An Unauthorized Driver

Nope not Carter on his new big boy (Cyclone) bike - but Lincoln in the truck. He thinks now that he's an experienced tractor driver the truck is do-able too but I'm just not so sure. Carter rode shotgun with him yesterday to help guide him but Linc spent a lot of time in the road and attempting to ramp the truck over the curbs.

The boys got to open their gifts from us on Sunday - Carter is a bit afraid of the big boy bike due to a badly timed fall - like in the first few minutes on it but both of them are thrilled with the wheelbarrow and tools that Lincoln got - now if we can just keep them from being used on one another we will be doing great and keep Carter from digging the pond he's determined to construct in the backyard.

Counting Down to Christmas

We let the boys exchange gifts last night, in our efforts to increase our farming skills and fleet we made a trip to the tractor supply store last night. I'd planned on Sean taking each of the boys to pick out for one another but since the day is approaching we went last night and took turns looking at the toys. Carter picked out a tractor with not one but two wagons and Lincoln (well Sean really) picked out a Razor for Carter. When we got home we tried to put them in bags quickly so they could exchange but Linc took the one for Carter and happily opened it for himself so he kept the Razor and gave Carter the tractors and Carter was just fine with that. So the boys (including Sean) spent some time last night and today farming - I hear that Sean spent much of his childhood farming and he still has the skills, he can make the proper tractor noises just like a little boy. I got recruited to drive the tractor today for a short while but I wasn't any good at it and got fired by Carter.

We also got messages from the north pole today, I think the boys were in awe of Santa talking to them - a little bit frightened maybe but in awe.

Carter's First Christmas Program

Carter had his first Christmas program yesterday - the pictures certainly don't do the event justice. About 40 4 year olds singing and dancing is quite a sight! They were dressed as little lambs. They sang Light the Candles One by One (which Carter tells me is his favorite), Away in the Manger, a short version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and danced to Jingle Bell Rock unfortunately Carter stood smack dab behind a taller kid and we weren't able to capture much of his performance, from the video (and a keen mommy eye, you can see him moving and grooving in the back row). Thus far I haven't figured out how to upload the video but am hoping to get that done so everyone can see the full deal (all 7 1/2 minutes of it). Linc was thrilled with the donut and M&M offering
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Pictures by Carter and Lincoln

Riding the Giraffe at The Fickle Frog, formerly known as The Pickle Frog by Carter

Assisting Papa in taking down the blow up bed

Linc and Cael had lots of fun playing together - in the teepee and sharing whip cream too!

This is the 3 littles - Charlee, Cael & Lincoln having fun jumping off Grandma's fireplace

Much, much to catch up on since my last post was 2 weeks ago! We've been on another Iowa adventure since my last post - the boys just love being in Iowa around their family and of course being able to farm and take Kabota rides too.

My parents were here last weekend for Thanksgiving and gave the boys their Christmas presents early (this has become a tradition so they don't have to worry about the size of their gifts since we can't bring big things back with us easily and this year Carter asked - do I get Christmas gifts at Thanksgiving, Mimi? Yep, he's into Christmas this year). Anyway, they are the proud new owners of lawn tractors (or trackies as Lincoln calls them) and they have been busy farming our backyard. Carter is the ring leader, of course, and tells Lincoln what to do, I even heard him tell him the other day, "I'm gonna call you Dustin because you do Dustin's job" (they guy working with Grandpa and Uncle Michael). It took Linc a few days to figure out how to steer in which time he spent time going in circles and hitting the house.

We are back to school today - AMEN! Carter is so ready and so am I. He hasn't been in 2 weeks and it shows! He's busy singing his program songs for his school program - I can't wait to see how it goes. Lincoln is learning new words and phrases each day - it is cute to try to figure out what he's saying and what he means, short sentences but the words aren't always in the correct grammatical order but we won't correct him on that just yet!

Fall Film Fun

I just got some film developed from this fall, here are some of my favorites.

Also here is the link too all of our family pictures if anyone wants to view the whole session.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=grafshannon&target=ALBUM&id=5401094087173352257&authkey=Gv1sRgCM2kqc_DoOiFmgE&feat=email

Halloween 2009

As I mentioned Lincoln refused to be a Dalmation so we ended up with 2 fireman - one with a reflective costume that didn't photograph too well. They had a great time trick-or-treating, Carter moved quickly as if to capture as much candy as possible and Lincoln took his time and eventually buddied up to our neighbor, Erik, to walk with him (he wouldn't let me take him, good thing Erik is a good sport). The adults were tired much earlier than the kids that night - they would have been happy to do another section of the neighborhood but we were done! Here are some pictures of our Halloween week that include Storybook Forest.