Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all - friends and family, near and far. The picture is last Thanksgiving at our house. We had a big Thanksgiving last year and ended it watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" together, getting a jump start on the Christmas season.

This year our Thanksgiving will be much smaller (just Cori and us) and our Christmas will be much bigger. But the kids, the boys especially, are much more into Thanksgiving this year (Jake mainly because he has figured out it means an extra day of football on TV....). But in the mode of "Kids say the Darndest Things", courtesy of Tanner's teachers at the little red pre-school, I present Tanner's concept on How to Cook a Turkey.

First You: Get the turkey from the forest.

Then you stuff it with: Chicken and Meatloaf

Then you: Put it in the oven

You need to cook the turkey at: 80 degrees

For: twelve days

Then You: Eat it.

Enjoy your turkey (however you choose to prepare it) and be thankful. I am most thankful for the things that you read about here on a regular basis. I am living an amazing life and enjoy each and every minute, yes....even when I am crabby.

Love to all,

Brian

Tanner Turns Four

I started the day by telling Tanner all about the day he was born: How we dropped Jake off at Auntie Sue's house and headed to the hospital. How the nurses and doctors were so late getting started with the surgery. How Papa and Nana were worried because we hadn't called with any news by 10:30 and came to the hospital to make sure we were all OK. How he was so comfy there inside my tummy that they had to use suction to get him out during the c-section and how he came out with a BIG bump on his head that his Papa was so concerned would never go away. How we brought him home on Thanksgiving Day and ate turkey and all the trimmings that his Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue had prepared and brought to us in tupperware. I told him about how he used to love our heated bathroom floors in our old house and how he and I would sit in there in the middle of the night and doze since the floors comforted him. That seems like yesterday.....
So..... how is it that that little baby boy has turned into a big four year old???

We started the morning with a few family presents and the iPod was a HUGE hit. He had said repeatedly that he wants one like Jake has so we found a used old school nano on Craigslist a while back (a little beat up and not functioning perfectly, but perfect for the needs of a 4 year old!) and got him that and some new headphones from us. He listened to it a lot yesterday, dancing and singing along, telling us excitedly what song was on next. His favorite of the day being "If You're Out There". Grandma Mary sent him some very cool football jammies- complete with football slippers- and Auntie Sue gave him a Matchbox Car ramp set that is currently being utilized in the front room by all three of the kids. He is excited about the ant farm from Nana and I know he will love watching the ants (just as soon as we send away for them....). Papa sent him money which he decided to spend part of on a t-shirt at the State Championship football game on Friday night.

He had a party at the Merc with three of his preschool friends. It was low-key but I think the boys had a great time playing tackle football in the bouncy house. He had picked out nerf-like footballs to give out as "party favors" and those were the hit entertainment. He had pizza with his friends, loved the hockey players on the cake, and opened his presents excitedly. My mom and I were amazed how mellow everyone was- generally I think that 4 four-year old boys are way rowdier than they were.... but I'm not complaining! It was easy, fun, and most importantly: exactly what Tanner had wanted.

Of course, it wouldn't be fitting (in the scheme of the last 6 weeks) if everything went off without a hitch. Faith started complaining that she "had a throat" midday and by evening was running a fever, crying, and saying that her throat hurt. Ok... so I guess she didn't escape the strep outbreak unscathed.

Turkey Trot 2009

This morning was the annual Turkey Trot for the Hidden Springs Elementary School. Even though the kids had no sleep, both Tanner and Jake were determined to run in the race. We couldn't get everyone up and moving for the pancake breakfast (which was fine because it was outside in a freak hailstorm), but were at the starting line on time and ready to race!

Tanner and the pre-schoolers got to go 1st. This was Tanner's first run, so I didn't know how well he would do. He had a little bit of a slower pace and he was very concerned about his gloves staying on and was messing with them the entire run, but he ran the whole 1/2 mile or so that they had laid out for the pre-schoolers. He crossed the finish line to a high-five from his big brother and then sat down on the curb to enjoy his Vitamin Water and fruit snacks.

This was Jake and my third mile run together. We did this one last year as well, so the distance was no problem. Jake decided he just wanted to take this one easy and ran most of the way (he was up until 11:00 last night and had a basketball game today....). But we ran with a lot of his school friends and had a good time. He crossed the finish line to a high-five from his little brother and then I sat on the curb with a Vitamin Water and some fruit snacks (see I was out until 11:00 and then slept with Jake and I had a basketball game today too....).

Good times......Good times.

State Finals

Last night was the Idaho Division 5A High School Football finals at BSU. Capital High (where the kids will go, and who we've gone to see before) v. Eagle High. The lower bowl of the stadium was packed and there were people tailgating in the dark before the game.

Like I said before, we know some of the parents and some of the kids on the team, so we wouldn't miss the finals game. It ended up that I had to cancel a basketball practice so we could go to the game, which was good, because a lot of other basketball families ended up going too.

