Turkey Time

Being the first year we have ever owned a dining room table, it seemed only appropriate to have everyone up here this year!  My folks still hadn't seen our new house, the Frenches were coming for Christmas, and Penny had just visited in the Fall.  Reid was excited to see his cousins and Carter just followed everyone around, as usual.  With cold, rainy weather in the forecast, we anticipated lots of cabin fever and got out every chance we could.  We took a nice hike/walk the first day and it was even warm enough for shorts.

Jason got to use his infrared "fryer" (tastes like deep fried turkey...but without all the bad fat!) and we all giggled from the plethora of thermometers he had plugged in.  Seems like every year we buy a new one because we can't remember which one(s) worked, so he tried 'em all this time.  The outcome was delish!

Carter busied himself with whatever looked interesting.  The big boys were super loud playing something, so he made his own wine cork ear plugs, lol.

Ben showed Grammy a video he'd made on the iPad.  It never ceases to amaze me how kids nowadays totally get technology.  The first year we had iPads at my school, I had to have one of the kids show me how to make all the icons stop shaking.  Talk about being put in your place!

The other big boys enjoyed Jason's handiwork in the media room and settled in for some football on the big screen.  I am still quite impressed that Jason did it all by himself because it was a ton of work...and he did an excellent job researching, building, and putting together. 

Turkey time!!  Carter was the first one ready...sitting all by himself while we got things ready.  He wasn't a big fan of my turkey headband on himself.

The big spread looked mighty fine...and smelled even better.  It didn't take much to convince anyone to jump in.

No kids' table at a holiday would be complete without lots of carbs (pretty sure that's all they ate!), a picture of everyone's eyes going in a different direction, and a fart song. 

We adults stuffed ourselves on all the goodies, not just carbs!  It was so nice to host our first Thanksgiving in our own dining room with an adult table. 

Carter loved it when Ben asked to read to him.  Ben was so sweet and patient with him, even though Carter was trying to turn the pages randomly.

Alex had to get in on the action, too, and had his turn next.  Too bad I can't convince Reid to read to him yet...

It was very quick and probably the last time we'll be able to do it since the tub was full of arms and legs, but we did manage to get everyone in for a traditional tub picture.

It was so fun to have the Shepherd side of the family up to our new house to explore our neighborhood, enjoy family time, and eat ourselves silly.  I'm so thankful for the memories we made on our first holiday here.

We're also so thankful for our fabulous neighbors!  Don't yet have a picture of them, but I do have one of their sweet little guy, Lane.  The boys all love each other (almost like brothers!) and we adults love to hang out.  God definitely heard our prayers :)

November

We love our new neighborhood.  Windsong puts on at least one event a month, some of which will be annual events.  The Wine and Music Festival (2nd annual...but last year's was cold and rainy, so we skipped it) fell on a beautiful day.  About twelve Texas wineries were there selling tastings, glasses, or bottles of their wines.  There were food trucks, events, booths to shop at, and live music.  Nearly every event is family friendly here, so kids were running around everywhere.  Carter spent most of the time in the hiking backpack on Jason's back, so thankfully we didn't have to run around with him the entire time.  Our neighbor Erica and her son, Lane, joined us after his naptime.  We love hanging out with them and all the boys have fun together. 

Reid was very busy adding to his Santa list all month.  He saw things on tv commercials and would run to the table to write it down.  Serious stuff!

Carter has gotten increasingly independent (or wants to be).  He often insists on feeding himself.  Only drawback?  Most everything falls off of the spoon first, so it's best to strip him beforehand.  Hard to do when it's cold....

I didn't get a great picture, but I was chasing Carter around Cici's Pizza during Reid's t-ball end of season party.  Coach Sean and Jason got along well last season in McKinney but it was unorganized, so we joined the Frisco league this time so we could be on Coach Sean's Angels team again.  The boys had fun with a little awards ceremony and got a trophy, but Coach Sean always goes above--he and the assistant coaches had all signed a ball for each player and he'd written something they improved on during the season.

And of course, the kids all enjoyed the game room.  Stupid machines were pretty much all broken, but they didn't seem to mind too much.

Another great event Windsong held was "Wings Over Windsong" where remote controlled airplanes/pilots came from all over the country to show off their planes and flying skills.  It had rained for a week before and everything was cold/muddy, but they'd done their best to lay down hay and had a shuttle from the Commons to the makeshift air site so folks wouldn't get their cars stuck.  They had a flight simulator trailer that anyone could play, food trucks, snow cones, and a DJ.  But the stunt planes had to be my favorite part and were amazing!  Those pilots did all kinds of tricks.  Carter was enthused and would point to each one as it flew by, then clap when the audience clapped.

Reid, on the other hand, could've cared less about the planes.  He wanted pizza as soon as we stepped off the shuttle bus, so we tried the mac 'n cheese pizza from the gourmet truck and got yummy Asian for ourselves.  Pretty much the only other thing he cared about was jumping in the bounce house.  He also liked to play with the hay, catch crickets, and somehow found a crawdad.  Only Reid.

