The First NAIL HOLE

This picture just makes me smile, and now it's the first thing we see when we come home...fitting that this is the first hole we put in our freshly painted walls, right? This picture always reminds me of my dear Great Uncle Larry.

Jack started the "I believe in Santa" conversation yesterday during a discussion of religious freedoms. So not ready for this, but so far they both talk about being Santa, having Santa in their heart - fingers crossed.

How could you not love that silly mug?!? Harry was the first to dig thru the hats this afternoon...

...and was just a *little* excited!

Jack found the football hats they all have (notice the pile behind him? yikes, we have a lotta hats!)

Gettin' his silly on! (and no, I don't think his hands are typically that freakishly large, but it could help if he continues to love football, right?!)

And this is their evolving room with all the glow - Jack was very proud of himself for finding a place to hang their hats on their beds :wub:

The First Noel

Sweet Gingerbread MEn

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

We are home from our visit with the family up north, and the boys couldn't wait to put their new ornaments on their tree - thank you Grandma for the adorable gingerbread men!

How lovely (and silly) are thy branches!

On their way to adorn the tree with the newest ornaments


I may play around with this one to highlight all their hands in the tree :wub:

She'll be comin' 'round the mountain, er, tracks

First decorations completed - woohoo!

and a big thank you to all the people who have contributed to their tree over the years....you may notice your sweet touches in this picture

Sammy Davis Jr. and this video (great for gingerbread ideas and a walk down memory lane)

I love it when you read to me

The Book Of Love, indeed! The boys are blessed to have 6 grandparents, 4 of which they will be with this week :wub:

Pater Gabriel's The Book Of Love

Take a little trip

Safe travels and Happy Thanksgiving!

There was a lot of reading
A lot of happy (Harry loves to 'whee' whenever we go down a hill, ramp, etc. Gotta get that boy to a theme park!) ....

...followed by a lot of crashing

Jack's celebratory reaction to the NY state line

War's Low Rider

Love to eat turkey

Harry's Thanksgiving Feast was held in his class yesterday, and guess who had to come up with fun ways to feed 20 5yos? Thank you, JK, for the great link and the encouragment...

...if I try this again, I'll use different colors of cheese to make the 'feathers' stand out more. Not bad for a first try, eh?
Here he is singing one of the songs they learned, dressed in his Pilgrim costume (Dean's been working on H's John Wayne accent and swagger!)

We got a repeat concert, and loved all the songs - thank you, Mrs. R!

Happy Turkey Day :-)

Adam Sandler's The Thanksgiving Song

And WE thank you

As we unpack boxes, we're finding things we forgot, putting them to new use, and generally loving our new home (which Jack insists Harry stop calling 'the new house' "It's our HOME now!"). We put this chalk board in the kitchen and decided to write each other notes, starting with this one for Daddy:

We all wrote a line, starting with Harry, then Jack, then me

Ah, the seriousness of a siggy these days

Harry putting his John Hancock, tho we didn't leave him much room

proud, much?

Now I'm glad I took a picture of the completed note, since Harry decided erasing it to write something else was a better idea than waiting for Daddy to see it ;-)

We love you, babe, and thank you for all you do to make our lives so wonderful!

ZZ Top's I Thank You

HE's an Indian outlaw!

The boys are getting ready for their Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow, er, today, at school. Both classes made costumes for both Indians and Pilgrims, and Harry wore his Indian costume home today (hopefully, this means Jack's is at school because H goes as a Pilgrim and J as an Indian tomorrow)

His ohSOproud face
the back view

He drew house, cars, road, and some other stuff I can't make out in this picture. That's a big sidewalk under the house (where he is *not* allowed to draw with his chalk, so maybe there is more to this photo interpretation than I'd realized before LOL)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Hope your days are filled with friendly gatherings and lots of Plenty!

Tim McGraw's Indian Outlaw

Christmas Outside The Box

The boys were goofing around the other day, and Jack seems to have the spirit a little early this year :-)

And speaking of boxes, this one look harmless, right??

Imagine my surprise when I noticed a giggly boy inside Then he realized he's Jack and he's IN THE BOX

Jeff Dunham

Gettin' Jiggy Wit It

The boys were allowed to wear hats to school the other day, and Harry chose this hat that his Aunt Kim bought him several years ago to go along with the family JB vibe....

Here's his explanation....with my apologies to JB ;-)

Lots of things are changing, and I had to take this picture to remind myself that he actually CAN get dirty ;-) The boy has a knack for keeping himself out of messes (he once threw up while sitting in Dean's lap without getting anyone yucky)....this just seems to scream BOY, including the juice stain

This is one of his recent letter books

and he was so proud of 'making you this rainbow necklace, Mommy!' :wub:

He has never been a fan of the writing or homework, but look at all those N's!

and all those - yikes, my hand cramps just looking at all that LOL

Will Smith

Have a little Coca-Cola, Really, it's a lovely drink

This is how I celebrated the granite being installed.....

...earlier that day I'd unpacked a box that has been in storage for a long time and remembered how many fun bar things I have, including this adorable musical decanter from my dear Aunt Libby's bar. It plays this song...

Irving Berlin's How Dry I Am

Move It On Over

This peaceful scene...
became this muddy chaos on Thursday
They're not just pretty faces anymore! They've learned how to put some muscle into it

They've also become excellent QC assistants

Moving requires a lot of skills beyond the strong back and project supervision....Ty Pennington better watch himself ;-)

....and if you weren't totally convinced of their decorative flare, check out this recent creation - they said they were decorating for Christmas, so it's apparently about to get interesting!

I just have to say that they've both been amazing troopers thru all this. If you ever want to move with kids in tow, I'd recommend 5 as a great age!

George Thorogood, and just about everyone else