Getting the "perfect" Christmas card picture

We're pretty sure the perfect picture doesn't exist, but we did end up with a couple of usable shots for our card, despite all of this drama!

Meet Miguel

If you're not familiar with "Elf on the Shelf" and you have kids, you should definitely become familiar with it. (You can go here to learn more about it.) Mum-Mum bought the elf for us last year, but we didn't think Micah was quite old enough for the tradition - and we knew Liam wasn't.  But this year, we thought Micah could really grasp it.  And has he grasped it.
Meet Miguel.

Miguel is our elf on the shelf. The children who adopt each elf are supposed to name him/her.  When you go to register your elf online and get his official adoption certificate and letter of congratulations from Santa (yes, you can really do this), you can see the top twenty elf names.  Among the top names are Buddy, Elfie, Charlie, Snowflake, and Jingle.
Miguel is not one of them.
Micah has a friend in daycare named Miguel and he must have been on Micah's mind when we talked about naming the elf.  But we're all about encouraging creativity and that's the name Micah chose, so Miguel it is.  After all, this is the boy who named one of his action figures Sloppy Joe.  Not after G.I. Joe. After the actual sandwich.
So if you're not familiar with the tradition, Miguel sits out of reach of the children all day and watches them.  Kind of creepy, I know.  He then flies to Santa each night and reports on their behavior before flying back and resting in a different spot for the next day.  So the fun part is to find Miguel everyday and be extra good so that Miguel tells Santa only good things about Micah and Liam.  Also, if Miguel happens to fall from his perch, the boys know that he is magic and if they touch him, he loses all his magical powers to report back to Santa so there is no tampering with Miguel.
Here's Miguel, next to the Treasure Bucket of stuff we keep on the off chance that Micah stays dry all day and gets a reward.  Interestingly enough, that bucket is Frankenstein, leftover from Halloween, and I didn't notice until I went to post these pictures that it seems like Miguel is making googly eyes at Frankenstein and Frankenstein looks pretty happy about it.  Again, kinda weird.  Thankfully, Miguel is in a different position tonight.

Thanksgiving

We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving.  Our tradition is to have our friends Derek and Rebekah (and any stray nieces, nephews, or children they might want to bring along) to our house on the actual day, and then we go to their family gathering on Friday.  Two dinners, and only one time cooking!  It's a good deal, and good to be with awesome people twice.

This year, Liam and I missed the Friday dinner at their house because we both had some sort of a vague flu bug.  We're better now, but bummed to have missed out on the Maul festivities.  We're already looking forward to next year!
Here are some memories from this year's Thanksgiving.  The boys enjoying their pre-Thanksgiving-dinner snacks.  You know, warming up their stomachs for the big meal to come.

 

Before...

...and after! Yum. My.

While the turkey was cooking, we had to rearrange the furniture to make space for the extra long table.  It necessitated pushing the chaise together with the sofa, which happened to create a rather awesome tunnel that perfectly fit two certain little boys who had fun crawling in and out the rest of the day.

Micah was particularly happy about this cool new space.

Our table, sans food (except the appetizer), set and ready to go.  Sorry about the wrinkles in the tablecloth.  I have an APB out on our iron, which has been MIA for several months now.  We need it back ASAP for our stuff that's not WF.  (Okay, I don't think that last one - which is "wrinkle free" - actually counts as an abbreviation but I was caught up in the idea.)

The Publix Pilgrims hold the salt and pepper, and guard Micah's hat, which served as table decoration.

Remember this guy from the preschool Thanksgiving dinner?  One of the cool things about kids is that their artwork becomes centerpieces.

Tim, in his traditional Thanksgiving-wear Hawaiian shirt, doing the honors in carving the turkey.

I'm totally grateful for our family, for our two (mostly) healthy boys, our jobs, our house, and all of our blessings.  I'm not so thankful for that stray piece of hair on my forehead, but overall life is pretty darn good.

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast!

Friday was Thanksgiving Feast time at the Preschool!  With Liam in daycare this year, Mommy and Daddy got to focus all of our attention on Micah.  Here was his table setting that he made.

