy and it did and then it was this morning.  So there you go.  Worst run-on sentence ever.  But, I'm feeling much better today and the medicine is working its magic. 

Last night before my head started pounding (or maybe it started pounding because of it?) I introduced the kids to Candyland.  They were having a fine old time until Will drew one of the cards that sends you back to the beginning of the game.  He promptly threw down his card, screamed and ran out of the room.  Since my former claim to fame was crying during all of the Broncos' Super Bowl appearances (win or lose), I don't know that I have much to teach my children about not taking things like games and sports seriously.  After a minute, I called him back to the game, helped him calm down (I actually said out loud, "Honey, it's just a game") and we finished the Candyland match in good spirits.  Reina actually won that round but she surprisingly didn't make a big fuss about it.  I come from a long line of hyper competitive people so it's fun to see that spirit carried along to the next generation, even if board games end in tears and screeching. 

Jack O' lanterns

The night before Halloween, we finally got around to carving pumpkins that we bought at the pumpkin patch a few weeks earlier.  Confession time:  I'm not crazy about pumpkin carving.  I hate the slimy guts and the messy seeds.  Luckily Glenn is a champ about getting everything started and both kids love to dive in hands forts to clean it out.  This year, Will wanted a scary face and Reina wanted a kitty.  Glenn is also 100 times more artistic than me so he's also in charge of jack o lantern drawing.  And he does a fine job!  As we were working on the pumpkins I asked Reina if her kitty was a nice cat or a mean cat. She said it was nice but that the kitty had a question.  Kitty wanted to know when we are going to die.  Huh.  Kitty has quite the inquiring mind.  Statements like that generally leave Glenn and I speechless.  But we sure do giggle about it later.

From L-R:  Will's scary pumpkin, Reina's cat and Glenn's guy.  Mine had a feeble W-Y-O carved into it and was a ball of mush by the morning. 

Day 3

Well these titles just keep getting more and more creative huh?  In a desperate attempt to NOT fail at this NaBloPoMo (is that right?) thing on Day 3, I just signed on to the computer to feebly come up with a post topic, but it's 9:39 and my head's aching so this will be another short one.  I don't even have a cute picture to post because my computer and my camera are apparently not speaking to each other today.  Lest this become the official Blog About Shingles, I'll spare you the details and just say that I'm not feeling worse than yesterday so yeah!!!  And Will and Reina have been pretty helpful and funny - Will told me today that my head didn't look too scary. Now that's positive thinking!  I was helping him read tonight and afterwards I wrote him little notes to read out loud like, "You are such a great reader!"  etc.  Well after a few minutes, he asked me to write to him "Who is your worst enemy?"  This was after I asked him a bunch of questions about best friend, favorite food, etc.   Well he giggled and carefully wrote down "My mom."  Once again, that wicked sense of humor is alive in my kid. 

Day 2

Day 2 of my blogging month can be summed up in one word.  Shingles.  I have them.  To keep the rest of this post from being one long string of expletives (this is a family blog after all), I'll keep it short tonight.  But I do have to relate one little Will story.  Glenn took the kids grocery shopping this morning and walked past the book and magazine section as they were getting ready to check out. Will leaned over and warned Glenn, "Daddy, you don't want to read that book, it has sexy in it."

Tonight he saw a commercial for Dr Pepper and asked us if that was soda or one of those "over -21" drinks.  Awwwwww first graders.

1st day of November

Its the first day of November and therefore it's NaBloPoMo when I'll try to blog every day for a month.  Last year I made it to November 22, this year I'll go for the 23rd at least.  Or maybe the whole month - who knows! 

My first post of November is naturally a picture from the last day of October.  We had one of those typical Wyoming Halloweens.  The temperature wasn't too bad but the wind was howling and therefore it was cold.  Will attempted a few houses without his jacket (in spite of my warnings) but he was back pretty quickly to add another layer to his costume.  Reina's sunflower head acted as a sail and almost lifted her off of her feet a few times.  Next year we'll design costumes that look nice over snowsuits. 


I posted this picture on Facebook with the following caption:  Obi Wan Kenobe and his lesser known sidekick, Sunflower Girl.  Bring peace to the galaxy and a trail of glitter wherever she goes." 

After a few blocks around the neighborhood, Glenn and the kids came home and I drove Will and Reina to a few more houses - our friends who hand out full-sized candy bars (for the mommy!) and a stop at Will's teacher's house.  We have a bucket and a half of candy leftover but everyone had a fun night.  Happy Halloween!  

Snowy football

This crazy month is coming to an end and I'm trying to get all of the pictures off of my camera and on to the computer.  A few weeks ago, Will had his last football game on a snowy, wet Saturday morning.  The temperature wasn't too bad but the field was really wet.  Reina didn't mind. She cheered on Will's team in the company of her previously shunned Cabbage Patch doll.  This is the doll that she took one look at on Christmas morning and informed me that I could have it - after I said "Oh wow!  I had one of those when I was a little girl."  Poor Cabbage Patch had been exiled to the high shelf in her room and Reina tried to get me to sell it at this summer's garage sale.  For some reason (probably because 4-yr olds are weird), the Cabbage Patch is back in her good graces and is now played with and shoeless and in a happy pile of 'stuff' in the middle of Reina's room. 

