Church-going!

Musician Extraordinaire!

Cuddle Me, Ky!

Four faces.

Another to add to the clan.  They all look the same, but different.

Sitting with Santa!

Santa and Mrs. Claus

came to our Ward Christmas Party!  In years past, we've always had at least one kid who was too afraid of the white-bearded man, but this year was better!

Green Light could hardly contain his excitement while sitting on his lap!  He was kicking his legs and grinning from ear to ear!

 

 

Curvy Road was happy to sit on his lap though I don't think he said anything.

 

And after standing in the long line to have her turn, Miss Roundabout suddenly got a stomachache right when it was her turn....and she never went back.  Not quite sure what happened there.

Christmas Nativity.

For some reason and at the request of a couple old-time ward members, I decided to suggest that we bring back the Christmas Nativity program put on by the Primary children at the Ward Christmas party this year.  It was a lot of work, but it turned out to be so great!  The kids were all so cute!

Here's our two little sheep and and angel girl.

Eat more O-ert.

My favorite thing Curvy Road says lately...and when I say lately, I mean about 20 times a day from sunup til sundown.

My tummy hurts.  Eat. More. O-Ert! (yogurt)

Hallo-ween!

Well...
where to start?  Minus the first two years of her life when Straight Arrow and I chose her costume for her, Roundabout has never deviated from her favorite costume.  Princess.  We're 5 years running now.  At least she's beautiful and knows how to play the part, oh so well!

Green Light is into Super Heroes.  He knows nothing about them other than some of their names.  He doesn't know what they do, how they act, or really what their super powers consist of...but still, he loves super heroes.  This year, I bought him a Superman costume, but with his birthday money he bought himself a Spiderman costume.  And as a birthday present, he received a Batman costume.  He's been mulling it over for a couple of weeks and finally decided to be Batman.  He was a very serious Batman.

Curvy Road didn't know the first thing about what Halloween was all about, but he did know that his brother and sister were constantly talking about their costumes.  At first, he wanted to be whichever whim his big brother was on for the day.  But then, a change happened.  One of his  favorite songs is from the Wiggles and it's about pirates.  And from then on, he's been wanting to be a pirate.  He's told everyone he meets about it.

Straight Arrow put together a few select costume pieces to be a 70's-ish Orthodontic patient.  He made himself some fake braces, wide rimmed glasses, and gave himself some hair back.  He was quite the sight.

As for me, I'm just going along with baby in belly.  I made this "skeleton" shirt and I love it!  7 weeks until baby Linlee!  For being 7 months pregnant, I feel like I'm still pretty small.  Don't comment on that if your opinion differs!  :)

ROAR!

Curvy Road has been in speech therapy since July and has progressed by leaps and bounds!  It's been an amazing journey to witness not only his speech emerge, but for his personality now to take shape.  I now understand some of why he does what he does because he has the words to back it up.  :)  A few months ago, I had a quiet boy without much personality, but I've since learned....he actually has plenty of it.

ROAR!!!!!!

Brothers. Best Buddies.

They've started to do most everything together.  Curvy Road is Green Light's shadow.  And I'd have to say they are the best of friends!  I love these two boys SO much!

Brothers.

They love each other so much!
Every morning, they wander downstairs while Straight Arrow is getting ready for the day and wrap themselves in Dad's Blankie aka "Big Cold Green".  Sometimes they grab a bowl of dry cereal to munch on.  Other times, they just sit and cuddle.  Most mornings, they bring with them their stretchy Halloween mice that we have to stock up on every year to make them last until the next Halloween.  Weird, I know...but they love them!

Clown Face.

There's a little ice cream shop at Holden Beach that has a miniature golf course outside and yummy ice cream inside.  We've made it a tradition to go when we visit.  Curvy Road has had ice cream plenty of times, but this may have been his first go at a cone...all to himself.  I find it very amusing.

Did I mention we went to the beach?

