It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Yeah, I know I haven't posted about Thanksgiving, because that would involve me talking about puke and I'm not ready to go there yet. Meanwhile we are getting ready for Christmas at the Drown house. I am so excited for Christmas! More than usual. I think it's because the kids are getting older and are more into it.
We decorated the tree right when we got home from Thanksgiving in St. Louis, I've been making toffee like it's going out of style, and we sing Christmas music in the car. My sewing machine is going on 100,000 miles. I'm sewing ties, shirts, gifts, and stockings....i am so excited about making our stockings this year. Picture to come....unless they turn out terrible.....then forget I said anything. And you can look forward to my post about pukesgiving.

Thanks for making my day.....almost

A couple weeks ago the kids and I went to Sam's Club and decided to grab lunch at the cafe. Jared's office isn't too far from there so he came up and met us. While he was in line getting our food, the kids and I grabbed a table. An elderly couple was sitting at the table next to us and the man said to me,

 "Well, there is no way you could ever not claim them, (referring to Addi & Eli) they look just like you."

 I smiled and said, "Thank you."

 Then his wife said, "Do you get that a lot? Does everyone tell you how much they look like you?"

I said, "Actually, everyone tells me they look just like my husband."

A few minutes passed, Jared was still getting our food and the woman was coming back from refilling her drink. She sat down and said, "You're right, I just passed your husband and they do look just like him."

I actually don't mind, I love my little mini Jareds.

A maze with a whole lotta corn

November started off right....then Obama got re-elected. Don't know how that happened....well, I kind of do. Oh well, can't really do anything about it. Anyway, since October was a really busy month we waited til the first weekend in November to visit our favorite pumpkin patch/corn maze. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast.

The cornbox was their favorite. Addi had our schedule planned out for the day. Play in the cornbox, go on the cow train, play in the cornbox, go on the hayride, play in the cornbox, go down the slide, play in the cornbox, go home.

 Eli wore his tractor onesie. Coincidence? I think not.

Eli was totally in to the cow train. It doesn't look like it in the pic but he was loving it.

 The hayride got a bit chilly, but daddy's jacket saved the day.

Goodbye Right Choices, see ya next year.

Oh, did I mention, Eli hadn't napped all day. So instead of passing out in the car for the hour long drive home, he decided to scream the whole way. Super fun. This is how Addi dealt.

The Scary House

This was definitely my favorite Halloween with the kids so far. I'm sure it will get better and better as they get older. Addison was totally into it this year. She has loved to dress up every year but has not been so into the trick or treating part. We enjoyed the build up to Halloween by making Halloween shirts, carving pumpkins, making chili (btw, am I the only one that thought chili had two L's in it? chilli?), and driving past "scary" houses. Addison anticipated and enjoyed driving past the "scary" house everyday. It was a house just around the corner from us that had a spider web in the front yard and a zombie.  However when I suggested that we could go trick or treating at that house on Halloween she freaked out. She wanted to just keep driving past it but not trick or treat at it. Though this was the house that she considered the "scary" house, I learned that any Halloween decoration could make a house the "scary" house. So when we finished carving our pumpkins and set them on the porch she squealed with joy and said, "Now we have a scary house too!"

I happened to pick the thickest pumpkin ever.

When Halloween talk started in September Addison told me she wanted to be a ballerina...easiest costume ever. That's why when I opened my mouth a couple weeks later I kind of wished I hadn't. Addison has become a little obsessed with the show Phineas & Ferb. It's a pretty hilarious cartoon if you haven't seen it. Well, in this show is a girl scout troop called the fireside girls. Addison longs to be a fireside girl in real life. She walks around the house singing this song. I informed her that when she got older she could be in girl scouts but that wasn't soon enough for her. So I said, "You know you could be a fireside girl for Halloween." The gasp that came out of her mouth told me that this thought had never occurred to her. And so she not so patiently waited for me to figure out her costume. At first I was going to borrow some girl scout accessories from a friend. And then I actually sat down and looked at the fireside girl costume and realized it was not like a normal girl scouts uniform. I procrastinated, after all, Halloween was a couple weeks away. I knew she had a brown skirt and brown shoes, and knee high socks. I happened upon this yellow/orange shirt on the clearance rack at Old Navy and thought it would be perfect. Now I just needed the sash and the hat. Still I had til next week and even thinking about the hat gave me a headache, since I had looked in every store I could think of for an orange beret. And then there it was the Friday before Halloween and Addi had dance in two hours when I suddenly remembered her teacher saying they can wear their costumes to dance. Uh oh. I scrambled through my fabric and to my surprise (since I had no recollection of buying it) came across some yellow fabric. I pulled out my sewing machine and quickly made a sash so she had something to wear to dance. I cut out some felt shapes and glued them onto her sash for patches. Good enough for now, we would worry about the hat later. Her teacher asked her if she was a girl scout and Addison went into her spiel about how she was a fireside girl. Of course if you have not seen Phineas and Ferb you don't know what a fireside girl is. So I would just say, it's like a girl scout. (Later I kind of wish I hadn't said that.) Well, after dance I still had 5 more days til Halloween so I concluded I would just have to make a hat. I went back to the clearance rack at old navy and bought another shirt to cut up and make a hat out of, so it would match her shirt. I googled how to make a beret and found a tutorial that did not make much sense to me but it was enough to at least give me some idea of how to make a beret. I made most of the hat but then was so confused about how to attach the top to the bottom so I just put it away. Finally the night before Halloween I just held my breath and went for it. Addison was already in bed for the night so I would have to make sure it fit in the morning before I finished it completely. So Halloween morning she got in her full fireside girl ensemble complete with her hat and I could not have been more pleased. I may or may not have patted myself on the back.

