whole lotta boy

all the boys playing on the bed together!

teacher appreciation

So what does Sam do on a cold & cloudy Sunday afternoon when Dad's at the office and brother's at a birthday party?

He plays school!

It was so fun to watch him set up his "classroom" - all his plush animals were the students and he insisted his name was "Sage Brush Park" (don't ask... I have no idea!)

cubbies!

ready for a conference!

Each of his students made a drawing and he placed them in their "cubby".

Then he sat at the table and held parent-teacher conferences!

Some of my favorite quotes from the adventure:

"Teachers work hard."

"I have so much work to do, that's why I have to stay up late."

"How do teachers ever go to the potty?"

Just goes to show that he must appreciates what he experiences every day in pre-school! 

geared up

We went to a great ski swap last night in Steamboat - met up with a couple of other families, had a nice fun dinner together, then shopped 'til we dropped for some seasonal gear!

We found several bargains and managed to find everything we were looking for including boots, helmets, skis, poles, gloves, and bindings.

So Saturday morning has been spent trying on, sorting through, organizing (ok, that's just me!☺) and modelling our new equipment!

 Now all we need is lots and lots of good snow!!!!!

still more doggy days

Gabe has been a part of the family now for 6 weeks... 
and the novelty has not worn off, but merely gotten stronger!

He is such a sweet addition to our clan - he loves to take all of us on Sunday morning walks at the park, sabotage our shoe-tying and back-pack readying before school in the mornings, lay in the kitchen while we do homework and eat dinner, and snuggle with all of us on the bed while we read books before bedtime and in the early morning when we wake up!


One thing that has not gotten past us is how quickly he is growing...
Here are his 2-month old and 3-month old pictures:

He walks with me everyday to pick up Sam from school, and again to pick up Hamp from the bus stop! One day last week, we were excited to see that his sister, Fiona was around to play with after school! They had a great time playing, running, nipping and tackling each other - and we had fun watching!

Best of all though, I have loved watching the boys love their dog. ♥

stitches

Our adventures Saturday night had Sam in stitches... literally!

Not what we had planned for the weekend, but these things always catch you by surprise.

And unfortunately, Sam caught himself with his chin Saturday night before bed (thanks to a supposedly harmless game of brotherly chase on the hard wood floors with socks on!)

Upon assessing the bloody situation, I realized that our cheap hotwheels mini-bandaids would probably not suffice for sealing up the wound... so we all headed up to the ER at around 10pm!

Sure enough, the Doc took one look at the gash and determined that stitches would be the best course... so we got a little Lidocain and an ice pack to numb the chin, then wrapped Sam up in the papoose board so he wouldn't move!

The hardest part was the local anesthetic - it stung a bit for sure. But Sam was impressively brave and strong - I was amazed that he held so still (like he had a choice in that thing?!) and didn't even cry until the shot was over - and even then it was a mere whimper! (seriously, I would have been such a worse patient!!!)

Once his chin was numb, Doc got to the stitching and Sweet Sam fell asleep! He slept through the whole procedure - and the Doc was just great. Stitched him us so nicely, then covered it with glue to seal it - so we don't even have to have the stitches taken out!

Sam woke up once he was all done and was happy - albeit a little groggy!

He was also willing to let Dad take a couple more pics with his phone of the final product!

So... this morning over breakfast we got a couple more shots to show off!

Sam is somewhat unfazed by the whole ordeal, and wears his stitches like a badge of honor!

It helps that we talked it up pretty hard last night the fact that cousin Jackson just got stitches, too! "Now we can be twins!" he says...

We're healing nicely and spending our Sunday together playing in the snow and watching a little football. Here's to hoping we don't have to repeat an adventure like this again!

nap time

One day this week, Hamp came home from school and lasted just long enough to have a snack and do some spelling words before he stormed out of the kitchen in a whiny pout. I thought I'd better let him have some quiet time... but when it was a little too quiet, I went looking for him. It took me a while to find him (the thought actually crossed my mind "did he run away from home?!") and when I finally did I realized why the outburst earlier... the sweet baby was just exhausted!

trick-or-treats

What a great Halloween!

As always, I couldn't help to NOT get in the spirit also! So I went around with my Zombie and Robin (who needs Batman? Side kicks RULE!). Wonder how long they'll claim me as someone they know?!

We spent most of the early evening downtown on the courthouse lawn for the Rec Center event - lots of trick-or-treating, a costume parade, free hot chocolate, a haunted house and plenty of activities and social time (check out some of our favorite friends here!) There were tons of people - thanks to great fall weather - and lots of creative costumes!

single-handedly fighting crime... and boredom!

Then we hit a few neighborhood houses, and came on home for candy assessment and visits with more friends! The boys fought over who could answer the door and hand out the candy! Fortunately, the night wound down early enough and we were ALL in bed by 9pm! Success... and a huge basket full of treats to last us a while!