Home From the Holidays

Thanksgiving Holiday has come and gone... and so have we! We went to Florida for the holiday and had lots of fun playing with family & friends. Here's a quick recap:

Friday night we got into Florida and as soon as we got into my mom's house she had Emma in her hands. My mom said to Emma, "I hope you've had enough of your momma cause your not gonna see her for awhile!" - meaning that since Oma had her... she was not going to let her go for awhile! And she didn't, my mom got to rock Emma to sleep and get some extra cuddle time in with Little Miss!

Saturday & Sunday were cousins day! On Saturday Tre, Colin & Emma were dressed in their cult-ish polos (I say "cult-ish" because with all six cousins wore matching polos and they looked a little like a cult!) and took their yearly cousin picture for TJ's mom. Each year the photo shoot is lots of fun because of the little babies going a little crazy! Emma did great, just looked at us all like we were crazy, and Colin had to be talked into it a little bit, but did pretty good in the end. After pictures we played at the park and then had lunch together. On Sunday I dropped the kids off at TJ's mom's house while mom and I went to see a movie and do some shopping. So once again the kids got to play all day with their cousins! And we ended the day with a family game night with the Smith family and MaMaw - we played the Hippo game, a Toy Story Yahtzee, and a very funny game called Snorta! We love spending time with our family!

The rest of the week we visited more friends and family. Thanksgiving Day we spent some time with TJ's family and had dinner with my family. It was so nice to be able to see everyone. Tre was a little sad about leaving Florida, but when I told him we were decorating for Christmas the day after we get home - he was much better!

So now we're onto the Christmas season, lots of parties and events! So I'll do my best to blog about all the craziness of the yellow house AND the holiday season!!

- Jo

**Other funny stuff that happened in FL:
1. Emma in her Thanksgiving Day Turkey Suit! It was an outfit that said "My 1st Thanksgiving" but it had a little hat that looked like turkey feathers... very funny! Too bad she kept taking the hat off so we never got a picture... boo!

2. One day while the kids and I were riding in the car with my mom.... I called mom old and she hit me. I said "Oma, we don't hit people". She said, "It was a love tap." Then Tre chimed in saying, "Yeah, Oma is very loving. Oma is funny and smart. And Oma never cries!" Poor kid, she has him fooled!!!

3. Colin saying "Twistee Treat" - very cute!

4. The dogs! Mom has two dogs: Wrigley & Boo Boo. Once the kids got used to them (after about a day or so) they always wanted to say hi to them and know where they were all the time. Colin would walk around the house saying "Hi Wrigley, Hi Boo Boo" and Tre liked giving them their treats. Emma liked army crawling for their water bowl! So, yea, the dogs were a big hit with my kids!

5. All the grands! On Sunday when I dropped the kids off at TJ's mom's house she also had her other grandchildren over at the house; so there was a total of six kids! So she got about five good hours off all her grandchildren with her! At the end of the day she said, "I'm tired. It was lots of fun, but I'm tired!"

6. Social Butterfly. The times that we went out to lunch Colin was very social! We went to Tijuana Flats on Monday and he would wave or say hello to everyone who passed by the table. And on Wednesday we went to TJ's mom's new office building to see the new digs and have lunch with her. While sitting in the cafeteria Colin would say "hey" to anyone and everyone who passed by! And if they came up to talk with us, all he would say is "two" to tell them how old he is... other than that he wouldn't really talk. He just liked saying "hey" as they passed!

Round of Applause

An exciting day today!! Emma started clapping today!! I love when babies learn to clap! It's so awesome to see their minds working and watching as they put their hands together! I still remember when the boys learned:

Tre learned to clap about April 2006 when he was 8 months old. I remember because it was right around TJ's birthday. But I seriously almost cried when I saw him clap for the first time because it was so awesome to see his little brain working and how excited he got for accomplishing something so big!! Colin learned when he was about 8 months old while we were at my mom's house for summer break. What's cool about Colin's first clap is that Tre actually taught him! It was really special to see big brother teaching little brother!

So, yea, I'm a sucker for babies first claps! And today was Emma's!! It's her new trick that she'll be able to show off while we're in Florida!! We'll be there soon!

- Jo

Pre-Holiday Stuff

This is the "calm before the storm" time of year - right before the craziness of the holidays! So we've pretty much been spending our days as calm as possible. Not running around too much, enjoying staying home on Saturdays (thanks, again, to no soccer games!) and pretty much taking it easy. But, I still need to update the blog; so... here's what I got (although it's not much!)

Emma is officially army crawling! She goes forward pretty well, but it takes a lot to motivate her to do so. It's usually something she's not supposed to have that will motivate her too! Like my phone, or TJ's computer cables, or even her brother's shoe! I think it's the start of a shoe fetish! Anyway, she's crazy good at army crawling - just one more step to real crawling!

