November 28, 2007

Gotta Have Art, Gotta Give Art!


We are in the spirit of giving and sharing and I make it a point every year, as young as our boys are, to find a little cause for us to donate to that they participate in. During this time that I'm keeping my eye out for our special cause this holiday season, we put our old couch on Craigslist to sell and it got me interested in looking at the "wanted" section. I found a post from a kindergarten teacher from one of the schools here in Bend. She said that most of the kids in her class are below poverty level and she was asking for donations of crayons and paper or whatever people could manage. She told a story about how all the kids were coloring pictures and it was time to go home so she told them they could take it home and finish coloring the picture there. A little boy then asked her if he could take two crayons home so he could color. He didn't have any crayons at home, and I think that was what prompted her to ask for help. We all know that TEACHERS DON'T MAKE NEARLY AS MUCH AS THEY DESERVE and she was spending her own money buying clothes and art supplies for each of them and she needed help. I LOVE the idea of the boys helping other children who are about their age (especially since their own arts & crafts cabinet is overflowing with things to do and their Grandma happens to be a retired teacher of 31 years. This was the THING for us to do this year!) So off we went to the store and made small individual "packages" for each of the 16 children in the kindergarten class complete with a little package of crayons, colored pencils or paints, and a couple of Christmas tree ornaments to take home. We are delivering the basket tomorrow, YAY!

November 15, 2007

Monster Trucks and Saying Things

The Monster Trucks were so much fun for the boys, a must do if you have boys.


The boys have been saying funny (sometimes embarrassing) things lately and I had to share a few...

Carter, almost 3 1/2:
I try to do all my shopping while Dillon is in school so I have one less kiddo with me at the store so I took Carter and Brayden to Fred Meyer and we were looking at the bread. A man who worked there was talking to the boys telling me that he has all boys at home too. He was Indian and spoke with an Indian accent and Carter was very polite to him. After we walked away Carter says a bit too loudly with question in his voice, "That man talks crazy, he talks crazy." Oh dear.

After getting out of the bath I was helping Carter get dressed, we were face to face and he has a sweet way of looking right in to my eyes and holding a gaze. I said to him "I love you soooo much" he said right back to me looking now at my cheeks "I love you too, Mommy...." voice trailing..."but your cheeks are cracking." I thought that maybe I had some new wrinkles that popped up after such a stressful summer, moving in the fall, and losing Maddy. I went to the mirror to see what he was talking about - no wrinkles, just some teeny tiny broken blood vessels on the apples of my cheeks that contribute to my rosy complexion. Thanks for noticing, sweetheart.

Dillon and Carter got to go see monster trucks with Daddy and Nana and they had a blast. The trucks are really loud so the boys wore earplugs. A man was sitting in the row in front of them kind of off to the side and Carter says (loud enough for the man to hear, maybe due to the earplugs) "That man doesn't have any hair!" Leave it to Carter for blurting out the obvious...

Dillon, just turned 6:

Dillon and Carter were lucky enough to come across a $5 bill that neither Nana nor I wanted to claim for buying a gallon of milk, Dillon asked for it and I said "If Nana doesn't take it then you and Carter can split it, that will give you each $2.50." He thought for a minute and looked up at me and said, "Well, how about if Carter gets $2 and I can have $3?" I wonder what profession Dillon will take when he grows up, he always comes up with stuff like that!

Dillon had a couple of toys behind his back and said to Carter very sweetly, "Now you have to choose, Carter, one of the toys and you can have it forever." Very carefully, with great thought, Carter choose a hand. "NOOOO, Carter! (now irritated with his brother) You're supposed to choose this hand! The other one is mine." Dillon said, and tossed the toy to Carter with a 'how could you not know that' sort of look. Choices, choices....

One of the funniest things that Dillon does is getting Brayden to come down the hallway to his room with him. Dillon has an imagination that leads him to believe that scary things lie ahead when going down the hall and turning the corner to his room so if he can get someone to go with him he feels more confident. He will try to ask Carter very extra nicely in a sing-song sort of voice to come to their room with him, to make the prospect sound more appealing I guess, but Carter gets a bit annoyed and never goes. So now Dillon rounds up Brayden the brave 18 month old who is carefree going into a dark room, alone. So every time Dillon wants something out of his room I hear him holler, almost in baby talk, "Baaay-bee! a D-D's room, a D-D's room - binky?, Want a binky? Come on baby!" and off runs Brady protecting his big 6 year old brother from the dark, in promise of him finding a hidden binky.

Brayden, 18 mo:

He is not speaking in sentences yet, but he has a few new words he has added to his vocabulary.... He says Daggy for Daddy, Mammy for Mommy, Carger for Carter, D-D for Dillon, Kitty, Goggie, P-fishy (he always makes a p-sound before saying fishy), Giggy for binky, Football, Right Back, Bye, Night Night, Gamma for Grandma, Nana, Tina (though he won't let her hear it) Cracker, Tunky for tummy, Coat, Backpack, Guy, Horsie, Quarter, and everytime he sees a school bus he calls out "D-D!" for his oldest brother :)

November 08, 2007

Snoozing with a Sucker

We went on a gorgeous walk yesterday with Nana around Mirror Pond and Carter fell asleep in the car with a sucker in his mouth!.....Here he is snoring, snoozing, & drooling in the driveway when we got home ;)

November 01, 2007

Carter's Maze


Jim found some mazes to print out online the other night. Dillon has been enjoying the fun of doing mazes for a while now and can do some good sized mazes by this time, and Jim sat down with Carter to teach him how to do a maze too. He laid the paper on the desk then went into the other room and then Carter came up to us with this maze that he had completed all by himself! You can even see where he went looking to the exit and realized that it was the wrong way, then back tracked and found the way out. Not bad for a 3 year old! :)

Digging for Candy, The Ugly Witch & The Empty Bucket


Daddy was digging too....he is so thankful that the boys don't like peanuts or peanutbutter.

We trick-or-treated at Nana's house first, nice make-up job, huh?
What happened to all the candy?