Sitting With Santa

A few weeks ago, we went to the light parade downtown. Pretty much, as long as your float has lights on it, it is allowed in the parade. Santa is also in the parade. Santa! And after the parade, he goes and sits in one of the bank's buildings and waits for the kids to come and tell him what they want for Christmas. So, after getting frozen while watching all the floats in the parade, we went and saw Santa.

To make things go faster, we let our children sit on Santa's lap two at a time. Plus, Seven didn't want to sit on the big guy's lap by himself and I didn't know if Rilian would either. Finn and Seven went together. Seven is sweetly hugging Santa. What did they ask Santa for? Finn asked for a Transformers game for the Xbox 360. Seven asked for an orange train table, an orange bridge for his trains, and an orange Thomas the Tank Engine train. Can you tell orange is his favorite color?

Then it was Rilian and Piper's turn. I was so amazed at how well Rilian did on Santa's lap. This picture was the very first one I took of them on his lap! No crying baby this time! I said, "Say cheese!" and this was the result I got...Rilian saying "cheese." Everyone around was also in awe of how good he was! What did Piper ask Santa for? A white dog with a purple color that you can walk on a leash. It isn't a real dog. She also wanted a pair of cowgirl boots. I don't think Rilian understood the whole telling Santa what you want for Christmas thing. So, I don't think he really talked to Santa.

And here is a sweet picture of Rilian and Piper looking at Santa, for you to enjoy.

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I Don't Think Shepherds Dance Like That

Seven is one funny kid! No, let me change that...Seven is HILARIOUS! I am not just saying that because he is my kid, but he really is! I think he might be the class clown when he starts school!

Check out this video of him dancing...

In case you couldn't hear Finn in the background, he told Seven, "I don't think Shepherds dance like that." Finn can be pretty funny, too, sometimes. He says things so matter of fact. 

My Little Cotton-Top

I think this picture is just so adorable! What a great photo opportunity...

We ate lunch one Sunday at a friend's house. They just happened to live in a cotton field. Yes, their house was built in a cotton field. They have a beautiful house and a yard and then there is nothing but cotton. Our kids enjoyed playing with their kids in the cotton field. I just couldn't pass up this classic picture! Rilian's hair is so light, it was kind of hard to keep track of him in the cotton. He really did blend right in!

Ingenious

Seven is ingenious! He is very intelligent! I am not saying that just because he is my child, but he honestly is. 


One night while we were eating dinner, I looked over at him and this is what I saw...

It looks like he is trying to pick up his corn with chopsticks. We did not give him chopsticks to eat with that night. We were having pizza and corn. Neither one of those are typically eaten with chopsticks. Take another look and see if you can figure out what he had done.

Can you tell that he has a straw that he bent in half and made it into chopsticks? He figured this out all on his own. He is smiling in the second picture because we were amazed that he thought this up all on his own!

Thanksgiving

My brother and his family came to town for Thanksgiving. My brother is one crazy dude! I didn't have much opportunity to take pictures while they were here, but I did manage to get a few. My brother has decided to be a firefighter. You can't just simply be a firefighter, alot goes into it. So, my brother has started packing on the muscles, but he has a long way to go if he wants to be as tough as me ;)

My kids call my brother, Uncle Punk. I'm not sure if I have told the story of how Uncle Mark became Uncle Punk. If any of you know my brother, I don't really need to share the story, you already know what a punk he is. But it is a good story, so here goes...when Piper had just turned 2 years old and Finn was 10 months old, Jeremy and I left them with their Uncle Mark and Aunt Jennifer while we went on a mission trip to Mexico with the youth group. Uncle Mark decided it would be funny to teach Piper to call people a "punk". Piper never picked up on it. However, Mark's oldest daughter who is 5 months younger than Piper, did pick up on it and when they were in the store, would look at someone and call them a "punk". This was one of the pranks that backfired on Mark. He is just full of pranks. I told him maybe he shouldn't have tried to teach someone else's kid to say things like that. After that, he became known to my kids as Uncle Punk.


