Thanksgiving 2010

This year we decided to go to my Dad's for Thanksgiving! My Dad and Jan live on a bunch of land and have quite a few animals too. We left Wednesday around 530 and we just knew there would be traffic, but thankfully there wasn't! We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with all the traditional food like turkey, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, etc. We all ate until we were stuffed! The rest of the time we just hung out and on Saturday we went to the Botanical Gardens in Orange. They were having a scarecrow display through out the gardens and it was really awesome to see. Each company in Orange created a scarecrow to have displayed in the gardens(yes, Orange is that small, so they can do that). We had a wonderful time while we were there and on Sunday we left after breakfast to head back home. It was a nice relaxing visit.

Below are a few things that I know Joshua was truly grateful for. He did not verbally express it to me, but actions speak louder than words!

Joshua was thankful for Mocha the horse. Mocha let Joshua pet him constantly and let Joshua feed him hay!

Joshua would talk to Mocha everyday while we were there and Mocha loved getting the attention!

Joshua was thankful for the hay, not only to feed Mocha with but to play in

and throw in the air!!

Another thing Joshua was thankful for was DIRT and SAND! It is like his own personal life size sand box out there and he loved every minute of it! He tried to bury his legs in the sand, he threw sand in the air, and he dug in the sand!

Joshua is also thankful that he got the honorary job of feeding the ducks! This by far was his all time favorite thing to do while he was there and because Grandpa Don can't say "No" to Joshua he got to feed the ducks twice a day instead of once a day like usual! (I am sure that made the ducks happy too)

Honestly, if he wasn't feeding the ducks he was digging in the dirt and this is how he played in the sand most of the time, laying down!

Daddy was grateful for a relaxing few days away from his busy work schedule! This is where you could find him most of the time!

It was a really great time! I am thankful that we got to spend time with my Dad and Jan and we got to enjoy the land and see Joshua play until his heart was content!

Random: Can you believe that we are now in the month of December!!! 2010 has flown by!!

Thanksgiving Tease

We just got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday at my Dad and Jan's! So, we all know that means a couple of things:

1. I have a ton of pictures to upload and post
2. I am in laundry up to my ears AND
3. I am extremely exhausted so the actual post will have wait, but you will not have to wait too long, I promise!

So for now I leave with this little guy:

Before the turkey and stuffing

After the turkey and stuffing!

Our Thanksgiving holiday was filled with horses, ducks, dirt, hay, great food and most importantly being with family!!

Little Yoma Yoga

Joshua's school offers a variety of extra activities outside of the normal everyday curriculum. For an extra charge you can enroll you kid(s) in soccer, computer classes, music and much more. This year they have brought in yoga! Since it is new they are letting the kids try it out as a class for free. So, last Wednesday and today (Wednesday) Joshua has been going to a little yoga class. Last Wednesday Ms. Maria said that Joshua seemed to enjoy the class, but today she said that she found him sitting under a table while the other kids were participating. So, while we will not be signing Joshua up for this class and paying the extra money for him to sit under a table once a week for 8 weeks(plus it cuts into his time out on the playground); I do think he got a little something out it. We asked Joshua if he had fun in the yoga class and this was his response:

(Turn up the volume)

Giving the People What They Want!

It has been pretty low key around our house the past few weeks and weekends, so there hasn't been to much to blog about. I know that it has been like 5 days since I blogged so I decided to show you a few random pictures that I dug up just for you blog readers! We are taking full advantage of our down time, because soon enough we will be hitting the ground running again!

Couple of funny comments from Joshua:

As Dan was leaving for work, he told Joshua "bye buddy, I love you!" and Joshua replied with his two fingers making a "peace sign" and said "PEACE!!"

Joshua's famous phrase right now is " I gotta ______!" He tries to use this to his advantage sometimes, like "I gotta have my movie" or "I gotta go right now" when you are trying to talk to him and he doesn't want to listen. Yea, he tries really hard to persuade us that he's just gotta...it doesn't really work in times like that.

