Photo dump time

I've been so scattered that Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating are all becoming part of this photo dump post but it is what it is. 

When Miles naps, this is what Charlie and I do....there are so many leaves and this is before even half of them had fallen. 

Then there are the times when Miles is awake.

The Monday before Thanksgiving, we pulled out the Christmas decorations and trimmed the tree.  The boys were the most excited about the box

I know a lot of these photos have ended up blurry recently but I really have been trying harder to capture memories and not take perfect photos...(assuming I have ever taken a perfect photo...haha)

Then there was a day when I loaded up the boys to go do piano lessons at my student's house. It was 5pm and Charlie fell asleep on the way, I carried him in and laid him on a chair. He slept during the whole lesson. When we were done I carried him back to the car and he slept the whole way home. I thought it might be my chance to get a photo of him sleeping under the tree just like HERE. He woke up right after I set him down but this is what I got.

I took ZERO photos during our Thanksgiving festivities. SO I will briefly summarize what we did. Max got a 4-day weekend which was pretty wonderful! Thanksgiving day, he left in the morning to go play football with the men from church. When he got back we went out as a family to rake and blow leaves and fill the yard debris. We then came in, Miles had a nap and I got in a great pre-dinner workout. After getting ready, we went to my Red Grandma's house shortly before 4pm and feasted. We decided to simpify our lives and not try to visit everyone and eat everywhere. So we only went to my Red Grandma's on Thanksgiving day and to Max's family get together the next day. In the past, we've had up to 4 Thanksgiving dinners. Yikes. We enjoyed spending a long morning and afternoon at home together on Thanksgiving day. We had fun at Red Grandmas house and watched some football and Charlie ran around playing shoot 'em up games with my cousins.

The next morning the boys slept in a bit which was great and refreshing. Max worked on the property for awhile and Charlie and I made rolls. We then got ready to go to Max's Unlce Jays house. We got there right in time for dinner. We had fun eating then the tables were cleared and all the boys just went at it in a massive wrestling match. It got intense but it was fun for Charlie to be involved in the tradition for the first time. It is one of Max's favorite memories.

On Saturday, Max and I had a lot of projects we wanted to get done around the house. So we invited his parents over to play with the boys while we cleaned the gutters and I put Christmas lights up on our house. Max wouldn't let me put lights up last years because he didn't want me on the roof being all pregnant. Haha, Now I wish people will actually see our house, but you wil never see it unless you come over...or if I take a picture.

Then there was the day that a huge snowstorm was expected, school was canceled, roads were closed and we barely got a mist of snow and ice. Haha. 

And I decided to take Charlie to go get his first real haircut. I'm still deciding if it was worth it. I think Max can cut his hair just as well. But Charlie had a good time. 

Yes these photos are out of order but we were testing which lights would work for the house.

Another attempt at making potty training fun. He is getting so close. He didn't really get the idea of the sticker chart though, he kept taking the stickers off. I'm hoping by the end of the year he will be mostly trained minus bedtime. It is one of our 2014 goals

Then we had a family outing to the pool since Max didn't get to go with us on Charlie's birthday. This is the only photo we took. Miles was so calm and content the whole outing and these chairs are so funny.

For one of our Thanksgiving dinners I decided to curl my hair and Charlie wanted to try out the curlers.

Miles starts "under the tree" photos.

Then this happened to my hair.

We've been practicing a lot of things on our white board. Here Charlie was working on the letter B. He's been doing really well with A so we decided to move on. 

Charlie talks about the Elders and Missionaries a lot so we decided to pull out a bunch of our mission stuff for family night and talk to him about our missions.

And then there are the everyday things like playing under a blanket with your brother and a flashlight.