Happy Thanksgiving!

We just came from a fabulous meal at the Kules house.  It was so yummy and so fun.  Hope everyone is having a great day with friends and family and counting all of our many blessings!!

A Fork in the Road and SkippyJon Jones

Joel has entered the inevitable and very annoying picky baby stage. It drives me crazy. Two months ago that kid would eat ANYTHING. Meat, veggies, fruit, etc. Now, almost nothing. His two current favorites are bananas and white bread. I'm fairly certain you cannot live on bananas and white bread, I'm also shocked the child can actually poop...(TMI?)

One almost sure fire way to get Joel to eat is with the use of a fork. Forks some how inspire him to try new things and even eat a few things that he wouldn't normally eat without one. Strange child, I know.

Joel has been super cranky lately. I hope/pray that is because he is getting new teeth. Look at this face it just screams "QUIT LOOKING AT ME!!"

On a silly note...you know this time of year is very dangerous for Turkeys...because of this we had to disguise a Turkey for Ethan to take to school.

Isn't our SkippyJon Jones turkey they cutest thing you ever saw!! Plus the boy holding it is pretty darn cute too!!

Maybe

Maybe when we finish the basement I'll do something like this:

Then maybe I won't feel so chained to the one set I have.  Don't get me wrong, I love my washer and dryer.  They are 1000x more efficient then my previous set and yet I feel like laundry is all I ever do.  Wash, dry, fold, wash, dry, fold....

Yummy Yogurt

Have you had these:  

Man oh man are they good!!  They are the Gerber Graduate Yogurt Melts, they come in strawberry, peach and mixed berry and they are DELICIOUS.  They totally remind me of the astronaut ice cream we used to get as kids.  They are a bit pricey for the amount you get (almost $3.00/bag at the Commissary) but we all love them!  Greg even says that if he ever deploys again that I need to put these in his care package!

Honking

Am I the only one who is glad that the elections are over?  Virginia is a battleground state, it's no joke.  We received knock after knock on our door and phone calls.  Signs were EVERYWHERE and the TV ads, my goodness!

On Tuesday morning I awoke early.  I hadn't slept well the night before, I was too excited to go and vote!  (Is that sad or extremely civic minded?)  I called my parents on my way to the polls.  It was barely 6AM when I made it to the school and the cars were everywhere.  No joke, there were probably 300 people in line in front of me when I got there.  Luckily, I only had to wait an hour to cast my vote and I must admit I rather enjoyed the election day camaraderie.  

After I voted, Greg and I began our pathetic trek around the city to get all the voting "freebies".  I picked up a free coffee at Starbuck's and then we headed over to get our free Krispy Kreme!!  YUM!!  We probably would have headed over to Ben and Jerry's for our free ice cream cone had Joel not vomited all over the backseat and himself.  (If at all possible do whatever you can to not have to give your baby a bath in a Target bathroom...I nearly threw up at the thought of it!)

On our way to Krispy Kreme we passed and honked at these McCain fans over by the Pentagon:

I love the guy in the middle, his sign says "Dudes for McCain".  Too funny!

Speaking of honking...the other day Gabe kept asking me why "Jesus honked at the grave".  For the life of me I could not figure out what he was talking about and kind of changed the subject.  Finally we were sitting in the kitchen and he very adamantly said...

G:  "Mommy, why did Jesus honk at the grave?"

M:  "Gabe, I'm sorry buddy I really don't have any clue what you are talking about"

G:  "You know, like in the song Mommy"

M:  "What song Gabe?"

G:  "Mighty to Save...it says Jesus HONKED at the grave"

M:  (light bulb moment...giggle...giggle...)  "No Gabe it says Jesus CONQUERED the grave, it means he beat it!  It means we get to go to heaven when we die if we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins"

G:  (sheepish little grin) "Oh...(under his breath)...Jesus honked at the grave (giggle)" 

Man, constant reminders that "little pitchers have big ears", huh?!  I'm glad he's paying attention!

Henan Doodles

Sam was only 17 months (exactly) when Ethan was born. Evidently "Ethan" is very hard to say as a toddler so Ethan became Henan, which for me became Henan Doodles. I don't know when we dropped this nickname, but it kind of makes me sad. It means he's growing up, he's not a baby. On Sunday, the 2nd, Ethan turned six. It's hard to believe I gave birth to him six years ago in a crummy little L&D room in Fort Riley. He has been trouble (all good) ever since! Here are some pics from his big day:

The cake. It's an edible light saber. We had a Star Wars theme if you couldn't tell! The base of the saber is made out of Rice Krispie Treats. The covering on it is Plastic Chocolate. It wasn't the best tasting "cake" in the world (very sweet) but it sure was fun to present him with it!

Blowing out the candles!!

The birthday boy!

Most of the Spencer clan. Joel was taking his siesta. Check out our blue teeth!

Daddy putting everything together with some help from some boys.

On Wednesday, Ethan had an appointment with the Pediatric Ophthalmologist at Walter Reed. They have been following him to prevent a lazy eye. More proof that my baby is getting older, check this out:

I'm not sure how we are going to be able to get him to consistently wear these (they are just readers for now) but isn't he cute! He picked them out and is very proud. We go back in six months and he may be getting bifocals then, YIKES!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN!! WE LOVE YOU!

Halloween

Obi Won (we joked that he was actually Jesus, creepy mask, huh?!  One neighbor actually said...are you some sort of religious figure?  HA!), Batman, Darth Vader, and a Cute Skunk

With all the loot!

My lil' stinker!  He had a blast doing Halloween.  His favorite part was twirling glow sticks!

Joel is finally standing and attempting to walk!  He pushed up to this all by himself!  Notice the candy on his front.  I had just recently fished a drooled on M&M out of his chest hair!