Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving was anything but traditional for us.  Grandma and Grandpa Anthony decided last minute to join us, and it was so wonderful to have them here, even if it was for just a short time.  Grandma got here on Tuesday afternoon, and spent the next day entertaining kids so Johnny and I could go out on a hot date (more on that later). 

We got up bright and early Thanksgiving morning and headed off to the city around 6:00 a.m. so that we could claim the best spot on the sidewalk for the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We got there while it was still dark outside and I dumped off John and Isaac to stake out the perfect viewing location. Grandma and I found a parking spot and layered the clothing on the little ones.  




Isaac trying to stay warm
while saving our prime viewing spot
for the parade

Then we took everyone to McDonald's for a nice warm breakfast, while we left John out in the cold (and it was really cold, like way below freezing cold) saving our prime spot.  Bless that man for indulging me in my crazy ideas.  When we finished with breakfast, John went to get hot chocolate for everyone.



Yummy watching the first giant balloon pass by



We saw plenty of these. . .

 

. . . and even more of these. 





The kids loved watching the parade workers try to maneuver the
giant balloons under the L tracks, and then again under a power line.
It was much funner than just watching them walk by.

We had such a wonderful time and were so glad that we went!  When it was over, we packed everyone back in the van and went to pick up Grandpa from the airport.  He had been helping Uncle Davey Davey and Aunt Brittany move half way across the country all week. 

I was enjoying the food too much to remember to take many pictures of our actual Thanksgiving dinner.  Kellogg puts on an annual Thanksgiving feast for their students, which was just as delicious as last year.  Even better when you don't have to buy, prepare or clean up.

I have so many things to give thanks for this year.  My devoted, faithful husband.  Five extremely silly, amazing children.  A wonderfully supportive family.  Caring friends.  Health.  A warm home filled with laughter and the Spirit.  Food on our table (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa).  And the knowledge that God is watching over us and will take care of us.  Happy Thanksgiving indeed.

Brilliant Ideas in the Night

I woke up in the wee hours this morning to a little face breathing in mine.  Nathan had had a bad dream and couldn't sleep and wanted to come in bed with John and I.  Bad idea.  I have learned this over and over with our kids.  They want to squish in between us and end up monopolizing any inch of unoccupied space in our already too small queen size bed.  So I stumbled to his bottom bed of the bunk and crashed there with him.  It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when I heard this clanking sound coming from the bunk above us.  I listened for just a few minutes, just long enough for me to make a mental note that the lamp was on, before I realized that it sounded like someone was playing Legos.  It was 2:34 a.m.

Mom (half asleep):  Brady, is that you?

Brady (fully awake):  Yes Mom.

Mom:  What are you doing?

Brady:  Mom, I had this really great idea so I had to wake up and build it.

Mom:  Brady, do you know that it is the middle of the night?

Brady:  Yes, but I didn't want to forget my idea.

Isaac (also half asleep):  He builds in the middle of the night every night, Mom.

Chicago Light Festival

This morning the kids got up early as usual and watched Christmas movies that I checked out from the library, while John let me sleep in.  Hooray for Johnny! 

I haven't been a very good sleeper lately.  I lay in bed and think about different scenarios of where we should live, where we should look for a job, how to go about it, how it is going to turn out, etc. etc. etc. . .  And then I realize that it is really late and I can't fall asleep.  Anyway, sleeping in was a very nice treat.

When I got up we had a nice, big Saturday morning breakfast before heading off to do our Saturday chores.  We gave the kids an incentive to get everything done quickly and they worked really hard to earn it. 



Brady doing his deer-in-the-headlights impersonation.


We braved the crowds and the cold and headed into the city for the lighting festival and parade.  The parade was led by Mickey and Minny on an ice castle float and the Christmas lights down the Magnificent Mile lit up as they passed.  We sipped hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music playing in the background and were so glad that we went.  It was magical.

Saturday chores and Ants

Last Saturday was the first weekend in a long time that we didn't have anything planned.  No games.  No church commitments.  No activities or excursions pulling away. 

So is what we did last Saturday.  The Saturday job charts FINALLY got dusted off and used again, and we got some work done.  The kids preferred the other kind of Saturday. 

Will helped Isaac vacuum (Will loves to vacuum) and Nathan and Avery "helped" dad try to find and fix the squeaky parts on his truck by bouncing on it.  Brady was done with his jobs long before I even thought of taking any pictures, and instead was filling up a mixing bowl in the backyard with his special mixture of dirt and sand for our newest pets that arrived in the mail that morning.

Ants.  For an incredibly awesome ant farm that was gifted to us by one very cool Uncle Garrett.  My kids think Uncle Garrett is about the most awesome person ever.  And, in fact, he just may be.  He can snowboard directly to his front door.  He takes them for rides in his jeep with the top down.  He can eat a live caterpillar.  He dares my kids to do things like submerge their head in freezing cold Santaquin canyon river water for $1.00.  And he gives kids things that they LOVE that mom and dad would probably NEVER get for them, like candy, and fireworks and ant farms and someday probably a drum set or something like that.  That is one cool uncle.

The ants now quite happily reside in our computer room, where only a few of them have escaped, thanks to William.  He was watching them crawl through one of the tubes earlier this week and decided that he needed to see them first hand.  So he pulled off the tube and let them crawl all over his hand, at which point I hear Nathan screaming "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Yummy has fire ants!  Ahhhhhh!"  We only had to smash two of them, and the rest are still happy and safe in their castle.

Saturdays

This is what we have been doing every Saturday for the last 2 1/2 months.

Avery played on a darling soccer team this year, with several friends from her school, and even her little friend from church.   I loved watching her.  She decided that the loved soccer, as long as she could play defense and didn't have to run up and down the field all game long.  Too tiring.  Watching her reminded me of playing soccer when I was little, and how much I loved playing.  She is also very good at chatting with the other girls out on the field.