On Friday Joshua ran into the door as it was being opened and has a little bump on his forehead. When you ask him what happened to his head, he replies "Ms. Maria go bonk my head!"(As he slaps his head with his hand) Ms. Maria is his teacher and what he means by that is that he was running (when he was told not to) for the door and as she was opening it he ran into it. But in his eyes since Ms. Maria opened the door she is the one that gave him the "bonk on the head"

Technology Whiz

Kids today live in a very technological world and everyday technology gets more and more advanced. It really is crazy how well kids today can catch on to something like working a computer to playing a game on a cell phone. Kids can not escape the world of technology and neither can adults for that matter. Almost everyone has a cell phone and almost every household has at least 1 computer. Even children's toys are geared up with technology. There is V-tech, leapfrog, mobigo, I could go on. I do not think this is all that bad, because it is the way the world is now and it is only going to get more advanced in years to come. What I do think is sad is that a child (my child) can work an iPhone better than an adult (me). When Joshua was probably 18 months or maybe a little older he was able to somehow turn one of my coworkers computers screens sideways. He pushed some button or clicked on something to make the screen turn vertical. As adults we were unable to turn it back the way it was originally, so my coworker ended up turning her whole monitor vertical. We eventually fixed it, but it did stay that way for awhile. Joshua loves to play games on an iPhone that my coworker has and he knows exactly how to turn it on and exactly which way to drag his little finger in order for it to go to the next screen so he can get to the game he wants. You can't even trick him and tell him that it is on another page, because he knows it isn't. He loves to play games on my phone and he will request them by name and then navigate me on where to go. He even found(by mistake) a whole other level on a game on my mom's phone that she didn't even know about. He can work a mouse on the computer like a pro and I introduced him to some fun sesame street games that he absolutely loves. He looks like a natural at the computer. He knows to move the mouse around to make the cursor move, and he knows how to click, but not together and not the correct button. I just think it is incredible how much he knows about computers and phones and it just amazes me. I don't think it is appropriate for a child to spend long hours on the computer or in front of a TV or anything like that. So, Joshua is limited to how long he can be on the computer. He only gets 15 mins a day and it is only if he ask to get on. I know that the world is getting more advanced and that by the time Joshua is my age it will be a whole new world with a whole new technology, more advanced than ever before. So I guess I will just accept the fact that my kid will probably be always one step ahead of me when it comes to technology.

Time Outs and Prayers

Joshua knows about "Time Outs" far too well. He is at the age of testing the limits so the word "time out" is used a lot in our house these days. The majority of the time a warning works with Joshua, but there are those days were he spends 3 mins in time out! He does not like this one bit! He cries and kicks the whole way and even when he is in time out he continues to protest by crying. The other day was the first day that he actually tried to get out of time out before the timer went off, which led to the timer starting all over again. He quickly learned that he needed to stay in time out in order for the timer to not restart again. With all this being said, everything around him goes to "time out". When we are in the car and we are stopped at a light he tells the cars around us to go to time out. Our dog, Milo, is told to go to time out alot! When Joshua is asked why Milo needs to go to time out, he replies, "no listen! time out!" Every once in awhile I go to Starbucks to get a yummy latte and for some reason this makes Joshua upset therefore, he tells the cars in front that they need to go to timeout and sometimes I even get time out told to me. I have no idea why Starbucks sets him off so bad, but it does. Maybe it is because he isn't getting anything. I have no idea what it is. It is pretty funny to hear him go around using the word time out in his most stern voice!!

We say prayers every night before Joshua goes to sleep and lately he has been saying some funny stuff. One prayer went a little something like this: Dear God, thank you for a good nights sleep(all squished into one word) and for school and mama and daddy and milo and some chips please! (LOL) I laughed out loud during that one. I guess he was craving chips and thought God might put them under his pillow or something if he asked for them. It was too funny! Another time when he prayed he said the whole spill like the one above, (minus the chips) but at the end instead of saying "Amen" he said "choo choo!" The boy is all about trains so I guess it was just on his mind. It is so sweet to hear him say his prayers. Sometimes they are short and to the point and other times he names everyone and everything under the sun. Either way they are so sweet to listen too.

Fabulous Fall Friday!

We are loving this cool fall weather! We hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend! We plan on spending our weekend hanging outside. It is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL! Yay for the weekend!!

My Little Things!

It's the little things that put a smile on my face like:

My Family!

seeing my little boy enjoying life

his perfect smile and happiness

Soup! Yes, this makes me happy, especially when it is fall or winter weather, but I could eat it any day!!

and of course when Starbucks brings back their holiday flavors!!!! YUM!! This year they started in September with the fall flavors and today I saw a sign for the other holiday flavors. YAY!

