A New Thanksgiving Tradition

Yesterday the kids and I made little boats out of paper and talked about the Mayflower and Thanksgiving. Then we filled up the sink with water and watched the boats capsize. It made for hours (literally) of entertainment for them.

The idea is from Martha Stewart.com and she suggests making small boats with names on them for seating arrangements at the dinner table for Thanksgiving. We made them with 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper and 5 x 7. We tried one 2 x 3 and it was so cute! Maya named that ship "Baby Superman". Here's the link if you'd like to try to make the boats with your family!

BOAT PLACE CARDS

Alright...

I've talked it over with my husband and after weighing the pros and cons, we are setting our blog to private...again! It is probably smart with his job and all. He hasn't ticked anyone off yet, but I'm sure he will, and I don't really want them coming after us! We're taking other precautions as well, but this is the first step to making our lives a little less open.

Leave a comment with your email address, or if you'd feel more comfortable, email me at ericandbrandilynn@yahoo.com

I know that I have many of your email addresses already from the last time that I went private, but still leave me your email just in case!

I will email everyone that is signed up under my blog every time I post something new so that you don't have to check all of the time. I know that some of Eric's friends check this blog, too. Just email me and I'll add you...and anyone else that wants to be added. If you don't have a blogger account, still email me and I'll let you know how to sign in...after I figure that out. Thanks!

To be or not to be...

So, everyone is setting their blog to private these days. Jody had a good debate going on her blog, but I am still asking questions to myself. I think I have about 5 more friends/family wanting to go private, and I have about 8 that already are. This has been a constant internal debate with me since I started this thing. I just keep asking myself if I should be scared and if I should, why? The reason I blog is mostly personal and to keep a record, but I also love to keep in touch with friends and finding new friends, which is eliminated when someone goes private. My blog was set to private and NO ONE came to visit my blog anymore. It seemed pointless to me to even have a blog at that point. I keep going back and forth about it. I think I would rather just delete my blog and keep a record a different way than to make my blog private. I'm just thinking out loud. Please share what you are thinking. A majority of my friends still have open blogs, so I'm just curious what makes you avoid putting them private or if that is even a worry for you.

The Sickness

I have been really sick the past couple of days, but I am finally feeling well enough to eat. It's really hard for me to be sick for a few reasons, but the main reason is that I hate being alone, quarantined to the bedroom. I think of myself as a "social" sick person. I still want my husband there to talk to me and for my kids to be around. They left for church and Eric said, "There, now you can have 3 hours of rest." But I kept thinking I was hearing Eric's voice and the children laughing. I couldn't wait for them to get home. I felt so left out as Eric was making them lunch. I could hear him acting out a scene with the food where Mrs. Butterworth's was getting attacked by the peanut butter or something like that, and I shed a few tears because I was stuck in bed and couldn't join in on the fun. I kept calling my kids in the room to come and lay by me and watch a show with me or tell me a knock knock joke. Yes, I felt extremely sick and was probably throwing up every 45 minutes, but I was LONELY! Is that weird? My husband thinks so.

When we were married only a year, I saw him with the flu bug for the first time. He had seen me sick a lot with being pregnant and a few surgeries, etc. But I had never seen him sick before. I went in the bathroom to check on him and he said in a deep monstrous voice, "GET OUT OF HERE!" and I did. And I didn't check on him again all day for fear that his head was going to spin around or some crazy thing like that.

So, anyway I am feeling much better and I'm glad that people noticed I wasn't at church. Thanks for caring, friends! And thanks family for indulging me and spending time with a sick Mom and wife that looked pretty scary and probably had horrible breath. That's why I love you guys!

Halloween Night

Halloween was so fun this year for us! Hayden went as Darth Vader. Maya was Snow White, but when people would ask her who she was for Halloween, she'd say, "Darth Vader."
When I was done with her hair on Halloween, I said, "Oh, look! You're a princess!"
She put her hands on her cheeks and said, "OH!" It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

The first house..Grandpa Elliott's. And boy did they deliver! Homemade carmel popcorn balls.
The winner of my favorite costume award this year goes to my cousin, Jonah. Look how hilarious the Gingerbread costume from Shrek is!

