Thanksgiving 2013

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the actual holdiay as a family of 5.  Clint's parents had traveled to New Mexico to be with Adam and my parents were just returning from treatment in Austria.  Clint and I decided to go all out regardless.  We smoked turkey legs, roasted a whole (free range, organic) turkey.  Made my mom's famous cornbread dressing and Clint's grandmothers famous chestnut stuffing.  We had giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, brussel sprout salad, homemade bread, cranberry bread, green beans, blueberry pie, and pumpkin pie.  Nothing was processed, from a box or a can on our Thanksgiving table (except the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes) and almost everything was organic.  I made every bit from scratch myself.  It turned out to be quite a delicious feast and was a lot of fun to prepare.

Our centerpiece included the lego Thanksgiving diorama.  It included a keg.  And a cat.  And sausage.  Interesting. 

The Friday after Thanksgiving may have been the first day since we moved to Stillwater that we did no work at all.  We just hung out all day long.  It was wonderful and rejuvenating.  Now that being said Clint did start cutting down cedar trees to use to build the treehouse. One of our goals was to start a garden at the farm in 2013.  We "officially" did by smashing our pumpkins in a field at the farm.  Technically not what we had in mind, but throwing up pumpkins and whacking them with an axe sure is a fun way to start a garden.  I am not sure why Clint is wearing Beau's hat in this picture.

Over Saturday and Sunday we went to Arkansas to celebrate with my side of the family.  This is the first year that all the kids (except the babies) were old enough to play without adult supervision the whole time.  It was liberating.  It was a beautiful day and the cousins had a blast playing Indians and pilgrims outside.

Heidi's 7th Adoption Anniversary

We celebrated (or totally forgot to) Heidi's 7th adoption anniversary.  That makes her approximately 8 years old.  She is a very easy, disobedient dog.  She still sleeps 23 hours a day, eats all our scraps, and lets the kids abuse her.  Her eyes are still eerily red, but it appears to not bother her and we already spent several hundred dollars trying to fix it.  She really is a cat and sleeps either in her chair, in our closet, on Sawyer's bed, or on the back porch.  That's pretty much her life.  She's a good dog.

Happy 9th Anniversary!

November 20, 2013 marked our 9th great year together. Each year is better than the last. Melanie is such an amazing companion and friend. She makes my life so easy, happy, and relaxing. I still spend my days thinking about how much I want to be with her, and I look forward to seeing her everyday after work.

By the time November rolled around, we were finally to the point where we could leave Paul with a babysitter for a couple hours. On the weekend before our anniversary, we decided to get a room at the Best Western in Stillwater for a few hours while the kids stayed with the babysitter. The bar in the hotel turned out not to be open, so we made drinks (club soda and citron) in the room and watched OSU beat up on the Longhorns, among other things...

We picked up some Thai and got the kids then headed straight for the pool in the hotel. The boys love hotels, especially if the hotel has a pool. We swam for a while and headed back to the room for the usual dance party. In the morning, I bought food to make lochs and bagels, but fat free cream cheese and cheap salmon isn't that good.

On the day of our anniversary, Melanie made a delicious meal of lamb, bread, couscous, and vegetables. We had a bottle of our favorite wine, Louis Martini. The boys enjoyed the special meal, and we showed them our wedding pictures after dinner. We are so blessed to have such a fun, happy, joyful marriage.

Beau's Birthday

Beau turned three on November 10th.  Clint and I both had a hard time coming to terms with it.  I told him it made me sad and for a few days he said he would stay two.  So sweet and considerate.  Clint was out of town the week before his birthday, but Saturday we celebrated by getting donuts in the morning.  Beau was pretty traumatized by Clint leaving him for a whole week and would not leave his side Saturday morning.  On Sunday we had his birthday party.  As Beau said "Best Birthday EVER."  So cute. We once again had a hayride at the farm and just a few friends.  After the hayride we had cupcakes and all the kids ran and climbed on the tractor.  It was a perfect birthday for a three year old boy.

After the party, we opened gifts at the house.  Grandpa made Beau a beautiful treasure chest. It is so special. 

