matchy matchy green squared

Have you ever unintentionally had coordinating outfits with someone you're with? One year I did that with my roommates on several occasions. More than once I remember Carrie, Lori, and I all dressed in purple or overalls or whatever. We didn't mind so much.

Rich hates to match. Before we had kids if we happened to coordinate--and I pointed it out--he would go change. So I stopped telling him. Occasionally he would match with William and he hated that too. On the other hand, William loves to match. Everyday when he picks out his clothes he picks out a "matching" shirt for James--even if that means that they both are wearing stripes or both thermals or just the same color. Oftentimes he makes Rich change his clothes so that they can be matching--and Rich is such a good sport that he will change!

I know one day that William will hate matching as well... but for now I love it!

happy happy birthday William dear

William had a fabulous birthday this year. In fact, everything is more fun this year because he understands it a little better. So he is a big THREE years old now. I really can't believe it! Not only that, he seems to have grown up so much in the past month or so. He's just growing up way too fast! Here are some highlights of his birthday:
He loved all his presents...

(It looks more like Christmas! Thank you everyone! And you gotta love that "smile". )

He loved his cake...
He loved to sing Happy Birthday (to himself)...

Happy Birthday William!

And speaking of birthdays... Friday was Oklahoma's 100th birthday! We were able to go to the Redhawks Ballpark and watch the Centennial Celebration. The best part was singing "Oklahoma" (you know the one...) with a stadium full of people.

Happy Birthday Oklahoma!

days of thanksgiving

So as this is the month of Thanksgiving (and often gets overlooked because it falls between two fun sugar-filled holidays) I thought I would give it some attention. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays--family, friends, great food, yummy pies...

I got to thinking, "What's something fun that I could do with William to teach him about Thanksgiving?" And then this canning jar kept calling to me from my cupboard. So we made this: William tells me what he's thankful for or what makes him happy. I'll write it and then he draws a picture of it and decorates with stickers. Then we put it in the jar. (I haven't quite decided what to do from there.) Here is a sample of his work as of yesterday.(He's really starting to be a careful artist. He tells me what he's drawing--"this is the head" "here's the eyes" etc). It's been a fun project and William likes to add things to the jar.

This past week was also our stake "Days of Thanksgiving." I've heard this also called "fill the temple." But I find "Days of Thanksgiving" so much more appropriate. Showing our gratitude to our Heavenly Father by filling the temple and doing work for those who have gone on before. So for two full days our stake does everything at the temple. It's a neat experience. This year though I wasn't given an assignment. To tell the truth I was a little disappointed. So I decided the next best thing was to babysit the kids of women who did have assignments during the day... especially since we are conveniently located 5 minutes from the temple. Whoa. I don't know what I was thinking. At one point I had 7 kids under the age of 4. It wasn't all that bad--William had a fun time with friends--and I'm thankful that I could help. I'm also so thankful for being extremely close to a temple.

And then one of the ladies in the ward found out that I didn't have an assignment and offered to give me one of her four sessions and she would watch my two boys--in addition to her own eight. I was grateful to her for her generosity and the opportunity to be in the temple during these "days of thanksgiving."
And while I'm thinking of things I'm grateful for...

I'm grateful for healthy boys. Especially James. Sometimes, when watching him crawl all over the place or wrestling with William, I forget that James had such a rough start.

It's pretty amazing.

I'm grateful for a wonderful husband. A husband who loves and takes care of me, who is a wonderful dad, who works hard at everything he does, who honors his priesthood and who still dates me.

I'm grateful for family. I'm grateful for phones that allow me to call my family far away. I'm grateful for cars that allow me to visit Rich's family who are a little closer.

I'm grateful for wonderful parents who taught me the gospel and a million other things...

I'm grateful for friends... friends from growing up... friends from college... friends from more recently... even friends through the great blogosphere. And I'm grateful for the internet that connects us all even though we are scattered across this huge country.

Speaking of this country. I'm grateful for the USA and the men who founded it on righteous principles.

And lastly (at least for now) I'm so very grateful for a knowledge of the gospel and all that it entails.

I hope that you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and don't forget to be grateful during this season!

boyhood rite of passage

So Wednesday afternoon was nothing out of the ordinary. The boys and Mom were hanging out. Mom was talking on the phone. William started to get a little crazy--running around and such. And then all of a sudden... THUD. William begins to cry. Mom just thinks, "Oh he's fine." That is, until Mom looks at his face. Blood running everywhere. Heads tend to bleed a LOT. So to spare you the gory details I will just say that we have had our fair share of bumps, bruises, skinned knees, bloody lips, and black eyes...

...but this is the first time we've encountered an gaping head wound. William was a brave little patient-- just lying there, holding ice to his throbbing forehead, doing everything Mom said to do. He got a little worried when he saw me cleaning off his hand and realized there was blood covering it. And after the initial sobs of pain he didn't cry until he talked on the phone to Dad. Mom got a little worried when she realized that William had locked the bathroom where the first aid kit was. Eventually we got in and, thanks to Mom's awesome skills we didn't need stitches... hopefully the butterfly bandage will keep the hole together.

a new past time

James has now achieved pulling himself to a standing position. He falls quite often because he's always letting go... but he always gets right back up. And, per Rachelle's request, we have a video to prove it. Enjoy!

spooky Halloween night

Mister Jack O' Lantern is very round and fat.

He has a yellow candle, lit right beneath his hat.

It makes his face look happy and very, very bright

When he winks and smiles at me on spooky Halloween night.

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is carving our pumpkin. William had a great time supervising--because he didn't want to touch the "guts".

As for other Halloween fun... Last week we went to a trunk-or-treat for our ward and for my brother-in-law's ward. William had a blast at both! By the end of the second one he could barely carry his pumpkin for all the candy he had!
Last weekend for our "date night" we took the boys to the bookstore to read Halloween books.

And then yesterday we went trick-or-treating at Rich's work,

ate pumpkin pizza, carved a pumpkin, trick-or-treated to the neighbors, (James seemed to think it was pretty crazy that William had something on his head.)

and then after the boys were in bed we concluded with our favorite Halloween tradition wherein Rich and I ate our roasted pumpkin seeds and watched a "scary" movie.