Fall Catch-up

The longer I go without posting....the more photos and stories accumulate...and the more daunting an update becomes!  Gone are the days of being able to post within a day of an activity!  These boys keep me so busy just living life with them...it is hard to find the time to document all of the amazing little moments that happen each day.

But for the sake of our own family story and a few certain loved ones who follow this from afar, I will do my best!

So...even though we are in full swing of Christmas and Advent, I wanted to do a quick catch up on some of the highlights of our autumn season!

Birthday Celebrations
First...the boys birthdays.  Three of them.  In a row.  (And Sarah's, too!)  Whew!  We had fun celebrating each of the boys and I wanted to share a few photos of each of their special days.

Joe has been in love with dinosaurs recently, so we had a dinosaur-themed birthday for him.  He was excited by our simple decorations, including dinosaur coloring pages the brothers did and posted on all the windows!

We made pumpkin-spice donuts for his birthday breakfast, along with his favorite - hot chocolate!

We took a trip into town to have hamburgers and pumpkin shakes for his birthday lunch.  (His new dinosaur friend is a fan of shakes, too!)

All of that excitement tuckered him out!

His main present was a homemade kitchen play set.  It is something we've never had for toys in our house and he LOVED it!

Pizza and veggies for dinner...

...and a dinosaur cake completed his special day!

George's theme for this year was knights and castles.  (Since we are working on fortitude for his character trait this year, we tied it in with the courage and bravery shown by knights like St. George!)

In the morning, he opened his main present - a Play Mobil castle with lots of knights to play with.  (We love Play Mobil toys! They spark so much creativity and imaginative play!)

I made him a castle cake.  But he insisted on having Angry Birds included in his birthday celebration.  (Even though we had an Angry Birds birthday when he turned 3!) I was happy to oblige by placing small Angry Birds figures on TOP of the castle cake!  George was thrilled.

We went bowling as his special activity.  George has bowled for three of his birthdays!  It is becoming a tradition.

We had a small party at home with some friends.  George was ecstatic about my Angry Bird-inspired food preparations!

Jack had a military-inspired birthday.  His whole life is really military-inspired.  He just thrives on military history and planning to be a soldier/airman/sailor/marine one day.  (He hasn't quite decided which one.) 

We are happy to spur on this interest.  One of his gifts was a history of the World Wars book.  He loved it! 

And a World War II Devil's Brigade G.I. Joe figurine.

The boys helped me set up the table with their Army figures.

He loved his new pogo stick and was a pro within minutes!

We celebrated Jack's birthday over the course of a few days.  Once when dad was home.  Once on his actual birthday.  And again when we went to Las Vegas for the weekend.

On the day with dad home, we had a lunch of MREs!  I can't say the meals themselves were a hit, but the boys loved opening them, finding the little side items and learning how to heat up the main dish.

We stayed overnight with friends in Las Vegas.  Air Force friends.  With war paint.  It was awesome.  The boys had such a fun time celebrating with a few of our good friends back in Vegas! They played war late into the night!

Papa's Visit and the Air Show

We were so excited that my dad (Papa) timed his visit to coincide with Jack's birthday and the Aviation Nation Air Show in Las Vegas!  The boys just ATE up each minute spent with their Papa.  We all enjoyed his visit so much!  I just love how they pick up right where they left off with him the last time they saw him!  In no time at all, they were cuddled up next to him on the couch!

 The boys have never been to an Air Show, so we knew it would be a hit to spend Veteran's Day at the military family day of Nellis AFB's air show.  Papa, a veteran himself, enjoyed it just as much as the boys and took hundreds of pictures!

 This Steerman doing aerobatics was George's favorite part of the show.

 We loved having our friend Shelley along with us!  She and my dad helped us move from Las Vegas to Utah last year, so it was like a reunion!  :-)

 Jack's favorite part of the show was seeing an A-10 Warthog up close!

 And getting to talk to some of the men who are most familiar with the aircraft.

 All the boys enjoyed seeing a Blackhawk up close!

 On our last night with Papa, Jack had his wish come true.  He wanted to spend the night in our friends' RV...just him and Papa.  Dad was happy to help his dream come true and I left the two of them giggling away as I said good night!

Time spent with grandparents is so precious to us!  I am so grateful for the memories my boys will have of the week spent with their Papa!  

Thanksgiving

We were so blessed to have a whole week with Jake and Sarah here with us for Thanksgiving!  Josh took off some extra days as well, so we were all together the entire week!  When we have all six blessings with us under one roof...our cups overflow with gladness and gratitude!

 Can you guess whose thankful leaf this might be??  :-)

 This was Toby's first Thanksgiving in America!  And the last of his "firsts", as far as holidays go.
He was so excited and LOVED all of the food.  (Okay, maybe not the green beans.  He's not a fan of beans.)

For the first time in almost a year, during the week of Thanksgiving he expressed how grateful he was was to God for giving him a family.  It made the week even more special!

 All that food took Joe out.  Jake didn't mind letting little brother nap on his shoulder!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!
One of the fun things we got to do with Jake and Sarah here - and a first for us as a family - was to cut down our own Christmas tree!  We headed up to our favorite place, Yankee Meadows, and found a lovely White Fir to call our own.

(Never mind the crazy man with a chain saw!)

 Utah is known for "the greatest snow on earth."  I have to say I agree!  The snow here is so beautiful!

 Just a beautiful day for Christmas tree hunting!

 We also got the house decorated on the outside for Christmas.  Our little town does a special Christmas celebration the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we had to be ready!

Our town also has an inter-faith Christmas program, in which the boys sang along with other kids from our church.  It was precious!  

(These two friends pictured below are the best buds of George and Joe!)

 Jack was so serious while singing!  And Toby looked so nervous!

 And Joe?  Well, Joe stole the show. He had that beaming smile the ENTIRE time and even once tried to grab the microphone for himself.  He cracked us all up!

 The following night, the boys took part in a Live Nativity.  They all took their parts very seriously.  They led a parade down Main Street to the town center, where the whole town gathered around the Nativity and sang Christmas carols, watched the town light up with Christmas lights, and where we got to have hot chocolate and donuts afterward.  (Can I tell you how much we love it here??!!!)

So...much more has been going on, but I'll cover our homeschool updates in a future post.  We hope you are enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!