This is Max's reaction when he first saw the party decorations. He loved the huge Lightning McQueen balloon. That's what he's pointing to and talking about.

This is what Jack does now when we give him a bottle. He makes this face, scrunching up his nose, and then blows really hard in and out through his nose.

Hailey wrote her name using pretzels.

After the kids were done eating breakfast this morning, I got a couple buckets and filled it with some dry beans for the kids to play in. I gave them some measuring cups and spoons and they had fun dumping and filling the beans into different cups. While Jack was laying on the floor playing, he found his feet. They are now his new favorite play thing. During lunch, Hailey wrote her name with the pretzels. She was excited to show me it and said I should get my camera. While Max took his nap, Hailey made a birthday card for him. (See pictures below.) I asked her what color of construction paper she wanted and she said "yellow because it's Max's favorite color". We were out of yellow except for a small piece left over from a project. She said she would use white cause it's kind of close to yellow and then she would use the little piece of yellow paper to cut things out of to glue on. She asked me to cut a big circle and some hearts. Then she glued them on her card. She made a balloon out of the circle by drawing a long curly line. She said she wanted to write everything herself. She asked me how to spell I LOVE YOU. After she wrote that out she wrote Max above it. Then she asked me how to spell HAPPY BIRTHDAY. She wrote it all inside the balloon. She drew some pictures on the inside of the card and wrote hers and Max's names and then some other letters across the top. She told me it said "To Max. From Hailey. You are a nice brother." Hailey was excited to wrap her present that she got for Max. She wrapped it all by herself, even cutting the paper. She did such a good job. She folded the corners on the ends in just like I do. Then she cut a long strip of the wrapping paper and taped it on. She said "This is going to be the tail because I'm making a balloon present." This evening we got a babysitter for Hailey and Max so we could go out on a date and go birthday shopping. We took Jack with us. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner and then to a few stores. The restaurant was very busy. We had a long wait. Jack was smiling at everyone. He had fun playing with his bumble bee toy in his carseat while we ate our dinner.

Here is the birthday card Hailey made for Max.
Front and Back

Inside

The kids got washclothes and the spray bottle of water. Then they started cleaning the windows and mirrors. While they were cleaning, Max put on the fireman hat and Hailey put on the construction hat. It was so cute how they were talking to each other while working together. As Max wiped the TV, he said "I a firetruck boy cweanin sings (things). I gotta cwean do mobie (movie- what he calls TV) It is all deerdee (dirty). This evening we went with my parents to the candle walk. Chuck and Sue also came. We walked with our candles and sang songs. We had a nice time. Afterwards, Bruce and I took the kids through some of the shops. The kids really liked the toy store. Max played with the train table and Hailey played with the doll table. Jack was happy the whole time riding in his stroller. He sure loves it outside. We went and got some fudge and cookies. Then we went to the warming tent and listened to a band playing Christmas carols. We stopped at Burger King on the way home. It was after 9:00 when we left, but Max was still wide awake the whole way home. After reading some Christmas books, we tucked the kids in bed. Jack was very talkative and smiley when we were holding him on the couch. While I was feeding him he kept stopping to look up and give me more smiles. It was so cute.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Hailey and Max both came out and started playing with the Little People Nativity again right away this morning. We left for my mom's house around 11:00. Vikki and her family and Grandpa were already there. Kimmy and her family were in Georgia visiting with family. We sure missed them. As soon as we got there, Max ran up to Grandpa right and hugged him. He stayed there by him, leaning on his lap, smiling up at him and talking to him for quite awhile before he went to play with the toys. I was looking at the Toysrus magazine and Max came up to look at it with me. He took it and looked at the cars and train pages. He kept saying "I wike dat one and dat one and dat one..." as he pointed to different things. Hailey was begging to go play upstairs. I told her she had to wait cause I needed to feed Jack and she couldn't go up by herself. She went to walk away and then turned around giving me a hug saying "Your such a good mommy. I love you." Jack was getting fussy and was really tired but wouldn't fall asleep for me. I decided to just try laying him down in the crib awake. (He falls asleep for his naps at home in his bed but I didn't think he would without having his mobile to look at. I usually wind up his mobile once which makes him happy to be in crib. Then he talks to it until he falls asleep.) He stopped fussing as soon as I layed him down. I kept checking on him and he was wide awake just feeling the side of the crib. He did this for at least 20 minutes before falling asleep. My mom made turkey, stuffing, ham, mashed potatoes, squash, corn, orange jello, and rolls. We had pie for desert. Max sure loved the chocolate pie. He even licked his plate clean. It was all so good. After we were done eating, I put Max down for a nap. He was so tired and couldn't wait for me to lift him into the crib. He fell asleep right away. My dad stayed and watched Max while mom, Grandpa, Kenzie, Hailey, jack and I all went to the cemetery to put a wreath on Grandmas grave. When we got back, my mom and I took the kids downstairs to play. They enjoyed riding the cars around the basement. My mom and I looked through the sale adds for tomorrow. While we were downstairs, Bruce came. (He had to work until 4:00.) Max heard him talking upstairs and said "My daddy's home!" Bruce warmed up some food and then came downstairs with us. He looked through the adds with us. We stayed until about 7:30 and then went home to put the kids to bed. Jack laughed when I took his shirt off to get his pajamas on. He's been doing this every time I undress him lately. It must tickle him when I reach up to take it off. It's funny. He got very excited when I put him in the highchair to feed him his cereal. It was like he knew what was coming. And he opened his mouth wide as soon as he saw the spoon.

