Thankful For

Here's a not comprehensive list of things we are thankful for, in no particular order.

1. The hilarious if not questionable finds at my local antique store.

2. The charming and useful finds. (Best part it was $8.  I'm kind of leaning into the grandma esthetic when it comes to glassware.)

3. Lego temples made by my kids. She submitted it to The Friend magazine so watch for it.

4. Sarah is thankful she got her braces off! We made caramel that afternoon. She can eat all the sticky caramel she wants but now has no excuse for not eating all the vegetables.

5. Justin is thankful for kids that also like his favorite foods and bonus points if they try it with chopsticks.

6. James is thankful for school trips to the movie theater. I'm grateful for the glimpses I catch of him being the cutest little kindergartener ever.

7. I'm grateful for a husband that can help me take this....

to this......

so I can do this.

Yup. I really really like him.

8. For Thanksgiving dinner and dessert and for these napkin rings that my kids color and cut out and glue each year. Fun fact: When I was in 1st grade I traced a pilgrim napkin ring I got at school by hand 10 times so I could do this for my family dinner.

9. Pie, games, pie and more games.

10. Cousin time.

11.  Crazy amount of 2nd cousins. This is Friday at Justin's grandma's house. There were 20+ kids.

12. Crazy amount of 1st cousins. There were 30+ adult cousins and aunts and uncles.

13. Ridiculous and sometimes mildly offensive white elephant gifts. You might get a nice puzzle or maybe an enema kit. Or both.

14. This hat. Actually not really. 

15. When you bring a cake to a pie party and the cake wins. It was completely gone by the time we left.

16. When you're kids all want to talk about ebelskivers for their class assignments. May the Danish tradition live on forever!

17. Small town Christmas festivals.

18.  Not losing this kid again this year. We lost Erica for a bit but she wasn't upset. Maybe it's just our thing at this event.

19. These kids in all their hilarious goodness and kindness. They are terrible at getting ready for bed but it's only because they don't want to stop being together.

20. The fact that kids make everything more fun. 

21. Yup. It all begins and ends with these people. Happy Thankgiving!

James turns 6

How do I keep letting this happen? My baby just keeps growing bigger and I don't like it. The day before his birthday I was at Costco while he was at school and I got all sad when I'd see toddlers in their mom's carts being all cute and good buddies. Most of the time I like running errands by myself but that day I really missed him.

Wednesday night I put him to bed and the other kids decorated after we were pretty sure he was asleep. Then we put out his presents and went to bed. We got up dark and early the next morning so that he could open presents and have breakfast before the biggles left for school.

Henry and Sarah wrote a story just for him.

Sarah read it to him and we were all cracking up.

He got a new Lego set, Battleship game,

his favorite crackers, a bunch of his other favorite snacks,

and lightsabers.

He was most excited about lightsabers so it's a good thing he opened them last.

For breakfast he just wanted pancakes. He loves pancakes but he likes them plain, not even syrup. He did get his own container of blackberries because, "remember when I ate the whole thing in like a minute?"

Then he went to school and I worked on his cake until Erica called home "sick." I picked her up, came home long enough to get ready and then went back to pick him up and his friend Calvin. From there we went to Chickfila.

Calvin lives like 2 blocks from us and his brother is one of Erica's friends but it took me like 2 months to figure this all out. They've been playing together lots since I did. Calvin is a really nice kid and ate all his food so he's a keeper.

We ate dinner at Popeyes for some reason. James said he wanted macaroni and cheese and so I suggested Straptank in Springville that has great mac n cheese and James has never been there but he was excited about the idea. But then last minute he changed his mind to Popeyes because they also have mac n cheese. Even though he had Chickfila for lunch. Even though he was super stoked about going to a real restaurant. But the birthday boy gets what the birthday boy wants. When we ordered our food, James didn't even want mac n cheese. While we were eating, Justin asked him if he could have anything for dinner, what would he choose and he said pizza. "Then why did you pick Popeyes?" He said, "I wanted to go someplace everybody likes." He's so sweet and funny.

 He asked for a tiger cake and he can Erica came up with this drawing. The second to top layer is a video game monitor and the top layer "is where the tickets come out." I told him I couldn't make a cake like that but I could make a tiger cake with a surprise inside. He was a little disappointed

Here's how his cake turned out. Orange frosting with chocolate sprinkle stripes.

He was so happy about it so I guess it turned out okay.

He got a hotwheels set from Corey and Nadine and some cash from my parents and Great-Grandma Kendall. Then it was cake time.

Is there anything bigger than your birthday when you're six?

And the surprise inside? Tiger stripes!

Here's his birthday interview.

He is only 4 pounds lighter than Erica and just a few inches shorter than her.

Here are some more fun facts about James.

He eats a bowl of popcorn every day after school.

He used to drink so milk and then he suddenly stopped in May. One day he asked for water and he never asked for milk again. I went from buying 6 gallons each Costco trip down to just 2 gallons so you can see how much of that was James. (Our milk consumption has been gradually increasing this fall now that Henry has entered his prepubescent milk consumption phase.)

He's almost finished his first grade workbook. He gets to go get a doughnut with Papa when he does finish.

He'd survive off of doughnuts, lunchables, blackberries, popcorn, and hot chocolate if I'd let him.

He is interested in how things are built or made or how they work. He's going to be a builder or engineer or designer or something. He's always building something out of whatever he can find and anytime Justin is working with tools, James is at his side. 

He acts like Henry a lot of the time. Makes sense since he spends so much time with him. Most of that time is spent wrestling.

He loves school. He is always up and ready early and runs inside the building. According to him he has yet to learn something. He hasn't wrestled a classmate since September and he only got sent back to his seat during rug time once (it may have been for wrestling).

He still let me cuddle him at bedtime. But no kisses!