Candy Houses

Rather than do one loooong post of this past month's activities, you'll probably see a string of Christmas related posts in the next few days.

Growing up we had a tradition of making graham cracker houses on a Monday night close to Christmas for our Family Home Evening. We would usually watch The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, have more candy than we would see the rest of the year at our disposal, and my parents would help us build our houses while we could decorate any way we wanted. I didn't ever feel very creative, but it was always a lot of fun and something I looked forward to every year.

The boys had a lot of fun. Matt built their houses and the boys decorated (Matt helped Walt with his a little). I built and decorated my own. Dean was a minimalist when it came to decorating. After about 4 starlight candies he said he was finished. I kept promising him he could use more candy! He ended up putting a little more on after my promptings.  Walter ate probably 3 times as much as Dean and put about that much more on his house as well.  He has a sugar tooth for sure! We listened to the Muppet's Christmas Album with John Denver since that was a Christmas fav. for Matt's family. Dean did tell me he didn't like it though. haha. Silly boy.

I think my favorite thing from the whole night was when Matt was asking the boys their favorite feature of their houses, Dean said it was his guns on the roof. Matt asked what the guns did and he said, "They shoot candy at the bad guys and they eat it until their stomachs explode." HAHAHA! Where in the world did he come up with that?? And you know, in America, that might just work as a good form of home security.

Growing up we'd keep our houses on the mantle until the New Year and then we'd eat the candy off of them. It grosses me out just to think about how dusty, stale and old it must have been! But we loved it. I let the boys eat theirs the day after Christmas, and they just ate mine today. I failed to get a picture of mine. Oops.

Their faces in these next four just cracked me up, so I added all of them in even though they're similar. We tried to get a "normal" picture of both of them, but I think we failed on all accounts...unless this is normal. Yeah. I think that's it.

3rd baby 32 weeks

I can't believe how much my belly has grown in 4 weeks!!!! I was looking at my 28 week photos and today's and my belly is so much bigger. I have no idea how I'm still able to jog, but I am, and when I'm by myself I'm still about 9-10 min. miles depending on the day. The body is just an amazing creation I guess. =)

Also, how in the HECK am I going to be able to fit 8 more weeks of baby in this body???? The baby gains 2/3 of their weight in these last 8 weeks. Today I weighed in at 147 (on my home scale w/o clothes, so it would be probably around 150 at the dr. dressed. We'll find out on Monday), so that puts me at 22 lbs. weight gain from my pre-pregnancy weight. I hope I don't have more than 8-10 more pounds to gain since average gain in the last two months is a lb. a week. I guess I'm right about where I was with Walter (maybe slightly bigger belly?), so I'm sure my body can handle it. It just seems so crazy!


For comparison pictures of the last two pregnancies, click here.

The love goes through the umbilical cord

I have had a rough couple of days with Dean (he's been very moody), so it was so refreshing to have a really great afternoon with him. While Walter was asleep I read him some books and we did 3 pages in his reading lessons book (we're 260 something pages into the book!). He was reading so well (yes, he really is reading some and sounding out a lot more at barely 4) and doing everything so cooperatively.

I let him play some computer while I did chores, and a little while later he ended up coming to find me with  word finds he'd printed out from PBS's Word Girl.  The words were things like: Flabbergasted, distracted, coordination, cumbersome, futile, etc. He knew a lot of the definitions and would tell me what each word meant as we went down the list.  He was in SUCH a fantastic mood as we were doing this. He kept giving me hugs and kisses and told me he loved me.  At one point he said, "I want to give the baby a kiss." and he kissed my belly. He then said, "The baby knows that I love him. My love goes through your belly, through the umbilical cord, to the baby, and then the baby knows that I love him. That's how it works. The baby loves me too."  I just love that kid.

The beginning of the Christmas parties

Friday night we went to our first Christmas party at Raytheon. I don't know if they had it previous years and we just didn't go or what. It was pretty low key, but the kids had fun. Walt was enthralled by the electric trains. They decorated cookies and made some crafts, and as we were leaving we got to ride on a little train around the parking lot. Oh yeah, and they got to sit on a motorcycle. They had a good time and were pretty well behaved considering their behavior leading up to the party was less than desirable and the fact that Walter skipped his nap!





We went to a Christmas breakfast fundraiser at Dean's preschool Saturday morning. They'd been up since 6:50, had only had milk, and it was 8:30 by the time we got to the breakfast. They were serving pancakes, sausage, and orange juice.  I thought for sure the boys would both be all over the breakfast since they love pancakes at home and they were both hungry. However, they both took one bite (well, I think Dean may have had three bites) and were done!  I tried getting Walter to eat another bite, and he promptly spit it out onto his plate.  My pancakes are a whole wheat/oat mixture with real maple syrup and they usually have 2 pancakes a piece. I have to admit I was kind of happy to know that they're beyond wanting bisquick-type-white-bread-flavorless-pancakes with the thick fake sugar syrup. On the way home Matt asked if they liked the pancakes and Dean said, "They were not very good."  I used the last of my homemade pancake mix earlier this week, so we came home and I made them an Isagenix shake instead. =) I love Isagenix. I'm glad my boys do too!

It was a little too quiet...

A few days before Thanksgiving it was a little too quite and I wondered what Walter was up to. As I peeked into their bedroom, I found him sitting at his little table with a pile of board books reading to himself. I love that I'm raising book lovers and readers!! His hair, as cute as it was, was getting a little bushy, hence the need for the haircut!!

A few Thanksgiving pics

Thanksgiving was a great day. I got to go take a nice jog by myself on a crisp foggy morning. The boys were good. I cooked most of the day. Matt did the turkey and I did everything else. We had Turkey, mashed potatoes, fresh homemade wheat bread (Matt prefers it to rolls for leftover turkey and I have to say I agree), cranberry sauce, brined free range turkey (really did make a difference in taste both fresh and leftover, though it was a little drier), green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and martinelli's. It was yummy. We didn't do much else and it was just our family. All of us got haircuts right before Thanksgiving.