Reindeer Games

We are in Nebraska and there is a lot of snow here! The big boys have gotten an opportunity to go sledding, something they’ve never done before. They had a blast. Unfortunately, the day they went sledding daddy accidentally drove off with their winter coats in the van. Carson and Owen are wearing Isaac’s winter coats. I’m so glad I threw in an extra snow coat for Isaac. They didn't seem to mind that they were wearing coats that were way too small for them (or that they have on pink and purple scarves.)

Pause the background music to hear the video.

Smile

Over Thanksgiving we had a family picture taken.  The photographer definitely earned his wages the day he photographed our family.  It did not take long for him to learn that not only is it shy of a miracle for all of us to be looking in the general direction of the camera, but eyes open and smiles are totally a bonus.  This was only the second time our family has been “professionally” photographed.  (I use the term loosely.  The first was for the church directory. Does that count?)  We also had pictures taken of Great Grandma Porter with our kids and the children of my sister and brother. 

This is what we ended up with. 

The Kluver boys, Will, and the Wright kids with Great Grandma Porter.

 

Our family.

Our Multitasker

This is how Stella drank her milk the other day. 

Stella drank her milk from her cup all while her pants were falling to her ankles.  (Have no fear she drank the milk dry!)  Stella shuffled all around the kitchen until it was gone.  I guess she figured the pants would just fall down again so there was no urgency in pulling them up?  I don't know.

Things we love.

We love picnic lunches on our new deck.

And wearing shorts, a t-shirt and having bare feet.

 

We love our first lunch on our little picnic table with the sun shining on our faces. 

 

We love being pushed while riding in our Cozy Coupe. 

 

We love furry caterpillars. 

We love all these things, especially in November! 

Happy Halloween

For the first time I had one child very determined as to what he was going to be for Halloween.  In the past I was always able to kind of persuade the boys into being something that I thought was cute.   Well, not this year.  Carson decided long ago that he was going to be Bat-Man.  There was no changing his mind.  I threw out many other ideas as to what the four kids could dress up as, but Carson had his mind made up.  As my husband reminded me several times, Halloween is for the kids, not me.  So, I gave in.  I thought we could be the total superhero package, but then Owen decided he was going to either be The Incredible Hulk or Scooby-Doo.  The Incredible Hulk definitely fit better with the superhero theme so that is who he was.  Isaac was Robin and Stella was Wonder Woman. 

 

Incredible Hulk (Owen), Wonder Woman (Stella), Bat-Man (Carson) and Robin (Isaac)

We trick-or-treated in our old neighborhood for a short time then came back to our new neighborhood for the remainder of the evening.  It was a good opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors.  

Trick-Or-Treating

Isaac and Stella cruising in the wagon.

All kids did great trick-or-treating.  It helped that it was 65 degrees that night.  Stella and Isaac cruised around the new ‘hood in the wagon.  By the end of the night Owen was so tired he asked if he could just lay down in some random person’s yard to take a rest.  He trucked home in the wagon with the babies. 

The night is over and they are still smiling. 

 

Hey Bat-Man, where are your eyes?

What happened?

Just a minute ago my blog had lots of pictures on it. Now they're gone. What happened?

What have we been up to this past month?

Things have been a little more hectic at the Wright house than normal. Here's a summary of our past month. It started with Carson being Star of the Week in preschool. This is a very big deal in a 4 year old's life. His treats were cupcakes, one day decorated by Carson and Owen and the other day's were ice cream cupcakes. The following week Owen was Star of the Week. Papa and Mimi came down for the weekend to watch the kids while Carson and I went to New Orleans with the Wrights. Mimi was Owen's special guest for reading the book of his choice on Friday during class time. Owen got to take monster cupcakes and Spider rice crispy treats for his snacks.

Monster cupcakes

Owen and Mimi




Owen with spider treat.




Batman (Papa), Carson, Stella, Owen, Isaac and Archie

After returning home from New Orleans the serious packing began all while trying to make the kids believe that everything was "normal" at home. (They were on to us.)

Stella found and reclaimed her love for her watermelon hat. She wore it for almost a week straight! Papa and Mimi returned a few days later to help us pack and move.

Papa with Carson and Owen in tow.

Stella loves her hat.

Good-bye old house.

We took the kids to see the new house the day before closing. They loved it. What a sense of relief for Carson and I. It made the moving process much better knowing they weren't angry at us for selling the only house they've known and loved.

Our new backyard.

Moving day was full of adventure to say the least. Carson and Owen were treated with "real chocolate coffee" as they call it and football doughnuts.

Chocolate coffee and doughnuts

We then took the kids over to the Hanna's one last time (officially as neighbors) to play while the movers emptied our old house. We already miss the Hanna's!

Wright kids and Hanna kids

Packing up.



Time to "get a move on."


Our stuff got moved from the old house to the new then it was time to figure out where to put it all. We are still trying to figure it out.

Where do we put this stuff?

Anyway, as you can see from the pictures the kids are very happy in our new house. We've seen lots and lots of smiles and heard lots of laughter.

First morning in the new house.

Mimi with the kids and Archie.

Now that we've turned the page on that stressful time in our lives (moving) we are almost back to normal ... with or without strep throat (as of today my three boys have strep throat). Carson and I took the kids to a place in downtown Wichita where they got to see lots of trucks, climb in them, honk horns and sirens, and pretend like they were driving. There were inflatables at this event. The boys loved jumping in the King Kong one. Check out Carson's picture (below).

What a jump!

Owen jumping.


Carson feeding a giraffe.

This week I took the kids to the zoo. The boys got to feed the giraffes while there. Carson loved it, Owen wasn't so sure about the big long giraffe tongue. The babies had nothing to do with any part of it. It was a beautiful day and we had a fun time.

Kids at the zoo.

Gee Gee came for a short visit this week. We all loved having her here! Thursday night we finally carved pumpkins. Stella tried eating the raw seeds, Isaac liked walking through the "guts" and Carson and Owen just couldn't get enough of the carving of the pumpkins. It was a good night!

Glowing pumpkins.