Christmas is coming!!

Okay, I'm a couple weeks late getting these pics up. Found our tree this year at what you can essentially call a drive-thru tree lot.  Drive in, you're handed the saw, drive around until you see the tree you want, park, then go cut it down, drive out, pay, and be sure to return the saw. Poor man's Apple Hill choose-and-cut experience. Nonetheless, it did the trick for us, and we found our big-but-not-as-big-as-last-year's tree. And, the boys got to see santa. 2 for 1! 

The tree!!

Someone was set on getting to hold the saw and helping to "cut down" the tree. (Fortunately some workers showed up with a chainsaw!)

Thankfully Baba and Dave came along for the now annual excursion. We needed all the help we could get to hoist that beast up on to the roof of the truck!

Arjen explaining the transformer he would like for Christmas, while giving Gus a little brotherly support. 

No screaming kid, but we were hard pressed to get anything remotely close to a smile from Gus. Arjen at least humored us. And Santa, well, looks like he maybe was ready for a break!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving was indeed happy this year!  We had another delicious dinner with a lot of family, with so much to be grateful for.  We missed having Grandpa and Grandpa Anderson with us this year, but know they were in good company back home in Wisconsin. We did have a new family member join us this year though…Miss Sloane! 

The Crossmans!

The boys did great this year, actually sitting at the table with us for most of the meal! As is our family tradition, we went around the table with everyone sharing something they are thankful for.  Generally this results in some happy tears as love is shared.  The boys kept it light however, Arjen was thankful for toys, and Gus thankful for AutoBots.  Guess we need to work a little on getting outside the egocentric circle of preschooler life.  

The heads of the table

Sorry for the blurriness here, but I was somewhat proud of my selfie skills! Missing Shannon, Sloane and the boys in this pic, but you get the idea…just a "small" group of 18 for dinner this year.  

As much as I love Turkey day itself, the day after is almost more my favorite.  Nowhere to rush to, the jammies can stay on for an extra hour, and these days, its fun to catch the proud Baba playing with all of her grand-babies! 

Making faces with Sloan-ie

Arjen tried negotiating for nap time under the leaves (or what's left of them)

Gus showing his creative imagination with Baba and the Moose autobots (incase you haven't picked up on the theme here, almost anything is worthy of becoming an autobot if it means Gus gets to play Transformers!).  They quickly turned into princesses Elsa and Anna though.  Frozen remains a close second behind the Autobots!

Thanks to all of our family and friends, near and far, for sharing your lives and love with us!  We are grateful to have you in our hearts!

Reading Rainbow

The boys have been obsessed with Transformers lately.  To say obsessed is to put it mildly.  Arjen got a Transformers RescueBots book for his birthday, and it has been read every night since.  Along with a Decepticons book kindly passed on from their cousin.  One night this past week, Arjen said he wanted to read it.  And so he did, sort of.  The memory on this kid is amazing.    Little did we know that Gus was also ready to start "reading." 

These videos are uncut and lengthy, but how do you delete bits of your children "reading" a book out loud for the first time?  

So you think you can dance?