TTT: Season 2, Episode 45

1. I can't believe Thanksgiving will be a week from today! It certainly doesn't feel like it around here. I'm not kidding when I say that I wore a tank top and jeans yesterday. With sandals, of course. Most of the time I don't mind the weather being "pleasant" but it's really hard to get into the spirit of the holidays when it still feels like summer. We had gotten so used to chilly temperatures and often times even a snow or two by Thanksgiving. Guess we'll have to pray that happen while we're up in Lubbock at Christmas-time. I did set up my little "fall extravaganza" (as my mom calls it) on the front porch, hoping Mr. Scarecrow would bring in a little Thanksgiving cheer. But what looked so full on our porch in Lubbock looks pretty puny on our huge porch here. Guess I'll just have to add to it in seasons to come.

2. Mark was off call this past weekend so we had plenty of time to do things as a family. I'm not sure if I've ever come out and said this on here, but Mark is only off-call two weekends out of the month. So in other words, he works every.single.day.of.the.month except for four days. Four days. It's something that all of us are having major issues with right now. As in something has got to change ASAP. But back to what I was saying...when he is home on the weekends and we're not constantly waiting for the pager to go off, we always have a lot of fun together. And we managed to squeeze in a lot this past weekend. Work around the house, a family trip to Target, mass, Los Cucos with my parents, pancake breakfast at church, a trip to the hardware store, and a fun children's festival. Everything is much more fun...and manageable!...when Dada is along for the ride!

3. Little Grant is becoming so much more of a baby and less of an infant. And it's killing the boys that his face is animated as if he's participating in our activities, but physically he can't do what they're doing. Kolbe especially cannot wait until Grant is able to sit up on his own, grab and hold toys, etc. Right now he's got the grabbing part down, he just doesn't know what to do with the targeted item once it's in his hands. Or how to hang on to it for more than a few seconds. So I usually hear: "Mama! I gave that to Grant and he just dropped it on the floor!" Haha! Soon enough, I tell them. One thing he is really good at that the boys just love is his ability to socially laugh. If we're all sitting together and they boys start laughing, Grant will laugh too. Even though I know that he has no clue what the laugh is about, the boys get a kick out of thinking he does. It's so fun to see these little guys together.

And here's the week in pictures!

Rudy celebrated Veteran's Day by rocking his Air Force jacket!

Trying out Kolbe's new t-stand that he got for his birthday

I never get tired of pictures of the boys cuddling together

Hide-n-Seek has been quite the popular game around our house lately. And Rudy is definitely the champ. He seriously makes absolutely no noise at all when he's hiding. There's been a few times I've gone right past him and had no idea! And then there are other times where he  thinks he's hidden simply because his eyes are closed. Haha!

The other day I was trying pants on Kolbe (he's finally gotten taller!) and I asked Rudy to show Grant some of the baby toys to keep him entertained. When I turned around, this is what I found. I guess he got to see them all.

Oh, except for the one Rudy decided to wear bull-style on his nose.

The boys got the get their faces painted at the children's festival. And of course both of them chose baseballs.

They had some fascinating chalk painters at the festival too. Kolbe instantly picked up a piece of chalk and tried to do his rendition in the kiddie section.

My favorite picture of the boys yet. Man, am I ever blessed!