Thanksgiving

Although we got it going a little late, we put up a bare tree trunk, and then the kids, Thomas, and I wrote what we were grateful for on leaves every day. Parker LOVED putting up leaves, and we did several leaves a day some days. I liked to do the leaves in the mornings, because it had a tendency to turn grumpy toddlers into cheerful, grateful little boys.

We really missed being able to go to Palfreymans' for pie-making on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but I managed to make a mess of my kitchen all on my own. At least we have cell phones, so I got to call to ask questions and to visit with such dear friends and family over the phone! I didn't have any pie pans, so I bought some pre-made crusts in aluminum pie pans. You can see that the edge of my jumbleberry pie's crust burned. It burned on the pumpkin too, although the homemade crust I made for the second pumpkin pie and the jumbleberry tarts didn't burn, even though both pumpkin pies baked at the same time. Another reason to just make things yourself, right? The pies were all delicious though! I loved the tarts too. There was a lot of juice from the berries left over after I filled the pie, so I lined mini-muffin cups with pie crust, and then filled them with the berry juice... so yummy.

We finished pie-making sooo late. But, I didn't want to be making pies with the boys running around, and then we wanted to let the pumpkin pies cool for their two hours before refrigerating them... so, Thomas and I watched a movie. So fun.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at another student's apartment, along with a lot of other students. Ours were the only kids, but there was Trousers the Turtle! The boys LOVE him. Trousers stayed quiet on my hand for several minutes, letting Evan pet him gently (Parker refused to touch him) until he tried to make a break for it. Notice, Evan's holding both Buzz Lightyear, and SpiderMan. We actually had to go back Sunday to retrieve SpiderMan who had been recovered from in between the couch cushions, and Parker told Michelle, "I love coming here!" I'm glad, because Parker spent much of the afternoon being a stinker! The boys took naps there, which was great, until we accidentally woke Parker up to early! He cheered up when we started playing games though.

Evan loves animals! I'm really impressed with how gentle he is with them. When we went back on Sunday, Evan ran right to Trousers's tank, and started jabbering at him. He also begged, "In!" I asked, "Do you want to go in the tank?" wondering if I'd understood him. "Please," he answered. "How 'bout we take Trousers out," I suggested. Then Evan kept trying to lift up the bucket and dump Trousers back in his water, and get in himself. Oh well. (As Evan is looking at these pictures, he's asking "What todo doing in wader?"

For most of the meal the boys were sitting at their little table in their little chairs, but the lure of Mommy and Daddy's laps was just too strong! Evan actually ate really well: ham, yams, corn, and then pumpkin pie after his nap. Parker whined and ate chocolate ice cream. Ah, the joys of picky eaters! We had a fabulous time though, and I enjoyed being able to meet some of the other students in Thomas' class.

The boys at their special table. We brought the table and chairs from home...

These adorable turkey crafts were inspired by our favorite friends here. Parker wanted the turkeys to have blue bodies, which works, because I have no more brown construction paper, and a lot of turkeys have blue-ish faces! I traced the kids hands for the tail feathers. Evan's is on the left, and Parker's on the right. Evan ripped up most of his hands, and Parker wanted his turkey tail nice and full. I let them help glue on the faces.

And, why stop with one craft? I'd been saving toilet paper rolls for awhile, so I helped the boys with these snowmen, and we glued them to the tp rolls so they stand independently. I cut out the pieces, in the colors specified, and the boys glued them on themselves. Well, I put glue on the pieces, and the boys put them on where they wanted them. Evan's is the one-armed snowman. He got bored and ran away to play before gluing on the second arm. I love how he put the nose on though. My little artists. Parker's been begging me to do more "crafts" with him, so if anyone has any ideas... please let me know!!

A Thousand Words

Goofing Around

Evan and Parker both love talking on the phone: to each other, to us, to Grandma, or to no one at all!

The boys also love rough-housing, and climbing, and tumbling. One of their favorite jungle gyms is, well, Mommy! You can see that Parker wasn't letting his cast get in the way of his playtime! You can also see that Evan prefers to be without clothes. He won't sleep in pajamas. He'll let us put them on him after his bath, but he takes them off before he falls asleep. Whenever we're home, he's usually running around just in his diaper. Silly boy, but it saves on laundry!

I don't know why kids enjoy being upside down so much.

Notice, Evan has Buzz in his hands? Doesn't put him down!

And, both at once of course! Taking turns got too difficult for the kiddos!

And, after a long day of playing, Evan falls asleep watching Toy Story.

I thought the lighting of this picture was cool...

Broken tibia!

On Saturday, October 23, 2010, Parker rolled off the couch and broke his right tibia. Poor guy. We'd skipped out on sending them to a friend's house for date night because Thomas had been filling sick all day, and it wouldn't be worth leaving the house when we could have a nice, quiet evening at home. And we did! Parker and Evan had been wrestling and rough housing, until we asked them to stop. They did, and Evan was playing on the floor and Parker was lying on the couch. Thomas was gathering the trash to take out, and I was loading the dishwasher. All of a sudden, we heard a thud, and Parker started screaming. He had rolled off the couch, and caught his leg underneath him. He screamed for about forty-five minutes, with cold sweats. He finally fell asleep in my arms, while Thomas was talking to a nurse deciding whether or not to take him into the ER. We'd really just called in order to find an ER that accepted our insurance. The nurse didn't know, so we called some friends.

