How to cook a turkey

Love, Nate

Halloween 2014

Auntie Kim is the BEST. She did everything for the kids' Halloween costumes this year!

Bethy - the cheerleader, complete with pom-poms!

Nate - the fireTRUCK

James - the "injah" (ninja)

Halloween was fun!

James went to school in the afternoon - where he was the ONLY kid dressed in costume. Weird.  :-/

And in the evening, we went to our church's "Fall Bash". The boys got really into the huge inflatable slide and obstacle course. Then they played some games and earned some candy. I didn't get any great pictures of the night, but I think they had fun!

And Bethy just snuggled with Auntie Kim all night!

School Pictures 2014

Since I'm too cheap to pay the extra $45 for digital copies of James' school pictures (seriously!?!), 

I have pictures of pictures to upload.  :-)

Of course, James had a huge lump on his forehead for picture day!
(He ran into the counter two days earlier.)

Definitely.

From the back deck this morning.

Fall is Definitely Here

Nate's 4th Birthday!

Nate had his long-awaited 4th birthday on October 25th.

It's fun having a birthday on a Saturday because John can be home to celebrate with us. Nate opened a present and chose donuts and sausage for breakfast. 

Then the kids had fun running through the streamers.

I may need to hang streamers on some rainy days this winter because they were so entertained. They ran back and forth through the "car wash" ALL day.

We only had one accident. It's tough to be the little sister sometimes!

After breakfast, we took a trip to Fred Meyer (one of Nate's favorite places) and let him choose a couple toys for his presents. He chose some Legos and a couple of Cars and Planes characters.

That afternoon, we decorated Nate's cake with extra chocolate frosting and extra sprinkles.

Then we spent some time putting together Nate's new Lego firetruck. He loves his firetruck. (And my fingers have finally recovered from putting together all those sharp little Lego pieces!)

After dinner, Nate opened another present and we had birthday cake. 

{New Hotwheels track awesomeness}

Bethy especially enjoyed her cake.

Then there was an exciting next day birthday delivery from cousins!

I could go on and on about our Nate. He is an absolute blast to hang out with. He is a go-with-the-flow, doesn't care what the plan is, just have fun sort of kid.

Nate takes his job of "fighting the bad guys with his measure tape" (that he swings around like a sling-shot) to "pre-tect Beps and Mom and Hugo and all the kids and all the womens" very seriously. 

Nate oozes sweetness and he is such a caring big brother for Bethy. Just a couple days ago, I didn't hear the kids upstairs for a while. When I walked up to check on them, I saw Nate reading a book to Beth in his bed. "One, two, three, four, five, six. Six beach balls! Can you point to the beach balls, Bethy?"

One of Nate's greatest joys in life is calling me into the bathroom. (Moms have such a glamorous job.) "Mo-om, Oh Mo-om! Come lo-ok, I DIDN'T go poo in the potty! ........ Hahahahaha! YES I DID! I TRICKED-ED YOU! Hahahahaha!!"

I love how transparent Nate is. You can see exactly what is going on in his heart. Nate doesn't hold a grudge and makes his relationships right as soon as possible - usually with a huge tackling-hug.

Nate likes to decide moment-by-moment if he wants to "keep someone forever" or "not keep them forever". The other day the kids were making pictures for Mrs. Garrett. Nate drew crosses all over her picture and declared: "The crosses are because I LOVE JESUS FOREVER and I'm NEVER EVER going to STOP LOVING JESUS!!"

One of my favorite things about Nate is his sensitive heart for people who are in trouble or in need. Every time we see a homeless person, he asks why they are there and if we can help them. When we see an ambulance or a fire truck, he's the first to ask to pray for them. And, oh, his prayers are the sweetest.

{I found out about the MPHS shooting while I was driving in the car with the kids. I told them that there was a mean guy in a high school who was trying to hurt people. Nate wanted to pray for them right away.}

Every once in a while, I'll ask Nate what he wants me to call him: Nate, Natester, Naterator, Nate the Great? He always says: "my son".

Happy 4th Birthday, My Son!!

James and Nate got birthday cards from their buddy Asher last week.

As soon as Nate opened his card, he burst into tears:  "But Mom, that's not what I look like!!"

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last Wednesday, the kiddos and I joined James and his Pre-K class for their field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.

My pictures don't fully communicate the amount of rain that was pouring all-day-long. There wasn't even a moment of "light rain" or "showers". It was big, rain-like-you-mean-it downpour the entire 2 1/2 hours we were at the Pumpkin patch. It was hilarious.

On our way to the Pumpkin Patch, we stopped by Fred Meyer and bought the biggest umbrella they had -  Best decision ever.

Despite the rain, the kids had a blast.

First the kids ran around and climbed on a huge maze of hay bales.

Then, they tried "mining" for treasures.

After that, we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin.

This was Nate's pumpkin choice, but he couldn't lift it.

So he chose this little white one instead.

Nate, Bethy and I huddled under the umbrella and watched everyone walk around looking for a pumpkin. 

James chose his pumpkin and we hurried back to the covered hay ride. 

We had apple cider back at the barn and then took our soaking selves home. 

We were in the middle of getting everyone changed upstairs, when I realized that Hugo had found a tasty treat downstairs. He ate Bethy's entire (lime size) pumpkin... and he looked quite guilty.

I came back upstairs and told the boys I had bad news - Hugo ate Beth's pumpkin.
James replied:  "Is he dead?"

Not sure he was really concerned about Hugo, or if he actually wanted him to die after that... Either way!!

James is pretty proud of his pumpkin. He moves it to a different spot in the house every day and loves showing me his new "decoration spot".

He says he chose this pumpkin because it has lots of bumps on it. The bumps are the pumpkin's muscles. It has really big muscles just like James.