Not pictured: sweat pants, big over-sized sweatshirts, flip flops, dates with my husband and watching my son discover the world around him.

Obviously, these are not all the things that put a smile on my face, but just some examples. I am a pretty simple girl and you can ask my husband, it doesn't take much to put a smile on my face.

My Little Train Engineer

This Halloween, I decided that it would probably be my last year to be able to pick out Joshua's costume. So since he is into trains right now, I decided to get him a train engineer costume. I found the perfect one at Toys R Us for a great price. I was so excited! When I got home I was wanting him to try it on, but he would have nothing to do with the costume. It came with a train whistle which he promptly began playing with, but the costume itself, not so much. I didn't push the issue, but continued to talk about it to him the rest of the week, because at his school on Friday he was having a costume parade and trick or treating. So Friday came and not to my surprise he did not want to put his costume on! I didn't want to ruin it, so I asked him one more time and he refused, so I just brought the costume with us thinking that if he saw his friends dressed up he would want to do the same. WRONG!!!! Honestly the boy could care less about his costume or any other costume for that matter. So Joshua attended his costume parade and went trick or treating minus the costume. The whole not wanting to wear his costume got me a little worried for Sunday, when it was the real deal!


In the picture below his teacher is wanting all the boys to stand together for a group picture, but Joshua was not having any part of it. So, the teacher asked the boys to go stand by Joshua instead to which they did and to which Joshua moved away before she could take the picture. After about 5 mins of this she gave up, but I think later on she was able to take one of all of them.

Joshua and his best bud, Andrew waiting for cookies at the party. Andrew is talked about all the time at our house. Apparently, Joshua is the talk of Andrew's house according to Andrew's mom as well.


On our way to trick or treat! I admire Joshua's teacher, Ms. Maria because she has all boys most of the time and she handles these crazy boys very well.

The turtle class trick or treating!

On Saturday, we didn't do a whole lot. Ran some errands, took naps and watched the Longhorns get BEAT by BAYLOR....blah!!! But the Rangers won on Sat. so that was cool. Anyway, that is about all we did on Saturday. On Sunday we got up and had a lazy morning and then after Joshua's nap we went over to my brother and sister n laws house for some grilling and then trick or treating in their neighborhood. My mom was able to come into town this year and it was great to have her hanging out with us and then go with us trick or treating. She was excited that she got to see the grand kids and be apart of the kids trick or treating. On Sat. I had bought a back up "costume" in case Joshua would not wear the engineer one. It was basically a glow n the dark skeleton shirt with black sweat pants, but I knew it would work because he would think he was getting dressed not putting on a costume. Luckily, I did not have to use the back up "costume" because he put on his original costume. Now, I really can't take too much credit for him wearing his costume. I think it had to do with my nieces Jordan and McKenzie wearing their costumes and a little exciting coaching from my mom and everyone else that made him want to put it on. I was so excited that he wore the costume. He looked so cute in it! We all went trick or treating and Joshua was a pro. He would walk up to the door say trick or treat, wait patiently and then once he received his candy, he would say "thank you". Some houses even got a "bye bye, see you later" after the "thank you". At one of the houses, a nice lady asked Joshua what he was and he replied without skipping a beat "I am trick or treat!" The lady laughed and then gave him an extra piece of candy. HA! Joshua had so much fun running up and down the driveways and being with his cousins. He made not one peep when we put him down for the night. He did wake up this morning asking if he could see his pumpkin, I told him maybe this afternoon, because I knew what he was doing...he wanted his candy!!!


Cutest Train Engineer ever!!

My nieces and Joshua. Jordan was a dark angel and McKenzie was a skeleton's bride! ( I remember the princess days of trick or treating. :( )

The end of the night where all the candy is dumped on the table and inspected by the grown ups. Some of the good candy sometimes ends up in the "bad pile" by mistake...oops! I wonder how long we can keep this up before the girls realize what we are actually doing. (Don't worry they had plenty of candy)

My boss used to take her girls' candy and have them trade it for books. I think that is a great idea and I think that is what I am going to do as well. I didn't think I would have to worry about him wanting the candy, but I guess I was wrong. He gets it, so therefore, I guess I will trade his candy for some new books(after I give Daddy all of his favorite pieces,of course)

No child needs that much candy!!!