I spy

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And with my camera-phobic kids, sometimes that means hiding with the camera if I want to catch them doing something cute. It's how I got video of them running on the couch when they were about 18 months old and then having a dance party a month later, it's how I managed to record a peekaboo giggle-fest between the girls close to their second birthday ... and it's how I was able to capture them playing "Ring Around the Rosie" today:



The best part? How Lucy asks Isaac to marry her at the end. The worst part? That I stopped filming just before Jude told Dahlia he would marry her. The funniest part? Gotta be Jude's choice of footwear!

Thinking of thanks

Last year on Thanksgiving I recorded what the kids said they were thankful for on that particular day. This year I continued the tradition by jotting down what they expressed thankfulness for on our way to Grandma and Grandpa T's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Here is what they said:

Isaac

Chick-Fil-A, White Castle (can you see a theme here?), and school

Lucia

Our kitty cat (of whom she is, incidentally, terrified), us, clothes, a house, and Christmas

Jude

My birthday (he's been talking about it all year!), my house, my church, and my teachers

Dahlia

Grandma and Grandpa, Bisabuelo, and Jesus (okay, I must be doing something right)

As for me, I am thankful for God's faithfulness and for the ways in which he has revealed himself to me so powerfully this year. I am also thankful for a husband who, despite having to work long hours, still finds time to balance the checkbook, maintain the house, and support me in any way he can. I am thankful for our church, which has enabled our family to grow in so many ways this year; for our parents, whose assistance has often kept us afloat since the kids came along; and for good friends who continue to give of themselves to help us clothe, teach, entertain, and love our kiddos.

And, yes, I am thankful for the little rascals themselves:

Posing outside Grandma and Grandpa T's house on Thanksgiving Day

 
(Even if they do continue to give me fits when I'm trying to get a good group shot!)

Being almost 4

Sometimes I forget how little you are,
That you haven't seen everything,
That, to you, the world is still new.
And then I do something ordinary,
Like blow bubbles with my chewing gum,
Something totally ordinary that,
Through you, becomes extraordinary.
And I'm reminded of the wonder,
The sheer wonder of being almost 4.

Sentenced

Seven months ago, Isaac shocked us by teaching himself to write words on his magnadoodle. Today, 6 weeks shy of his 4th birthday, he surprised us again by writing his very first sentence:

"It's my waffle"

Yeah, he got a little creative with the spelling of "waffle," but look closely: He knew to put an apostrophe in "it's"! That's my boy!

His brother also surprised me today, with a sentence of a different sort. See, on Monday I decided to start reading My ABC Bible Verses to the kids. But since they didn't seem too interested in the first entry, I kind of forgot about it for a few days. This morning at breakfast I had them repeat Monday's key verse with me a few times and figured that was that.

But that was not that: As I was serving lunch, Jude looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and confidently recited, "A soft answer turns away wrath." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just like that, he'd memorized Proverbs 15:1! That's my boy!!

Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of serving a life sentence as mom to these two incredibly precious boys!

Our first Halloween!

Okay, so it wasn't technically our first Halloween, but it sure felt like it. First jack o' lanterns? Check. First Halloween costumes? Check. First time trick-or-treating? Check!

We kicked off the season with our first trip to a pumpkin patch, where we went on our first hayride and got to pick out our very own gourds:

Then, as Halloween approached, we gathered around the kitchen table for our very first pumpkin-carving session:

The girls loved touching pumpkin guts for the first time:

But the boys were content to just watch:

And direct Mommy and Daddy:

"Mommy, take out the mouth!"

When we asked the kids what they wanted their first jack o' lanterns to look like, Isaac said he wanted a happy face, Jude a scary face, Dahlia a rude face, and Lucy? Well, Lucy wanted a happy face with eyebrows ... and hair ... and bangs. HA!

The finished results looked pretty good in the daytime:

Left to right: Lucy, Jude, Isaac, and Dahlia's jack o' lanterns

But our jack o' lanterns really came alive at night!

When the big day finally arrived, the kids couldn't wait to put on their first Halloween costumes. The girls asked to be "ballerinas in long dresses":

Dahlia and Lucy in ballerina costumes

And, thanks to Benny the Bull in Dora's Costume Party, the boys wanted to be slices of pizza:

Isaac and Jude in pizza costumes (sewn by Abuelita!)

Halloween night was frigid, but nothing could have kept these kids from going trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time!

And they're off!

All four of them had a ball ringing doorbells and picking out candy, and I think they had just about mastered the "trick or treat" and "thank you" routine by the time we finished our route. Many thanks to all of our neighbors who helped make our kids' "first" Halloween a great experience:

They had so much fun that they are already talking about what they will dress up as next year, on their "second" Halloween!