Thanksgiving dinner

For Thanksgiving we went over to our friend Joe's house. He and his two kiddos made the turkey and potatoes, and we brought the other stuff. :) It was a lot of fun. Ellie is a week younger than Hawken and in nursery with the boys. Kenny is a year older than Matix, but plays well with the boys. The kids had their own table, it was really cute and they were all very pleased.

Dinner was DELICIOUS and afterward (before dessert) we walked over to the park to play for a bit. The kids had a great time. Hawken figured out a new fun way to slide with his cast. You would think this thing would slow him down, but no. He keeps on going and going and going. His cast is FILTHY dirty and I want it off NOW. :)

Lullaby got some extra snuggles in with her daddy.

Family shot.

We got back to their house, ate some pie, the kids watched some Pixar shorts (we thought of you dad), Hawken and Lullaby crashed out on the couch, and the adults talked.

It was a very nice night and we left full as can be. Thanks Joe for a wonderful night. We have such good friends here in Miami, we will miss them.

story time

One of our Thanksgiving-y activities was to go to story time at the library a few days before. The teacher read a few books about Thanksgiving and she even had a stuffed animal turkey who gobbled to all the kids. Matix and Hawken loved it.

Then the activity was gluing paper feathers onto a turkey, and coloring it. Matix, the perfectionist, was there for the second longest time of ALL the kids at story time. He colored every inch of it and glued the feathers, and then re-glued them in a better spot a few times... :) He also peeled his crayons furiously. I remember doing that too, when I was little, because I didn't like the feeling of the paper seam.

Hawken glued his feathers on, quickly scribbled a little something in the middle and called it good. :) We snuggled for a bit, while we were waiting. Love him.

Lullaby was very content to sit in her stroller and watch. Smiling and flirting with anyone who would make eye contact with her. She is such a sweet baby.

Lully Bully Boo-we love you!

Yes, she is LOVED. But more importantly, she is TOLERANT. :) We love our new baby. The boys frequently ask to hold her and snuggle her and tell her how much they love her. It is oh soooo sweet to watch. This is the newest holding position, "just like daddy does it!" Paul snuggles her to sleep sometimes on his chest. Cute.

Everglades trip

This is how our trip to the Everglades went... We got in the car and were very excited. It was free because we went on Veteran's Day (State parks and National parks offer free admission every year on Veteran's day and the weekend after, FYI).

After driving QUITE a while and seeing NOTHING... We stopped for a potty break at this place, "Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters". That was the name, for real. It was the beginning of a scary movie. :) Well, that's what it looked like anyway, although the people there were wonderful.

They let us tour their exhibits for free (thank goodness for cute kids). Very cool, and a little spooky. There were snakes that could eat medium sized dogs, alligators, and tons of other equally scary creatures. The boys loved it. There was also this HUGE statue.

We kept driving and went all the way to Naples. Ate dinner and returned home having seen ZERO alligators in the wild. Apparently they are only out in abundance in the summer months... Hmmm... Maybe next time. :) It was a fun road trip anyway. Lullers was good for the ride and the boys were happy to watch a movie on the way home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What we are thankful for:

Paul:

1. my wonderful wifey (he said that himself, even though I am typing)

2. the family that's picking up our almost puppy tomorrow

3. fenced in parks

4. nephews named Goose "squooooooonky"

5. my brilliant children, I am so keen on them, NZ shout out holler!!!

-(I don't know why Paul's are so weird.)

Jessie:

1. our 3 perfect babies, I love them soooo much

2. my silly hubby

3. our families, even though we are so far away

4. thanksgiving dinner with friends

5. our church ward and the friends we have made here in Miami

Matix: (according to us)

1. puppies

2. sticks

3. anna

4. running

5. guns (although I disagree that this is one of his favorites...)

Hawken: (according to us)

1. candy

2. mommy

3. candy

4. daddy, matix and baby buh-bye

5. candy

Lullaby: (according to us)

1. kisses from brothers

2. cuddles from mommy

3. snugglers from daddy

4. walks in the stroller

5. getting held after a traumatic car ride (she hates her car seat)

We really are so grateful everyday, not just today. But, it's nice to have a whole day to talk about and really reflect on the wonderful, beautiful life that we have been given. We are so thankful.

Paul is 29!!!

Who knew 29 looked like this?

Happy Birthday Hubby! I wish today you didn't have to leave before the rest of us woke up, and I wish you didn't have class after your rotation until 9pm tonight. :( Not the most fun way to spend your special day. But when you do come home, we can celebrate again. I love you soooooooo much. And the kids do too. You're the best.

We celebrated last night when Paul came home. We had birthday muffins for him (the boys insisted that he would prefer muffins over cupcakes), sang to him, he opened his cards and gifts, and then Paul and I enjoyed a fancy dinner and dessert. Yum. Birthdays on a budget (money and time) aren't always spectacular, but they are still fun. Happy Birthday PAUL!

worst.day.ever.