Thomas took Parker to a hospital that had a separate pediatric ER. They took x-rays, for which Parker screamed because the tech kept grabbing his leg at the break. They actually sent Parker home, saying the x-rays were negative. They did reassure us that the radiologist would look at the films in the morning. It was nice to be able to give Parker a real bath Sunday morning... the last for four weeks! The hospital called during Sunday school, and Thomas took Parker in to get casted. Yeah, we were right: the leg was broken. It's actually called a "toddler fracture." Children's bones are flexible, but the insides are still fragile. Parker broke the inside of his leg, but the outside of the bone wasn't fractured--which is probably why the ER peeps missed the break. Thomas was excited to show the films to some of his professors... especially since there was no cortical interruption (breakage of the outside of the bone.)

We had Parker stay off his leg for the first few days, and kept him home from preschool. He asked us to carry him until Monday afternoon, when he started crawling to get around. It was a little tough getting him to the potty (oh yeah! He potty trained during general conference weekend!) but he did great. He wore a diaper for awhile, just because it was easier to not have to pull undies off over his sore leg. He still did really well though. We sent him to preschool when he was crawling, and he did great inside, but didn't enjoy recess. He started walking after about a week, and we figured out that Parker did better if we brought him in late, after recess. It's been a crazy four weeks, and we're excited for Parker to get his cast off tomorrow. Yay!

Halloween!

We had a Halloween party at a friend's house, that we ended up missing most of. I had to pick up another friend from the hospital, which took longer than planned. Thomas ended up taking the kids over to the party while I waited outside recovery. Thomas picked up his costume, hockey gear, from the storage unit, and we grabbed half of Evan's costume, but didn't have a chance to change Parker into his. I'd wiped my undead makeup off because, well, I was in a hospital, and it wasn't Halloween yet! You gotta love how cowboy Evan is on his horse... with a toy vacuum! He loves vacuums, toy and real!

Parker's preschool had a Halloween activity the Thursday before Halloween, and so we took the boys. We were going to have Evan be a firefighter, and Parker be a cowboy, but then Parker decided he wanted to be the firefighter. So, Evan's costume turned out great: I made covers for his boots, and a belt buckle. Unfortunately, the firefighter hat for Parker was still packed up in a tote, and so his costume was incomplete. We dressed him up as a pirate for the ward Halloween party, and pushed him around in an umbrella stroller. We had Evan the cowboy push Parker the broken-legged pirate across the stage, and they won the "funniest costume" award. Despite the costume malfunction on Thursday, we still had fun. It was still too soon after Parker had broken his leg for him to get around well, and he was still crawling, so it was a little difficult, but worth it!

Evan on the hayride. What a face! He loved the tractor pulling the wagon. Unfortunately, he and Thomas missed the ride because the little guy needed a fresh diaper.

Evan's Birthday! Two years old!

On October 15, Evan turned two, and was terrible most of the day! But, he was still adorable, and we had a great evening eating his favorite foods, and opening presents. It was our first birthday party without family close, but we had a lot of fun with an intimate family party. He absolutely LOVES Toy Story, and his favorite toys from his birthday were definitely the Toy Story ones!

We let Evan open one present before dinner. Our friends gave Evan a Buzz Lightyear toy, and Evan hasn't put it down for very long since he got it! He even sleeps with it most nights!

Evan was distressed that he couldn't get the toy out of the plastic.

Ah, the joy of new toys!

"Cheese!"

Buzz ate dinner with us. We had Evan's favorites: corn on the cob, canned green beans, and hot dogs! He ate really well that night too.

And the cake... Evan was so excited to come with me when we picked up his birthday cake, and now calls all cake "birday!" He's actually been talking a lot more lately, even putting together little sentences. One of his first efforts to actually communicate instead of just saying words was to tell me: "Mommy, Parker take toys!"

We had a tradition growing up that we've instituted now. No one is allowed to eat cake until the birthday person has taken a bite. Parker was so impatient for Evan to take a bite, but was so good.

Evan was more excited about the Toy Story wrapping paper than his gifts at first!

Grandma and Grandpa Nordquist sent Evan's presents in boxes, and the boys were just as excited about the boxes as anything else! They were just playing with their hamburger boxes today, actually, over a month later.

I love how kids have to play with their toys right away upon opening them. Grandma Nordquist always sends the best gifts, and always something educational!

Tupperware! A Cars sippy cup, and sandwich container. Thomas has enjoyed bringing sandwiches to school in it :)

You can see Evan's lips pursed, ready to say "Buzz!" in excitement about his Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt. The boys are also wearing the matching shirts I couldn't resist getting them. We also got one for one of our good friends.

Toy Story toys and the balloons from the birthday cake. We love hearing Evan say "Bullseye!" and all the other characters' names. I just wish the little ones weren't so easy to misplace! The boys love them though.

Here he was actually touching Buzz and Woody together and saying "mwah!"

Of course, Parker was just as excited about the toys as Parker was!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Rain Boots

I couldn't resist getting rain boots for the boys at WalMart. I got them big enough that they'll get a couple of years out of them. Evan doesn't like wearing clothes, but he likes wearing his boots!!

The boys, all three of them, love my homemade chicken noodle soup. Thank you, Mom, for teaching me how to make egg noodles!!