I don't remember if this was the kid's idea or my brother's idea, but someone decided Mark would do a push-up with the kids on his back. Finn is sitting between my two nieces, Mabrie and Allie.

Then Piper got on behind Allie.

And it looked like so much fun that Seven got on between Finn and Allie.

With five of the six cousins on Uncle Punk's back waiting to go up in the air when he did a push-up, we couldn't let Rilian miss out, so Mabrie held on to him so he wouldn't fall off.

Ta da! Strong Uncle Punk has lifted off! I love the surprised and exited looks on the kid's faces. 

                                  

Goodbye Ronald McDonald, Hello Big Boy!

I'm gonna stop telling you that I am behind in my blogging and you can just expect that the post you are reading happened awhile ago :) What can you expect from a mother of 4  young children? At least I AM blogging :)


So, Rilian needed a haircut. Some of you might think that is an understatement. He had huge beautiful blonde curls, but it was time for them to go. It was kind of a hard thing to do, but it had to be done. Yes...it had to be done. This also meant that my baby boy was growing up. It seems that "first" haircuts age your baby and they become "big" boys.


Here are some BEFORE shots...

I like this one with his reflection in the mirror. You can also see Seven watching.

And a face shot. I had to get all the angles. After all, his curls might not grow back.

The precious curls in Jeremy's hand. And yes, we did save quite a bit of them. We actually saved more than what is in Jeremy's hand.

How did we get him to sit still? Rilian LOVES balls! So, we gave him a few balls to play with. He really liked tapping them on the mirror.

Here's another cool shot. Rilian was looking at the camera through the mirror.

Rilian was a little bothered by the hair on his ball.

I guess he wanted to see what was going on, so he was looking at himself in the mirror.

Look at all the hair on his shoulder!

I didn't realize how long his hair was until this photo.

This is a little closer shot of the length of his hair. Granny helped Jeremy out in the hair cutting department.

Rilian was complaining about his "itchy" hair on his neck.

There's a smile from my big boy!

And we had to get all angles of the AFTER shot.

What did Piper, Finn, and Seven think of Rilian's haircut? They thought he looked funny! We didn't let them see him until after we were done cutting his hair. Then I took a picture of when they first opened their eyes. They laughed and laughed!

And one final "Cheese!" for the camera from my big boy!

My 3 Monkeys...I Mean Sons

All three of my boys have been dressed as a monkey for their second Halloween now. I got to wondering if they looked alike. Here are the pictures so you can see for yourself.

For Halloween in 2006, Finn was a monkey. Granny Joyce made him an awesome monkey costume. He was 15 months old.

Monkey Finn sure enjoyed that sucker! He was drooling and as a parent, you know what happens when your child drools while they are eating a sucker.

Now for a profile shot...I can see resemblances between Finn and Rilian in the profile shot. None of the other two pictures of Finn looked like Rilian at all to me.

Two years later, Halloween 2008, Seven was dressed as a monkey. He was 18 months old. The costume survived the washing machine after Finn enjoyed his sucker in the costume.

When looking at the pictures, I realized I had a couple of profile pictures of monkey Seven also. I see a little bit of resemblance to Rilian in this shot.

I think this one looks more like Rilian than the last one. If I didn't know that it was Seven, I might not be sure if it was him or Rilian.

Fast forward to this year, Halloween 2010, another two years later. Rilian was two days shy of being 21 months old. He had such a sweet smile! 

And a close up...

I was kind of surprised that none of my monkeys looked alike. I did a post last year about Piper, Seven, and Rilian being lions for different Halloweens to see if they looked alike. I think my lions looked more alike than my monkeys. I always enjoy going back and looking at pictures of my beautiful children. I also think it is fun to compare pictures to see how much they do or do not look alike. If you are a parent, I am sure you think it is just as fun!  

