Chopping down our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

The Friday after Thanksgiving we ventured into the Coloradian woods to chop down a Christmas tree with another couple who has done it for many years. All that is required is a ten dollar permit and you can choose any tree, any size you want. The kids had fun venturing into the woods to find the family tree. Needless to say, we found a great Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The girls chopped it down with a little handsaw and Sarah carried it back to the Chuckwagon. Our tree and our friends' tree both fit in the back of the van!

No trees in here, Mom and Dad!

The girls chopped our tree and Fletcher worked on our friends' tree. Fun, fun!

The thing with CO is they actually like you to remove the "extra" trees that grow wild and just serve as more kindling if a forest fire breaks out. You just drive anywhere within the designated area and get any tree you want for each $10 permit you've purchased. There is not an actual tree "farm" like Charlie and I did our very first year of marriage. The trees were in relatively straight lines and were fairly plump. We did choose the only UGLY tree that farm had...Charlie had his heart set on the "Charlie Brown tree" and we did choose the scrawniest one they'd grown. The worker actually chopped it down, though. We just pointed to it. We did end up loving that tree once we got all the ornaments on it...not so this year!! Our tree is hilarious looking! Don't think "love" is the word for how we feel about this year's tree...more like, "nag." It is so REEEdiculous looking!

Three month Noah

Little man is so sweet! His new trick is cooing. He's been smiling for well over a month (since like six weeks old), but now he verbalizes with his big grins. It seems like he is trying to answer back when we talk to him! He makes little agha's and uhhun's while smiling so cheerfully at us. It melts me. He is such a joy!

Noah is now enjoying his swing for longer intervals. He has always been a good sleeper in his bassinet, although he is a tummy sleeper (ahhh, I know he's not supposed to!) He just made the 12 hour plus car ride to the Grand Canyon and then Las Vegas and Arches National Park with no problem at all. What a trooper! One day (while he was struggling with a cold and super congested nose) he didn't eat for like 10 hrs. which freaked me out a bit....cuz' he's an eater!

The kid doesn't miss many meals. To have basically gone from bfast to evening without accepting any of my attempts to nurse him was a bit concerning so I was soooo thankful when he finally felt like eating again....my body was VERY thankful, too! So Noah had his first cold at two months old which was a bummer. He was so little to be struggling with that much snot! He'd have wet spots under his face that would wake him up and he'd be so ticked off! The snot prevented him from breathing well and he'd wake up choking on it and gagging like he was going to sufficate. It was terrible!!

At three months Noah is trying to grasp toys for the first time. He is swatting at a few baby toys the kids give him.

We are thankful for...

Our Thanksgiving "tablecloth" (cream bedsheet) was a place to record what we were thankful for this year. The kids were able to draw pictures and write notes about what they were thankful for right on the sheet. Mommy and Daddy had prepared notes about why we were thankful for each child and left the notes at each child's spot around the table for them to find in the morning when they first got up. The kids loved reading their notes about why we were thankful for them. We went around the table at our breakfast meal and took turns reading the notes out loud for all to enjoy. The kids then decided to hang them up for us to remember throughout the week. Their turkey handprint art and our thankful notes adorned the walls this week until we replaced them with some Christmas decorations. Fun, fun!

Sarah was thankful for her "hole" family, friends, teachers, her home and belongings, and God. She was particularly thankful for her super sweet art teacher, Ms. Kendra, from her Monart class on Tuesday nights. I'll post some of her finished pieces soon (they're so fun).
You can't read it on the wall behind Sarah but on Mommy's note apparently Noah wrote that he was thankful for Mommy's boobs! Our Daddy is soooo silly! Our family got kicks out of this but then forgot about it until after our first round of visitors left. We laughed thinking about what this couple must have thought as they read that. After that, Charlie just pointed it out to the other guests (all his guy friends!) much to my embarassment. :) Oh well!
When asked, Tommy said he was thankful for Daddy. Then after a three second pause, "And Batman." :) So both Daddy and Batman got drawn on the tablecloth. Fletcher was thankful for his family (and he drew each of us) and "nice friends" (so he drew some buddies from school).
Paris was thankful for Mrs. Appel (pronounced "apple"), her Kindergarten teacher. She drew a cute picture of her on the cloth.

Brothers Bonding

Tommy assumes that Noah will love Star Wars as much as he and big bro Fletcher. "Noah, you grow up, you watch Dar Vader, me!!!" (translated: When you grow up, Noah, you can watch Darth Vader with me.)

Tommy showing Noah how Jabba the Hut's trap works. Batman demonstrates the fall into the pit. Noah can wear Tommy's Christmas outfit from Gammy. She was so cute and got these for Tommy when he was almost nine months old. Noah just turned three months, and the outfit is working for him just fine! I loved that Gammy got this for Tommy to wear to church for his Christmas outfit....I called her and asked, "Did you know they were jammies?" She was shocked and said, "No! I thought it was his Christmas outfit." Well, Tommy sported those jammies to church every weekend in December and lots of days in between because we loved them so much. Now Noah gets to wear them, too. LOVE hand-me-downs!!! Especially ones with great memories attached with them!

Arches National Park- November 23, 2010

Charlie with Noah: Aug. 22 & Nov. 22, 2010

Kids at the South Rim