Pretty awesome, right?

I had good intentions for Eli's pirate costume. But you know what the road to hell is paved in. So, his costume consisted of a bandanna tied around his head, and an eye patch made out of felt. Well, nobody noticed and everyone went on and on about what an adorable pirate he made and how they couldn't believe he was keeping his eye patch on. My trick? Candy. We just gave him a piece of candy to hold and he gnawed on it until he got it open and then we replaced it with another unopened piece of candy, and his eye patch stayed on until I took it off. After everyone went on and on about Eli, they turned to Addi and said, "Well, aren't you cute? Are you a girl scout." I imagine after a while Addi got tired of her fireside girl spiel so she started just answering, "yes." I don't know if her answer bothered me because I was the one who justified to people that she was like a girl scout and she had given up or if it was because I made sure to make her look just like a fireside girl and there was more effort in it than just a girl scout. Oh well, when she came home from preschool that day she squealed, "Mommy, Ms. Cindy and Preston knew what I was!!!!"

We spent Halloween parading it up at Addi's preschool, then trick or treating at daddy's office carnival where there were plenty of animals to be held and petted as well. Then we came home, ate some chili (one L) and trick or treated one block in our neighborhood. Why only one block? Because Addison was just as excited to pass out candy at our house as she was to get it....that is until the scary mask came to our door. This mask was the scariest one I've ever seen so Addison is probably traumatized for life. For the rest of the night she hid in her room every time the doorbell rang. 

 Since Halloween I've learned that Eli. loves. candy. Nerds are his favorite at the moment. He chews through the box and then gobbles them up as fast as he can until I catch him.
Let the rotting of 6 teeth begin.

October wrap up

October came and went pretty fast for the Drown household. It was a very busy sewing month for me, making lots of ties for the Rhea Lana sale, a craft fair, and restocking Vintage Crush, so in that aspect I'm glad that it's over.

But we had a lot of fun in October too. The month started with a very cozy weekend at home watching General Conference. This is one of my favorite times of the year. This year I focused on making sure Addison got something out of it too. I filled four bowls with four different kinds of candy, twizzler nibs, candy corn, jelly beans, and swedish fish. Taped to each bowl was a word. If that word was said in one of the talks then Addison got to eat a piece of candy from that bowl. We used different words for each session. I was surprised by how well this actually worked. She really listened and when she heard the word she would squeal and jump up and get her candy. She was getting so much candy that she decided to accumulate it in a bag so she didn't have to eat it all right away. It was a great weekend for all of us.

The next week Jared went out of town on a fishing trip with his brothers so the kids and I spent the week playing with friends, and eating whatever we wanted for dinner. We missed daddy a lot, but it was nice to just do whatever whenever. We spent an afternoon at a park when we normally would have been home getting ready to make dinner.

               We did our nails, and Eli got a haircut.                                     

We made shirts for Halloween.

We strolled Target one evening and found Addi this dress on the clearance rack. She put it on and didn't want to take it off. It was a fun week, but we were thrilled when daddy returned.

Here's one of my silly girl. When I asked her why she put a twizzler between her toes she replied, "Because my arms are tired."

And the most exciting part of October? Halloween of course! But more on that later....

Fomorrow

I love that Addi is in preschool and loving it but I have found a couple things I don't love about it.

