Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Thanksgiving

We were all super excited for Ryan's family to come out for Thanksgiving this year, not only were his parents coming but his sister Bethany was able to come as well.  The kids adore their aunt B and we were excited to show off our new home and area to her.  We had a great week together and tried to fit in as much as we could.  Time always goes faster than you want it to.  :)
Grandma and AJ making some pumpkin bread for the family to enjoy
Watching old videos on Grandma's phone
One cool dude
We were out at Bass Pro one day after having lunch at Bricktown and AJ found this really cool ATV...I think he was hoping he would find this later under the Christmas tree :)
Little man is intent on his toast
Some fun ornament coloring time with Grandma and Pa
We also had a nice day to go to the zoo...I promise it was not as cold as these Central Coast Californians make it look ;)
Pa, Grandma, Aunt B, Jake and AJ checking out the anteater
AJ was sooooo excited to ride on the carousel!!!  His excitement sometimes comes across as very intense as you can see on his face.  :)
Pa and Jake having a blast
And AJ was just in heaven with Grandma
Bliss
Boys goofing off on a large bunny
Oklahoma boys
Halfway through our zoo day Ryan was able to join us which made the boys really happy.  :)
Jake and AJ making pies with Grandma
AJ kept wanting Jake's turkey hat from his Thanksgiving Program and so Jake made him one of his own...not sure AJ thought it was as cool...but it was still very sweet :)
Jake and his Aunt B both love doing puzzles, so it was fun to see them working puzzles together
Turkey!!!!
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner, tons of yummy food!
Although I think AJ mostly loved the pumpkin pie :) (and yes he chose to wear his camo jammies all day long)
Jake loved the entire dinner!  Gotta love this boy and how well he eats now, no more picky eater. :D
Not a great picture but it is so AJ.  He loves to give hugs, and his are given with his whole body and soul.  They are fantastic.  But when he really wants to give a love he wants to smoosh his check to yours...its so cute and something very special from him.
Jake wanted to make a new game on Thanksgiving night...
...pin the feather on the turkey!  Love my creative boy!!!
Ending a perfect day with a book.  What a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!
Thank you so much Grandma, Pa and Aunt B for coming to spend Thanksgiving with us, we loved every moment of it!!!


Jake's Class Thanksgivng Program

Going into Thanksgiving was also a lot of fun, we had Ryan's family coming to visit, a little bit of time off and Jake had his Thanksgiving program at school.  He was really excited to show it off as he had been practicing for weeks and even had a line to share with the rest of his class.  And since it was an off Friday Ryan was even able to come (a blessing since he has been so busy at work).  So we all really enjoyed ourselves.
Jake's Spiderman Turkey!  :)  I loved this assignment.  Jake came home from school with a plain turkey and his teacher included the instructions that this turkey was trying to survive Thanksgiving and so we needed to find things around the house and decorate him in a disguise so that he would be saved.  Jake of course wanted to turn him into a super hero...I think he turned out pretty well. :)
Here is Jake sitting with his class, there are 17 kids in his Kindergarten class and his teacher impressed us all in how well they behaved during the program.  :)
While they waited for all the parents to get there they got to take turns doing little things for their classmates to copy.  Can you tell Jake is enjoying his turn?
Proud boy!
All ready
Getting their turkey hats on
And the gestures begin
Too darn cute
 
Very happy kids too :) (the little girl to the left of Jake is a friend of his, not just from school but from the neighborhood and AWANA as well)
They are so excited to show every part
Jake's drawing, and telling everyone that he is thankful for toys :)
They did great!
His Kindergarten class
Daddy modeling the turkey hat
Jake and his friend Alison wanted a picture together.  They were in Pre-K together as well and have stayed friends this year.
Jake and his wonderful teacher Mrs. Bovos (he adores her)
Jake showing off his Turkey in the school hallway
Just showing goofball AJ loving the boys rocking horse
I guess it works backwards too :)
Right before Thanksgiving our TV started to go (yeah I am wondering what Ryan did too...too perfect a timing).  So on this day he was shopping TVs at Best Buy and the kids entertained themselves with an Xbox and an Avengers Lego game.  :)  They loved it and actually were figuring out how to do a lot of things. 


Fun with Cousins Part 2

Looking back at all of these pictures of all the fun things that we did while we were together, I now understand why we were all so tired at the end of our visit.  :)  But we all really had a fantastic time, and I can hardly wait until our next visit...hopefully with my cousin Megan as well. :)
 Reading time!!!!  And looking at the boys, nap time probably followed :)
 Blocks!!! Toys good for all ages
 Jake really wanted on a puppet show for all of us with his hand made super hero cutouts.  (He loves to makes these and has made quite a selection so far)
 Dinner!!!  We wanted to introduce them to Rudy's BBQ...a fantastic place
 OK so this might not be a terrific picture, but its the only one I have with the 4 adults.  lol  Steph and I were both concentrating on getting pictures of the kids that we forgot (sorry Aunt Amy)
I think they are all happy :)
 "Cousin Jake, I want what you have"
 Jake absolutely adored his cousin Claire
 The boys and their garages
 Jake made sure that Claire was entertained as well :)
 Reading time!  12 days of Christmas in Oklahoma, a new classic :)
 Coloring time, a normal activity in our house.  :)
 Aunt Steph playing a letter game with the boys
 Love how all the kids are lined up to watch their cartoon
 We were missing the boys one afternoon...this is where I found them
 On one cold day we decided to bring the boys to Unpluggits
 They had a lot of fun in the pirate ship
 AJ running around and being a crazy man
 Claire found this tree house and loved it!!!
 Happy Caleb
 Getting these two boys to stay still long enough at the top of the slide was impossible, but this was the best I got :)
Boys will be boys
Painting was another fun activity they enjoyed there
AJ was in his "blue period"
A sandbox with cars is always a hit
Jake having fun with Claire
AJ, Caleb and Uncle Jason having fun building race cars at the Lego Store
AJ had received a Build a Bear gift card from a friend from his Birthday and so we decided to go so he could make his new buddy.  He picked out a really cute Superman Bear.
Handing him off to get filled
AJ was super excited to step on the pedal and see him fluff up.
Both AJ and Caleb put hearts into this bear, a very blessed little buddy.
Ahhhh, he is done!
And AJ is in love
Getting him all cleaned up
Both boys are good bath givers
Caleb did a fantastic job making his bear that he donated to Toys for Tots!!!
AJ decided to dress his bear in a Super Hero shirt with a cape...made sense :)
AJ making his bear a birth certificate
Then we hit the mall!  The guys went to see a movie and so Steph and I started training the boys for shopping.  :)  So many times Stephanie and I went shopping as kids with our moms, it was a lot of fun to take our kids out now.  Hopefully someday soon we can go out with our moms and our kids...look out world, it would be crazy :)
This is where I found AJ in a shoe store, he saw me and smiled and I thought it turned out as a fun picture
Jake entertaining his cousin while she was waiting for dinner
Jake and Aunt Stephanie looking at an old printed out blog book.  Having fun looking at pictures from the last time we were together.
My cousin Stephanie and I.  So blessed to have her in my life!
Thank you Stephanie, Jason, Caleb and Claire for coming to visit us!!!  We had a great time and we can hardly wait to see you guys next time!