Turkey Day

On Thanksgiving morning, Maddox had made us all turkey cards by the time I rolled out of bed at 7 AM. He is my early bird. I'm pretty sure most mornings he gets up at 5 AM and then he spends his quiet time making cards or snuggling in our bed.

Breakfast

I got to business right away. The ham went into the crock pot (we did a nontraditional dinner since we like ham way more than turkey) along with pineapple and brown sugar. I started the garlic mashed potatoes, cheesy corn casserole, green beans, and squash and zucchini saute. Andrew kept the boys outside most of the morning, playing with their cap guns. It was a beautiful, cold day, like the holidays should be!

I set the table, laid out the desserts (my first ever homemade pecan pie and homemade turkey-shaped sugar cookies), and got myself dressed. It was a little sad not having a big family around us, like I'm used to. But, I made the best of it. Andrew picked up a single guy friend from work who didn't have anywhere to go. Maddox LOVED "Mr. Shin." They played football together and Maddox wanted to know how old he was. He even cried when he left!

Boys playing football 

 The boys talked to Mimi and Poppy on Skype and then Maddox talked to Nana in the hospital. I hate they had to spend the holiday there, but I'm looking forward to better days, like Christmas when we will (HOPEFULLY) all be home and together.

 Jude and I feeling fat, lazy and silly after dinner ;)

 No food coma for Maddox. Nonstop energy. 

 That night, the boys made Playdoh turkeys with feathers and jewels.

I braved the madness and for the first time ever, ventured out to a "doorbuster sale." I got to Target at 7:45 PM, 15 minutes before the doors opened, and there was no parking to be found. I wanted to leave, but having come that far for a specific gift, I was determined. I parked next door at a school, waited in the freezing cold with other crazy people, and then grabbed my items inside. It was definitely an adventure, and let's just say it probably won't happen again next year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful, cozy, blessed Thanksgiving.

I asked Maddox what he was thankful for, and without any help from me, he immediately said, "Because God died on the cross. And for my candy and toys."

Love him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE!

It's Happy Thanksgiving Eve in our house. I'm icing sugar cookies while the boys watch a movie and tear up some popcorn.

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful that my dad had a successful surgery. It will be a rough road ahead, but he's a determined man and he can do it. 

Curveball

Well, we made it to South Carolina and back, but not for Thanksgiving. My dad was admitted to the hospital on Sunday with severe shortness of breath and we headed up that way on Monday, after Andrew got off work. We made it in record time (traffic was a breeze) and the boys slept almost the whole way!

Unfortunately, eight days later, Dad is still in the hospital. Turns out, he had an unusual bacteria in his bloodstream and also his chest cavity. This caused empyema (pus, fluid, infection) around the left lung. They drained the fluid for days, but realized it was beyond them, and he was transferred to a hospital in Columbia. He had a procedure to clean out the fluid, but because of unusual bleeding, the surgeon had to stitch him up without cleaning it out. He's awaiting news today to see if he needs another surgery to remove lung tissue (we hope not!) or if things are improving. There were some scary moments this week for all of us! I'm thankful my dad is a strong, determined man and I'm confident he will overcome this and be on the road to recovery very soon.

Most of our time back home was spent driving here and there, staying at various houses in the family, and of course hanging out at the hospital. I'm glad I got to see my dad and help out where I could! It was also a blessing to spend the night at my grandma's (just the two of us!), see family, and spend a day celebrating Andrew's birthday a week early. We still went to the USC/Coastal Carolina game and had a good time. Our seats were pretty awful (we got to see Coastal Carolina players on the sidelines up close and that was about it! Haha), but we had fun and then went on to visit my parents in the hospital and have dinner at our traditional spot: Arizona's Steakhouse.

The boys spent most of the trip at Mimi and Poppy's house. They played with balloons, made cookies, rode the Jeep, and even got to call Santa. I'm glad they had a good time, even under stressful circumstances.

Jude trying on Uncle Jody's motorcycle helmet at the hospital. 

We left Carolina on Sunday and made it back to Florida safely. When we left, it was hot. Now it's freezing!! It actually feels like the holiday season.

We made our usual Dunkin stop in Tallahassee. The boys love the donut holes and a chance to stretch their legs.

