I've been waiting . . .

. . . for five years for Luke to be old enough to understand and enjoy our Fontanini nativity set. We set it up today and he loves it. I am learning to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and not sneak over after he's done playing to put the figures back in their "proper" places. It's really ok if Jesus is on the roof.

Michael as human train wreck

Geez--he's croupy, snotty and he faceplanted at a friend's house yesterday resulting in a giant goose egg on his forehead. Still cute, though.

Blue Thunder

We are now the proud or, in Matt's case, resigned owners of a minivan. Luke has named it Blue Thunder after a monster truck, don't you see the resemblance?

Thanksgivings

I didn't take pictures today, although usually I'm pretty good about taking pictures of the boys on Thanksgiving. I was thrown off by an early morning phone call from my aunt. We lost my Grandpa, S.T. Anderson, this morning. Grandpa had been having a rough time for a few weeks, battling pneumonia and he had taken a turn for the worse a couple of days ago. He passed away peacefully in his sleep early this morning. He would have been 103 this December.

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful. I am thankful that Grandpa went peacefully. I am thankful that he didn't have to spend Thanksgiving day in a nursing facility and instead spent it in Heaven with my Grandma Annie Lou and my dad. I am thankful that my stepmother Carole was able to visit him yesterday morning when he was still lucid and that my aunt Loura made it into town in time to see him last night. I am thankful that we will be postponing the funeral until late next week, so that my cousins and I can get to El Paso.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband and my beautiful boys and the baby in my belly. I am thankful for my wonderfully supportive mommy friends are our great friends from ODU. Truly, we are blessed.

Random things

The boys just finished watching half of the Wizard of Oz (we discovered it was on halfway through) and they LOVED it. Flying monkeys for our little monkey and Luke was enchanted with the whole thing. Guess that will be a dvd purchase soon!

We put the boys to bed late with just enough time for prayers. Turns out Luke knows the Our Father. All by himself with no prompting. I don't think I knew it by heart well until I was 5 or 6. Pretty amazing.

We also went to the zoo today and the weather was beautiful, the animals were out and the kids were great. What a great day!

Climbing Trees

We're having some late Indian Summer weather. Yesterday, Matt took this picture of the boys climbing the pear tree in our backyard. Crocs and no coats in mid-November.

The Wedding

Well, chasing after a toddler and a preschooler does make it hard to take pictures during a wedding. It also severely impacts one's ability to eat, drink and be merry. But we had a lovely time overall and the kids were surprisingly good, especially once we got settled at the reception. The biggest surprise of the night was that exhausted Michael crashed on his daddy's lap at 8pm and ended up sleeping in his cousin Jacinta's stroller for the rest of the reception (well at least until we left at 11pm, the reception went on without us until 2am).

From left to right (I'll try to swap in a brighter pic later): Jon (eldest), Matt (second born), Stephen, Katie, Chris (youngest) and Greg (third born).

The wedding pictures were taken in the quadrangle at Trinity College at the University of Toronto (where Matt and I went to grad school). It's beautiful and a great enclosed place to run.

Best Man Uncle Greg and Uncle Chris as photographed by Luke.

Luke and his cousin Claire the flower girl. Luke told me he would like to marry Claire. They are adorable together, but does anyone else hear the banjo theme from Deliverance playing?

Poor Michael, all these pictures of him sleeping lately. Can you tell someone has recently dropped his nap?

chillin' with the groomsmen

Granddad's house was the staging area for Uncle Chris and his groomsmen. The boys loved getting on their suits while all of the other groomsmen were getting ready, too. It was a beautiful day, very warm for November, and we all waited outside for the limo to arrive. Then we waved goodbye to Uncle Chris and the guys and headed off to the wedding.

The Fam

More wedding blogging and pictures to come, but I wanted to get this one up right away. I stole it from my SIL's facebook site. I think her mom took it.

thoughts on Chris's upcoming wedding

We leave tomorrow for Uncle Chris and Auntie Katie's wedding on Saturday.

Luke is very excited. "I get to wear my wedding costume! And my shiny shoes! And my tie!"

All Michael heard was costume. "Michael wear monkey costume!" Oh my disappointed little moo-bug.

Wish us luck, it will be a long day in the car tomorrow and a very long day and late night on Saturday. I'm hoping for no major meltdowns from the kids and no major puking episodes from me!