Exciting

Last night Scott and I wrapped Christmas presents and put them under the tree. This morning I'm surprised Ryan didn't notice them, but he definitely noticed them tonight after he got home from daycare. He saw them right away! And he wanted to open them, but I said "Not until Christmas." So he sat in front of the tree, just looking, and thinking. I could tell he didn't know what to do. Grace sat next to him and she kept looking at the presents, and then looking at Ryan, and then laughing. I said, "Are you guys excited?" And Ryan said, "Ohhh, I just can’t get my exciting out. I can’t do it. Mommy can you help me get my exciting out so I don’t open the presents?" I laughed! He's so funny. Then I said, "What will get the exciting out? Dancing?" And he said, "A lot of things. Dancing, playing a game, and having some juice."

Good Luck Michael!

My little cousin Michael (he's 23 now), who will always be little to me, is heading off to serve our country in the National Guard. He'll be in basic training and education/training for several months, and I'm not sure where he'll end up after that, but I'm very proud of him. This past Sunday we all gathered at aunt Diane and uncle Mike's house to wish him well (and watch the Vikes/Packers game - what a good game!). GOOD LUCK MICHAEL!

Ryan and Michael...


My Dad and Michael...


Michael with his uncles Skip and Barry...


Aunt Tracy and Michael...

Michael and Erin (brother and sister)...

Michael and Grandma T.

Michael with Jess, Malorie, Mark, and Grandma T.

Halloween '09

Halloween... my favorite holiday! It turned out really good this year. Early in the day it was cold and windy, but by nighttime the wind was gone and the temps were mild. We took the kids trick-or-treating in Grandpa & Grandma Hackett's neighborhood. Ryan was a cowboy, even though at one point he was thinking about wearing his Darth Vader costume from last year. I'm glad he decided on the cowboy outfit because I think he looks so cute! Grace was a zebra. I got the zebra costume from Old Navy for $5 bucks a couple years ago - what a deal! She looked adorable in her costume too... I wanted to squish her. I was so happy she left the head/hood on the whole time. I thought for sure she would want it off. But she just walked down the street with us, happy as can be, and Ryan taught her how to trick-or-treat. He even waited until she was on the doorstep before he rang the doorbell. He's a sweet big brother. Halloween was especially fun this year... and the creepy full moon was great.

Taking a picture with Grandpa Duane...

Ryan tripped on the curb and spilled all his candy onto the street! Poor little guy... but he didn't even get upset. He just dug it out of the leaves and went on his way. There was more trick-or-treatin' to do!

The night's loot...

Fall Leaves

Who doesn't love jumping in the leaves? We went to Grandpa & Grandma Hackett's house for Halloween and their backyard was literally a blanket of leaves. Ryan just loved it! And Grace did too. She likes to watch Ryan and then copy what he does. One time he went running across the yard to jump into a leaf pile, and before I knew it here comes Grace yelling and running towards the same pile. It was cute. I wish I would've caught it on video. I got a video of Ryan though - it's at the end of this post.





Grace is in mid-fall, squeezing her eyes shut (too funny!)...

Ryan is in there somewhere...

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving 2009

Goofiness

Here are some goofy photos from October 2009. The second picture will not upload correctly, so you'll have to look at it sideways. :)

Flag Football

I forgot to post something about Ryan's flag football! He started it in September, for the first time. It ran for 4 weeks and only the first week was nice weather. The rest of them were cold like winter! But Ryan didn't care. He had fun anyway. He learned the football stance, how to hand-off a football (and receive a hand-off), how to line up, how to block, and how to run a route. He's a pro for sure. Haha! Actually, he mostly learned how to run around the field grabbing at flags. It was fun to watch him learn skills, but the scrimmages were even more fun to watch. Four-year-olds playing football for the first time is definitely chaotic, and hilarious.

Goofing around with his teammates...

Messy Art

October 28, 2009. Ryan and Grace made monsters at daycare. They and the other kids painted a big, green blob (for the monster's head) on some paper. Then they glued eyes, a nose, and a mouth onto the green head. Grace glued her body parts outside of the green monster's head (she's creative). Ryan glued his body parts right where they belong (like I would've done - he's like me). Scott was looking at both pictures and asked Ryan, "Which one is yours?" Ryan got very offended and said, "You know which one is mine! I don't do messy artwork!" And that's exactly what he said, word for word. I laughed so hard!

B-I-N-G-O

Last week my friends and I played BINGO at a place in Brooklyn Park for girls' night out. I've never played bingo for money before, but it was really fun! $10 is all it cost to play every game they had, and I was close to winning $750! Oh well... maybe next time. I think I'm hooked. Maybe Scott will go to Mystic with me sometime. :)

Here are my (non-winning) BINGO cards...

Grace's First Haircut

October 25, 2009
Grace got her very first haircut on this day. I was worried she might freak out, but she did great. She hardly made a peep! Lisa (who also does my hair) was kind enough to let us come to her house and she was really good with Grace. She has a sweet voice, and I could tell Grace was really comfortable around her. When everything was done, Grace had some "bounce" to the back of her hair and the long strands that used to sway over her eyes were gone. I was happy, and I think Grace felt special sitting in Lisa's big red booster chair. :)

Before the cut...


Closing her eyes (real tight) like Lisa asked her to...

The back has some body now...

All done!