As we settle back into our house and plan our little Thanksgiving menu, I hope we get good news  and that "Papa Joe" gets to go home soon!  I know Nana is ready to get out of that place too!

Thank you to everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers! 

Christmas Card Drama, Yoga, and Turkey Cookies

I don't remember Christmas pictures being so hard. I took the boys into the field behind our house at JUST the right time (soon before sunset). Maddox immediately started frowning, due to his fear of "stickies" in the tall grass and coyotes. All Jude wanted to do was dig in the dirt. And they did not want to be touching, that's for sure!

This week we started doing yoga in the mornings and today we went to an informal class with a few friends.The teacher was so sweet. She gave the kids vitamin water and sunflowers at the end, and she said Maddox looked like a "British prince."

Maddox demonstrated the "tree" pose and the "volcano." Jude refused to participate. Oh, he's a stubborn one!

In school, Maddox has started combining sounds on the vowel ladder to form short words. This is a work in progress. He starts getting lazy and guessing, which drives me nuts. But we'll get there. 

Jude's favorite part of the week was probably helping me make/ice sugar cookies and then having a hot chocolate party one night.

He is a sugar junkie.

We even made cute little turkey cookies, in honor of Thanksgiving!

And that reminds me, we'll be going to South Carolina soon!

I'm a happy girl.

Mail Order Fruitcake..and other stuff

We came home this week to find a package sitting by the front door. It was Aunt Iva's yummy fruitcake...as she said, "a taste of Trues in Florida." She also sent a sweet card, toy cars for the boys, two books, and the best part: bubble wrap. Bubble wrap means endless fun around this place.

Some days are chilly around here...finally!!

We practiced drawing a snowman this week and here is Maddox's, complete with a corn cob pipe.

It's about time to break out the classic Christmas movies like Frosty the Snowman (my favorite).

On Friday night, we used our fire pit for the first time (thank you Yani and Alex for passing it on to us!) and made ooey-gooey, white chocolate yummy s'mores. Maddox ALMOST enjoyed it, except he was constantly worried about the coyotes. We saw one earlier in the day and at night you can hear them pretty loud in our woods, so to him, it was a life and death situation. 

Haha.

The boys are into "vanilla chocolate" these days, aka white chocolate.

They tried their first ever white hot chocolate in a "real Starbucks cup" this week and they are hooked. Starbucks has a way of doing that to you.

This week there was no football (phew!).

We went to Lowe's and the boys built wooden cars. It's such a neat program for kids! The boys love getting badges for each project to put on their aprons.

We had to get our tire patched that same day (a nail), and thankfully it was free since we bought our tire from the place that patched it. Free stuff is always a blessing! 

As far as school goes, we started the Turtle unit. Maddox's favorite turtles will always be the Ninja turtles (below).

He is steadily improving in counting, phonics, sight words, our little songs, and is now working on mastering his last name. His least favorite thing is handwriting, so that one might take some time. 

I started reading him his first real chapter book every night. It's called "The Impatient Turtle" by Janette Oke and so far it's kept his attention. I wish our old turtle friend would visit our backyard again...how cool would that be :)

Other random tidbits:

We are keeping up our weekly tradition of a Destin trip topped with a Panera meal eaten outside (above). I LOVE eating outside. So refreshing. And it's fun bird-watching there too (and people-watching of course. Haha).

Jude has mastered the tree swing now and it's his favorite thing to do outside lately. 

Also, Andrew thinks he might have re-injured his hernia, so prayers are appreciated. He's talking to the doctor tomorrow, so hoping for good news. 

Manic Wednesday

Today was a manic Wednesday. I guess since I had a good Monday, there had to be a rough day in there somewhere.

The boys could not get along for even five minutes. I wanted to pull my hair out.

Thank God I went to Mom's Night Out lastnight. I needed it! I got to experience three hours getting to know some great women and chowing down on yummy potato soup and bread. I got the recipe and made the soup tonight and it is definitely a winner.

This week in school, Maddox had to put four pictures in order (of a bird building her nest, sitting on her eggs, feeding the baby birds, then flying out the nest together) and then staple it into a book.




 Then I had him make his own book and "read" it to me through the pictures. Of course his book was about superheroes.

