Thanksgiving

Lindsay's parents came out from Colorado for Thanksgiving. It was great to have them here for an entire week - the boys were both very sad when they left (Lindsay and I were, too, don't worry). Lindsay and her dad made a great Thanksgiving meal! This is the best picture of the full spread (people in this family make some weird faces while they eat). Take note of Riley sitting next to Anderson. Also, if you look closely at the left edge of the picture behind my beautiful wife, you'll also see Ginger poised next to Sully's chair.






Sully's favorite part of the meal was the rolls. We got them from Big Momma's Bakery. If you're ever at Crown Center, go there. Eat anything in the bakery. I take that back, eat EVERYTHING in the bakery. Especially the dinner rolls. And the cinnamon rolls. And the cupcakes. And other cake. And pumpkin bars. I could go on and on. We go in there once a week when Lindsay and the boys come down to have lunch with me. They told me they sold over 1,200 dozen (you do the math, I'm off work for the day) rolls.

That's it for now. More from their trip, including the early Christmas we celebrated, in another post.

Wow.

If you need a good Christmas cry, this will do it for you. Enjoy.

Quote of the Day

Lindsay - "There's a lot of cutting involved in homeschooling."

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

I swear, I'll make a post again soon. In the meantime, check out Flickr for new pictures from November and December, as well as from this past summer (t-ball and Branson....roast and ketchup).

Goodnight Anderson

So we put Anderson to bed around 8:30 tonight. He made his usual return to the top of the stairs, tonight needing one of his library books to look at. As it turns out, he took care of a few other things en route back to his room.

First, to set this up, you should know that when we put Anderson to bed we leave his closet light on with the door cracked. He's no longer allowed to have his bathroom light or the hall light on because when he gets up in the middle of the night and we've turned the lights off, it's a good excuse for him to come down to mom and dad's room and ask to turn the lights back on.

I just went upstairs and this is what I found. While the hall light was not on, he had opened the closet in the hall and turned on the light in there, turned on his bathroom light, and turned on his overhead bedroom light to a slight glow (it's on a dimmer). Pretty tricky of him, right?

Now for the best part, he was in bed with his blanket all folded up over his head. Apparently it was a little too bright for him to go to sleep. That kid...

Lindsay's parents were in town for the last week. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. I'll get pictures posted on the blog and to Flickr as soon as I can.

Quote of the Day

Dad - "Andy, we don't smell our feet at the dinner table."
Andy - "Whyyyyy?"

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Catching up

Dear Blog,

I guess we have some catching up to do. You miss having pictures in your posts, and I can't blame you. My problem is, either the pictures are tiny and clear, or they are bigger and grainy...so while I like the Blog Editor in Flock, I'm going to make this post directly in blogger. I hope you like it.

Sincerely,
An annoying person who thinks it might be funny to write a letter to the blog, but is now realizing it isn't.

Here's Andy and Mom enjoying a nice book:


And here's Sully enjoying himself during the book:

A common site around our house:

Don't worry, we get this face even more often:

Sometimes (well, once), Lindsay and the boys came home to this (anybody want a dog?):

The boys and I played in the leaves in the backyard last week. It was lots of fun, just ask Sully:

There was a lot of work to be done:

This picture is hilarious, especially because it just randomly happened:

Poor Sully was sick today. All he wanted to do this evening was lay around without a shirt on because he had a 102 degree fever.

But even when he's sick, he still smiles and says "cheese" when he sees the camera:

So that brings you current through about 3 hours ago. Time to watch Gary Lezak's winter forecast. There's a chance of some snow tomorrow!!

Quote of the Day

"I want a train Bible! And it'll have a whistle that when I pull it...it'll go 'toot toot' and then fireworks will BLAST out of the top like a rocketship."

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Some new old pictures

I've posted July and August pictures on Flickr.  I'm slowly going to try to get Flickr updated for the last year and a half.  Enjoy - you can see Andy playing t-ball in July and Sully learning to walk in August.

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Quote of the Day

SPOILER ALERT

We're at the doctor's office today, listening to what's going on in Lindsay's tummy, and Anderson says it "sounds like a pony."  Wouldn't that be interesting come May 30th??

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Not a baby any more.

Sully had his last bottle a few nights ago.  He stopped having his bedtime bottle regularly a few weeks ago, but this was the end of the can of formula, so it was officially the last bottle.  It was kind of funny, because he couldn't really remember how to drink a bottle; he tried to drink it like it was coming out of a straw.

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Quote of the Day

Maybe I'll start a new short segment with quotes I think people would enjoy. Our first quote is from Anderson last night:

"What's that pouring in a bowl sound?"

Back-story: I (Brett) decided to be an awesome parent and eat the end of the Marshmallow Mateys after the boys were in bed. I poured a bowl, and before I could add milk, Anderson was a the top of the stairs with this quote.

When Anderson grows up...

On the way to church this morning, Anderson told us that he wants to get big so he can be an engineer (the train kind) and vote.