Colin is saying more and more words, and loving to read. Our favorite book right now is "Llama Llama Red Pajama" - it's so cute. And there's a part that says, "run, run, run" that Colin "reads" - it's awesome!

Tre is learning so much at school, the other day he came home talking all about King George and the pilgrims. He knew Plymouth Rock, and the hard travels from England to here.... he's so stinkin' smart!! And he's very musical too. Any song we hear on the radio he's usually singing the rest of the day. Crazy how stuff stays in his head!

The kids play pretty well when they're together too. If the boys are in the TV room Emma usually army crawls to where they are and tries to play too. When Tre is at school, Colin and Emma "wrestle" - which means they lay on each other and Emma will roll into Colin. And for some reason Colin likes to lay his head on Emma, either on her stomach or her butt - depending on how she's laying. But he's really sweet and they usually don't have too many bumps or bruises. They play well together now, we'll see how it goes as they continue to grow up!!

The holidays are coming up, of course. We're leaving for Florida by the end of the week. We have so many fun things planned, and we're all so excited about seeing our family. So, if I don't blog soon... it's just because I'm doing the holiday thing. Don't worry, I'll be back soon with updates on all the craziness!!

- Jo

A First Time for Everything

Today our family went to a place where 4/5 of us have never been before... Chuck E. Cheese! (I don't think I've ever been before... not sure, though). It was "family day" for TJ's office, so we joined his co-workers and their families for a fun time at the kid-friendly restaurant. We had five children four years old and younger, plus the "older children" who couldn't stop playing the football game (read: TJ and his boss!).

The boys had so much fun! Tre played his very first game of air-hockey, and beat me and TJ! Colin was all over the place, but especially liked the car games! Emma just basically chilled, taking it all in! Here are pictures of the boys!

Colin "playing" a Dancing game. It was kid friendly with songs like "B-I-N-G-O" and "If you're happy and you know it". Pretty cute!












Tre doing his victory fist pump! He did this every time he scored!!

Play Time

The weather has been awesome this week! I love having the windows open, feeling the cool air, and... kicking the boys outside to play!! That's right - I kick my boys outside (after snack time, of course) and let them play pretty much until it gets dark outside (stupid time change!). And the games they play are hilarious!

First you have the all-time favorite, tag. This is basically the boys running around each other, sometimes running into each other. It's a fun time had by all!

They also sometimes add a bit of hide-and-seek. It's hilarious listening to Colin count, "one, two... one, two..." he hasn't quite learned the rest of the numbers, but he "counts" the best he can - it's so cute!!

And, finally, they play in the dirt. And they get dirty!!! Sometimes they pour dirt on each other, sometimes they throw dirt at each other (despite my many warnings not to), luckily they haven't eaten any dirt... yet!

Today they added "picnic" to their games... but for some reason they wanted to have real food at their fake picnic. They were coming in and out of the house getting their picnic supplies (fake plates, fake food, etc), Tre came in and got some real juice (he got a juice box, I figured it wasn't that big of a deal). But at some point one of the boys also pulled out of the refrigerator the baby carrots and ranch dressing. I looked outside the sliding door and saw the ranch bottle sitting on the patio, and Tre putting the carrots on each of the fake plates! I asked him why they had food out, and he reminded me, "but mom, we're having a picnic!" I replied, "But you're having a fake picnic, you can't have real food at a fake picnic." Ah... boys!

This Saturday is the first Saturday in two months we don't have to be anywhere (now that soccer is over!!) So who knows what kind of trouble they'll get into then!!

- Jo

Halloween!!!

We had a great Halloween day! We started off a little rocky... Tre was pretty cranky and not sure if he wanted to play at his last soccer game, but once he got there he played great!! He actually engaged in the action and had an assist!! His coach kept him in the entire second half! I think the coach read my mind, cause I really needed Tre to be sleepy so he could take a nap and prepare for the festivities that night!! At the end of the soccer game he received a "trophy" - it's really a bobble-head, not sure if you can call that a trophy, but it's pretty darn cute!!

After naps and watching some of the Gator game, the kids got into their costumes! Tre was Peter Pan, Colin was Pooh Bear, and Emma was Tinkerbell. We went to our church where they had a fall festival, and Tre played games and we all watched a really good puppet show. Getting candy at first was a bit difficult: you had to play the games to be able to get any candy. But once the puppet show was going on, all the games started cleaning up... and since the youth were the workers for the games, they brought their leftover candy to TJ (who then put it all into Colin's or Tre's bucket!!) So we ended up with a lot of candy!!! Here are the pictures