It was an awesome game, worthy of the finals. Capital lost 22-21, Eagle faking the extra point and making the two point conversion. Last play of the game the Mustangs committed an unsportsman-like conduct penalty, so Capital got one final play with no time of the clock. The field goal kicker tried a 60 yard field goal attempt. It ws right down the middle, but just 5 or so yards short. It was so close!

The kids had a blast. We went out to Chili's before the game for Cori's birthday dinner. Jake's friend Tyler and his mom came too. We stayed for the whole game and ended up getting home around 11:00. We had a sleepover night (Jake with me, Faith with Marisa and Tanner in with Nana) and woke up this morning with some VERY tired kiddos. Tanner and Faith are upstairs right now for their second naps of the day, but it was worth it for that game!

Person of the Week

Tanner is person of the week at his preschool. He got to bring home Calvin, a stuffed bear that travels to the home of each student during his/her special week. Calvin does everything with Tanner and we take pictures then create a photo album page to showcase Calvin's visit to the Alan Household ( there are two photo albums with all of his prior adventures that accompany Calvin). I thought about bringing Calvin with us to urgent care and taking a picture with him and the Dr. but thought maybe that would gross the next family out. But, nonetheless, Calvin has been exposed to strep throat.

Seriously.

I am not kidding- after stomach flu and H1N1 resolved themselves last Monday we had three days of health (I unfortunately was out of town on a business trip so didn't get to enjoy it!) before I came down with strep on Thursday night. I was deathly ill on Friday (at least it felt like it) and dragged myself to the Dr. where they promptly gave me a big shot of penicillin. It hurt! But like I told the nurse, it did take my mind off the pain of swallowing. I recovered on Sunday, but as anticipated, Jake and Tanner came down with it Sunday evening and were put on Amoxicillin on Monday AM. The fun never stops in the Alan Family!

But, I digress..... Calvin has still managed to have a nice, if infected, visit. He has played baseball,

snowboarded on the Wii, participated in Movie Night with Ice Age 3, and played on our swing set. Tanner also had to make a poster about himself so with my help (a mom's job doesn't end just because she can't swallow without gripping an armchair tightly and bracing herself...) we created a poster to celebrate his "specialness". He shared it on Tuesday with his classmates and we were excited to come watch. We fully anticipated that he wouldn't say much or would rely on us, but he shocked the heck out of us by marching up to the front of the classroom, taking the teacher's pointer, and talking about each picture on the poster loud enough for us all to hear! We were very proud of him!

We are celebrating his b'day (his first real party!) on Saturday. We invited three friends from preschool and are going to the Merc for pizza and the hockey cake he picked out. We rented a bounce house from the local high school kid that started an Inflatables business here in Hidden Springs. Unfortunately I had to book this party amidst the chaos of three sicknesses and inadvertently booked it during Jake's basketball game, which Brian has to coach. So..... it will be Mom and I at the party with a "family party" later in the day. Oh, well. All things considered, I think we are lucky we got a party planned at all. Now if we can all just stay healthy to enjoy it! What's next....... bubonic plague????

Popart

Anyone that has been in our house knows that we have a ton of pictures covering our walls and every available hard surface- it's too many but we both just love pictures and can't figure out which ones to replace when new ones arrive. One day when we are old the children will come home to visit only to find us buried in an avalanche of mismatched frames filled with family photos.

So of course, it stands to reason that the art we chose most recently is based on photographs we had taken last Mother's Day. We used a website called photopopart.com and had them create this canvas for us. We are not quite sure where it is going to go yet but just looking at it makes me smile. Right now it is hanging on our bedroom wall, but it freaked us both out a little bit last night, going to bed and having the large faces of our children staring at us. Plus, when we hung it there, Tanner commented, "Now we can be with you ALL THE TIME!" - which is really not what we are going for...

Anyway, in a month filled with sickness and more than a little frustration, this art created a bright spot.

H1N1 and Halloween

We weren't sure until trick-or-treat time whether or not all three kids would be able to make the annual neighborhood candy trek. Tanner was still suffering effects of what we think was the flu (mostly exhibiting symptoms like crying for no reason and falling apart over the smallest things); Faith still had a 101 fever. Only Jake was spared (knock on wood). Yep, after battling a stomach virus for 2 weeks straight, or kids got H1N1 on Monday. Tanner was only down 2 days, but Faith is still sick this morning- probably because we let her trick or treat to her heart's content last night, even though she was clearly exhausted. But her enthusiasm for the candy hopping was evident and she galloped her way between most houses, only requiring the wagon toward the end of the hour. Everyone loved her "baby horsie" costume- although many people thought it was a "Bronco" costume to go with Jake's Broncos football player costume. (Yeah... like we have that much time or creativity to theme our costumes....).

The neighborhood was packed with friends and neighbors- although to my disappointment there were no houses handing out mulled wine or Oktoberfest beer to the adults this year. The kids got a ton of candy and loved dumping it all out to revel in the booty. They also got a huge kick out of answering the door for trick-or-treaters- although we ran out of candy very early due to Tanner's tendency to hand out fistfulls to each kid, instead of just one or two.