Thanksgiving I

We had a great time on Thanksgiving: grandpa was out of town, so we rescheduled our Turkey day/meal and took the day off. We went to Enchanted Rock, and the boys loved bouldering up, in hot pursuit of the source of the little stream that comes down the side. Sarah enjoyed walking in the smooth parts, and riding in the steeper ones. She got many envious comments from tired climbers returning to the base. We started going down the back under the boulders/ through the caves, but after Zacharias miraculously caught himself, preventing a bad fall, we decided we’d pushed far enough and went back. We thought we’d be the only ones there, but the parking lot was full, and it was a peculiar sense of belonging to know that we had all chosen to spend the holiday outside on top of the rock. The weather was perfect! On the way back, we passed an amazing elk in a pasture, and then went on to Fredericksburg, which was done up beautifully for the holidays.

Halloween Fun!!

Went with our buddies the Earls to their churches "Pumpkin Fest". We all had a great time decorating pumpkins, jumping in the bounce house, going on the hayride, and the boys got pony rides. This is Zacharias on the pony he got to ride.

Would you trust this man with your mental health?

The next week we took the Earls to our church's trunk or treat and we all had a great time again. Papa even dressed up. Not really a family theme here, but the robots and the ballerina were the cutest!!

Some old Conversations

Back in April I wrote down some funny comments and conversations we had with the boys.

Zacharias: (wiping a broccoli tree around his plate) "Broccoli is like a paint brush!"

Enoch: "Papa, Why does the word Hospital have SPIT in it?"

Zacharias:(at lunch) "We always eat food, we don't eat people, right?"

10 April

To Sarah, who had just had her two top teeth emerge in the last week, opposite to two on the bottom. Enoch said:

"We're already chompers, me and Zacharias. We chomp it up!! You're going to be a chomper too!"

Sometime in March, on the way home from Church:

Enoch: we don't drink coffee, huh, Papa. Only cocoa. And we don't drink beer, huh, Papa, only root beer.

Papa: and we don't drink liquor, huh Enoch.

Enoch: yeah, only licorice.

Zacharias: I'm drinking my water like a dog!

Mama: What are you? You're not a dog!!

Zacharias: A cow?

Zacharias: (out of the blue) When I get big, I want to play football!

Undies!!

Zacharias woke with a dry diaper, and used the potty yesterday. So we put him in undies for the morning. He is so excited to be trying them out, and was able to wear them for several hours yesterday. It was fun to see him going through the house announcing "I'm wearing UNDIES!" to aunt Lisa and others. Once he's wet, we go back to the diaper for the rest of the day, so that the undies are the incentive - that makes wearing them a really a cool thing to do! This is the second day he has gotten to try them, and his best success so far. The first day, he had them on about 5 minutes.

Being-haiv

Zacharias: Am I being haiv?

Vocabulary

Tonight, Zacharias was having a hard time focusing on scriptures, so we had him act out the part. He was supposed to be Moses, and Enoch would be Aaron. When we asked Moses to ordain Aaron, Enoch said, without prompting, "here, Zacharias, poor oil on my head and anoint me."

Little Milestones

Over the last week we've had several wonderful milestones!

Sarah started walking, just a few steps, on Saturday. This was also the day

of Sarah's first birthday party. We spent the afternoon eating cake and icecream and having a water war at the splash park with grandparents.

Sunday was Sarah's first birthday and we finished the festivities with a smaller Sunday Evening celebration of presents and peach pie.

Today was the first day Sarah moved into her big girl car seat.

As we drove she chirped and giggled and made all sorts of happy sounds.

it was clear she was very excited about the new perspective!

Nursing

Today I caught Zacharias (2 1/2y) pulling at his shirt and fingering his bellybutton. Then he made a nice little offer to Sarah (1y)

"Do you want to nurse my bellybutton, Sarah?"