Christmas Wish Lists

Tyler came home with this Christmas list from church. I don't think Santa is required to even consider bringing you an iPhone until you are old enough to spell it correctly.

He recently made me this sweet Christmas card.
Translation: I give you hug and kiss. I love the spelling he comes up with when he is working on his own.

The boys have been begging for an Elf on the Shelf but this busy (and forgetful!) mama has been hesitant to take on the responsibility. They finally broke me down when Tyler left this letter in the mailbox for Santa all on his own.

Tyler's list for Santa this year asked for a kid iPad, mp3 player, Headbandz game, Skylanders & Legos. Lucas had an extensive list containing almost every toy ever made.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We drove up to Libertyville on Thanksgiving Day. We've realized Colin is not as great of a traveler as the older boys were. He has a temper and usually ends up throwing all of the toys I offer him. At one point we listened to the same song for almost an hour since it was the only thing that kept him from screaming.

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Daddy decided a break from work meant also meant a break from shaving.

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We stayed at Joys house where the boys loved having a sleepover with their cousins.

The boys received some early Christmas presents since we won't be back up for awhile.

I love this picture of Colin walking to Papa.

We kept with our tradition of attending the Libertyville tree lighting cermony the day after Thanksgiving. Danielle looks so beautiful!

It was a cold wait and Colin wouldn't keep on his gloves or blanket. Eventually he and I headed to the warm car to wait for everyone.

Cousins!  

Fall Pictures

We meet a photographer at Forest Park today to take pictures for our Christmas card.



I like the relaxed feel of this one. 

Colin did not want to cooperate and wasn't in the mood to sit still. He either wanted to be held or running around so he cried through every attempt at a posed photo with just the boys. 

This is one of my favorites! I just wish you could see me behind Colin so we had the whole family in it. 

Tyler looks so old to me here! This photo of Lucas just begs me to kiss his cute checks.

 

 

 

I love the way Colin is looking at Tyler here.

Fall Fun!

Pre-K Fall Festival

Lucas's school doesn't celebrate Halloween so they have fall festival parties instead.

Making and then eating snack mix with his friend Conner. 

Sweet Andrew

Turkey crafts. 

Parachute games

Off on a hayride!

Happy Halloween!

It seems as if kids have been celebrating Halloween for a month with various parties, downtown trick or treating and neighborhood trick or treating.  The sugar high continues for one more day! 

Tyler's class took a field trip to Rhodes Family Farm to pick pumpkins and play.  I love going on his field trips but being chaperone and a PTO member are both things that me feel so old.

Next up- the school Halloween parade and class parties.

Followed by meeting my family at Edwardsville's Halloween parade.

 

Julia dresses as a cat to match Glam, Cole is a skunk & Ry is Captain Jack Sparrow.  

Glammie gets as excited about the parade as the kids and makes sure every float notices them and tosses candy their way.

 

Colin loves animals and is obsessed with dogs so he followed around this huge one at the parade. Colin, with the real police, who let our little jailbird off for good behavior.

Trick or Treating

Tyler wanted to be a police man this year.


So that meant Lucas had to be a police offer as well. I tried to convince him to be a fireman since we already had that in our dress up box but he couldn't be persuaded.


Since Colin is too young to have an opinion I made him their baby prisoner. 

Love this photo! 

 

We usually only make it to down a few streets but the older boys were much more determined this year. 

We trick or treated with their friends Jake, Andrew & Conner. Colin and I tagged along for a bit and then left the older boys to work on building up my chocolate stash.

Houseguests

Visiting stuffed class and club pets are de rigueur these days and we've had 3 different germ transporters furry visitors recently. The kids love them although I am slightly less enthusiastic about scribing their imaginary adventures in their accompaining journals.

The boys with Cubby Bear

Tyler with Snapper.

Handsome Lucas

Lucas was dressed up for school pictures today so after school I took him outside to get a few pictures of him.


Sweet

Silly

 

 

 Mischievous

Sums him up pretty well!

First Day Of Preschool

Preschool starts today!


Both Lucas & Colin will be going to Kids First this year. Lucas will attend Pre-K on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Colin will attend on Tuesday and Thursdays.

  

I've had lots of mommy guilt about sending my baby off to school! Since he has a later birthday than his brothers he is starting a few months earlier than they did. Plus, he just seems so much younger to me. I just keep remind myself how much his brothers loved it and, frankly, so do I! So we are giving it a try and I can always pull him out if he doesn't seem to like it.

Lucas has the same teachers Tyler did last year, Ms. Jen & Ms. Amy. They are wonderful teachers so I am very excited for him.

Thankfully the inseparable Lucas and Andrew are once again in the same class.

For some reason Lucas was so thrilled to have a nap mat. 

 

I am so happy Colin and Emerson will be in class together. Their teachers are Ms. Brandy & Ms. Shametra. Ms. Brandy was also Tyler's very first teacher and she is amazing! She is loving, fun, creative and the kids learn so much.  The quality of this picture isn't great because I took it spying from outside the doorway but you can see Colin is smiling and seems off to a great start. No tears on day one! I thought it was sweet when Ms. Brandy showed me the bookplate of the book she was reading and it was one donated to the class from Tyler years ago.