As the title reads, today was the WORST DAY EVER. It was the worst in too many ways to count. It was bad in the morning when Paul and I argued over if he should take a shower (stupid fight, we made up after a couple minutes, don't worry). Then in the late morning, Lullaby got up early from her nap #1 (no fun), then we walked to the Goodwill store. Hawken threw a HUGE fit when we had to leave... Crying, limp noodle, tantrum... Lovely. I was already tired, so I opted to buy pizza for lunch. I was TRYING to make it easier on myself, but then their "hot and ready" pizzas weren't hot OR ready. We had to wait 10 minutes, which to toddlers may as well have been a few hours. The boys were cranky, and ready for bed. We finally got our pizza, got home and ate it. During that time the baby woke back up and needed to be held, and rocked, and diaper changed (twice), and fed AGAIN... During this time I was barking orders to the boys to get their under pants off and pull-ups on for naps and SOMEHOW, Hawken got out of his bed and fell weird on his leg. When he tried to stand up, he fell again because he couldn't put any weight on it. He still wanted to take his nap, so we all napped (this was the ONLY happy part of the day at this point). I was praying that when he woke up he would feel better and maybe it was just a sprain, but no. Of course not. Not today, the worst day ever. Today, it had to be something worse, and it was. We went to the ER at the children's hospital which thankfully is very close to our house. After being there just over 5 hours, we found out that in fact Hawken BROKE HIS LEG!! Crap. It is a small fracture on his right leg, they called it a "toddler fracture" and said it was a pretty common break for kids his age. It won't affect his growth and shouldn't re-break in the future.

He had x-rays done, picked the color for his cast (yellow) and got another x-ray after that to make sure it was set well. He can technically walk in it, but he is afraid to put pressure on it. When we were finally released and I told Matix to put down the Wii (apparently, he knows how to play the Wii, although we don't have one at home), he RAN FROM ME! What?! Lullaby was crying and wanting to be nursed in public (for what would have been the 3rd time that day) again, Hawken was in a general state of distress, but I had to run after Matix who was long gone and around a corner in a very busy and confusing hospital. FANTASTIC! I found him right away, some nurses had stopped him. He said he wanted to stay at the hospital, and at that point I thought about it... Hmmm.... Maybe only 2 kids would be better? :) Just kidding, but I was EXHAUSTED. I dragged him back to where my other 2 crying children were waiting ever so impatiently.

I somehow managed to get all 3 to the car. Then I got home, brought in our screaming baby, gave her to Paul to hold until I got the others. He of course, was in the SHOWER... (remember our fight this morning was about the shower...) Anyway, I got Hawken and Matix in from the car, and Matix informed me that HIS leg was now broken too. So Paul (having more energy and strength to deal with this and all the other ridiculousness that comes out of these situations with silly children), wrapped up his leg in a "cast" of toilet paper. Very clever, and it fooled Matix. This was the another of the good moments today.

The boys are now sleeping and I am basking in the silence and peace... FINALLY. I am soooooo tired. Today was the kind of day that I don't want to remember until I am MUCH older and wiser and have something good to get out of it. Right now, I just want to have my little pity party. Today was the worst day ever.

date night OUT

Our ward had a fundraising activity for the boy scouts. It was a dinner and a dance. The dinner was surprisingly AMAZING. We were mostly going to support the boys, but ended up having a wonderful time. Hooray! Family picture!! :) So far, all the family of 5 pics we have are at or just outside our church building, funny.

Matix and Hawken showing off their mad dancing skills. They are so fun.

Hooray a date night OUT! (Even if we did have to bring along the kiddos!)

I think they had just as much fun as we did, well, except Lullaby, she slept pretty much the whole time. She could have cared less where she was.

Hawken found Anna right away and ran around with her the whole time. The boys call her "my Anna" when they see her. So sweet. I think they are really going to miss her.

12 month project

So, with the initial idea from my friend Liz, I have started a 12 month picture project with little miss Lullaby... Each month I will take her picture with the coordinating number of objects. She was 1 month old in October, so I took her picture with 1 pumpkin.

Now it's November and she is 2 months old, so I want to take her picture with 2 of something Thanksgiving-y. This is where I need help. What 2 objects should I use for November? Turkeys? Leaves? Really, I want input. I am running out of November, so let me know soon. :) At the end of this project I am going to turn the series of pictures into a counting book for her 1st birthday present. So fun. What kid doesn't love looking at a book full of themselves? The actual page in the book will probably have words, like this maybe? Or maybe "one sleepy pumpkin"?I'm not quite sure what kind of layout I want yet. So anyway, leave a comment if you have a 2 month idea. Thanks!

Dress-up

No, this is not an old picture. This is from this month. Costumes and other dress up items have become a favorite of the boys. Costumes of any sort would be great gift idea for crafty grandmas... hint hint hint! :)

it's mutual

Some good old fashioned brotherly encouragement. Do you think they like each other yet? :)

playground tricks

As much as I love Paul and all the wonderful things about him, sometimes I am frustrated that the daredevil side of him is something that the boys have somehow inherited.... :) Both boys have new "tricks" they like to try out at the playground, climbing on TOP of the slide, and hanging from the TOP of the ladder, not my favorite.

our ALMOST puppy...

We already have a dog, Sakina, who will be rejoining us in Georgia in 5 weeks (the countdown begins!)... Soooo when we found this little guy, we decided it would probably be best to try to find him another home. He was tied up outside of the grocery store in the heat without any water with a sign that read "FREE". I waited as long as I could for someone else to take him, but no one did.

We got him some puppy food, a collar and leash, and kept him over night. He is very good, but not potty trained yet (YUCK). I posted an ad on craigslist and less than 10 minutes later I had a few replies. Apparently, he is a very desired puppy! We think he is super cute, and we would keep him if we couldn't find him a great home, but we did. So he is only our ALMOST puppy. :) The boys named him "Sarge" after the "Cars" character, and they both cried when I told them Sarge will be going to his new home soon. :( Even Hawken who spent the majority of last night terrified of him, has now warmed up and is devastated that I would take Sarge away from him. Good bye to our almost puppy.

Also, this is our 1,000th post!!! Cool huh? It took me a little over 3 years to do it, but I did it! So fun! Happy 1,000 posts to the Berg Family Blog!