Happy Thanksgiving….A Day Late

This Thanksgiving has been filled with lots of fun since my brother and his family have been back in town for the week.  I didn't have a chance to post a Thanksgiving message yesterday…better late than never, right?!

I have a lot to be thankful for….good health, good job, warm home and food in my belly.  But most of all I'm thankful for family and friends.   

And, MOST DEFINITELY, these two pilgrims!!

Kade working hard on a puzzle, 

Mason working on hard on destroying that puzzle.

That's the story of their lives these days!

Better be careful Mase or else you'll face the wrath of this guy:

Nobody wants to deal with a vampire pilgrim.

Kade had his very first "drop off" birthday party this past weekend!  It was at Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday so I was more than happy to leave.  Holy buckets that place is busy!  He had a blast though and had fun picking out the gift to give to his friend.  Which is the exact opposite of my first friend birthday party.  I still remember it clearly….I was so upset (to the point that I left the room crying) that she was getting all of the gifts and I didn't get anything!!  Sorry Megan :-)

Duncan, the birthday boy, Kade and Charlie's head peeking out behind Duncan.

After the party Charlie came to play at our house.  Charlie is super competitive and he's also tall, like Kade.  He insisted they were the same height so of course we did back-to-back pictures!  The following picture was the 3rd or 4th picture (which explains Kade's face) because Charlie wasn't accepting "defeat" :-)

The good news is that Charlie had him beat in foot size!  

Also, I'd just like to add that I sent Charlie's mom this picture (since we just had Kade's 1.5 size too small shoe fiasco) and told her Charlie was probably closer to a size 4.  Well, she had him in size 1.5's and he's actually a 4.5!  Made me feel much better about my Mom Fail :-)  Thanks Melissa!

Mason loves to cook!  I keep an old pot with plastic food in the cupboard so he can "help" me cook while I'm making supper.  He loves to watch whatever's cooking on the stovetop.  His favorite "toys" are a spatula and BBQ tongs.  Needless to say, he LOVES making cookies!  I sit him on the counter and he watches every single step of the process.  

I left the room for a second and when I came back the cute little munchkin helping himself to the batter!!  It was one of those moments I had to capture because everything about the scene was perfect and will be forever in my memory. 

The Big and the Bigger….goofy grins.

Mom Fail:  Kade didn't get new shoes for the start of the school year.  He got a new pair in the spring and didn't wear them all summer so they were still in pretty good shape by September and, amazingly, they still fit him.  Periodically I would check his toes and although I could tell they were getting tighter he still had room or so I thought…
Kade likes to compare his foot size to mine so we sit on the floor, across from each other, and put our feet up against each other.  We did this the other day and I realized his feet are barely smaller than mine now.  I'm a size 4.5 in kids and I figured Kade had to be at least a 3 if not a 3.5.  I thought, "No worries, his shoes are a size 3 so although it's time to get new shoes, there's no rush."  Wrong.  Erik went and checked his shoes, they were a size 2!!  We brought him to the shoe store the next day and sure enough, 3.5!  The poor kid has been shoving is 3.5 foot into a size 2 shoe!!!  So, I'm fairly certain that what I thought was the tip of his big toe was actually his knuckle.  He put on his new shoes and said, "YES!  I don't have to curl my toes anymore!!".  See what I mean?  Mom Fail.

I was going through pictures and realized I left out a few good ones!

Harper and Charlie spent the day with us a few weeks ago.  The boys were in heaven with 2 of their best friends spending the entire day with us!!

Isaac and Mason…these 2 cousins spell TROUBLE.

But they are so gosh darn cute doing it!

Again, can't resist matching clothes...

Mason is OBSESSED with seeing pictures on people's phones.  

"See pichers?  See pichers on pone?"--Mason

He talked Gpa H into handing over his phone and gpa discovered this gem a few days later.

Cutest selfie I've ever seen!

Kade and Charlie "hunting"

This picture makes me laugh every time.  

Shorty with his classmates. 

Halloween

Pumpkin carving.  

Don't be fooled by those cute faces, I got stuck doing most of the dirty work!

For anybody really scrutinizing these pictures…yes, the boys are wearing the exact same outfit.  I couldn't resist buying matching pants and sweatshirts!  

Mom Dream = Fulfilled :-)

We got the idea from a friend to use a drill.  It was perfect!  They loved it and we loved that they didn't have a sharp knife in their hands!

It's hard to tell but the boys drilled their initials into their pumpkin.  

And I carved Goldy Gopher again this year per request from Kade.

Kade's class had a Halloween party and a mini parade of costumes.

Shocking…Kade chose to be a football player again.

Let the Trick-or-Treating begin!!!

Digging through grandma's goodie bucket.

Filled up their buckets at the first stop!

Kade chose Mason's costume.

Shocking…he wanted Mason to be a football player.

I told them to flex and this is what they did.

Love these 2 handsome fellas.

This year we trick or treated in town with some of Kade's school buddies.

This isn't the whole crew.  There's a certain little Viking who refused to be in the picture.

This is the best I could do!

Kade with a few of his Kindergarten friends.

Mason and his little buddy Nyle.

It was a super warm evening and we way overdressed for the walk.  Mason wasn't really feeling trick-or-treating this year yet.  He did understand that if the light was on there was candy to be had.  However, he didn't want to get out of the wagon or hold his bucket up and say the magic words.  Kade was so far ahead of us, running with his friends to every.single.house that we barely ever saw him.  Once in awhile we'd see a flash of yellow pants go by so we knew he was still safe.  It was fun but holy cow trick-or-treating is a hard, sweaty task!!