We got to go to Holden Beach with my brother, Owen, and his family.  We had a blast!  Since it was the weekend before school started, the beach was empty and we had it all to ourselves.  The water was awesome and the kids loved jumping in the waves, playing with cousins they didn't know, and digging in the sand for seashells.  Bedtimes were tricky and sleeping arrangements uncomfortable, but we had fun staying up with Owen, Haylee, and my dad playing card games.  It was the first time we've been able to play games with adults in a very long time! 

Homeschool for the boys!

Green Light has been beyond excited since May when his preschool ended because as he announced to anyone willing to listen, "I'm not going back to preschool.  I am doing homeschool!....forever!!!!"

He made certain that we would begin his schooling on Roundabout's first day of school.  And as he watched Straight Arrow pull out of the driveway with his big sister this morning, he turned to me and said, "First, we'll make a train.  Then, we'll count the cars.  And then, let's practice reading.  And then, we'll do math.  How's that sound?"

He added one thing to the plan and I added a bunch of read-aloud books.  But for the most part, we followed the plan.  He insisted on coloring a chipmunk "because they're just so cute".  He loved every minute of his homeschooled day!!

Green Light's rainbow chipmunk

Curvy Road's chipmunk

At least these two were safe at the bottom.

A boy with no mercy.

On a slightly chilly day, we headed over to a little spray pad.  (Oh, how I wish we had spray pads near us!)  The older kids stayed clear of the cool water, but little Curvy Road kept going back for more, even with a red nose.  He took hold of the bazooka sprayer and no mercy!  Fun times!

Reunion with old friends.

Back in Baity Hill, we had some of the best friends of a lifetime.  We had so much fun with the Manwarings, we traded babysitting every week, and we set up arranged marriages for our two eldest children.  :)  They moved to Utah before we were finished with school, but we've managed to keep in touch.  And whenever we visit Utah, we have to spend a little time together.  So thankful for great friendships!

Thanksgiving Point!

I love that place!  I remember going for the first time nearly 10 years ago and walking through the gardens as a newlywed and I was very excited to take my kids back there this year this time.  It was as beautiful as I remembered.  The favorite for the kids were the fish and frogs. 

Silly statue boy!

looking at the fish

It's so beautiful!

see the frog in the center?

Share a Bowl.

The boys are always first to wake up and bound down the stairs and usually into my bed to cuddle for a few minutes before we hit the road running.  One boy on each side of me, competing for pillow space.  It's seriously one of my favorite times of the day.  I kiss their cheeks while they squirm in to get comfortable.  I gotta get all I can before Curvy Road says, "Eat, eat eat!" because that always sets off a series of events.
1.  Curvy Road says "EAT!"
2.  Green Light bolts out of my bed and runs full-speed ahead to the kitchen pantry.
3.  Plastic bowls and cups are kept at kid level around here.  (Also included in that list is bread, peanut butter, honey, and cereal.)
4.  He gets a bowl, grabs a box of cereal (hoping to find something sugary every once in a while), pours it to the brim, and races back. 
5.  Curvy Road joins him on the floor for their first breakfast.  Second breakfast follows a few short minutes later.
6.  My cuddles are over nearly as fast as they came.

As an alternative to wall-art

Recently, I wrote about my "Artist at Heart".  His favorite blue marker was used to decorate the upstairs walls of our home.  And while I don't want to stifle creativity in my children, this just had to come to an end.  I combed the house over for every marker I could find and removed them from any child's reach.  (Can't let the older ones have them either because then they leave them out for Curvy Road to find!)  Colored pencils and crayons replaced the markers.  And to our craft table buckets, I added a bucket of stickers.  Stickers, though obviously sticky, are relatively harmless.  Even if they get stuck in unwanted places, there's at least always Goo-Gone to get them off.  Unlike washable markers, they will come off of flat paint!

Last week, Roundabout and Green Light were at school, I was downstairs tidying up, and it was silent upstairs with Curvy Road.  Silence is always suspect.  And so I snuck upstairs to find out what was the culprit of such lack of noise.  The answer: a intent 2-year old working on his next creation. 

He was just as proud of this artwork as he was of the blue marker.  

I love it!