And he got a placemat again this year, this time of Pilgrim Micah.  We used last year's well into the spring.

Mommy and Pilgrim Micah at the feast.

Daddy and Pilgrim Micah, who at this point was experiencing some angst about going to his new school.  I think that he just didn't want to leave his feast.

Is that Micah's teacher or the flying nun?  (We love you, Ms. Michelle!)

Who knew that the Pilgrims and Indians ate cupcakes with chocolate icing?

Wordless Wednesday

First school project

Micah had his first school project about a week ago.  His task?  To disguise a turkey so that he didn't get caught for Thanksgiving.  Pretty clever, I thought.  Then I read the directions, which said: "Please be creative in your ideas.  DO NOT just color the turkey."  And they actually had the capitalization in the instructions - I didn't just add that for emphasis.
The interesting thing about that is that, this being Micah's first time disguising a turkey, I thought any idea that he came up with should be counted as pretty creative.  As for the second part of the instructions, you know what that means: parents, since your child is only starting to learn to cut and needs diligent supervision with glue, be prepared to disguise a turkey.
Tim and Micah talked about what Micah wanted to do and I guess since this assignment came right after his first trip to the dentist, the experience was fresh on his mind.  So Micah decided that he wanted to disguise his turkey as, "Micah going to the dentist."  I actually thought that was pretty creative.
So we did lots of searching online for pictures.  First we found Buzz Lightyear shoes, just like Micah has.

Then we found a yellow shirt and added a paper towel bib.

We found blond hair just like Micah's, and a pair of sunglasses similar to what he wore while in the dentist's chair.

We even found a picture of the exact book that he received from the dentist.

 Then Micah wrote his name at the top.

Final product?  Here it is!

Pretty close to the original?

The master of disguise, displaying his work.  While I ended up cutting almost everything for him (an investment in child-friendly scissors is in our future), he did all the placement and gluing himself.  I don't see a turkey in that picture, do you?

Seven Word Saturday

First time standing on a lawn chair

(Well, Liam should get to play the "first" game too!!!)

First t-ball game

Micah's first T-ball game was last Saturday.  It was the coldest morning in the history of Florida.  Naturally, it was also team picture day.  So below are the frozen Gray Rays, trying their best to thaw before the big game, after the big pictures.  Micah's buddy Lloyd is sitting next to him.

See how cold it was?  Liam's nose was turning red, his hands were turning purple, and his lips were turning blue.  What a cute little popsicle.

Daddy helping Micah out in the field.  Notice that, despite the low temps, the sun was particularly bright so Micah did what was natural - he took the glove off, held it in his opposite hand, and shielded his eyes with what was supposed to be the gloved hand.  I'm bringing his sunglasses this weekend.

Check out the chaos that was our team in the field while the other team was batting.

These are the coaches trying to corral our team members.  But check out who is actually paying attention in this picture, to the right of the team?  It's Micah (and Daddy), who already seems to take more to t-ball than he did to soccer.

 Coach Chris helping Micah his first time at bat.  If you zoom in...

...you'll notice how his little tongue is sticking out in such concentration.  Thanks to Mum-Mum Williams for passing on that genetic quirk.  Who knew it skipped generations?

While we don't have a picture of his actual first hit, suffice it to say that he was definitely bunting.  The ball dropped a few feet in front of the plate, but he ran towards first, dropping the bat along the way, just like he was supposed to do.

The helmet was a little big.  Despite how prepared the first basewoman was, there was no throw to bag and he was safe.  To be totally fair, there weren't any throws to any bags all day, so everyone got on base and everyone got to cross home plate and score.

Getting ready to run to third, still struggling with the helmet.

And he's off!  The cutest runner ever.

Liam was so thrilled with how his big brother played, that he conked out in the car.  He just couldn't take all the excitement.

Micah looked pretty tired himself, but he refused to take off his cool glove.

(By the way, in case you're wondering how cold it really was, temps were in the low-50's. Brrrrrrrrr...)