Happy Birthday Shane!

My boy up and turned 6 on me.  We started the celebrations on Thanksgiving and Grandma and Grandpa Dettinger's house

 And it worked out nicely that his actual birthday was on a Saturday so we could have fun all day.  He was super excited cause it was his golden birthday this year- 6 on the 6th, and he told me things all day like "this is exactly how I planned my day to be!" and "this is the best day of my life!"  I love how excited he gets about things, he was even happy opening clothes- he told me these are the softest pajamas he's ever had:)

 After opening presents first thing, we picked up his buddy Carter and had breakfast at Burger King and played in the play place.

 We went to Toys r Us and picked out a toy with his 6 dollars from Grandma Elkins, got his Book-It pizza, and just generally did what he wanted.  That night was our ward Christmas party, and they even had a pinata, I think he thought the party may have been for him!

We did cake the next day since there were lots of treats at the party, chocolate per his request.

 A few things about Shane:
-Loves tigers, the color green, outer space, numbers, books, Octonauts, superheroes, cuddling with mom, chocolate, and pretty much life in general.
-He is enjoying school still, he does very well academically and not always as good socially but is trying hard.  Here he is at his little winter program at school, that is him behind one of the microphones

 and with his class.  The 3 girls behind him are his best friends, I think he prefers playing with them because they are a little more mature in their play and more tolerant when he gets a little annoying:)  

- A couple months ago he kissed a girl on the bus.  The bus driver told me after he got off that she told him that wasn't allowed and she thought he might be embarrassed, but she added, "it was very sweet though!"  I asked him why he did that and he was pretty embarrassed but said, "I just thought it would be fun."  We talked about how he needs to be older to kiss girls and he said, "so when I'm older I can kiss all the girls I want?"  and I explained how they still needed to want to be kissed:)  I coaxed it out of him who it was that he kissed- the girl he sits next to, who is a first grader!  I wasn't sure if she was upset by it or not, but when we were trick or treating a girl came up to us and somewhat flirtaciously said, "Hi Shane!"  and when I asked him who it was, he said it was her- yeah she definitely wasn't upset!  He learned his lesson though and hasn't done anything since.
-He is loving drawing and I love finding little things like this around the house.  He told me those are all the layers of the earth underneath the bear, with the orange being lava of course.

I sure love this boy.  He can make me worry and exhaust me but he also makes my heart happy in ways that noone else can.

Sadie Bug at 20 months

This picture is so Sadie- on the potty, one sock off, chomping on her sister's half eaten apple.  She wants to go potty a lot and is successful usually a couple times a day but I am not ready to potty train her and am not sure she is completely either so I am just enjoying not having to change many poopy diapers.  

 One night I set out all their pajamas for the babysitter and couldn't find Shane's- someone wanted to try them on- also so Sadie.  She wants to pick out all her own outfits and dress herself.

 She started speech therapy with First Steps a few months ago and is really making a lot of progress.  She still struggles to make a lot of sounds but has a lot of new sounds/words and is using them independently more and more.  She LOVES when Miss Rachel comes, and truth be told, I think Shane and Marissa wish they had a Miss Rachel too!

She went back to the eye doctor last week and her eyes have gotten a little less straight than they were right after the surgery but still not too bad so we are going to wait it out a little longer and get glasses again (not so strong this time) if they start getting worse.  

She loves the Y.  When I talk about Shane or Marissa's school, she pipes in with "Y! Y!" as if to say, "come on mom, I went to the Y, aren't you going to ask me about that?"

She also loves Doc Mcstuffins (not really watching the show, but all the characters), Minnie, Hello Kitty, Elmo, Santa, goldfish, grapes, berries, cheese (even pepperjack- I finally converted her to a little spice), nursery, and people in general.  She will snuggle up to anyone and knows how to make them fall in love with her. It has sure worked on us anyway!  

Thanksgiving

Who knew you could have so much fun with Thanksgiving?  Being the cheeseball that I am, I checked out probably over 30 different Thanksgiving children's books over the course of November and the kids and I had a lot of fun reading a couple most days (there are so many cute ones) and coming up with things we're thankful for.  We did a couple different Thanksgiving crafts and of course Shane and Marissa had a lot of festivities at their schools- here is "Cold Snowflake" after his Thanksgiving feast at school.   

 The only problem with all that is that the kids, Marissa especially, wanted to have a turkey.  You know me and untraditional Thanksgiving fare.  We were going to Josh's parents on the day of and had already decided on enchiladas, but when I saw how cheap turkeys were at Meijer I got one and cooked it the Tuesday before.  I forgot it really is pretty easy to cook, and the excitement on this girl's face was worth the $8 I paid for it.

 Here she is doing some kind of ceremonial dance around the turkey.

 I did mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and green beans (from a can), and rolls out of a can (not gluten free).

 The happy feasters.  They probably each ate one bite of turkey, but loved the stuffing (and of course the rolls). And I got 5 meals out of the leftovers.  I would do it again.

 And then we enjoyed a nice lazy day at the Dettingers.