Thick or Theet

You may hear Emma Kate say "thick or theet" this Halloween rather than the usual greeting!

Last Saturday she lost a tooth from the top front and looked like this...

As she got ready to put it under her pillow that night, Eli told her that the Tooth Fairy pays more than the standard $2 bill for top teeth.

Hmmm, that was good to know. (glad I was within ear shot of that conversation)

Lo and behold, Eli was right. The Tooth Fairy left two $2 bills for Emma Kate. She was very excited Sunday morning when she woke up!

Before I go on, I must do a little bragging on her. As we were getting ready for church that morning, she said that she wanted to take one of her $2 bills (that she'd JUST received from the Tooth Fairy) and put it in the offering at church. Do the math on that. $2 is half of what she'd received. Definitely far more than the 10% the Bible uses as an example for us to give. I was SO proud of her and yet realized how much my children can teach me.

Yesterday she pushed (with her tongue) the other top front tooth out, and now she looks like this....

So for now, she'll just say "thick or theet", but in another month she'll be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...."

Sippy Cups

One of the jobs that Eli and Emma Kate have is to unload the dishwasher. Anything that they can't reach (high in the cabinets), they lay out on the counter and then I put it away.

After their most recent unloading, I walked into the kitchen and saw this.... Holy Moly! That is just one dishwasher load of sippy cups. And that's only for 2 boys. It really made me start thinking about families with 5 or 6 multiples (you know, the ones that get on TV?). Can you even imagine what their dishwashers & counters look like?

PJ's with feet

It is supposed to get down to 41 degrees tonight, so I decided that kind of coldness called for some footed pajamas for the Z's. The last time they had pj's with feet was back in early spring, so I'm sure they don't remember them.

Zane was first out of the bath (which is the norm. He likes to get in first and get out first) so I got him dried, diapered and put his feet in the pajamas and he said, "I got feets?" Love love love that use of the word!

Next was Zander's turn to get out of the bath and get dressed. As I was putting his first foot in he said, "I wearing socks." To which Zane replied, "yeah, like E-i (eli)." Eli does have some footed pajamas but he hasn't worn them in quite a while, so I'm not sure what Zane was referencing.

If we have time before their bedtime, the boys like to watch The Wiggles on "Daddy's bed." (sidenote: Everything in mine & Philip's bedroom/bathroom is "Daddy's." It's Daddy's room, Daddy's bed, Daddy's bathroom, Daddy's floor, etc...)
So anyway, I put them on the bed, and turned on Wiggles. I walked into my, oops I mean Daddy's, closet to put some things away. I heard Zander giggling and kicking. I came out to see what was going on and he said "my feets tickle this." Which I think meant these footed pj's are tickling my feet.

This instantly became a blog-worthy event and I ran for the camera. So, here's Zander showing that "his feets tickle."

and then Zane looking over at Zander and getting in on the kicking and laughing...

Did you notice the pillows they are laying on? That's another sidenote! Those are just extra pillows that Philip and I use to prop up to read and watch TV (take a guess at which one of us is the reader and which is the TV watcher?). The pillowcases are sooooooo old but Zane & Zander LOVE laying on them. Zane always wants the one with the cow and Zander wants the flowers.

I'm actually blogging this event on the actual day it takes place (miracle moment!), so I've just put the boys to bed. I'm now going to go get by the monitor and see if they talk about their feets & socks before drifting off to sleep!

Daddy's Pumpkin Carving

Philip told me to title this post "Daddy's Pumpkin Carving." He said that even though it was supposed to be for Eli & Emma Kate, that he basically did all of it!

To give Emma Kate some credit, she did participate in quite a bit of it. She started reading the "Pumpkin Prayer Poem" while Daddy cut the top off of hers.
Next, she started scooping out the insides.
If you look closely at the picture above (or just click on it to make it bigger), you'll see (in the background) what Eli was doing...reading a book. That's norm for him. Always has his nose in a book!

Philip started cutting the top off of Eli's, but Eli was still reading his book.

EK is still scooping hers out....

She decides that its just disgusting....

Philip finally told Eli to "put his book down and get over here."

So Eli did, but he didn't like the cleaning out process at all.

Next they drew faces on their pumpkins....

which was followed by Philip carving the drawn faces...

The little boys got up from nap just in time to take a picture with the completed jack-o-lanterns....

Pumpkin Pictures

Mandatory during fall (at least if you live in my house), is getting dressed in fall colors and going to a pumpkin patch for pictures.

Clothes went great.

Pumpkin patch was great.

Getting four kids to look the same way and smile at the same time was not great.

Mainly it was one busy boy who just didn't cooperate. He wasn't bad. Just wasn't into sitting still and smiling at the same time.

Before I show you all the outtakes, here are some that were good!

All those were good right? Did you notice none of them had the baby of the family? Enter Zander and watch the atmosphere of the pictures change.

And now attempting to get a good one of all four of them together.


1st try...Zander is looking at the flowers.

2nd try...Zander must be hot and needing to wipe the sweat off his brow.

