"I Flying"

Analeigh has taken to stealing Ben's Filipino sandals lately and wearing them on her arms as wings. Sometimes she'll take his blue ones, sometimes his yellow ones. Regardless, it always ends in her flapping her arms and running around the house as she cries out, "I flying!"

Christmas Decorating

The day after Thanksgiving is a great day to relax and put up the ol' Christmas Tree. David and Analeigh are getting old enough to be useful in fanning out the limbs on the "branches" of the tree. David did a great job. Analeigh was a little less patient - she would fan out two or three limbs and had it to her mommy to put in the trunk. Luckily, it all turned out pretty well in the end.



We also put nails in the wall above the mirror so we could hang up our stockings. This process led to the chipping off of some old plaster - oh well, nothing a little paint can't cover up!



Oh, just in case you're wondering why our tree is being kept in portable crib. Well, this is why:



Basically, the tree gets attacked enough by our two curious children. The presents, which will be under the tree branches, in the crib, will be (in theory) protected from being opened early.

Thanksgiving Lunch/Dinner

We christened our new home by hosting a Thanksgiving meal with just ourselves. It seems the only thing we forgot to make was stuffing. Somehow, as we looked at everything we had made, we did not notice what was missing - at least not until after lunch was over.

However, the highlight of the meal was perhaps the rainbow Jell-O, which is essentially layer upon layer of various Jell-O flavors.



One of the perks to having only four people at a Thanksgiving feast is that the leftovers last even longer. We should be eating this meal for a few days to come!

Pilgrims and Indians

David went to preschool today for the only time this week, as he has Wednesday and Friday off for the Thanksgiving holiday. In an attempt to recreate the first Thanksgiving, each child brought a piece fruit to contribute to make a friendship salad.

They also made pilgrim and Indian outfits to wear - as you can see below.

Guide to Having "The Talk"

As any parent knows, having "The Talk" with your kids is a very difficult thing. How do you convey to your youth how things should be and what standards they should have?

If you have faced similar challenges, we hope this following video will be a source of help for you. While we do not necessarily agree with all the ideas espoused in the video, we still found it to be helpful. Enjoy.



We consider ourselves pretty prepared, with copies of all the movies, to teach our children the ways of the force. Ben has been sitting down with our children recently to show them the original trilogy. Now it seems the only thing left to do it get a copy of the Star Wars ABC board book we saw in the video.

Blueberry Smoothies

We recently bought some blueberries - which happen to make some delicious smoothies. The kids happen to agree. In fact, the smoothies are so delicious, Analeigh can't help but extend the experience by saving extra for herself on her face.

How Cute Is This?

Analeigh has hit the stage in life where the world is her climbing wall. We find her in the most interesting of places, on top of her play kitchen, on the upper shelves of book cases, you name it. If it has a foot hold, she will climb it. Even the steps up to our porch outside must be climbed by the side - not merely walked up like everyone else does. On the plus side, it makes for a ridiculously cute picture.

It Goes "Sploot"

David has added a new word to his vocabulary: sploot. It is the sound his oatmeal makes in the microwave when it turns out like this:



In fact, David hangs around the microwave each morning eagerly anticipating the moment his oatmeal goes sploot.

He loves the idea so much that he asks for oatmeal every morning, just waiting for it to go sploot.

Our Big Announcement

We have a big announcement to make... Ben has been called as our ward's newest Scout Master.

Yes, his prior experience with not only attending Wood Badge, but also completing the training, got leaked and before he knew it the assignment was his.

So, here is our little dilemma. Well, actually two dilemmas.

First dilemma: Sister Smith accused Ben of being on the fast track to becoming Bishop one day, stating that Scout Master is merely a stepping stone. Ben told her that was crazy talk. So, you may wonder, why is Ben documenting this thing? Is it vanity? No, Ben has stated on more than one occasion that he would be an incompetent bishop. Thus, if he was ever called to be bishop, he knows the calling would have to be from God because any man who called him would be crazy!

Actually, Ben is only documenting this in the interest of being able to rub it in Sister Smith's face when he is on his death bed and still not a bishop. And, on the outside chance that he does get called someday to be a bishop, Sister Smith will be able to point to this post and say, "I told ya so!" Of course, Ben's ability to prove her wrong on his death bed depends on Sister Smith outliving him, which is possible, since she is so young (we're not sure she's going to buy that statement, but she might be flattered by it) and women tend to live longer than men.

Second dilemma: our van. While it is great for hauling a bunch of stuff (like scouting equipment), it isn't exactly friendly on the wallet with how it guzzles gas. So, if anyone has any economically feasible suggestions as to where we might be able to trade in our beast of a van for an inexpensive used minivan, we're all ears.

Monster PJs

With winter right around the corner, we needed to get David some warmer pajamas. As he has grown larger, our supply of one-piece footed pajamas has dwindled. Thus, Liz resorted to making some homemade pajamas out of some fleece. David loves his new monster pajamas.

Cutting Turkeys

When David started preschool we learned that we had been holding him back by not giving him enough opportunities to cut things with scissors. Now, after getting lots of practice, David is doing very well.

As part of our November festivities, working towards Thanksgiving, the kids colored turkeys, which David got to cut out. He was very pleased with himself.

Now we just need to work on teaching our kids how to pose in pictures to display their artwork!