Veteran's Day Program

We had the opportunity to go to the elementary school this morning and watch their tribute to our veterans. Unfortunately, Grandpa Bruce had to work & couldn't make it, but many other veterans were there today to be honored. The kindergarten through 3rd grades sang "Yankee Doodle" - here's a clip:

Then we all stood & recited the "Pledge of Allegiance" and sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee".

The intermediate choir sang 3 songs...I'd never heard them. One was called "American Tears" and was very moving. It was neat to see Joshua in such a wonderful tribute to the men & women who helped to keep our country free. I look forward to other programs that he'll participate in here.

More fun with Nathaniel

I hit publish before I remembered that I'd wanted to post a few more "Naniel" moments from the last week or so. One of his new joys in life is "bubbles"...no, not blowing them with a bubble wand...he's decided washing dishes is really fun. He started out by "helping" Grandma. Today, he helped me. What he really likes is the bubbles as well as the water. Right now he's fascinated with pouring water from one vessel to another - cups, bowls, you name it.

On Tuesday mornings, the Relief Society here has a Sewing Group (yay, actually doing the small interest groups...but that's a different story)...it's kind of like my Girls' Night was. There were three other women there - one just plain sewing and two doing quilting sewing. I did a little scrapbooking and the worked on my knitting. Anyway, Nathaniel had a blast playing with his friend Jane (she's about a year younger than he is). We were at the Church for almost 4 hours. He was pretty tired when we were finished. We got home at nearly two...he was exhausted. I can now say that I've seen someone drop in the tracks. I carried him through the door (throwing a fit because he'd wanted to stay in the car) and set him down. Then I went and put my stuff down and talked to Brian a bit. After about five minutes I realized that Nathaniel hadn't followed me. When I went back out to the living room, this is what I found.

He was dripping sweat inside his raincoat...and he hadn't moved an inch from where I'd set him down, just kind of collapsed. He slept on the floor (I did move him out of the doorway) for close to two hours!

These are some pictures from last Wednesday...he was helping me make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (our new favorite cookie!)

Fun with Nathaniel

Nathaniel is a character...there's really no other way to describe this sweet little boy! Today, shortly before we headed down to the elementary school for the Veteran's Day program, Brian called me out to the living room. There was Nathaniel with his Tickle Me Elmo, a diaper and some pajamas. He'd decided that Elmo needed to get dressed. Brian had been doing homework and looked up and out marched Nathaniel with the "supplies" he needed to get Elmo ready. I helped him get the diaper on, and then saw the PJs. So I hurried back to our room for the camera and when I came back out, Nathaniel was over with Daddy getting some help with the PJs for Elmo. Now, these are Nathaniel size PJs, so they were a mite bit LARGE for poor little giggly Elmo. But Daddy made them work.

Nathaniel cracked me up as he peaked up the leg of the jammies looking for Elmo's foot.

After Daddy did the near, and got Elmo dressed in Nathaniel's pajamas, our two cuties, decided to get back to serious business...watching Clifford!

Veteran's Day Parade

Something new (for me) in our little town is the Veteran's Day Parade that is held the Saturday before Veteran's Day. From what my mom said, it something that they did when SHE was a kid, but when I was a kid it wasn't done. This was their 7th or 8th year (depending on who you listen to) of doing it. Mom, the boys and sat on the curb along Main Street and watched the parade - Dad was marching in it with the American Legion.

The Cub Scout & Boy Scout troops from our Ward marched in it, and their were a few groups of horses (the boys LOVED that), some Christian motorcycle group, FFA & 4-H, and veterans from WW II era up to present day. Two girls (I guess I should say women) that were freshman when I was a senior were in it as both are now veterans.

Etna City Hall

Overall it was a neat experience...and luckily it didn't rain. The sidewalk wasn't even that damp where we were sitting, just cold!

Snow pictures!

Well, it snowed for 4.5 hours or more. And it did stick. By about 1 o'clock, it switched to rain and most has melted. Brian had to go to COS for a test and as he drove over the mountain to Yreka, he discovered that there was about 6 inches at the top of the mountain and quite a bit more on the Yreka side than on our side. I hope it doesn't get too cold before he drives home from class at 9 tonight so that the roads aren't too slick for him. We probably ended up with close to an inch - most of which has melted by now.

The pond across the street

The front yard

Looking down the street

Looking up the street (behind the gray are the mountains)

My car

The front steps

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About half an hour ago, Mom looked outside and said, "I don't believe it! It's snowing!" And sure enough, it's been spitting snow for about half an hour. It's not sticking, thank goodness. And the flakes are pretty tiny. But we are experiencing our first snow. Once we explained to Nathaniel what it was, he ran to tell Brian & Joshua. That sure speeded up Joshua's getting ready for school process! It was around 30 last night and the cars froze up with all the rain & moisture from last night. So as things are starting to warm up, we're getting the snow. If the clouds & fog lift enough, I'll be able to get pictures of the mountains and can post our little bit of snow. The boys are excited, none of the grown-ups are that excited :)

Joshua's Last Soccer Game

Last Monday, October 27th, was Joshua's final soccer game. It was a crazy afternoon and Daddy didn't make it to the game because we'd been working at organizing some storage and it took much longer than planned. Nathaniel had stayed home with Grandma, so it was just Mommy & Joshua.

Joshua was glad that it was the last game (he'd watched a friend's flag football game the week before and decided that looked like more fun for next year). He was also glad because he got to start as goalie which is his favorite position to play. Joshua's team, the Sharks, tried hard, but they had the least amount of players of all the teams and I think the less-experienced. Thankfully, they never kept score at any of the games!

After the game, they had a little end of season party with snacks and their coach handed out their trophies. Joshua thought his trophy would be bigger, but he was still pretty pleased with it - especially since it had his name on it!

Joshua & his coach, Lindsey