Pumpkin Carving

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins!  At least that's the story we're going to tell:

Andy wasn't so sure about scooping out the insides of the pumpkin:


Here's mom attaching the pattern:

Here's Sully, enjoying the show (as long as he had food):


And the final product (it's Pluto & Thomas - but you knew that):


Ok, now that you've seen the "fun," let's get real.  Whoever came up with the idea of using patterns and making intricate carvings should be disciplined.  Seriously.  Why can't we just carve nice faces - a few triangles for eyes, a nice, toothy smile - and that's it?  Oh no.  Now we buy teeny tiny knives, make thirteen copies of a pattern, adjusting the scale 5% at a time to get it the right size for the pumpkin, try to tape an 8.5 x 11 sheet of flat paper to a round pumpkin (I'm not sure where you buy a printer that prints on curved paper, or where you buy the paper for that matter), then you hold those teeny tiny knives and try to carve out little slits for light to shine through, while not breaking through the miniscule bit of pumpkin left between the slots.  This gets harder as your hand cramp up and turns into claws.  Then, you realize that even though you carved out these tiny little slits in the pumpkin, the gunk inside the pumpkin is still blocking the light.  Oh, but don't mess up the millimeter of pumpkin between your slits when you're cleaning out inside the pumpkin.  (sidebar - it's really hard to not type "ing" at the end of pumpkin.  So, if you see the word "pumpking" in this posting, please translate it to pumpkin and move on with your life. Thank you.)  The whole time you're doing this, your three year-old, who you are sacrificing all future possibilities of being a hand model for, is whining about when the pumpkin carving will be done; but when you ask if you can just do a face instead, he insists that you can't.  Finally, you finish.  And they actually look like what you wanted them to look like.  But then you get this bright idea that you should call both sets of grandparents and get them on Skype to see the pumpkins.  So you haul the laptop outside (apparently our laptop is the size of a freight train - thanks HP), turn off the porch light, and try to show them the pumpkins.  Finally, you need to get a picture of this masterpiece.  So you bring in the pumpkins, turn off all the lights in the house, listen to your one year-old cry because it's dark in the house, and snap a few shots.  Oh, but it's not that simple, apparently the slow shutter required for a night picture is not conducive to a shaky hand.  (please reference the aforementioned claw hands)  So you finally figure something out (I'm losing interest in this story).  And there you go.  Have a nice evening.  I'm going to bed.

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A Percy Gallery

Anderson created this collection of 37 Percy photos just for you. Enjoy.


Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Happy Halloween

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Originally uploaded by Brett and Lindsay

Andy the biker dude.

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Originally uploaded by Brett and Lindsay

Andy had fun on Uncle Cory's motorcycle. Check out flickr for more pictures.

Party at the Pumpkin Patch (say that 3 times fast)

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for cousin Jane (Lindsay's cousin Lesa's daughter) at Schaake's Pumpkin Patch just outside Lawrence. Being Wildcats down to our core, I would say it was nice to not have to actually go into Lawrence. But we have some real nice family in Lawrence (who invite us to fun birthday parties), and we like to go into Lawrence to see them. And you must admit that KU's campus is pretty, I mean, it's no K-State (c'mon, K-State has Anderson Hall), but it's pretty. Let's take a moment and gaze upon Anderson Hall.

And now let's see Anderson in front of Anderson Hall:


Ok, this post was about K-State, right? No, it was about Jane's fun party! It was a lot of fall fun. And they had cupcakes!!

Here are the boys checking out the chickens:


They had this nice photo-op set up for people. I only have two requests: 1) less wind (it tends to mess up my lovely wife's hair); 2) porta-potties in the background, really??




Now, for the best pictures. Tara, Lindsay's cousin and our photographer for these fine pictures, was apparently using our camera to make a documentary of this man heading for the previously mentioned porta potty. Look in the upper right-hand corner of the picture. Enjoy.





Isn't that funny. Oh, and sorry, but we didn't actually take any pictures out in the pumpkin patch. I'll describe it for you in words. If I use 1,000 words, it'll be the same as having taken a picture, right? Ok, imagine this - a hayrack ride out into a HUGE pumpkin patch. Anderson instantly picking out two little pumpkins when we get off the trailer. Wandering around looking for a big pumpkin amongst the rotting ones. Getting back on the hay rack ride with only our two little pumpkins and heading back to the farm. Leaving the party. The next day, going to a "pumpkin patch" in a church lawn down the street from our house and getting an overpriced pumpkin for carving (the money went to a good cause, right?). Driving to Price Chopper and getting a second pumpkin to carve. Dad telling Anderson at least twice a day that we aren't carving the pumpkins today.

Two more things, a few weeks ago, Lindsay was getting Anderson out of bed and ready for church and he asked what we were doing, so Lindsay told him we were getting ready for church. Anderson's respone was, "Oh, so we're not going to Disney World today?" Go figure. You know Anderson's mom, right? It must be genetic. (Don't get me wrong, I love Disney World, too.)

And then tonight, on our way home from church, we were trying to get him to tell us what they talked about in his class, and he said "women." When we asked what he learned about women he said, "that you say NO." That's it. That's all we could get out of him. The only other thing Andy would say was his current response when he doesn't remember or doesn't want to tell you - "It's kind of tough." and "it's hard to tell the difference." Silly kid.

Ok, that's it. Oh, except did you notice that I figured out how to make the pictures bigger?

Bert

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Football

Andy had his last football practice on Friday night. It's pretty fun to watch a bunch of three year-olds play flag football. The main goal is to hike the ball to the running back and then only pull the flags of the person with the ball. Here he is...

Practicing running the ball:


Practicing passing the ball:



Pulling someone's flag:




Hiking the ball:




And here he is in action:


All this was definitely worthy of a medal.



:

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Fun outside

We've spent time outside everyday after work watering the new plants and playing with the neighbors, Gracie and Jack.  I'll have to get a picture of the playing, but for now, here are two really cute kids.

  


And here's a little more of Anderson's photography.



Here's the photographer (looking a little guilty):

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Spaghetti

We had spaghetti for dinner. Sully enjoyed it. Don't worry, Anderson was on the other side of the table without his shirt on, too. You learn these things when you have little kids.

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