3rd try....Zander wonders if anything exciting is happening behind him.

4th try...Zander does his "wrinkle up my nose" smile.

5th try...Zander stands while everyone else sits.

And after that, both Philip and I are done. D-O-N-E-, done. Actually Philip would've probably been done after the 1st or 2nd try. But not me. I gave it good effort. Just came up empty.

5 Days of a 10th Birthday

We celebrated Eli's 10th birthday on 5 different days!

Quick recap but LOTS of pictures!

Day 1: I don't have any pictures of it, but Mimi and Papa came up the weekend before Eli's birthday and they took him out for a birthday dinner. He chose Lin's Garden which is a Chinese buffet. We often get take-out from there but hardly ever eat-in, so this was a treat!

Day 2: The Thursday before Eli's birthday, I took a special snack to his class. He chose cookies & popcorn.

Handing out the popcorn to his friends....

Listening to his friends sing "Happy Birthday" to him...

Finally getting to sit down and enjoy his snack. (He got a little lesson in serving others while passing out the snacks. Some of the boys wanted 2nds & 3rds before he had even sat down to eat his 1st helping!)

Day 3: Whew! He had been planning his actual party since about February. He waivered on two different ideas on and off through the spring and summer months. Around August, he finally decided he would have a sleepover (our 1st one at our house) with a few friends.

We went grocery shopping for cool drinks & snacks (cool meaning things that Mom usually doesn't buy for him).

Here are the drinks with the labeled cups. Just waiting for his friends arrival!

(as a sidenote, they went through the Root Beer and 1 of the Fantas in about 2 hours. And that was only 4 boys!)


Emma Kate labeled her own cup in her new cursive handwriting....


Chips meant for 9 & 10 year old boys....

And some 2 year old boys who think that the birthday cake sure does look yummy!...
After we played in the yard for a little bit, we sat outside and had pizza and chips. See the boy in the gray shirt? That is Caleb and he DOES NOT like to have his picture taken. He purposely looked away when he saw me with the camera!

Eli striking a pose...

Alex showing us his version of the water sprinkler....

Next we went back inside and gathered up our sleeping bags since Eli's daddy was setting up the tents outside....

Here are the tents! A 10person tent for the 4 boys and a 4person tent for the 1 daddy.

The boys getting their "camping spot" set up.

and a pillow fight immediately breaks out....

Then it was time to go back inside for cake & presents. We went with a Tim Tebow'ish theme this year. We had these Gator things left over from Eli's party last year...

but the cake was of Timmy's new Broncos jersey...


blowing out candles....

Zane enjoying the cake....

Imagine that....Zander's piece is already gone!

Time for presents!

Alex gave Eli money which he is so excited to use to buy a DS game!

Preston gave Eli this COOL faux bow!....

From Caleb, Eli received juggling balls and a neat electric dragster which he loved putting together!....

When it started getting dark, Philip loaded the boys up in the car and took them to the Corn Maze!

Here they are using their flashlights to scout out the map of the CornMaze. You can't really tell it from this map, but the maze is in the shape of a Razorback....

And they're off!....

Corn Maze Accomplished!

Shooting the corn cannons was next on the list....

Philip then took them to the flag football fields near our house and they played Nighttime Dodgeball with some light-up balls I found for them....

Eli says this was the best part of the night....

The boys all came back home around 10:00 and they were hungry. We had a late night popcorn snack. Philip then had them all in their tents and settling down for sleep by 11:00.

The rest of the night seemed to be uneventful (thankfully).

The next morning, Philip came inside and this is what he looked like....

Day 4: Started out with doughnuts. Zaney boy LIKED them!

And so did Zander Griffy!

Eli had a flag football game so the boys had to leave from the sleepover around 9:00am. While we were waiting outside for Daddies to arrive, the boys played with the faux bow....

After Eli's flag football game, we had lunch and then opened family presents. (this was the actual day of his birthday).

He was so excited to see a Wii Lego Star Wars game from Mimi and Papa!

as well as The Grinch movie from Aunt Kim. This was especially meaningful this year as he and Emma Kate are dressing up as The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who for Halloween!

The biggest mouth-dropper of all though was opening a Tim Tebow Broncos jersey from Mom and Dad.

It even warranted giving Mom a GREAT BIG hug!

Eli's birthday day ended with a family fun trip to New Creation Camp (aka the Fink Family Farm) for the PCCA 4th grade class.

This wonderful acreage is a boys paradise!

Looks like even the girls like playing in the dirt too!

Hayride included....

as well as a bonfire and s'mores! Told ya this place is FANTASTIC!!

Day 5: The last day of Eli's 10th Birthday celebration happened 3 days after his birthday when Grandma and Grandpa came. Look at what they got for him:

His bike was WAY too little. This one is a bit big for now but he is learning how to get on and off. It should last him for a long time!

A lot of FUN and memorable happenings for Eli's 10th birthday! We are blessed that God chose us to be his parents! He is truly an enjoyable gift!