Beau is our heart.  This child is so loving and funny and relational.  He totally gets humor and can keep us laughing.  At three he is very communicative.  He doesn't act interested in the world or how it works.  He almost refuses to tell us "what letter this is" or "count it out" though we know he knows because sometimes we use bribery to get the answers.  He rarely asks "what's that" or "why".  But he constantly asks questions like "What's your favorite food mommy?" "Do you like this Daddy?"  He is extremely relational and has to be emotionally and physically connected with someone at all times.  Clint of course is his first choice.  He is very mechanical and does puzzles well and builds well.  He always knows where we are going and how to get there.  He is a bull in a china shop, leaves crumbs everywhere he goes, and loves dirt.  If you ask him his favorite things he say, "Hotels, waterfalls, and cheese, what's your favorite thing?"  The kid loves cheese and any cheese cracker.  He is still obsessed with his OSU blankie and has to have it with him at home always.  He still has his Beauments and cries a lot over nothing.  But he can turn it off as quickly as he turns it on.  For example he has a total breakdown every morning if he doesn't tell Clint, "bye bye" and "I love you".  In fact we can have a total breakdown if he just says "bye" instead of "bye bye".  It gets old.  He and Sawyer have an amazing loving relationship.  They rarely fight and have so much fun playing together.  We think he is about the cutest thing we have ever seen, from his giant brown eyes, dimples, Beau brow, chubby legs, sweet hugs and kisses, and hilarious commentary.  We have been so blessed with this guy for the past three years. 

Paul 10 months

Paul turned 10 months old on November 9th.  He wasn't yet crawling (he figured it out at 10 months and 1 day), but he had gotten pretty good at doing a scoot, pull, twist to get where he wanted to go.  He is still a demanding child with an erractic sleep schedule.  He sure is great though.  Smily, funny, full of excitment.  He officially earned the name P.T. for Party Time or Paul Tiverton.  He has two bottom teeth and four top teeth.  First he got his two bottom teeth then he actually got his outer two top teeth first (they looked like fangs). We thought he would be dracula for halloween, but he got his front teeth just in time.  He says mmmmmmm for mama and datdat.  He talks constantly but still mostly vowel sounds.  He waves, points, gestures, splashes, throws, catches.  He will read us a book.  I believe he actually thinks he is reading to us.  He is so bright and so funny.

This month Sawyer went through some challenging moods.  He was pretty whiny.  But his creative side also flourished this month.  He started drawing pretty detailed pictures and spent a lot of time in the process.  He continues to love his legos.  Some days he is excited about school and some days he is not.  He strongly dislikes Fridays because they have assembly and he hates to sit cross legged for that long.

 

Beau turned three this month.  There is a whole post about that. 

October Update

Sawyer had his first field day at school.  Of course this is no longer the 80s so no first place ribbons were handed out, but he did come home with a good job ribbon. 

That's me with the child's hand between my legs at Sawyer's field day.  That's my life, someone always always hanging onto my legs. 

We went to the pumpkin patch with our friends Tucker and Paige.  I have never been to a "real" pumpkin patch so I was wearing heels.  You drive your truck out into a field, bring your own knife, walk through the mud, and cut what you want.  You stop by the farmers house on the way home, knock on his door and he throws a number at you.  It was awesome and I didn't even care that I ruined a pair of wedges.

Last Christmas (2012) Clint got me a date night at a cooking class in Tulsa.  Since Paul has been such a pickle to leave for a whole night, we never got to go.  I finally had my mom meet me for my date and Clint stayed home with Paul.  It was a lot of fun!

Clint was out of town for a lot of October.  Beau at that time started waking up at night screaming for his pacies.  One night when Clint was gone he woke me up 3 times (and Paul woke up 3 times) and in my sleepless state I threw all the pacis in the "trash".  I reasoned I better spare Clint the few days of hell of Beau adjusting to no pacis and get it done before he came home.  Beau was awesome.  He never cried or had trouble sleeping.  He just kept asking, "My pacies are in the trash?"  Here's a picture of him giving them all one last suck.  Funny though I really didn't throw them away because I had to save them for Paul.  He found them in January and accused me by saying "They are not in the trash."  I guess I didn't get away with that mommy lie.

When the boys put on costumes they are transformed into wrestling maniacs.  This is Renegade (Clint) and his crew.