First, Eli begs me to put him down for a nap about an hour before it's time to pick her up. By "begs me" I mean follows me around whining and whimpering and looking truly pitiful. I usually don't give in because I know I will have to wake him up to get her, but sometimes I do. And then I stare at him before I wake him up wondering how he can sleep so deeply now, but be awakened by the smallest noise at night.

Second, I have always felt like Addi could speak well, but she has a few words that she switches the letters of that Jared and I happen to love. 

Some of our favorites....

• Fomorrow (Tomorrow) this one was the original mistake. We thought it was really cute, and Jared will even sometimes say Fomorrow when he's talking to her.
• Firsty (Thirsty) I've heard a lot of kids replace Th sounds for F but this is the only Th word that Addi has trouble with.
• Risgusting (Disgusting) This one came up recently, she likes to call everything risgusting.
• Kissabelas (Cabelas)
• Her (She) In this case she just says the word her when she should say she. "This is my friend, isn't her cute?"

Anyway, now that she is in school, I feel like I need to correct her. But I don't want to, not yet, so today I think I'll just let her be my sweet little mispronunciater.

After all, there's always Fomorrow.

  

Looking back on September

I am loving the cool weather and rain we're getting today. Especially since it's conference weekend and we get to stay home, cozy up on the couch and hear from our amazing church leaders. October is off to a great start. We spent the majority of September getting into the swing of things. It seems that at only 4 years old Addi's schedule is already taking over. Monday: Swim Lessons, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Preschool Friday: Playgroup, and dance. This probably looks like nothing compared to what some people do but we were home bodies before September and stayed home most of the time. I'm actually loving this schedule even though I feel like I'm always running. Addison loves swimming and school and it's so fun to watch her grow up.

She takes swimming lessons at the Walton Life Fitness Center (Walmart gym). Her teachers name is Ms. Jo and she LOVES her! We took semi private lessons at Ms. Jo's house in the summer to get Addison more comfortable in the water. She's always loved swimming with her water wings on but never wanted to put her face in the water. Now I can't get her above water! When she is in swim lessons I watch from a room upstairs. When the teacher is working with another student Addison pretty much lays at the bottom of the pool coming up for a breath now and then.




Dance is another one of Addison's favorite things, she has been in a movers and shakers class since she was 18months old, now that she is 4 she moved up to ballet/tap. And she is loving it! She even practices at home between classes.

We went to one of the local high schools homecoming parades a few weeks ago. Addison is still talking about it, begging me to take her to another parade where they throw candy at her.

Eli and I celebrated National Talk Like a Pirate Day by dressing up like pirates, going to Krispy Kreme and getting a free dozen doughnuts. They actually gave us 2 dozen because we were both dressed up. And this is the day I decided Eli was going to be a pirate for Halloween.

We also celebrated some milestones in September.

Jared and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary.

Addison started Preschool! She LOVES it! She goes 3 days a week 9am-12pm. Her teachers names are Ms. Cindy and Ms. Karen. I love that when she wakes up in the morning and asks where we're going she is so excited when I say school. I love picking her up and hearing about what she had for snack and how they made dinosaur fossils, and who she played with on the playground.

She has a blast celebrating special days like dress like a farmer day. :)  

And last but not least. My sweet boy turned one. I cannot believe it has been a year since I had him. He is the sweetest thing ever. At 1 year old he weighs 18lbs (<5th%) and is 29 inches long (25th%). Though he is a tiny thing his head is in the 85th%. He loves food! Peas, pasta, bananas, chicken, yogurt, enchiladas, seriously, he'll eat anything you put in front of him....except birthday cake apparently.

 He got really shy when we sang him happy birthday.

Sissy was happy to help blow out the candle...

 ....and show him how to eat the cake...

 ...and help him eat the cake himself. Aren't big sisters great?

 This was the extent of the damage, a tiny bit of frosting on his hair, hands, and face. Disappointing.

 Big sisters are also really good at opening presents.

My 1 year old LOVES his sister, cuddling, ramming his head into my ankles when he wants me to pick him up, kisses, being tickled, watching Blues Clues, eating, sleeping, singing, squealing like a girl, clapping, pulling stuff out of the kitchen cabinets, looking at himself in the mirror, sliding on his belly, playing peek a boo, playing with the pedal while I'm sewing, the wind blowing on his face, knocking books off of the book case, and according to his father Atlanta Braves Baseball.

My 1 year old dislikes green beans, other kids crying, dropping Addi off at preschool, hitting his head (which he does a lot), riding in shopping carts, getting things he's not supposed to have taken away from him, and getting stuck between the couch and end table.

I am so thankful that we were blessed with Elijah's sweet spirit in our home.