Too bad it scared the little kids. He had to go and sit in the car. (Which made me laugh even harder!) It's not every day you see a Gingerbread man sitting in the passenger side of the car.

The Trick or Treating Group.
I know...me and Eric were slackers. I love dressing up but it's a little hard to find a costume for pregnant women these days.

There's a baker that lives near the homes we were trick or treating at, and every Halloween since I can remember, that's where we'd go at the end of our route and get the yummy donuts they make for all the Trick or Treaters and their parents. Highlight of my evening! The kids thought that was pretty awesome, too!
The last door of the night. Because the weather was so nice, my kids kept on Trick or Treating. We were out for over 2 hours, I would say. At every house, Maya would ask, "Two?" to the person handing out the candy. Who can resist that from a cute 2 year old dressed as Snow White? Not many people, we found. We have so much candy! Until next year...

Trouble

I am learning lately that mischief can occur in under a minute. In one day, Maya destroyed my extremely clean pantry (thanks to my Mom) by dipping her fingers in the Crisco and rubbing it all over herself, the other food items in the pantry, and the pantry door. Not to mention the crisco I found on the toilet seat and banister. What was I doing during this? Just changing the laundry! Honestly, she works fast! Needless to say, yesterday Eric put a lock on the pantry door because actually this is the 3rd time I have had the pleasure of cleaning up that awful stuff. No more Crisco surprises when we go to sit on the toilet; YAY!Um, and this same day I gave her a bowl of ice cream and left the room. I thought she had finished the ice cream because a few minutes later I saw her bowl in the sink. "Oh, I've taught her well!" I thought. She even puts her bowl where it goes. I walk in my bedroom to find the beautiful shoes (above) with her ice cream in it.? Why? Who knows. Maya just thought that was a good place for the ice cream to be. And...there were ice cream handprints all over my bedspread...and a little more Crisco.
So, I'm thinking, "Boy, I'd better keep this girl occupied and do a project with her. We gathered leaves outside and made imprints on paper with the crayons. I thought it went great! Both kids loved it and kept trying new leaves to see what they would look like. While cleaning up, I found this crayon; a bite right in the middle. Some things I'll never understand, but I do get some good laughs every day!

SURPRISE!

Since Eric's birthday and graduation were just days apart, I decided to throw him a surprise birthday/graduation party. I invited our family by sending out "subpoena's" saying they were required to come to his party and what they needed to bring. I thought it was funny.

Eric wasn't as surprised as I had hoped. I can't keep secrets very well, and he just knew something was going on because of how I was acting. I'm an open book, I guess. I sent him to Walmart for some mustard for our dinner and when he came back everyone was there. He was excited and hugged everyone when he came up the stairs.

We had "pigs in a blanket" (police officer pun), hot dogs, chips, etc. And we played some games.

Pin the badge on the rookie. Maya taking a turn in her ballerina outfit from Shelley. She can't get enough of it!

And we had a race to see who could eat a donut the fastest. My dad won! Which was no surprise to me. Donuts every Saturday morning growing up...Whoohoo! (I still have the craving of the donuts after Saturday chores, Dad.)
I asked those coming to write Eric a letter or card to tell him why they thought he'd make a good police officer. The letters were so funny. Lots of police jokes and advice.
My favorite joke: Police officer, "Oh, you thought we didn't give tickets to pretty women,
WE DON'T!"

Eric getting emotional reading the letters. (above) Thank you for writing those, everyone! He told me he felt very encouraged after reading those.The candles and making wishes. (with a little help from Maya)

Hayden in his police gear! He has been playing with this stuff ever since!

It was a fun night! I'm glad that we got to celebrate those two big occasions for Eric. Thanks family for all of your support. We have needed it, and will need more, I'm sure!