GO PURPLE POWER!

And this is what my boys did; wait, and watch and try to stay out of trouble.  Actually, most of the time, Brady and Nathan would run around playing tackle soccer, a game very close to tackle football, only with a soccer ball, minus the pads.  They are going to be bruisers when they get big.

This year Isaac decided that he had had it with tackle football, and really just wanted to play a fun game of flag football with his friends.  His team was coached by one of his best friend's dads, who was positive and friendly and encouraging.  Not a yeller at all.  I love that.  He had a wonderful time, and like Avery, loves the social aspect of team sports almost as much as the sport itself.

And this is what the little ones did while they waited.  They loved going exploring through the pine trees.  Nathan's face tells me they are up to no good.

Chicago

Downtown Chicago has become one of our favorite places to visit.  It might be because we have never truly lived in such a big city before (Dallas doesn't count - it is a sprawling city with a dead downtown), or because we know that our time here is most likely limited and want to squeeze it all in. 

Saturday the kids decided that they had all saved enough allowance and they were ready to spend, so we headed to the city.  Their favorite place to go is the Water Tower Center, a high rise mall right on the Magnificent Mile.  There is a huge American Girl store there, and Avery could spend hours (and hundreds of dollars if she had it) in that store.  It really is a fun place to visit, and we have taken both Grandma Anthony and Grandma Hema there.  My own Grandma Willden adored dolls, and I always think of her when I am there.  She would have absolutely loved it. 

Situated right next to the American Girl store, is a huge Lego store that just opened this summer.  Some mall planner finally got smart and made a place for brothers and dads to spend their time and hard earned allowance while they waited for moms and sisters.  Both stores were decked out for the holidays already, and  crowded with early holiday shoppers.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the line at the Lego store that John stood in while the kids and I played games on the Lego computers.  All the kids came out with empty wallets and big smiles.  Avery purchased an outfit for her doll, Isaac and Brady both purchased Hero Factory Legos, and Nathan finally got his Ice Dragon Lego.

Yummy was such a good sport riding along in the stroller.  His favorite part of the day was the Disney store, where he cuddled, kissed and squeezed every stuffed animal he could get his hands on. 



Yummy was absolutely mesmerized by the sheer amount of stuffed animals available.



John and I ventured into the city this morning on a date.  We enlisted the help of our dear friend Valery to get our kids ready and drive them to school.  She was such a good sport about getting here so early (even with two kids in tow).  Then, when all the big kids were delivered to school, Karen came over and took Yummy to her house for the rest of the morning. 

John and I left so early because we were booked for a segway tour of the city.  The website had said that the tour would go on, rain or shine or snow, so even with the rain coming down, we set off.  I called to confirm on our way, but no one answered.  Then, about 8:40, five minutes before our tour was to start, they called to say they were not going out.  Since we were already in the city, we decided to make a morning of it.  We saw the big Christmas tree that is being set up and decorated.  We walked the financial district so John could show me where he will be working as an intern (UNPAID intern he keeps reminding me) starting in January.  Then we stopped for breakfast at Ronny's Steak House and ate ourselves sick.  It was a great morning. 

Streck Trought

Isaac has strep throat again.  This is his fourth time in the last year. 

Poor boy.

Poor mom. 

Poor boy. 

He is a funny sick person.  While we were waiting at the doctor's office, he wanted to sprawl out over three chairs.  He moaned that he was too sick to sit up.  Then, when we got in the room to see the doctor, he crashed on the bed and didn't want to even get up to let the doctor look in his throat.  Then the diagnosis was made, the prescription written, and miraculously he began to feel better.  All of a sudden he has enough energy to go the library and get a few movies to watch while he is out of school and stop to get some Gatorade.  Miracle!

Isaac also hallucinates when he is sick, anytime he has a fever or takes certain kinds of antibiotics.  I probably shouldn't laugh at this, but he woke up around 11:00 at night, mumbling something  and crying and stumbling down the hallway toward our bedroom.  John and I immediately knew that he was hallucinating, so we took him into the bathroom to splash some water on his face.  Isaac took one look at his tired, sick face in the mirror, thought that it was some weird guy coming to get him, and started screaming more.  That made the man in the mirror look even scarier, which made Isaac pull a scary face in the mirror and scream even more.  The image terrified Isaac, who, this time, bore his teeth and half growled, half bawled at the intruder, who returned the growling and bawling.  John and I tried hard to not crack up, but failed miserably, then shoved Isaac, still screaming and pointing at the scary man in the mirror, in a cold shower. 

Much less disturbing are these sweet notes that Brady and Avery left for him next to his bed before they left for school.

Halloween Part Four: The Real Deal

We all had a marvelous time this year Trick-or-Treating.  The weather was perfect; clear skies and just cold enough to remind you that it is October.  The trees were still covered in beautiful leaves.  The neighborhood was swarming with goblins and fairies and Grim Reapers and Harry Potters.  Sometimes I still can't get over how picturesque it is here. 

Pictures don't capture the quaintness of the neighborhood.



Check out the huge piles of leaves on the side of the road, waiting for the "leaf-vacuuming-truck" to come suck them up.  The kids love watching it.

  The first 45 minutes the kids ran from door to door.  After that, they got weighed down a little, and the last 45 minutes, they walked, Nathan dragging his candy bag until Dad poured the contents into the bottom of the stroller so he could keep going.

CANDY!!!!

We weighed in when we got home.  Here are the results, in real time photos:

Avery immediately noticed the injustice of it all.  She insisted we weigh, and weigh again.  She finally came to the conclusion that the boys just must have been greedy, and she was the only polite one.  That is quite possibly the truth.