Trick or Treat

Yes, we decorated more pumpkins...we had a total of nine pumpkins out in front of our house. The four little ones from the last post, these four "Mr. Potato Head" pumpkins, and a jack-o-lantern you will see in a little bit. We let the kids pick which kind of Mr. Potato Head parts they wanted. Two of them picked pirates and the other two picked skeletons.

Rilian picked a pirate.

Piper picked a skeleton. Notice she is holding his hand?

Then she wanted me to take her picture crossing her eyes. You can't really tell that is what she is doing. She just looks like she is looking down at her nose. But she doesn't realize that, she is just proud that she can cross her eyes. And she is still holding her skeleton's hand.

Seven chose a pirate. He is holding his hand out like his pirate is..."Arg!"

Finn chose a skeleton.

Next, it was time to carve the jack-o-lantern.

Piper was holding up her messy hands. She had stuck them in the pumpkin. I remember a couple of years ago, she would not put her hands in it. She thought it was gross, but not this year. She was all about digging the guts out!

Piper was trying to get her hands back in, but Finn was digging at the inside with a spoon, so he was kind of in the way of Piper putting her hands back in.

There is Rilian peeking out from behind Finn. He wanted to see what was going on.

Even Seven put his hand inside to help dig out some of the guts.

Rilian thinks he is just as big as his brothers and sister, so he also tried to dig out some of the guts.

I told you Piper was all about taking the guts out. Look how deep her arms are in the pumpkin. Really, I think she was just excited about getting all the pumpkin seeds out so we could bake them. Talk about motivation!

I guess Rilian wanted a closer look at what was inside the pumpkin. You can also see how messy Piper's hand is. This is kind of surprising because when she eats, she is real careful about not getting her hands messy. She will even tell you which hand is clean, so you know she doesn't need to wash that one.

A close-up of the "close-up". 

 Rilian made it look like alot of fun, so Piper had to try.

And of course, Seven had to try it, too. I think Finn was playing games on the computer, so he didn't really know they were doing this. Otherwise, I'm sure he would have played the "monkey see, monkey do" game also.

Piper said she wanted our jack-o-lantern to have heart shaped eyes. Who says jack-o-lanterns can't have heart shaped eyes...not our family.

My little pumpkins with their jack-o-lantern. I took three pictures with the jack-o-lantern and this is the best of the three. At least all four of them had their faces up. It is often hard to get a picture with all four of them looking AND smiling at the camera. 

Seven wanted his picture taken with the jack-o-lantern again. In this picture you can almost see all nine of our pumpkins. There are eight on the wall and then the ninth pumpkin is beside Seven.

Now for the costumes...

Rilian is a monkey. Finn is Optimus Prime. Seven is a pirate. Piper is a black cat.

As I was looking through the pictures to put them on this post, I had to put all three of these on. Finn was just cracking me up with his poses! I didn't realize he was doing that when I took the pictures.

Piper was also a black cat three years ago. Her hat still fit. She just doesn't grow very fast. This fact really came in handy this year. She wore a black turtleneck, black pants, and black shoes. Luckily, the tail from three years ago was detachable and we were able to put it on her this year. Unfortunately, I forgot to draw whiskers on her face. Do you like how she is posing like a cat? She did that in two of the above pictures as well. There was no prompting by us, she just came up with it on her own.

Rilian is the third son to wear this monkey costume. It was made by Granny Joyce four years ago for Finn. I will look for the pictures of Finn and Seven as monkeys and make a post about all three of them. Rilian was copying Piper's cat pose.

My little pirate doesn't look happy. Truth is, he wasn't happy. Seven did not want his picture taken. I told him I just needed one good picture and I would stop taking pictures of him. All he had to do was smile and look at the camera, that constituted a good picture. I finally just gave up and this is the picture we have. Oh well. 

And another cool pose by Optimus Prime. Finn was full of poses that night! No prompting by us, it was all Finn!