Traditions

Every time a holiday comes around, it's so fun to decide how we're going to do it. What do we want to do for Easter? What does Thanksgiving look like to you? Sometimes we're preserving classic traditions, sometimes we're renovating them. And sometimes we're building new ones from the ground. We have a handful that I think will stick with us and we have another handful that need that big wrecking ball.

This Thanksgiving we started the morning with a 5K run, Dave played some football, we wrote down things we were thankful for, we cooked and then we had a BEAUTIFUL dinner with our family away from family. Kim's homemade rolls, Rebecca's yummy yams and apples with caramel sauce, and of course the apple crumb pie were my favorites.

The 5 K was a new addition this year. We thought "Wouldn't this be a great Thanksgiving tradition to do as a whole family?" And it was great. My running Rebecca friend ran with me and Dave pushed the jogging stroller with the babies all bundled up. (And yes, he still beat us.) We felt great, we had fun. But then it started snowing wet wet snow, babies' hands were frozen and mascara was coming off in frozen clumps. As soon as those stroller wheels stopped, the kids were done. The freezing trek back to the car with the screaming babies pretty much decided against this tradition for the whole family....we'll just stick with the apple crumb pie.

Happy Thanksgiving

Let the season begin!!!

This weekend we went to Silver Bells in the City. Big light parade, marching bands, loud sirens. Boy number 1 was excited and hyped, boy number 2 was startled and confused. We missed the lighting of the huge Christmas tree in front of the capitol building and the fireworks due to our predictable and consistent melt down time, but we enjoyed our hot chocolate and cookies and made it home with no traffic! It was a great kick off to this fun season, I just wish they would have included Thanksgiving - at least one cornucopia....or a turkey....maybe just a buckle shoe? Seriously, what about the pilgrims?

Tagged

Amanda tagged me. So here are my 6 facts/habits about myself and the 6 people we get to learn more about. :)

1. I'm an Office fan. Can't miss an episode. Jim, Pam and Dwight make me laugh every time.

2. I'm trying to be more green - unplugging appliances, recycling, not using a bag at the grocery store when I only buy one item, supporting green businesses - there's a lot more I can do though. I want to be that girl in the grocery line who is taking forever because she's got all those canvas bags. I want to buy more organic foods. I want to buy a cow for Christmas instead of all that wrapping paper and plastic www.heifer.org. I just read a great post about doing a "financial fast" on Segullah. They had some great ideas.

3. I can't turn off my analytical SLP ear. I'm cursed by my speech language pathology training. I can't listen to the Diane Rehms show (most npr shows actually) without analyzing vocal tremor and aphonic breaks or watch a movie with Reese Witherspoon without analyzing lip movement and tongue placement. When a bunch of kids run by while I'm sitting in the park, I'm not thinking "oh what cute boys, they're probably about 8 or 9 years old" instead I'm thinking "oh, the tall one has a dentalized /s/ and the blond one has a misarticulated /r/, I wonder what school district they're in." I'm not going to go into how distracting church is...

4. My husband scoops a bowl of ice cream for me every night.

5. I love to read. This didn't really start until grad school. Jane Austen helped me to stop grinding my teeth at night. I just finished Chaim Potok's The Promise today. Loved it! Anyone got any good recommendations?

6. In college I went on a date to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. During a trip to the restroom my glove fell out of my pocket and into the toilet. That's right...into the toilet. The rest of the night I only wore one glove, tried desperately to keep my gloveless hand in my peacoat pocket and was grateful that no one asked any questions.

I tag my Dave, lovely Lindsay, Gina Pina, Leslie W, Kadee and Miss Mauss.
I know some of you guys have already done this, but I want to see it again!

Quotable Noah

"Thomas is not a boy, he's a train."

"You're wearing a skirt, that means you're pretty."

"My grandpa's not an elephant, he's a grandpa."

"Grandma and Grandpa Wagner aren't in chili. Chili's a food, they're in Chile [chee lay]"

"See me not crying? That means I'm not tired."

"Put Gagey in his carseat, then buckle him, then you open the door, then walk outside, then walk to the car, then put the key in, then open the door, then put Gagey in the car, then put me in the carseat, then buckle, then turn the car on, then go to Walmart. Does that sound good?"

One courageous Lion and his Fireman brother

Local fire station trick or treating, church Halloween carnival, carving jack o' lanterns out of our cider mill pumpkins, booing neighbors, and coloring pictures of Frankie, all precursors to the sweet filled night. Halloween.

We packed up our fireman and our Lion and met up with our friends and their Scarlett O'Hara, Batman/monkey. We ate chili and Knox sandwiches, and drank homemade root beer (I have to include a picture, I was so proud!).

Then we headed out the door for trick or treating. Fireman was awake for about 2 minutes of the fun. One Highlight: a man with bad teeth sitting on his porch offered the kids a trick or treating choice "Play dough or a golf club?" The lion took the play dough and Scarlett chose the golf club to her father's glee who then carried it around all night. Another highlight: its getting late, its raining, the minivan goes out to pick up the trick or treaters. Dave doesn't want to stop, but the Lion says "Dad, I have enough candy. I'm done." Dave is sad but proud of his son's self control.

Back to the house for more treats, old movie, and a call to our Jensen friends. We're all missing their Colorado selves this year. We hope they had a spooky night in their new home and we hope you all had enough spooks to carry you to the weekend. Happy Halloween!

What does a lion say?

More Halloween pics to come!