Boy Howdy and His Two Front Teeth

He's lost his bottom two, with another one on the bottom for good measure and now he's lost his two front teeth. Three gone at one time. It's a wonder he is still eating solid foods. I played him, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" which he loved dearly but thanks to a massive overbite this boy is still able to say all his "S" sounds just fine. Thankfully all the rest of his teeth feel solidly attached because he needs some time for the three to grow back in before any more come out of his little head.

The Kids Get Baby Christmas Trees

I love the traditions that Matthew and I have incorporated from our own childhood memories, but I especially love the traditions that we have started all on our own. One of those being that the kids get to pick out their very own $5 Christmas tree that they get to put in their rooms with their decorations.

Some of the decorations they've made themselves, some they've been gifted by my mother, and some they've appropriated from the family Christmas tree.

Boy Howdy wrote a short essay about what he loves about Christmas and his baby Christmas tree is the first mention. Also noted are hot cocoa, snow, presents, looking at Christmas lights (a tradition that came from Matthew's family), hot showers, cookies (another Matthew's family tradition), and snowflakes on the ceiling (another of our own traditions). This makes me feel that even with my laziness for decorating and celebrating, maybe I haven't completely voided the kids' childhood of magic and joy.

Fall adventure

We had an unusually warm and sunny fall day. Not hot, honestly the most perfect of fall days and we couldn't let it pass without glorying in it's beauty. We gave the kids the choice of what hike they wanted to do and they chose this funny little nature walk their cousin cleaned up for his eagle scout project. Perfect.

 There were leaves EVERYWHERE so Matthew and I kicked them together in a pile and had the kids jump in.

The walk sports several of these odd nature sculptures. So of course the kids wanted to climb in and be photographed. Side note: honestly, more often than not, the kids pose and ask to have their picture taken.

 More posing on some off the trail, aka, forbidden, logs.

Now these are candid. These are my favorites. I don't even know what the kids are looking at, I think they were just happily discussing life and I happened to catch their unfettered childhood joy! The other picture I love because seeing them happily interact together (which happens a lot, but being able to capture it on camera in tricky) makes my mama heart melt.

I absolutely love crunching leaves. Maybe that's why fall is my favorite season. For the last few years as I've thought about the approaching gloominess of an Oregon winter, I think, "am I ready for this? Am I ready for the loveliness of summer to be over? And then Oregon gifts me the most perfect fall. September and October in Oregon are my favorite months of the year. Still sunny, still warm but not hot, an occasional rainy day, and lots of beautiful trees that turn the most gorgeous shades of fall.

Thank you Oregon. For all the depressing gray reputation you deserve, when you shine, you really radiate, even in the middle of November!!

Notes From the Babes

I am so glad each stage of development brings with it something completely awesome. Right now the babes are both into writing me notes. Often with decent grammar but awful spelling. And honestly, the worse the spelling the better the note (so long as I am still able to decipher it). Here are a few recent ones from either child.

The first two are from Boy Howdy. I was upstairs while the kids were playing before bedtime. When I came down to go to bed I had this little package waiting for me in front of my door complete with helpful instructions. In the little tape-wrapped ball was one of Boy Howdy's dinosaur figures. While I wasn't super hip on the dino, I did LOVE his presentation.
As far as the note on the right goes, I'm not sure what it relates to, but I love it all the same. "I have escaped" as phonetically rendered by an endearing 6-year old.

The second set of pictures is double sided, so really it's just one note, though she did write another note for me to give to a particularly kind student. This one, in case you need help is, "Mom you are a good teacher to your students." The picture, of course is of me teaching my seminary class. What a sweetheart. My daughter thinks I'm a good teacher, even if my seminary class may not agree.

Chewkie FINALLY Loses a Tooth

I think you may be hard pressed to find a little girl more excited to lose her first tooth. With Boy Howdy seemingly losing teeth every few days and reaping many tooth fairy rewards, Chewkie has been absolutely desperate to lose one of her own. But now it's official. The tooth fairy will be coming tonight!

In a lengthy discussion at bed time, she has ruled out her father or I as the possible tooth fairy candidates stating unequivocally we are too big. A tooth fairy to this 5-year old is more like tinkerbell and is most definitely female.

Happy right of passage my sweet girl.