Happy Thanksgiving

Nick tackling his cousin Jimmy.

Playing football with the big boys.

You can't get me.

See my goose egg!

No, this is not my shoe.

Cousin Mikey wrestling with Aidan.

Cousin Jimmy swinging with Aidan.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday at my Aunt Carmen's house. The boys had a blast playing football, wrestling, and other crazy games with a house full of little boy cousins. We feasted on way too much food including way too many desserts and relaxed and watched some football. There were a few minor accidents from not wearing shoes and stubbing their toes on the concrete and one major crash. Nick dove head first into the fence while trying to catch a football pass. He caught it and got up with a huge goose egg on his head. He still has a pretty big mark on his forehead today. It must have been a pretty good crash because all his teenage cousins had a really scared fearful face when they ran in saying he was hurt. They felt really bad. He was trying so hard not to cry in front of the big kids because he idolizes those boys so much. Of course, they were super sweet to both boys and completely wore them out. They didn't make a peep the whole ride home.

We are once again incredibly thankful for so many things this year. Mostly, that we finally have two healthy children. We thank all of you for your love and support that keeps us going day in and day out. You mean the world to us.

Look who's going potty!

I am sure Aidan is going to be mortified some day when he realizes I posted pictures of him going potty on the world wide web. I think I did the whole potty training thing wrong the first time or my first child is that much more obstinate because I haven't done a darn thing and Aidan is pretty much potty-training himself. We started by putting the potty in the bathroom and letting him sit on it before bath time and now he asks to go potty all the time. I am sure he would probably do well if I went all out and put him in underwear and fully trained him but I am not quite ready to deal with the accidents and all that it entails right now. Maybe once he turns two. He is already a year ahead of his brother. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe this one will be fully trained before we move to Alabama.

Butterflies and the Beach

It was almost 90 degrees here yesterday so the boys and I headed to the Monarch Butterfly Grove in Grover Beach. Aidan was fascinated with all the butterflies. Nick has been enough times that he just liked looking at them through the telescopes. There were only 1200 butterflies there yesterday. I know that sounds like a lot but we have been there when there were more like 12,000 butterflies and the trees actually are orange colored there are so many. It is a really beautiful site. They are traveling down south right now and we will be able to see them again in a few months when they travel up North again. Then we headed down the path to the beach and hung out for about three hours. It was such a gorgeous day. The boys built sandcastles, and played in the water and watched all the dogs and horses go by with their owners. They also climbed the trees and sand dunes. A great day for little boys! On our way back to the car Nick heard the train whistle sound and tried to run back to see the train but we missed it because we were pretty far away still. He cried the whole car ride home because he missed the train. He is so much like his Grandpa M. that it stinks. He says next time he isn't going to the beach because he doesn't want to miss the train.

Nick's Last Soccer Game

Today was Nick's last soccer game. They beat the blue sharks 4-2. They went undefeated all season. Nick improved a ton over the season. He loved playing and that was mostly due to having an awesome coach named Nick. They got medals and had a pizza party afterwards. Hopefully, he will want to continue playing. We are taking a break from team sports for the winter and doing Karate until baseball season.

Our new sandbox

I took these pictures a while ago but just finally got them uploaded to the computer. This is Jack and Aidan playing in the new construction created sandbox in my front yard. We often have 5 or 6 boys over with dump trucks and shovels playing in our sandbox. Although it has been a pain the boys never cease to be amazed and fascinated by the construction.

Trick or Treating

Too tired to walk anymore

Elizabeth, Maggie, Nick, Grant & Jack


Isn't my lion cute?


All 3 Spidermen

The boys had a blast out trick or treating with their friends last night. Nick was Spiderman and Aidan was a lion. Trick or treating was from 5-8 PM here on base. We went out at 5PM and it just didn't feel right since it was still hot and sunny out. With time change not happening before Halloween this year it was just weird. Aidan quickly learned how to say Trick or Treat and Thanks and didn't want to be left out of the action. I pushed him in the stroller when he got tired. After about an hour Aidan took his lion costume off because he was sweating to death. It was still close to 70 degrees when we started out. Shortly there after Nick decided he was done and we headed back home. Both boys came home with a bucket full of candy. After trick or treating we went to a party at my friend Kathy's house for a little while. The boys ran around the backyard with their glow sticks for hours. All in all, it was a very fun night. We all slept like rocks when we got home.

All Saints Day Carnival

Doing the cake walk for the hundreth time.

Aidan trying to help his big brother win the bean bag toss.

Making a bag to carry all the goodies in.

Aidan and our neighbor Miss Meg.

Nick's school had an All Saints Day Carnival on Halloween. They could wear their costumes although he couldn't wear his mask. They had a parade to start the carnival off where the little kids walked in a circle around all the older grades while the older students cheered them on. Each grade did one game for the carnival. The Kindergarten game was a cake walk which is why I had to bake all those cupcakes. They had all kinds of cool games, plus a bag making station, and a pumpkin making station and a game where you got to eat all kinds of weird things like mud, and eyeballs etc. In order to play a game you had to give them a nickel or a dime. All the money raised was donated to a local charity. The kids loved every minute of it. Aidan and I went and played the games with Nick too. The boys did the cake walk at least 50 times and never won. Nick cried he was so mad he never won the cake walk. He finally gave up and went back to doing other games. They offered pizza slices and juice boxes for a $1. So we stayed and had pizza lunch with Nick and then brought him home with us since it was a half day of school.

Pumpkin Carving and Cupcake Baking

The boys and their smiling pumpkin

Daddy's little helper

All the boys getting the seeds out.

Our pumpkin cupcakes

I need a bigger kitchen for all these cupcakes!

The boys helped me make and decorate 4 dozen cupcakes for Nick's school. I had sprinkles from one end of the house to the other but the boys liked it and they turned out o.k. and they tasted good. Jeremy and the boys finally carved our pumpkin on Thursday night. It has been so hot here that it had started to rot on the bottom. We finally invested in a carving knife and one of those design books. Nick picked out a smiley design and it turned out very cute. Aidan was more interested in the carving process then his big brother. He stayed by his Daddy's side the whole time.

Halloween at the Club

I love to bounce!

Aidan with my neighbor Meg and the storm trooper!

Nick and the Storm trooper.

You can't get me!

Aidan trying to steal his brothers food.

Our neighbors, The Archers, treated us to dinner out at the Club on base on Wednesday night since Jeremy was away in DC. It happened to be the Club's Halloween dinner. So they had a haunted tunnel for the kids and 3 bouncy houses and kids were wearing their costumes etc. The favorite part of the evening for the boys were these adults that came dressed as Storm Troopers and went around shooting at the kids. They loved chasing them and pretending to fight them. The boys kept going in the haunted tunnel and trying to scare the people that were in there. Aidan bounced for an hour in the bouncy house until a big boy bounced right on top of him and then he wouldn't have anything to do with it again. Both boys barely touched the food because they were too busy playing.