This Thanksgiving

While driving to Stillwater to spend Thanksgiving with my family, we overheard the following conversation from our kids:

Samuel: "Look horses!"
Lillian: "Yah Samuel, we can be cowboys!"
Samuel: "But we don't have cowboy clothes."
Lillian: "Oh."
Samuel: "But I have a blue dinosaur costume."
Lillian: "Yah, and I have a butterfly costume, Samuel." 

And this epitomizes what I'm grateful for this year most of all: my children.  I love taking time and listening to their conversations which only make sense to them.  I've learned to take a step back and appreciate their logic, humor, and curiosity.  Like last night when I found them playing under Lillian's bed with all of their blankets and when I asked what they were doing I was told by Samuel "To just walk away Mommy." 

Samuel loves to make me laugh and not just in a "oh Mommy found that funny I'll do it again" way, but I'm rather convinced he comes up with things he thinks will make me laugh.  And when I do respond with real laughter his little face lights up and he gives me a hug.  I believe he takes after his Dad, both make it a goal to make me laugh once a day and it works.  I mean who wouldn't laugh between Carlin's "old man pants dance" and Samuel's "bum-bum dance."  (In which he holds one hand in the air while the other one holds his bum and he bounces it up and down.... don't ask, cuz I have no idea).

Lillian literally sings and dances her way through life and I love sharing in her enthusiasm and imagination as she scares monsters and ghosts away for me.  She is truly a ray of sunshine with her curly blonde hair and big blue eyes.  She loves being included especially when cooking and I'm happy to share it with her. 

Yes, this season I'm grateful for my children.  And while we have our ornery moments and our bad days, most of the time if I just take a step back and listen I find two children who are completely amazed by the world around them. 

Thank you Samuel for squishing spiders for me.  Thank you Lillian for always knowing when I need a good cuddle.  And thank you to both of you for fighting over my lap and begging for one more book at night.  It might be a stalling tactic, but it also might be that you just love to read.  

Happy Happy Halloween

As Samuel says. 

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween and we didn't wait till October 31 to start. 

We made Spooky Trail Mix (complete with ghost droppings and witches broomsticks), Mummy Hot Dogs, Creepy Rice Krispie Treats, Jack-o-Lantern Quesadillas and Mouths the days leading up to Halloween.

We also decorated the house and made pictures and played pumpkin games.

We couldn't go without making some Jack-o-Lanterns.  I carved the kids pumpkins via their instructions and cheering and was done after that, hence only three pumpkins this year.  I'll let you guess which one was Carlin's... 

And then it was the much anticipated day of Halloween! 

We had chili, cornbread, junk food, and oatmeal pumpkin cookies that I tried to make into oatmeal cream pies using marshmallow fluff...

Trust me - they are oh so delicious and moist!

Then we were invaded by a blue dinosaur.

And it was very important he was a BLUE dinosaur.

And the cutest butterfly I've ever beheld!

As with most butterflies, they are constantly in motion and it is hard to capture them on camera, especially your phone camera.

It was everything Halloween is supposed to be and I woke up suffering a sugar-hang-over.  The kids however wasted no time getting into their candy and have been bouncing off the walls since...