Goodbye November.....birthdays and more!

November has flown by and I am finally getting some pictures up. We celebrated my birthday on the 1st and Matthew's birthday was the 21st. Glen was gone for his birthday so we celebrated a little early. Matthew is such a sweet boy and we are so glad we have him. He loves to run and jump and jump; I can't wait to have a house for him to have more space to move in. He is always telling me how much he loves me and he loves to cuddle up with me on the couch. It's good he can be so sweet because he still is very picky and strong willed and has his moments you could say. He loves to play with Taylor and his friends; he does not like to play by himself very much. He loves going to preschool once a week and right now he is taking a kids in the kitchen class at the YMCA that he likes. One of his favorite things is playing at the YMCA's gymnastic center; such a great thing to do in the winter. They have open hours once a week and he is always asking to go. Matthew is loving to draw and write these days which is so fun to see...I included a few of his pictures from the past few months. My favorite is his Christmas tree. I drew one first and I was shocked to come back into the room and see that he had drawn a tree that really was almost as good as mine. I am not very good at drawing!! We had a few of Matthew's friends over for a couple of hours and later as a family we went swimming. Matthew asked for tacos for dinner and a batman cake. We found Matthew asleep on the couch before 8:00....it was a fun day!!!

Pictures from left to right "I Love Mommy, Christmas tree, flower, rainbow, pig, "Happy Halloween," and a rose

Taylor wanted me to take a picture of her while we were getting ready for birthday cake.

Such a scary pirate with his hook???

He has been wanting this batman toy FOREVER. He wanted it last Christmas and I didn't want to get it by I finally gave in and got it for him.

Matthew loves riding his bike and we have to run to keep up with him sometimes. It is probably good are sidewalks are horrible because it slows him down a little.

Taylor woke up from her nap awhile ago and Matthew wanted to go get her by himself. When I went upstairs they were singing London Bridges. It was so cute!

Preschool group......we learned about China so we had a parade with our dragons.

Matthew wanted to make something a few weeks ago so we pulled out some pine cones we had and glued them all up and poured on glitter. Glitter is such a mess but Matthew enjoyed it.

With two of my favorite people on my birthday. My other favorite person was taking the picture....I was so glad Glen was home. More November and Glen updates coming soon.

Surprise!!!!

It is always fun to walk into a room and see what Matthew and Taylor are doing. Okay, it's not always fun....I sometimes find Taylor coloring on the couch or Taylor hitting Matthew in the face. But, a lot of times it is fun to see what they are pretending or what they have climbed into that becomes a boat, their home, or a spaceship. The pictures below were all places I found them except the one of them in the washer; I put them in there after I found them in the dryer. I especially love the one of them in Matthew's bed with all the animals. They were just laying there talking...they can be so sweet with each other sometimes. With Glen being gone so much lately I am so glad I have these two to play with all day! ( we'll see if I still feel that way after church...Glen left again this morning and my stomach is not being nice to me today) Have a great Sunday!

Matthew dragon and Taylor Princess

Our ward trunk or treat was a lot of fun despite Glen being gone. I felt I was just looking for Matthew every two seconds most of the time and after this was over I was happy to be done with Halloween. The kids had fun walking across the stage in the costume parade and of course getting tons of candy. About a week ago I threw most of it away; it felt so good to just get rid of it. Matthew wanted to wear his very fabulous dragon costume again this year and Taylor called herself a Russian princess. Glen's parents gave Taylor this very cute outfit after they got back from Russia. It was cute because sometimes before the kids go to bed we tell Matthew and Taylor stories about Matthew dragon and Taylor princess so it was funny they ended up in costumes to go along with something we have been doing for a long time.

Taylor skipping and dancing across the stage. There were a lot of cute little kids.

I caught Taylor with quite the face here; I promise she wasn't really this miserable the whole time.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It has been a fun week and we still have our ward trunk or treat tonight. The kids were really excited about carving pumpkins and we finally got them done. Matthew wanted an angry pumpkin and Taylor got a surprised pumpkin (thanks to Glen). Yesterday we went to our favorite trick or treating in Perrysburg. It has been so nice each year to go because it is during the day and just down both sides of one little street. I loved watching Taylor because she was so excited. Last year a friend took Matthew trick or treating because it was right after I got sick so this was Taylor's first real experience trick or treating. She ran and skipped the whole way doing her best to keep up with all of the big kids. She would run right up to the candy bowl or into the store and I could hear her say trick or treat very loudly. Every time she had to lift her candy in the air and say Mommy I got another one, or look Mommy, I got it! She would say that to me right after she got the candy and was usually not even looking at me and facing the wrong direction. She wouldn't stop saying it until she found me in the crowd and had me respond to her. Every piece of candy was just as exciting as the first one. Her bag was getting pretty heavy towards the end and I asked her if I could carry it for her. She said okay but made sure she got it right back to take to the next store. This picture describes her experience very well. She smiled the whole time! You can see how hard her little fingers are gripping her bag trying to keep it from dragging on the ground.

Some of the friends we went with

"I got it Mommy!!!!!"

Before we started we took a picture in front of the library; you can see Taylor already was eating her sucker that she got in the library.

With their friends Ikey and Zebby as Matthew and Taylor call them a lot of the time.

We dug out the pumpkins a few days ago but finally got around to making faces for them Friday morning before Glen left to Georgia. Glen once again is going to miss the ward trunk or treat. I am hoping we can go because Taylor has been coughing like crazy today. This girl has had a cough on and off for what feels like the last two months. It gets better and she can sleep and it gets bad again like right now I am listening to her trying to nap but she can't stop coughing. BLAH!!! Georgia weather sounds really nice right about now!! Hopefully Glen likes his interview their today.

We went to the zoo on Thursday with some friends and had some pretty scary but cute lions around us.

I am not sure what made this lion get sad but I think it is very cute.

Happy Halloween!!