Caleb will have his Christmas concert later this week, so I have a video of his song that he has been practicing here at home.
This is a poem that he will recite at the Christmas program...
Josh will have his program on the 20th. We will post a few of his songs later!
We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas!
"humm, do I have something on my face?" Josh had to pass around his little jelly lizard (pronounced yizard) to everyone for a photo opp. This was Jon's! Anyway, back to the party!
Josh was pretty excited to have a gift to open...
What could it be...BUGS! He loves bugs...these ones move around like the real thing...oh joy!? Jon better look out...there is a spider in there!
Caleb had so much fun opening all his gifts...
Now that he is getting a little older, he enjoys getting some green in his cards!!
He got a few animal drawing books...he has literally been busy drawing animals ever since Friday :)
Now it was my turn for the "yizard" picture! Notice it on my shoulder??
We ate yummy cupcakes and then off to dinner a few hours later. We let Caleb decided on our destination. After changing his mind about 4 times, he settled on CiCi's Pizza. I could have guessed that! They have his favorite...macaroni & cheese pizza! We celebrated his 7th birthday by paying full adult price now that he is 7...oh boy...eating out is about to become more expensive! CiCi's is the one place where he does eat more than me though, so I suppose it is only fair!
Then off to the Washington Pavilion Science Museum. This is one of Caleb's favorite destinations!
Say "Cheese" about 100 times for 100 of us!
Josh could spend the whole time at this sand dam table. He loves getting his hands dirty! Caleb on the other hand, avoids this display at all costs :)
On Saturday Caleb had his party with friends at Empire Bowl. He bowled here for the first time last winter and already decided that he would have his 7th birthday here this year!
It was fun for us all! Jon and I were ready for a nap though!!
Happy 7th Birthday Caleb! We are so proud of the big boy you are growing up to be. Your sensitive, creative and joyful spirit light up our world. We couldn't be more happy to be your parents! We love you! Mom & Dad
Josh and Jakin had a great time playing together. Josh was glad to show Jakin all his treasures in his M&M's backpack that he packed up before we left home. Josh's (and Jakin's) favorites were monster trucks and dinosaurs. Jakin loves anything with wheels just as much as Josh does :)
Jon & Margaret didn't waste any time getting to the Bananagrams tournaments!
oops...this picture didn't get turned around. You get the idea...the kids love Ally!
And Ally basks in all the attention!
More Bananagrams and a little tractor driving with Grandpa Joe!
The kids loved to craft and draw all weekend!
When Jon and Nathan get together...there is a lot of crazy goofing off going on!!
It was fun to see Jakin again...he was only about 4 months old when we saw him last. He is such a happy little guy!
Julie and I worked on our pictures on our computers. I tried my hand at a little digital scrapbooking for the first time and Julie had lots of pictures to edit and archive. We are both picture takers :)
We headed to Anne & Stacey's place for Thanksgiving day and had a delicious dinner. Lots of visiting and eating!!
This is all I get from Stacey...the hand...he HATES it when I try and take his picture!
We also finally got a family picture of all of us for Joe & Margaret! 
Then we celebrated Caleb's 7th birthday on Friday night!
Dan and Jaelyn also celebrated their birthday!
The kids all had fun playing with the new toys...especially this Loopz game!
Then we tried a little hunting! Jon and Dan hunted several times for pheasant and didn't have much luck...Jon said that they shot bunch of blanks...hum??!! I think Dan ended up with a few though.
We went all over the place trying to flush out some birds but they stayed pretty low in all the tall grass. I think we need to get Jessie trained to help sniff out a few next year!
Jon only had a doe tag this year and did get Bambi...oh, I mean a deer! It was definitely a young one! He had to double check to see if there were any spots on it or milk on her lips before he took his shot!
Joe was out with Jon on the deer hunt and came across this coyote on his property. He decided to help increase the pheasant population by taking care of him :) They boys were not so sure they liked the idea of shooting a coyote...looks too much like a puppy!
As usual, Josh loved playing outside with all his cousins and taking a few 4-wheeler rides with daddy!
We started out the month of November with a sock puppet show of the Wizard of Oz featuring a zebra, turtle and giraffe...good thing kids can be creative...always makes for an interesting puppet show :) They came up with the idea to do it in their bathtub with the shower curtain as their stage curtain! They were in the tub performing the puppet show. Bravo!!
Josh thought he should get some target practice in with his Nerf dart guns and his farm animals...the pig was his target here! I think he will be ready to go hunting with daddy in a few weeks!
Caleb came up with this great Thanksgiving turkey craft all on his own. He raided my party plates/cup cupboard and put this great turkey together!
We started our second session of swim lessons this month and the kids did great! They were so excited to swim twice a week for a WHOLE MONTH!!
Caleb is doing well at learning his strokes and pop-up breathing.
Josh is totally a water lover now and is able to tread water for a pretty good length of time and swim on his own a bit. They both made a lot of progress since May...could it have been all our pool time this summer??!!
We decided to decorate our trees before leaving for the farm for Thanksgiving this year. The boys have their own little tree with all their special ornaments that they make and get as gifts!
I think this Little Einsteins rocket spends more time off the tree than on though!!
Josh was so proud of this goofy Thanksgiving turkey hat that he made at preschool. I think he is a little turkey too!! Here are some video clips of the boys swimming...
