Thys is Trying

Thys has been trying to walk, but he is going about in a rather difficult fashion. He refuses to start from furniture or from Mel or me. He has to be sitting, stand up without holding onto anything, then walk. Every time Mel and I try to get him to walk with us, he pulls his legs up and won't put them down. For a few weeks now he has looked like a little frog because he tries to stand up, but before he is all the way up, he tries to walk and ends up playing a little leap frog. He is finally starting to actually make it up and can take quite a few steps, but he will be proud to say he has done it entirely on his own!

Turkey Time

My sister-in-law started a tradition with her kids of taking a picture with my mom's turkey every year to show how much they had grown. I loved the idea, so now we do it too. I was too tired tonight to go find Anna's first turkey shot (maybe tomorrow--I think it's from back in the non-digital days), but here is this year and last year. They both have grown!!!!

The "Real" Thanksgiving Party

The real Thanksgiving party was yesterday at Becky's. Becky is the woman who takes care of the kids, and she really does take care. She is amazing! For the party at Becky's, every child, including the babies like Thys, had a Native American outfit, headband, and macaroni necklace. They had pictures, ran outside barefoot like Native Americans used to, and then sat down to a feast with turkey soup and pumpkin pie. Anna was soooo excited, and I believe Thys slept through it all, so we had to make use of his outfit today for the two seconds he would leave it on. Anna wasn't so thrilled to be posing for the pic, so I just hurried and snapped it before she started peeling all the costume off so the cousins could give it a try. We love Becky!!!

Cousins, Cousins, Cousins

My mom, Jana, and I went to Montana to see Les. We had a 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 year old, so you can imagine pretty easily what we did, but it was sure fun to see Les, Jake and Luke and where they live. The kids had a blast just playing together. The car ride, though, is another story. The kids were actually really good, it was just really long!!!!

Halloween Hoopla

Anna loved carving the pumpkin. Believe it or not, we only carved one, even though we have about 20 on the front porch. I'm not sure what we're going to do with all of them. Anyone want one?
Annie finally settled on a witch for her costume, especially when she realized her friend wanted to be a witch, and they could have twin costumes. She and her friend had hats with stars on them, and in the stars there are little battery operated lights. (She's not wearing the light-up hat in this picture, but she is in the trick-or-treating pic with the casket.) The two of them twinkled all night long in the dark and got plenty of comments. She did depart momentarily from the witch to be a princess for one party, but she had to be twins with her friend for trick-or-treating!
Thys actually loved Halloween. We went trick-or-treating at Mel's work, and Thys was in seventh heaven. He was riding around on Mel's shoulders, and at one point, he had a sucker in each hand and was eating one of them. He was all about the candy, the lights, the noise. For the few minutes he went trick-or-treating, he was oooing and ahhhing and "talking" the whole time.
Oooooohhhhh!

Halloween in Our Neighborhood

Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood is a scary adventure. This is our neighbor who is a mortician--in a real casket with full costume. You had to get the candy from him in the casket. Anna was all about the candy, so she went for it. Every other house in our neighborhood has blow-up Halloween characters or scary stuff set up--one is even has it's own music to go with it. Some might call it tacky, but definitely not a three-year-old. We've been wandering the neighborhood for weeks looking at all the "scary" stuff.

Thys's Second 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Thys's birthday and Grandpa's birthday together. Thys is thrilled, as you can see, but I was happy, and Grandpa helped him blow out his candle.