We Were Thankful

Technically we still ARE thankful, but this was how we remembered our gratitude during November.

After we started piling up our leaves I thought it would have been fun to make a leaf out of a bunch of leaves. Kent spoke before I could and decided that he wanted to line up all his blue ones and then make them connect to a line of leaves from the other side. So let it be written. So let it be done. The leaves were just cut out of cardstock using my Silhouette and we taped them to the wall. Easy peasy. I might choose fewer leaf types next year (if I remember).

Some favorites from the leaves:

Jason is thankful...
-for bed time
-for his eternal family
-for the occasional overtime
-for the right to bear arms
-that Mary gets to park in the garage
-for a stapler

Mary is thankful...
-for Costco samples and happy kids
-for chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese
-for fabric
-that my talk in Sacrament meeting is over
-for an early morning jog on a beautiful day
-for smiles

Clark is thankful...
-for spending time with family
-for school
-for watching a movie
-for Minecraft
-for stinky farts (hey...we should be thankful in all things, right?)
-for turkey

Kent is thankful...
-for doing Christmas lists
-for singing
-for the letter "t" and coaches
-for doing up and over (to get his coat on)
-for my Wolverine costume
-for big football guys and small, tiny, tiny football guys

Kara couldn't contain her gratitude to a little leaf. :)

Let There Be Leaves

For some reason Veteran's Day seems like the perfect day to play in the leaves. This year it was a little misty in the morning but we went out and played a little bit anyway!

Check out our previous leaf fun: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

Leaf-tastic

I want to remember this day. Not just because Isaiah came and raked up my leaves (which was SOOO nice!) but because I love the smiles and the laughter and the friendship shared by the boys. It's so good to see them playing together as brothers and having a good time doing it. So if I ever say that they never get along, just remind me that there was that one day in November when they had such a great time together.

Isaiah doing all the hard work...

The boys "raking" in all the fun. Isaiah had this brilliant idea to put the pile of leaves at the bottom of the slide so they could all slide into it. What a blast!

Isaiah did get to play too and loved every minute of it.

Face first...seems like a reasonable idea to me!

Kent - knee deep in leaves and loving it

Clark - buried alive and also loving it

The boys decided to try to use this tunnel for some fun with leaves. Clark and Kent were able to get through okay, but when it was Isaiah's turn, he really got stuck. Oh we had some laughs over this one.

Clark decided that playing dead in the leaves was one of his favorite things to do. I often found him like this in the pile of leaves.

And of course, Kent's day isn't complete unless he whacks something with a baseball bat. He started whacking first then he tried to swing at the leaves as I threw them at him. It was more an exercise in frustration than anything else.

Oh the happy boys. Remember...that one day in November!

Piles of Smiles...or not

Another year where Kent is not entirely sure about playing in the leaves. Clark, on the other hand, did me proud with his leaps and bounds into the leaves!

First we rake the leaves. We couldn't find our leaf rake, so this one had to make do. Clark was all about posing with his "weapon."

Then we put Kent in the leaves. Maybe we should have eased him in, but it's such a cute little sad face! I actually thought he was going to like the leaves, but nope. So I asked Clark to jump in our pile. He did and Kent watched with rapt enthusiasm. You can see him trying to mimic the jumping techniques in the background.

Clark took a few more awesome leaps!

Then it was Kent's turn to try.

Then we threw some leaves around. Kent didn't get too  mad at Clark throwing them at him all the time. He is a patient little brother. Most of the time.

I tried in vain to get a shot of the two of them smiling at the camera. Or even just looking. Instead they inspect leaves and that's okay too.

Where have I been?

It all started back in September... I'm now 15 weeks, due June 6.
Then there was Spoon River in October...

Picking out gourds...

On the way home...

A day at the zoo with Ali and James - Clark's playgroup buddies!

He's got a bit of a crush on Ali. Always has. This was her first advance toward him - she held out her hand for him to hold. He was beside himself.

At the pumpkin patch - Clark picked out a 37 lb. pumpkin. I thought the 8 lb pumpkins looked good, but he tends to think like his dad.

Jason got to pick out the costume this year for Clark. Of course he chose He-Man. Doesn't he realize what a mess it is to sew faux fur - of course not. I have to admit that Clark was one cute He-Man though!

He loved the whole experience of trick or treating too! Who wouldn't?

I love this picture of James, Ali and Clark at McDonald's!

Clark playing in the leaves - he doesn't like them. I couldn't get him to smile for the life of me. So we'll pretend this action shot is actually him having a great time.

The New Zoo aka: Lincoln Park Zoo. Clark loves to talk about the bear sleeping in the log and the chimpanzees. You know, the old zoo doesn't have those things.

Ali and James have a membership to the Shedd Aquarium and took us for a fun day! Clark loved dressing up in the penguin costume, climbing up the penguin rocks, and sliding down the icy slopes!

Merry Christmas Chicago style! Kristkindlmarket - yummy potato pancakes!

Lunch at the Walnut Room at Macy's on State St. (it will always be Marshall Field's though). Here's Josh getting a wish granted by the Snow Princess.

Dinner at Lawry's with the carolers - Dave even gave an impromptu performance singing part of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

And there are no pictures for the main reason I've been MIA. Jason would kill me if I took any pictures of him in the hospital. It all started 11.10. Jason started feeling really sick on the way home from Michigan. We thought it was the flu, so he rested for the weekend. Monday came and he still felt horrible, so I took him to Immediate Care. They sent him home telling him he had the stomach flu. Tuesday morning he woke up at 2 AM and said we had to go to the hospital. We went to the ER, and after 9 hours of tests and waiting, a possible gall bladder surgery, and more waiting, he was sent home with some antibiotics to treat pneumonia. He wasn't getting any better, so on Friday, we decided he needed to see the doctor again. The doctor sent him for a chest x-ray. The x-ray came back worse than the one he had on Tuesday, so they admitted him to the hospital. By the next day, the pulmonologist decided to move him to the ICU. He stayed there for a couple of days - not improving. Finally, on Monday, they decided that surgery would be necessary to get rid of the infection around his lung. Fluid had developed inbetween his lung and the lining of the lung. This fluid then turned to gel. During the surgery, they would spread his ribs and scoop out all the gel from around his lung and give his lung a nice wash. Surgery was scheduled for Tuesday...all went well, and the pneumonia started improving almost instantly. He was in pain from the surgery, but breathing was not quite as labored. He spent Thanksgiving in the hospital and ate Cheerios for dinner. His mom brought him some Thanksgiving dinner, but he just didn't have much of an appetite. Friday night he was sent home to recover for the next 6-8 weeks. He's been home 2 weeks now and is doing much better. He's up and walking around and managing his pain pretty well. I'm kind of excited that we'll all be home for the holidays together. Surely this will be a holiday season we'll never forget (and never want to repeat)!!
The best part of all of this was the outpouring of love that I felt from family and friends all over the world. I was lifted up by all of the well wishes and prayers that were said on behalf of Jason and our family. All of the emails, facebook messages, blog comments, phone calls and visits comforted and strengthened me. Thank you so much!!

Splendor in the Leaves

My mom named the post...ask her! We had such fun playing with Clark in the leaves. I am not sure if liked it as much as we did.

Note: These photos have not been altered in any way. His cheeks and chins are really that size!