So Thankful

As my pumpkin pies bake in the oven, our house smells goooooood! Aaron, always my helper in the kitchen, likes to pull up a stool to the oven window. He went to bed wishing for some pie. Hopefully tomorrow he will realize it's worth the wait! :) Tonight when we were pouring the pie filling into the crusts, he said, "Mom, you are so lucky! You get to smell all of these good smells all the time!"

This month we've been sharing what we are thankful for each night during dinner. Beyond the usual answers--family, friends, home, etc...we've come up with some other responses.
Aaron: restaurants, deer season/cutting and skinning deer, a daddy who hunts a lot, chairs and table, and "I'm thankful that I am a person."

Speaking of deer season...

Derek and his doe

For a solid week, Derek hunted with his dad. He also took Kaleb along on two hunts, and Braylen on six hunts. On that sixth hunt, Braylen got his first deer. We were all so proud of him! One shot!

Braylen and his doe

With 5 deer to process this time, we needed all of our helpers. Here are my favorite pictures. :)

I'm pretty sure Kaleb is just smelling the meat--not licking it.

The crew!

I even brought Aaron home from school during lunch one day, since he loves to watch the skinning process.
He just sat there with his lunch and watched Dad and Grandpa work!

What a week! Besides deer, Derek's been busy working on his new purchases. Three new-to-us ATVs! One of them needs a LOT more work than the others. It's been a great teaching opportunity for Derek with our boys. Kaleb seems especially interested in them. Tonight he told me he dreams every night about riding these 4-wheelers. :) Soon, my son!

I love Kaleb's funny face!

We are so thankful to God for our many blessings. Here come the holidays! Thanksgiving, Kaleb's birthday, and Christmas! I've been listening to Christmas music for over a week now. This season passes by quickly, so I like to enjoy it for as long as I can! Happy Thanksgiving!

Still Mine

It's deer season again. I've grown to love this time of year, maybe just as much as my hunter husband. Although my reasons are much different than his...obviously!

Derek took the entire week off from work this year. He hunts, yes, but he also takes the kids to school. He brings home donuts for just the two of us. He takes me out to lunch. We go for walks in the middle of the day. We even attended Braylen's afternoon Veteran's Day band concert together, without work getting in the way. It's just the greatest week, I'm telling you!

I have loved watching my husband and my boys prepare for these hunts together. Kaleb sure enjoyed spotting deer for Grandpa during the weekend hunts. So far Derek and his dad have one deer each. Hopefully by the end of the week Braylen will have a deer as well.

While all the hunters were out in the field this weekend, Aaron stayed with me. Someday he will join the hunting party. But for now, he is still mine. :) We had the sweetest day together on Saturday. It was one of those days that caught me off guard as I thought to myself, "Remember these moments. They are so very precious."

So I will remember.

• How we snuggled in the morning.
• That we made oatmeal for breakfast.
• That we put our flag up and talked about Veterans.
• That Grandma took Aaron to the parade while I cleaned out my garden.
• How Aaron came home with coat pockets full of candy.
• Our lunch at Arby's (his choice!) with Grandma, where Aaron heard all about his daddy drawing on walls with chalk at age 5. (He loved hearing this story.)
• The craft fair we attended with Grandma, where a balloon artist made him a palm tree with blue leaves and a brown monkey. Where Grandma bought kettle corn and shared it with Aaron. Where I bought Aaron a tomato splat ball. Who says craft fairs are for crafts, right?!
• How we watched college football, and I learned Aaron's second favorite team is Syracuse. He laughs and laughs at their mascot, telling me it looks like a big puffy orange marshmallow.
• That we put our turkey decorations up, and Aaron asked me to light 3 candles. I say yes of course!
• How he beat me at war while we watched more football.
• And while we sat at the table cutting out blockheads from the Froot Loops box, Aaron tells me he's had a lot of fun today. Then he says it was fun because, "It was just you and me Mom, like when I was little."

