What a busy couple of months it has been for us. We had a very nice Thanksgiving with our friends, the Fontenots and Pat even arranged a Turkey Bowl that morning. The boys had their Thanksgiving Feast at their school. 
We've decorated our house inside and out. Decorating our tree this year was quite an unique experience. The boys wanted to touch and hold each ornament. Needless to say all the breakables are at the top and all the sturdy ones are at the bottom. They are SO excited for Christmas and we have loved experiencing Christmas through their eyes. They announce every Santa or Frosty they see regardless of where we are, they sing Christmas songs all day and night and we watch Polar Express at least once a day. We took the boys on the Polar Express Train Ride. It was so much fun. We boarded the train with our tickets just like in the book. We took a 45 min ride to the North Pole and along the way we had cookies and hot chocolate served by Santa's Helpers. Mrs. Claus made her way through the train handing our her cookie recipe. The conductor read the Polar Express book and led all the Christmas songs. Once at the North Pole we picked up Santa and he made his way around to each child to see if they were being nice and to give each one a silver bell. The boys loved the train and I'm sure we'll do it again next year.
They've seen Santa twice but have refused to sit on his lap. In fact when we told them they had to sit on his lap to tell him they want a train, they both started yelling from the jogger, "Santa, I want a train and race car". We are going to attempt one more time and hopefully get a photo.
The boys have their Montessori School program this Friday and we are very excited to see them perform. They are both doing well in school and thankfully Austin's day of biting only lasted one day. Yep, he bit 4 kids in one day and he was separated from the rest of the kids for a couple of days. He is doing much better.
We've had our first big snow storm move through and we got at least 10 inches of snow. Pat got to use his new toy...a snowblower. We got Austin and Colby all dressed up to go out and make their first snowman but they were not interested in the snow. Colby fell face first and he was ready to come back inside. Austin stayed out for a few mintues but the snow was not good enough for a snowman.
We are very excited to have my Dad coming out next Wed. for a few days. The boys are very excited and tell everyone they see.
I'll post the pics from their school performance later....we loved it and we laughed so hard. All the kids were so happy.
Friday the boys had a parade at school where the whole school walked down to main street and the stores were all waiting for them to trick or treat. Pat went along because I wanted to make sure he was keeping an eye on the boys. He actually got stuck pushing the 8 kid stroller. He said he was the only daddy there so it was up to him. He was carrying our video camera, click camera, two buckets of candy and pushing the stroller. What a trooper. This was the first day I hated being at work. I did make Halloween cookies for the class. 
After that Pat asked if I wanted him to come up for lunch which I jumped at because I do miss having lunch with him. Well we decided to meet at the mall because he had to get back to pick Natalie and Sean up so he didn't have time to come on base. Well what a surprise for me when he pulled in and rolled down the back windows and there were the two cutest pirates ever. I loved seeing my boys, all three of them and having lunch. It did make going back to work very very hard.
The boys came home with Pat and took a good nap. Once I got home we headed to our church for the fall festival. We just decided it was better than pulling them in the wagon up and down the mountain that we live on. They had a great time eating and playing some of the games. Natalie tagged along with us prior to going to her party. Sean stayed to trick or treat with friends. He was an Army Soldier this year and Natalie went to her party as a 80's dancer.
That day and part of the night was great until about 2:00am when Austin started throwing up. I was doing all his linen and PJ laundry at that time. He then moved to our bed and at 3:00 I was doing our linen laundry. Poor little guy was so sick. He managed to sleep from about 4-6 then around 7:00 he threw up all over me so more puke laundry to do. I told Pat today I have done 6 loads of laundry and have not touched ours yet. We aren't sure what hit Austin because they didn't have any candy and Colby wasn't quite himself either. Today they are both feeling better.
It was fun to see the boys enjoying the holiday. Now we are just looking forward to Thanksgiving. By the way we do already have our Christmas lights up on the house. With snow moving in this week the company has been making their rounds to get as many houses done as possible. Most of our street is done and ready for the holidays.
Gee Daddy what is that? A rock? Really a rock?
They are both becoming very protective of each other. When I put one in time out it's only a matter of time before the other one voices their opinion about my decision and will usually run tell Pat what I have done. Just the other day I put Austin in time out (he stays there a lot) and Colby told me, "No Mommy, you go to time out". One Saturday during a Texas game Colby put Bevo the stuffed animal in time out and he had to stay there all day.
Colby had his ear follow up on Friday and his ears look great. He also passed his hearing test which he failed the last time he was tested. So it looks like the tubes were the right solution.
Austin is currently sick with the croup. Ok so I didn't know that was a medical diagnosis, I guess I just thought it was a term people used as slang. He is currently on steroids because he has been having such a hard time breathing.
Sean's football season is coming to a close. He has two games left and it has been a rough season after his first awesome game. That was the only game they have won so far. Sean is having a great year but suffers from not having a lot of talent on the team as a whole. We have to remember they are 8 and 9 year old boys and several of them do not want to be hit. He is looking forward to next year since everyone on the team will have played before and will know what to expect. He is doing awesome in school and straight A's of course.
His game Saturday was in the low 40's and raining which then turned to snow. Sunday morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow. The boys were very excited to see the snow. We are planning to let them out to play in the snow this year. I've been very protective the past two years but they won't catch anything outside that they are not going to catch at school.
We stopped at a little pumpkin stand to let the boys pick a pumpkin. We are planning to take them on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch like we did last year. Hopefully the weather will be nice this weekend and we can take all the kids out. Natalie and Sean will be on fall break this week as well so that is something for us to look forward too.