He liked stomping on the hard chunks of snow.

"Oh no, my wheel is bwoke. I gotta pix it."

Standing on his name.

"Look, I found a really good spot to hang my rainbow!"

The kids were excited to come out this morning and see the tree lit up. Max said "Do we got a tree in our house? Dat's funny." He calls it a "Cwiffor twee" I didn't know what he was saying at first and thought he was talking about Clifford. He got a little frustrated when I couldn't figure out what he was saying but I finally got it. After getting back from taking Hailey to school, I took Max outside to play. Jack was already bundled in his carseat so I had him out with us and he enjoyed the fresh air and watching us from his carseat. The snow wasn't packing good today so we couldn't make a snowman. He really liked riding his truck in the snow and getting stuck and calling Mator (that would be me) to come get him out. He kept doing it over and over. He also liked it when I wrote his name in the snow with my footprints. After coming inside, he ran straight for the Little People Nativity and played with it until it was time to pick up Hailey. Today Jack started crying whenever I walk away after talking to him. He'll be giving me big smiles while I'm standing there talking to him and as soon as I walk away or turn around he starts crying. But when I start talking to him again, he'll go back to smiling. He was doing the same thing with Hailey all day too. She would have him laughing and then get up to walk away and he'd cry. She'd come back and he'd get excited and give her big smiles. And before he cries he always makes a pout face. When Hailey got home, she was excited to show me all the stuff she made at school. She made a necklace and Indian hat. She put them on and asked me to take a picture. Then she showed me her cloud and rainbow she made. She hung it up in the kitchen window. It looks so pretty. Then she ran to the living room to play with the Little People Nativity. After eating lunch, the kids painted some pages in their Christmas water paint book. At 2:00, I put all three of them down for naps. Hailey was up late last night and she woke up a couple times in the middle of the night. She fell asleep very quickly, within a few minutes. I fell asleep on the couch for about a half an hour. Then I got up to do laundry and some cleaning. When Bruce got home from work, we left to go to some stores. We stopped at the coney dog place on the way. We had to do our grocery shopping and also had to get some things for Max's birthday party. He's getting very excited. Hailey is getting excited for her birthday too, but keeps asking why Max's birthday comes first when she was born first. She still doesn't quite understand the year thing. It's kind of hard to explain to a preschooler. She's been asking this question every year since Max turned a year old. We didn't get home until 10:00. We read another Christmas book before going to bed tonight. The kids were really good about going to bed even though we cut their bedtime routine a little short tonight. They are very excited to get to go to Nana's for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Hailey said "I got to get to bed quick cause I don't want to have to take a nap at Nana's. I want to have fun." Then Max said "Me too. I want to have fun too."