Thanksgiving Celebration

It was lovely to spend time with family during the Thanksgiving meal. Thanks to Aundrea and Chuck for hosting.

Levi, as always is intrigued and a little frightened of Flurry. Here he's pretending to be a puppy and Milo is trying to get his hands on that little soccer ball.

Milo tasted some (ground up) turkey for the first time and seemed to enjoy himself in cousin Alison's pretty high chair.

Smiling at his Grandpa:

Grandpa and Alison playing some Joker:

On Thursday afternoon, Mom, Dad, and Uncle Bob flew in for a visit. Right away Levi got to open another birthday present: a book with lots of facts all about airports with lots of flaps. It's perfect for him.

Milo is giving his big brother a kiss!

Levi recently has been quite interested in a story he was read from his Hi-Five magazine. In it, the family makes a pumpkin pie and decorates it with candles. Everyone takes a turn sharing something they are thankful for and then blows out a candle. It's called 'The Thank-you Pie." Now Levi calls all pumpkin pies "Thank-you Pies" and he wanted candles for the one his Nana made.

Milo can now pull himself up enough to get his belly on the bottom stair tread. Uh-oh!

We hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday. We are so blessed and very rich in family and friends.

Flashback Friday- Fashion Plate

This picture is from Joel's 2nd birthday, Feb 1982. I post this picture because I want to share with you how amazing my fashion sense was at a young age. Apparently I loved to wear this outfit all the time.

Good Morning

Here are my cutie pies in their footie pajamas this morning. Levi is playing with a small flashlight and Milo is chewing on my belt. Who needs toys with fun objects like these?

Odds and Ends

I think the Dickson headquarters is finally up and running at our typical pace. We've been passing around some bugs- first a cold and then a stomach virus. It's been a germy few weeks.

Here are some odds and ends pictures from the past couple of weeks:

our crew at the weekly soccer games. While Joel, Kelly, and Luke play their game, I hang out with this cute bunch. Here they are pictured in the only 3 minutes they all sit still: juice box and fruit snack time. I put Milo in his crib with some toys while I grabbed a shower. When I came to check in on the boys I couldn't see Levi but heard Milo giggling. Levi had crawled under the crib into the back corner to play peek-a-boo with the baby.

Here I am, Mama!

He's so wiggly that I've found it impossible to photograph him lately. Here I'm trying to hold him in place so I can actually snap a picture.

He is intent on grabbing the camera.

Four generations: Gigi, Daddy, Gran, and Milo.

No caption, just funniness.

Gran and Grandpa got Miles a piggy bank that oinks and wiggles when you put change into it. Hours of entertainment for all.

Flashback Friday - Siblings

I think Joel is 4 and I'm almost 7, here. My top two front teeth and my bottom two front teeth were missing for almost a year.

Birthday Surprise

These are a few pictures from Levi's party when he was surprised by a gift of a train table from Gran and Grandpa. So fun!

Flashback Friday- Political Edition

I guess she wanted to lob him some softball questions at the end of his presidency...

The Servant Song- 5 Years

"I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh, I'll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow till we've seen this journey thro'
When we sing to God in heaven we shall find such harmony
Born of all we've known together of Christ's love and agony."
Richard Gillard Dear Luke,

Happy Anniversary! My admiration for you has only grown over the past five years and you continually impress me. Being with you is being home- and even though home is a comfortable place you still regularly surprise and charm me with your big heart and sense of humor. I love you dearly. Thank you for being a wonderful and amazing husband.

yours,
Amber

Fall is Here V

The tree in front of our house always turns the most beautiful shade of red this time of year. This is our 5th annual picture commemorating fall in front of our tree.



Remember these?
2009
2008
2007
2006

Birthday Party Pics

Thanks to Joel and Kelly for taking these pictures for us!

Saturday was Levi's birthday party held at Shawnee Mission Park. Lots of family and friends came out to help us celebrate.
Can someone explain to me the love affair between boys and dirt?

This was a good place for him to get some of his extraordinary energy out.

"I want to dig in the sand, too, Mama."

What a doll.

I know I'm biased, but isn't my brother handsome?

The weather was pretty nice for November but a bit too windy for the babes.

Levi has been quite interested in soccer lately.

Getting ready to eat dinner:

It was very difficult to light he candles because of the wind. The crowd had to sing another round of 'Happy Birthday' as we struggled to keep them lit long enough for Levi to blow them out.

A satisfied customer. Ben had been looking forward to the cake all night.

Soccer cake is good!

Gwen with a couple of her kiddos along with Tim who just came back from a trip to India.

Just in case our guests did not get enough refined sugar from the cake and the taffy apples, we brought marshmallows to roast as well.

Look at his cute little face here!

Maybe he's telling them about the marshmallows?

Levi eating a taffy apple, or as he refers to them: "Happy Apples". I love that.

He got lots of generous gifts.

To wrap up the night: a truck-load of sugared up kids!

More Birthday Fun

Today Levi had his 3 year old Well Child Visit with Dr. Hilary. Everything looked good and he was measured at 41.5 inches tall (99 percentile) and weighed 35 pounds (77 percentile).

On Friday night we had a small birthday celebration at home. As you can see Levi is thrilled about the little cake, being sung to, and the fact that he gets to be so near to FIRE.

He had been anticipating the presents all day. I called Luke toward the end of the day and asked if it was possible for him to come home a little early because Levi was VERY excited about opening the gifts and was starting to drive me a little crazy about it.

Yay- Thomas and Friends.

Milo: "Mine, YES?!?!?"

Levi: "NOOOOO, MINE!"

Opening the present Aunt Corrine sent.

Saturday night we had a party for family and friends. It was a lot of fun. We'll try and get pictures posted tomorrow of that.