New car!

I am officially part of the mini-van club!  Yay!!

The first weekend in December, Michael's mom came into town to babysit the boys for us so we could go car shopping.  We got an early start Saturday morning and went to the Ford dealership first to look at the Explorer.  We loved the car but quickly agreed that it just wasn't quite big enough given that we will have 3 full sized car seats for a while, and I still need to be able to access Joseph in the back to help him with his seat belt. 

Then we headed across the freeway to the Toyota dealership where we test drove the Sienna minivan.  This was our top choice going into our car search but we had plans to possibly look at the Honda Odyssey too.  After 5-6 hours at the Toyota dealership, we finally reached an agreement in the price negotiations to get the model we really liked the best.   We got the XLE Premium which includes the DVD player system, navigation screen, back up rear cam, etc.  It's so fun and a really nice car. 

Michael was very hesitant on getting a mini van I think because he thought it wouldn't have much get up and go and would be difficult to drive in a big city.  But when he drove the van first on the test drive, I could tell by the look on his face that he was quite impressed!   In fact the salesman told us they use the same engine as the one in the Camry and Lexus cars!   It also can turn very sharp which helps it not feel like you are driving some massive car.  

Joseph and Andrew are beyond excited about the new car.  Before we went, Joseph told me over and over that he really wanted a car that has sliding doors and air conditioner vents in the back.  (he has ridden in my sisters' vans)   I also really like that Andrew can fully see out the window now in the back because the seats sit up higher than in my last car, and the windows aren't as high up.  So both boys have a full view outside and really enjoy that.

So excited about our new car and look forward to putting in the 3rd car seat NEXT month!!

Me and "Mini".  My first car was Zippy, my last car was Zoomy, so it only seemed appropriate to name this one Mini!

Joseph so excited to be in the new car!

Family pic!

Christmas Tree Time

The day after we got back from Thanksgiving at my parents, we got our Christmas tree and began decorating our house for Christmas!

For the first time ever, we decided to get an artificial tree.  We thought it would just be easier without having to worry about the sap, water, and dry needles falling everywhere with the possibility of the boys messing with it. 

I absolutely love doing these kinds of things with the boys because of how excited they get!   Joseph was SO excited and was very focused and into the whole process.  He put the majority of the decorations on the tree himself, except for the ones up high.   When he was finished, the ornaments were all clumped in a couple of spots, right where he could reach.   I told Michael that night that the perfectionist in me really wanted to spread all those ornaments out, but then the mommy side of adores those little clumps of ornaments because it was Joseph's own creation.  So our tree is still just the way he did it. 

Andrew has done surprisingly well with all the decorations and tree!  I expected he would be messing with the tree constantly but he has done great!   

So fun sharing these fun memories with my boys and can't wait for Christmas day next week!

Joseph used the garland to decorate his and Andrew's chairs

Michael putting the lights on

The boys checking out the progress

Decorating the tree

The finished tree!

 

Hopefully this video will show, but this was a cute one of Joseph decorating the tree and Andrew playing around.  :)

Bounce House

A couple of weeks ago, we didn't have anything planned one Friday, so we went and tried out a bounce house place that is super close to our house.  I wasn't sure if it would be suitable for younger kids but it turned out great!  There were only 3 or 4 other kids there so we really had the whole huge place to ourselves.

Joseph is getting more and more brave at big tall bounce houses and slides so it was perfect.  And Andrew had just as much fun running around everything and then I just had to stay near by to help get him out when he got to something to big for him and he got stuck.  It was a great way for the boys to run around and let out some energy, and it's sweet to me to see them play around together like little buddies. 

Here are a few pictures I captured with my phone while we were there:

They had a neat little baseball one where the ball would float above the cone and you could hit it with a bat into the inflatable tent.  Joseph had lots of fun with it but it sure was tricky keeping Andrew out of the way so he didn't get wacked by the bat!

Batter up!

There was one big circular bouncy with a big pillow in the middle.  It was my favorite one because the boys could just run in circles.  :)

This was one part of this neat obstacle course bouncy that was huge and connected in with another bouncy that ended in a huge slide.  Joseph loved this one.  But Andrew couldn't get up the rock wall thing so I always had to lift him out.

Wait for me Joseph!

I'm not sure either of them ever made it up this one.  Joseph has done one like this in other places but he and Andrew ended up just getting silly with it and purposely kept falling down after going up a step or two. 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parent's house in Kilgore this year!  Michael was able to take off on Wednesday so we headed up Tuesday night late after he got home from work.

We had a great feast on Thanksgiving.   My sister Kristina was there with her family as well as my aunt and uncle and my cousin Kyle and his wife Erin. We had a fried turkey as well as a smoked turkey and they were both delicious.  I tried a new recipe of "creamy rosemary potatoes" and yum!  Joseph had so much fun helping Grandma set the table and put out the Thanksgiving decorations!

The remainder of our days there were spent just playing around outside at my parents house.  The boys had so fun playing on all the toys my parents have there - riding the little cars, jumping on the trampoline, playing on the playset and feeding the cows & donkeys.   Michael and my Dad spent a few days working on the welding for this new smoker/bbq pit that my dad is building.  Michael loves those kinds of projects and it's always a good stress relief for him!

