Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. We were able to spend it with 2 other families. It was a lot of fun. Great food and we played board games after dinner. The boys made these little turkeys for Family home evening this week. We had a lesson on being thankful and then they listed out some things... without help they said things like "Daddy... Jacob..." really sweet answers. It was fun. Then on Friday I spent the day out and about because Luis was taking his capstone exam for his masters... a 7 hour at home test... which meant I needed to keep the kids out for that time. Black Friday is not exactly the day I want to be out of the house for 7 hours, but we did what we had to do. I stood in line at Kohls for over an hour. Thank goodness I had no where to go otherwise I would've never stayed! :) The boys were unbelievably good and loved playing with all the toys lined up next to the enormous check out line. We had ice cream and played at Chick-fil-a. Went to Joann's... Walmart... Sam's Club (To return our dvd/bluray player which broke Thanksgiving night! Great timing to get a new one for $38 online!)... and Target. Whew! We were tired by the time we came home. So, we enjoyed some leftovers and put up our Christmas tree. We aren't going to be here for Christmas, but we wanted to bring the Christmas spirit in... so we put up our 6 foot fake tree and the boys decked it out with ornaments! Jake really wanted to put a star up... but we don't have one. So I stuck a little bow up there :) Can't wait for Christmas!!!

 

In the army now...

Today was a big day for our family. Luis was sworn in and commissioned as a reserve officer in the Army Medical Service Corp. This may seem kind of sudden to some... because we haven't been talking about it a lot. Luis has been in the application process for a while and finally got an offer last week. We made the decision to move forward this weekend and his ceremony was scheduled for today. We met at the recruiters office. We tried to explain to the boys what was happening... they thought it was pretty exciting that Daddy is going to be a soldier. His job will be healthcare administration. He will do trainings one weekend a month and a 2 week training once a year. Next summer he will have to go to officer training, which is 11 weeks long... so guess where I am going? That's right! Grandma and Grandpop better make some room! :) I am very proud of Luis for his desire to serve the country and hope I can live up to the strong military wife examples I have! Here are some pictures from the ceremony.

 

 

On a funny note... on the way home we were listening to the Christmas station and the song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" came on. The boys thought it was hilarious. Laughing out loud funny! They were cracking me up!

Remote Control Car

Grandma and Grandpop Gibson sent Jax a gift card for his bday. He bought a remote control car. It was so fun to watch Luis teach him how to use it. Jax picked it up really quick... probably from his video game experience. He LOVES it! And he even shared with his brother! Look how happy they are. Now Jake wants one for his birthday too!

Jackson Funny

Jackson came home from school today and told me that the pilgrims and the Lamanites were friends. :) I thought that was so funny. They must have seen pictures of the pilgrims and Indians and Jax thought they look like the Lamanites in our Book of Mormon story book! That's the best explanation I have! Very cute though... I wonder what his teacher would think if he said that to her!

Picking Battles

I like to pick my battles. For example, my kids always have chocolate milk... I just don't want to deal with the plain milk issue (partly because I love chocolate milk myself!). Fighting over wearing coats is also not one I like to engage in. It has become pretty cold lately... but especially this morning. It was 28 degrees when we left the house this morning. For some reason, Jacob has decided that he doesn't like jackets or sweaters. I don't get it because I hate being cold. But he would rather be cold than wear a jacket. I tell him he at least needs to carry his jacket. So that's our compromise. He doesn't have to wear it but he does have to carry it... in case he changes his mind. He did the other day at the bus stop. It was in the 50s and he was in shorts (his choice!) and he asked me to help him put on his sweater. I thought he might have learned from that experience. But no, we ran errands in temps below 30 and he was in a short sleeve shirt carrying his jacket :) Oh well, he never once asked to help him put it on. That boy has some tough skin. Jackson and I, on the other hand, were all bundled up in our poofy jackets! Definitely time to break out the gloves, scarves and hats!

Jacob Funny

Jacob doesn't drink very much. He's always been that way. We pretty much have to force him to drink and bribe him... to keep him hydrated (His lips are always chapped!). I was just telling him he needed to finish his water before bed... I said "You need to drink this water. Water keeps you healthy and strong." And he said "But I already carry big things" Meaning he thinks he is already strong because he can carry heavy things :) Too bad, so sad... strong man still has to drink his water!

Jackson is 6!!!

Happy Birthday to my big boy! Can't believe he is six! We had a lot of fun yesterday. We started the day off by having Jackson wake up to a room full of balloons. I should have had him wake up a little earlier so he had more time to play. I ended up driving him to school cuz he missed the bus.

 

 

 

Birthday breakfast = donuts! I tried to make it look like a 6. :)

 

And a new angry birds cup!

 

 

He got a sad face at school but I still let his friend come over and play like we had planned. They had fun with the balloons. Luis brought home pizza- Jackson's bday dinner request. The hat he is wearing is what he got at school. Oh, speaking of school. I was so upset because I brought cupcakes to school around midday for Jackson's class... and when I got there they told me I couldn't go in because Jake was with me! I was so annoyed. I know there is a rule that younger siblings can't be there for class parties and field trips... but this isn't a party... this is me bringing in cupcakes for 10 minutes! So I had to leave the cupcakes in the office and go home. So, I didn't get to see Jax enjoy his cupcakes with gummy worms. And I didn't get a picture :( Now I know... I see the purpose for that rule... but it feels like a dumb rule right now!

 

Jackson picked out this bright blue frosting! We all had blue tongues when we were done!

 

We face timed with Grandma Weger so Jax could open her present. She got him tracks and a big pack of cars! Always a hit!

 

Liz and Alan sent an awesome angry birds game where you can build the towers and knock them down with real angry birds... well, not real birds, but you know what I mean, haha. We tried it out before bed! Jax likes it but he doesn't want to play the rules... he just wants to knock them down! That's probably how it will go til he is a little older :)

 

Luis and I also got him a track... and a cute Boeing hat.

 

We are of course, expecting the card from Grandma and Grandpop Gibson... late in her usual fashion :)

 

 

 

If you can't say something nice

I have noticed that my kids are saying some things lately that aren't very nice... so I thought it was time they learned this lesson. For FHE I showed this video clip and talked about saying nice things. Both boys thought Thumper was very funny (see video below). I think they got the point. All day I have been asking the boys... What's our new rule? And they can pretty much quote it now... guess we will see if they put it to practice!

Black eye

This is what happens when Jax bothers Jake enough... Jake threw a car at Jax... not sure how big the car was but he threw it hard enough to give Jax a black eye!