 This is Hulk, the strongest one. And then there is Wolverine. I think he's my favorite. Notice the claws.

Last is Ironman with crazy hair. 

One of the worksheets this week involved him writing different letters and then drawing a picture of something that started with each letter's sound.

We have nest, a granny smith apple, a striped snake, and a lamp. It takes a lot of imagination to see a lamp there, but Maddox said it looks like a lamp to him, so...it's a lamp. 

Yesterday our power went out for the 37th time since the summer (it seems like!!). The front of the house always goes out. It's so weird.

Well, this time they said it was a bad connector on the roof. We'll see. The boys did enjoy watching the man in the bucket go to the top of the pole. And so did Piper!

I made homemade brownies this week....

...and then I felt guilty about all the sweets and candy the boys have been eating since Halloween, and I offered them this for lunch today. 

It's broccoli and carrots with Ranch.

Jude was not having that. Ever. 

Thankfully, not a manic Monday

I woke up to this sweet face (even sweeter because he was still sleeping) this morning. 

Then I turned and there was Maddox, staring at me from the floor, and from the looks of it, he had been up since 5 am (when Andrew gets up). He is my early bird. He immediately wanted to know the plans for the day and then informed me he hated his hair and needed it cut.

He kept talking, all the way to the coffee pot.

But I do love mornings when Jude sleeps late and I can spend time with just Maddox, snuggling on the couch, watching Jake the Pirate, and eating waffles and bacon.

Mr. Sleepyhead finally woke up at 8:00 and then the day kicked off. The Legos got dumped out, my couch turned into a trampoline, he wanted to know where this toy and that toy was, and I apparently didn't put enough cheese on his cheesetoast.

Hello Monday!

School was fun today. Maddox started by reading his sight words.

We're adding "stop" and "and" tomorrow. Then we talked about how it's November now, the date, the weather...we added a new day on the 100 chart and added a straw to the cup. We reviewed shapes, counting, letter sounds, and I read our weekly poem.

Then Mr. Maddox was on his own. Even though he procrastinated, he completed his phonics sheet all by himself. I had to keep saying, "Keep your mind on the paper!" And he did. Kind of. He is easily distracted, especially when it comes to sitting down and doing worksheets.

He has to match the beginning sound of a picture to the correct letter and so far it's all sticking. 

As I well know, he is not a fan of handwriting and it was hard just a month ago teaching him to write upper and lowercase correctly in the lines. I don't think many 5-year-old boys love handwriting. Why would they be, when there are trees to climb and couches to flip off of??

And that reminds me, we had a rough patch in our morning when we realized that the yard service people had trimmed so many great climbing branches from the boys' beloved tree.

Jude held up his fist through the window as the lady dragged the branches out the yard. I don't how in the world I have such a fiery child. He shocks me every day (and keeps me laughing). Maybe one day his fiery, determined nature will be used for good and great things. I sure hope so.

Now what interests Maddox in school, besides the science stuff and books, is learning about money. I made Montessori-style index cards with real coins taped on them so he could get the touch aspect to learning. Real money is more exciting anyway than a picture of money on a worksheet.

He saved $15 and finally spent it today on a Jake the Pirate treasure chest, spyglass, compass, and sword. He was so excited that he got his own receipt. His whole "I'm saving all my money for light up shoes" went out the window when Nana told him she would buy him some light up shoes.

So, now he's back at zero.

My house is not always this messy, but if the boys are awake, it might be! Haha. 

Maddox really enjoyed matching animals to their habitats, too. We're talking this week about birds and their nests, but also talking about other animals and their homes. 

The fun part of the morning was building their very own nests. Lastnight I got a bunch of scraps together (like string, yarn, sticks, feathers, fake grass) and today they used them to build the nests. They topped them off with leftover plastic Easter eggs and some birds. While they perfected their nests, I read them a book about bird facts. We learned that birds are the only animals to have feathers. We also learned about all kinds of birds, what they eat, how they fly, how they make a nest, and migration. Maddox said, "Oh! Birds write letters in the sky too!" (talking about their V shape when they fly)

And Jude was amazed that penguins were birds too.

Here are the nests!

Maddox's, of course, was the "biggest and best." (in his own words)

Will the brotherly competition ever end?