Thanks Pops and Deedee!

Will's grandparents recently gave him a couple of gifts...a recorder and a harmonica (or as will says "monica").  Our house is alive with the sound of muuuuuusic! :)

That is supposed to be a smile.  :)  Welcome to the stage of little boy awkward smiles.  Lol.  :)

Merry Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  We hope your day is/was splendid and that you were able to spend it with family and loved ones!  Praise God for sending his precious son, our loving Savior!

Here are a few pictures from our morning:

Will got all the presents out from under the tree for all the children.  Here he's surveying the goods.

Will's gift, a Diego rescue center and accessories.  

Thank you Uncle Brian and Tia Maria for the rescue helicopter!  He loves it!

Thanksgiving Hodge Podge

Over Thanksgiving we visited Carl's parents in Pennsylvania for a Thanksgiving/hunting trip.  It was a great trip during which we were able to just relax and enjoy having fun with each other.  It was also the most prosperous hunting trip Carl has ever had, as he got both a turkey and a deer within a few days of each other!  Here's a few miscellaneous pics from the trip.  :)

Carl, Deedee, and I ran a Turkey Trot race.  Deedee and I did the 5K and Carl ran the 10K, actually running his best time yet!

The turkey!  It was early in the morning, as you  may be able to tell by Will's bed-head.  :)

Funny boy.

Deedee got pirate costumes, so there was some swashbuckling fun going on.

Morning Jam Session

We had a little jam session this morning to the song "Low Down the Chariot".  Please forgive my poor recording skills and the absolute mess in the background...small boys had previously been playing.   :)

Speed Racer

This is another one for the grandparents (video)...Will recently found these racing helmets that I had gotten for him at a garage sale last summer.  Somehow he knew they were for "racing" and immediately put them on and said he was a super fast racer.  So today he wanted to give his fast racing helmet a spin outside.  As you can see he is super fast indeed.  ;)

Little Biker

Will just today mastered riding his tricycle.  He has tried before and couldn't really get the whole process down, but then today all of the sudden started riding it like a champ.  So, I of course had to take video.

He was actually going a little slower in this video, as he was going uphill.  :)

The Orchard

It's fall!!  We love fall in this house and one thing it means is a trip to the apple orchard.  We don't actually pick apples, but we do everything else!  :)  We took the children to a local orchard here and it was lovely.  See for yourself.  

King of the hay!  It's a maze and a giant hay bale hill.  :)

This area had this table and a race track of sorts with different riding toys.  Will spent them majority of the time at this table.  :)

Finally decided to try a riding toy or three...

As you can see, we had a hard time with pedaling and paying attention to the road AND steering all at the same time.  :)

Finally up on the "wall" that makes the boundaries of this play area.  Children were up and walking on it (with parental supervision of course).

Old Sturbridge Village

We recently took a visit to Old Sturbridge Village, which "is  one of the country’s oldest and largest living history museums, depicting early New England life from 1790-1840 with historians in costume, antique buildings, water-powered mills, and a working farm. Visitors can view antiques, meet heritage breed animals, and enjoy hands-on crafts." (http://www.osv.org)  The day we went admission was free, so we were able to spend a little to do all the extra fun stuff there (coach and boat ride).  It was a beautiful day!

Will was trying to play this old-time fun game for children.

The Boys

Will and cousin Simon had a a great time playing together over our recent Illinois/Minnesota vacation.  They especially loved searching for and playing tree frogs.  Thanks to Deedee for searching them all out!  :)

Cousin Kent had a dinosaur in his back yard!!

Sweet baby Caleb resting on the lawn. 

Cousin Simon holding a frog.

Frog catching net.  Will has one in the net and Simon has one in the hand.  :)

Fishing!

Will experienced a few "firsts" during our recent trip.  One of those was fishing!  He was able to not only fish for the first time, but catch quite a few while we were at it!  WARNING:  Picture heavy post! :)

Going out on the boat.

Pops is teaching Will the fundamentals of operating a fishing pole. :)

Touching a fish for the first time.

Reaction after said fish flapped Will in the face as it escaped cousin Kent's grip.

Cousin Simon bravely holding a fish.

Waiting...

Caught one!

Should we have it mounted?  :)

Love these pictures with Pops and Deedee.

Finally was brave enough to stick his finger in the fishes mouth after the face flapping incident.  :)

Too cool driving to smile for the camera.

Cousin Simon enjoying his turn at the wheel.