Not many people are this happy to be up early-ish on a Saturday morning and sitting in the snow. 

The wet field.  Will's shoes were soaked after the game and while I had snacks and a blanket and chairs, I didn't bring dry socks or shoes.  Lesson learned. 

Will had a great football season.  He seems to genuinely like football and learned a lot this year.  He scored several touchdowns, pulled a few flags, tried hard and smiled a lot.  We are really proud of him. 

Will and his coach and his football medal. 

After the football game, we drove a few miles south and met the Pauley grandparents at a pumpkin patch.  The only picture I managed to get was one of the kids and the little playground on the farm.  No pictures of pumpkin searching and hay bale climbing or chicken feeding or sitting with grandparents, just a little teeter-totter and a happy brother and sister. 

One of the reasons for my blog absence this week

My first handshake with baby cousin.  Look at those long fingers - basketball here we come!

Baby Cousin is here!  She made her arrival on Sunday and we couldn't be anymore excited.  That morning I woke up to find a text from Vicky saying that her water broke in the middle of the night.  Excitedly I told the kids, only to have to spend the better part of the day explaining to Will what "her water broke" means and probably failing miserably at it.  (Attn fellow First Grade Parents - I'm really sorry.)  Ainsley was born Sunday evening and she couldn't be any cuter.  She has lots of curly dark hair and the prettiest little face.  I've had to travel for work and Glenn was hunting most of the week, so the kids met her on Thursday.  It was really neat to see their respective reactions.  Will was quiet but stood and watched her for a long time.  Reina climbed up next to Uncle Matt and immediately began patting Baby Cousin's head (I barked from across the room, "Be GENTLE Reina, super super GENTLE!") and talking to her.  Reina was eventually distracted by the cat but Will stayed by the sofa and watched his newest family member.  Today both kids have sniffles and Will sounds like his throat is a little swollen (insert ominous music here.... who needs to be at the office, right?) so visit #2 will have to wait for a few more days.  Welcome to the world Baby Cousin.  We've been waiting for you for a long time. 

Scenes from October and an example of why I'm not a world famous wildlife photographer

This is a great-horned owl who has been spotted on our neighbor's roof a few times this summer.  I have a few other pictures of him (her?) but my camera isn't cooperating tonight.  My kingdom for a zoom lens.  Anyway, he's pretty neat and we all go racing out of the house when there's a sighting of him.  Reina's enthusiasm for Mr. Owl was slightly tempered when she asked what he ate and Glenn replied, "cats."   I'm curious to know where he spends the winter or even the daytime because our only sightings of him have been at dusk but sadly I don't speak owl and he's not interested in even making eye contact at this point. 

 

Lego Boy strikes again.  Some of my aunts came to Vicky's baby shower last weekend as a surprise. I couldn't even tell the kids until the night before their arrival because I couldn't guarantee that Reina wouldn't blurt it out, but when I did tell them, they were both excited and Will said "maybe I'll get some new Legos!"  The aunts know the quickest way to his heart. 

The night of the owl sighting, Glenn and the kids were outside trying to enjoy the last few weeks of friendly weather.  The night after I took these pictures, Will and I were at football practice and the wind was howling and the temperature was about 20 degrees lower that it was in this picture.  Brrrrrr.

Glenn and I take turns reading to the kids at night and when I came in to put laundry away, I found this scene.  I thought to myself, "this is my whole life's happiness wrapped up in one spot."  I'm pretty sure I'm borrowing that phrase from a movie (but I can't remember which one), but it's true. 

Today, Reina and I took the dogs to a field near our house for a bit of exercise for everyone involved.  I'm not sure who needed it more.  Reina was bummed that Tootsie was faster than her, but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

 Little girl on the prairie.  With a bucket full of Halloween crafts.  True story. 

And a homemade 'laser gun' that she insisted on toting but I carried after the first 30 seconds there.  She's getting so big.  I took her to a Halloween craft class this morning under the guise of having a few minutes to myself to buy her Halloween costume supplies.  The nice older lady leading the group of kids asked me what grade Reina was in.  When I said she was only 4, the lady replied, "Well my!  She's very precocious."  I laughed and told her she had no idea. 

Speaking of precocious, check out this very serious Statue of Liberty. 

 Here's the forced-smile-but-I'd-rather-be-serious Statue of Liberty.  Reina's class has been studied all things America in the last few weeks and she proudly points out all of the American flags we see while we are driving around town and 'that one with the buffalo.' She told me today that she knows the Legends of Legions and it took me a few minutes to figure out The Pledge of Allegiance.  Future DAR girl, right here.