What A Year Christmas Card

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Conversations

I love how Graham talks. It took him a while to get started, but now I think that makes us treasure it even more. Here are some of his conversations lately.

Me: Grammie said that you are getting to be such a big boy lately! You aren't fussing and throwing fits like you used to.
Graham: I throw fit in bathroom today.
Me: Oh. I guess you did.
Graham: Mommy forgot about that.

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[Around the campfire last weekend with Kim and Chris. Told by Aunt Kim after Graham moved his chair away from the fire and sat by himself.]
Kim: Graham...
Graham: I right here!
Kim: What are you doing?
Graham: I watch fire.
Kim: Do you see all those stars?
Graham: Those not stars. Those airplanes.
[later, as the clouds roll in.]
Kim: Look! The stars are gone. Where did they go?
Graham: Home Depot.

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And finally, after years of Graham's screaming fits when I clip his toenails, I finally discovered how to get him to sit quietly through the process--save the clippings in a little bowl for him to look at. Seriously, he was even encouraging me to cut more.

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By the way, if you are ever wondering why we don't have more pictures and videos of Chase, it's because every time we grab the camera to catch him doing something cute, he stops what he's doing and starts crying or runs away. This phase will not be well-documented, but hopefully we'll move out of it soon.

Flips and Rice Krispies

Halloween

Here's our belated Halloween post...

The kids all had different reactions to the process of trick-or-treating. It was a cold night, so Gabriella wasn't thrilled about riding around in her stroller (that's fair, since she technically wasn't wearing pants.) Chase took it all in stride, although he got tired of walking (no pun intended). Graham was totally, totally freaked out by other people in costumes, which was unexpected. He was thrilled with the candy, though, and I think that's the only reason he kept going.







On Halloween night, we were sitting down to eat dinner when Graham started yelling "Tractor! Tractor!" Sure enough, the church behind us was having a Trunk-or-Treat event. With the promise of a hayride, Graham reluctantly pulled on his dragon costume and went out for a frigid ride and another bucket of candy. We now have enough to last us until Easter 2012.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

Into Everything

Gabriella is very adventurous lately and has been getting into everything. Here she is with the Ziploc bags:



I planned to put the Bumbo down in the basement, but of course as soon as I had it out, that's all they wanted to play with. Gabriella turned out to be particularly adept at crawling in, with one leg still sticking out.



And here is her favorite way of sitting in her highchair. She likes to turn her foot in circles, which makes it look really... weird.



Playing outside on one of the last nice evenings of the year...

Who needs pumpkins?

We went to a local pumpkin patch on Saturday with our refreshingly energetic and extremely patient friends Adam and Jayme. Turns out, the kids didn't care much about the pumpkins at all. Imagine that.

Here's Graham sitting on the antique tractor:



Chase painted a pumpkin, and Gabriella really wished she could help:





Going down the "giant" slide. I was disappointed in its height, but whatever:




Playing in the corn box:





Heading through the corn maze:



Our fearless leader:



Their favorite activity was the barrel train ride. Will was a little cramped, but the kids loved it:





And finally, riding a cow: