{Tradition}

I'm so thankful for our Wulf Thanksgiving tradition! Every year we take a trip to the tree farm and pick out and cut down the perfect tree! This year, Bryan and Gavin and I even participated and got a very tiny real one to bring home! It looks so cute in our basement! Then we head to the lodge (aka Grandpa's playhouse) and have supper, play games and just be together. It's one of my favorite things that we do every year.

Our Christmas tree!

Gavin had so much fun decorating our Christmas tree this year. He helped by hanging the ornaments on the tree - all of them were only three feet high, so I did have to go back over them and remove the 10 ornaments he had on each branch in the front and move some to the top! With every ornament he picked up he would comment "oooo, it's so pretty!" If you ask him which one is his favorite, you get a different answer each time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for! We spent Thanksgiving day at Gary and Kathy's with the Krause's. It was so nice to see everyone! The ENTIRE family made it - what a treat! It's nice to have a day to reflect on what is really important in our lives. I'm so thankful for my family, especially my husband, Gavin and Lauren, Ellie and Owen. I have never smiled so much as I do when I am with my nieces and nephew - I love you guys!!!!

"Confrences"

We had "confrences" at Gavin's daycare last night. It's kind of fun for us to see how Gavin compares to other kids in his class, and it's reassuring to know that he is up to speed with other kids his age. His teacher had lots of nice things to say about Gavin! She said that he is "very smart and good at solving problems." She also said that he always has a smile on his face and has lots of friends in the class. What she notices most about Gavin is that he is very compassionate. She said he is quick to hug someone that is sad or hurt and will readily give a hug and say I'm sorry when he has done something wrong. Ahhh... isn't that nice? He may look like daddy, but I think he must have gotten some of nurse mommy in him too!

and God bless...

So tonight, after I read 18 books to Gavin (not kidding) - and that's not counting the two times each I read "Brown Bear Brown Bear" and "Lalma Lalma Red Pajama" - I finally got him to settle down in his bed. We did our nightly ritual of saying prayers and then blessing everyone we know (god bless nana and papa, grandma and papa, Lauren and Ellie and Owen... and so on.) He then always names a few friends from school. Tonight he must have had extra blessings he said "god bless Jenny, and Jill and Brenda and Carlie" (his teachers) then the usuals of Codie and Jordan. Tonight we also added Kristin, Brady and Molly. Then he took his hands and put them on my face and with the most serious expression said "and Mommy, God Bless Mickey Mouse!" Yes Gavin - thank God for Mickey Mouse...

{ TrIcK oR tReAt! }

What a fun Halloween! The weather was perfect for Trick or Treating. Bryan and I went to Renville again this year - it's fun to go to houses of people we know. We met Lauren and Ellie at Grandma Betty's house to start and then actually went house to house for a little while. Gavin was a monkey (the costume was adorable!) Lauren was a vampire and Ellie was Sharpay from High School Musical! We met up with Laurie and Eric later on - Owen was the cutest thing I have ever seen - he was a pirate - his costume was perfect! G got lots of candy and was once again very spoiled from Nana and Papa and his aunt and uncles - thanks guys! Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Pumpkins!

This is Bryan's very cool castle - it looks so cool lit up!

This was Gavin's reaction to Bryan using the jigsaw to cut his pumpkin!

We had a lot of fun painting and carving pumpkins. Gavin was so meticulous when he first started painting his pumpkin - but it didn't take very long for paint to be everywhere! he was quite proud of his work when all was said and done!!

LeAvEs!!!

Gavin LOVED the leaves this year! Bryan spent so much time raking them all up, just so we could play with them! Thanks Daddy!