Another special part of Thanksgiving was that Michael and I asked Kristina and Oscar to be the Godparents for our sweet baby boy coming soon! We were honored that they excitedly said yes!  I just submitted all the paperwork last week so hopefully we will get it officially on the schedule soon!

In addition, the week before Thanksgiving Joseph had his Thanksgiving feast at school.  Andrew and I were able to attend and it was really cute. They had the tables decorated so cute with placemats and decorations that they made in their class.  The kids were all dressed up as Indians too and they sang a few little songs with their music teacher Ms. Janelle when they came into the room.  For lunch, they brought in Luby's lunch for the kids: chicken strips, mac & cheese, corn, jello & bread. 

As usual, I didn't capture the best pics of the actual feast, but here are a few of the pics I got from both events:

Joseph's little place setting at his school feast - love his little face on the Indian in the back!

Singing their songs...Joseph is on the front row and is the one looking behind him

Enjoying his feast

His class is at the first half of this table, about 15 kids

Hard to get a good pic, but had to get one of me and my little guy

Andrew had so fun too!

And then on to my parent's for Thanksgiving:

My dad has to log on each morning to do a quick report for work.  As soon as Andrew got up he went straight to my Dad and wanted to sit in his lap!

Joseph helping my mom get out the china and decorate the table for Thanksgiving dinner

Feeding the donkeys

Michael and my dad welding on the bbq smoker pit

Mom took all the kids on a 4 wheeler ride

Even Andrew had so fun on his ride - nice & slow of course  ;)

Sweet pic of Joseph and Grace

Little Moments

Here are some little random pictures from our days over the past couple of months.  My little loves...

He loves to play cars

Playing outside

That's about as far as he got going UP the slide!

Probably their favorite thing to do with their daddy is play horsey at night after dinner

We had some guys here doing some warranty work on our wall in the living room.  They stood and watched just about the whole time!

Daddy's little helpers

Another night, another game of horsey

Andrew and I have been enjoying our 1 on 1 lunches on the days Joseph is at school.  Here he is "helping" me make our sandwiches.

Bath buddies

Joseph built this train track on the floor all by himself and was so excited

We can't ever go to Toys R Us without riding this car!

Andrew is VERY into books right now.  And lately Joseph has started telling him the names of all the trucks in his favorite trucks book.  So sweet to see them looking at books together.

Snack time one afternoon

Their new game of playing "train".  Joseph does all the work and Andrew goes "CHOO CHOO!!!!"

Joseph is very into imaginary/pretend play right now.  This was one of his many games he made up.  This one I think was when he was in his "make a waterslide" phase (coming off the summer when he got to use the inflatable water slide my parents have a couple of times)



Sitting on his step stool looking at one of his favorite books the other night while I made dinner

 

And this sweet little baby that I feel move more and more each week.  My thoughts are really shifting into the upcoming newborn phase we will reenter and how I am so very excited to hold my precious baby boy in my arms.

Dewberry Farm

Last weekend, we went to Dewberry Farm which is west of Katy, about 40 minutes from our house.  It's a very popular family fall festival place here.  It's typically super crowded during October because of the big pumpkin patch they have.  We happened to go on the last weekend they were opened so it was perfect.  And the weather was just great - it all really made for such a fun activity to do with Joseph and Andrew!

Dewberry Farm is a really neat place.  It's a very big place with tons of activities for kids of all ages.  Of course at the end as we were leaving, we saw the big area for kids under 6 which we somehow missed but oh well.  There will definitely be lots here that the boys can all grow into over the coming years too!

The place has a little bit of everything....pumpkin patch, wildflower gardens, small petting zoo, slides, play areas, pig races, train rides, corn maze and all kinds of carnival type activities and games.  There is even a Christmas tree farm area for the Christmas season. 

The boys always have fun just being outside and getting to do new things and having lots of places to run around! We were able to get some great pics too of our day!

At the entrance for Dewberry Farm

In the petting zoo - Michael and Andrew looking at the baby chicks

Joseph and the miniature pony

Being the pregnant momma I am, Michael got designated to be the main activity one since I am pretty out of commission! ;)  Here they are on the big slide made out of these little rolly pipe things.  Michael said it was so painful, ha!

Joseph rolling down (with some other little boy that jumped in front of Michael) ;)

Michael and Roo - Roo was smiling big the whole time!

On to the big wooden train set that the kids could crawl through and play in

Testing their little strength with the mallet game

Little spaceship riders

 

The boys on the big inflatable jumpy mat thing



They had these ball throwing games for football and baseball.  This was by far Michael's favorite part of the whole place.  I literally had to drag him away!

On a little "train" ride

After our train ride.  The driver stayed on the path and didn't go too fast so that it wouldn't be too bumpy for me!

Into the corn maze! They LOVED it and it sure did bring back all of our corn maze memories from Minnesota!

Having so fun!

Love this one

Family pic in the maze!

Joseph in the beautiful wildflower garden!

They had so fun running through the rows.  There were quite a few fire ant mounds we started seeing (including one Andrew stepped on) so we wrapped it up in this area pretty quick!)