I melt at his words, and I praise God for my littlest son. He is fearfully and wonderfully made. At this time of year, the Lord likes to remind me of that. It's hard to believe that 9 Novembers ago I thought I had lost this child. I am beyond thankful for his life. And no matter how old he gets, he will still be mine. :)

Aaron with his balloon and his tomato splat ball

A friend sent me this quote today, so I put it on one of my favorite "Aaron+Mommy" pictures. Oh, how blessed I am by all three of my sons.

~still mine

Our Everyday

Everyday life in our home right now...

I recently saved Aaron's neglected pets, Yoko and Shadow, from starvation. Thankfully all it took were a few apple and sweet potato pieces placed in their cornmeal at 9:00 pm one night.

Aaron with his mealworms

I attended yet another character assembly, where Aaron received a character award. (I'm so thankful for the character all 3 boys live out every day. Sometimes I see it lived out at home too, ha ha!)

I tried to take pictures of Kaleb and Aaron being silly, reminding myself why I hardly ever bother to clean our picture window. (Or any window for that matter!)

I rejoiced at the way our Hawaii trip 4 years ago benefited Kaleb here in the 5th grade. He tried looking online for information on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Information overload occurred, so I found my scrapbook with my USS Arizona brochure and saved the day. Really Derek, we need to take these trips to help our kids get through school! :) And Dusty--my kids were so impressed with my scrapbook, and I have you to thank for that! Best scrapbook I ever made! (Also the only scrapbook I've ever made!)

I carved pumpkins with the kids, even fulfilling Aaron's request that his pumpkin have the letter "A" for both eyes and a nose. Braylen is so speedy at carving his pumpkin. Derek helped Kaleb with his pumpkin, so I had only one to carve this year. Halloween was so busy that we forgot to light our jack-o-lanterns, but at least they had faces. :)

We had 2 trick-or-treaters this year and one who stayed home to hand out candy. I guess he dressed up as a 7th grade boy. :) Aaron made his own costume with his brothers' help. Kaleb insisted on being an Eagles football player, even though he made the same costume that Aaron did. What a gift my boys gave to me...I had no costumes to put together this year! Our neighborhood is a great one to trick-or-treat in, and with such nice weather we walked 5 blocks instead of just 3. Our good friends S & B came along with us again this year, making this our 5th year of walking together. Family in town joined us as well. It was a "bootiful" Halloween. :)

Aaron the "Punk-o-bot" and Kaleb the Eagles football player

And today? Kaleb hurt his neck yesterday while jumping on a jump-a-roo. Thankfully our chiropractor saw him at his house last night, and now today he's seeing him twice at his office. Twice in one day? Yeah, it's pretty messed up. No recess or PE for a few days, maybe longer. Poor Kaleb. But our doctor tells us his body is doing its job and protecting his cervical spine, as evidenced by the deformed posture of his neck and shoulders. There's a significant amount of swelling, and all I can think of is, "What a pain in the neck!" Literally!

Happy Monday!

Just Say Yes

Somewhere along our parenting journey, Derek and I started saying "yes" to our kids more often. I think it began when Aaron started school. What we thought would last forever (keeping kids at home with us all day) was now behind us. So when one of the kids asks us to play, build something, or help in the kitchen, we say yes as often as we can. Of course we don't say yes to everything, and there are times when I really don't feel like saying yes. But every time I really want to say no, and I say yes instead, I have no regrets. I really like not having regrets.

One night last month was one of those times. It was late. Derek and I were both tired. But Aaron asked us to set up his Star Wars volcano. It's a bit messy, and he definitely can't set it up himself. We just looked at each other and didn't need words to communicate what we were thinking. Someday soon Aaron won't be interested in setting up that volcano. It will become another used up toy in our basement. So we said yes. I gathered the ingredients from the kitchen and Derek cleared a spot at the table. We watched Aaron play with his volcano...and Derek said to me, "I just couldn't come up with a good reason to tell him no, you know?" Oh yes, I know.

That night as we tucked in our very happy 8 year old boy, and left his room, we had no regrets. Derek even cleaned everything up. There are so many times when we don't get this parenting thing right. But this is one of those times when we nailed it, and I don't want to forget it. :)