Our Thanksgiving "feast" at school was two weeks before our break.  It's a big deal in kinder because we spend the week before that squeezing in time to make pattern headbands, necklaces, and vests.  Poor Reid had no one to eat with since I'm a teacher and was on duty, but I sat down with him for a little while.  One of my sweet families make sure they sat next to him (and even brought me a Sonic Dr. Pepper) so he wouldn't feel too left out.

I'll devote a whole post to Thanksgiving, but can't resist adding this one for now.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to At Home after church and found a new Christmas tree.  Our ceiling is so tall now that the old tree would've looked dinky, plus it was about nine years old and has a string that works intermittently...so I gave that to someone in our neighborhood and we opted for a new one.  What we didn't plan on was how exactly it was going to fit in the car with four of us and two car seats!  We did a little rearranging (in the rain) and eventually made it home.  As Jason began to put it up, I started second guessing our 12 foot choice!  He could only reach the top with the big ladder, and even though it's a slim tree, it's so much taller that it took me twice as long to fluff out the branches. 

In the end, we were pretty thrilled with the results.  Our ornaments and ribbon fit perfectly and it's just the right size.

Halloween

Reid was super excited about Halloween this year.  He went round and round about what to be for the holiday.  When I saw how excited he was about dressing up (finally...after years of not wanting to), I introduced him to some of the goodies in our dress up closet.  His first outfit was, um, interesting.  Quite a colorful fellow.  And this was after he'd removed a furry women's top and belt with gun holsters.

Thankfully, he fell in love with a blue ninja costume at Wal-Mart!  Cheap, perfect, and he looooved it.  Unlike other dress up outfits, he actually got to wear it three times, too!  We had storybook dress up day at school, the church Fall festival, and then trick-or-treating.  And perfectly enough, there was a baby ninja outfit he found for Carter.  Perfect!  Aunt Kristen stayed with us the evening of the Fall Festival at Stonebriar.  We met up at Macaroni Grill for dinner before braving the crowded church.  It was raining, so everything had been moved indoors.  The lines were so long that we didn't get to do a whole lot (plus it was past bedtime), but it was fun nonetheless.

The next day, this little guy was in on the action this year.  He rode a lotof the way in the stroller, but also enjoyed getting out to walk and run with big bro.

Blue Ninja and Baby Ninja were ready for showtime!

Squirrel...  Someone got sidetracked with mini pumpkins...

...and then this was probably the last time Reid actually held his ninja swords, which became Carter's favorite thing to drag around.  We enjoyed trick-or-treating so much that I never took anymore pictures!  Jason and I met several new families who either lived here currently or are building.  We met so many people, and everyone was friendly, nice, and normal.  Total opposite of last year!  It was this very weekend last year, when we turned back into Craig Ranch (our old neighborhood...the one that made national news for the racial issues at a pool party) and decided we needed to move our family. 

They made quite a haul and excitedly played with it for days.

A day or two later, this little candy monster got very quiet in the pantry, his favorite place to play and rearrange.  He had been sorting the candy, inspecting each piece, and babbling about them.  I was cooking dinner and suddenly noticed it was awfully quiet.  Little stinker had found a chocolate eyeball and was chewing it, aluminum wrapper and all!  I went through all the candy and picked out anything that could be a temptation or choking hazard...but then I looked up a few minutes later and he'd found another!!  After that, the candy stayed on a high shelf and he would just scream for it, "THIS!!  THIS!!"

Carter had been our healthy eater, but once he discovered candy, he's been hooked.  When asked if he would like a piece of candy, he'll even do a dance.  We were laughing so hard the first time that I didn't get to my phone in time, but this one gives you the gist of it.

Back to School

It was official (and a wee bit eerie) in May...  I was going to have a Bennett kindergartener for the 2015-2016 school year!!  We giggled one morning after I'd turned in the paperwork and walked out of the office in a daze.  So my AP and Nurse Sherri insisted we take a picture, compliments of our Principal.

It was a crazy, busy, fun summer that absolutely flew by.  I still don't have any idea where it went!!  But it is what it is...and August arrived all too soon.  Reid enjoyed two weeks at Holli's while I was in staff development, playing with Carter and all the kids.  She got a fabulous picture of them one day.

 

Jason brought Reid to Kindergarten Screener one day...and that was the first official "oh-my-goodness-my-kid-is-going-to-be-with-me-this-year!!" moment.  It has been strange and fun being teacher and Mommy simultaneously.  One thing we do every year during staff development is a huge teacher pep rally, for lack of anything else better to compare it with.  Convocation is off campus at Prestonwood, a huge Baptist church far away from our school in Plano.  We have to carpool there and it's quite a beating because it's on a Friday afternoon, with terrible traffic on the way back.  But this year, I was so refreshed after hearing our speaker. 

 

 Um, yeah.  That was really him.  And he was hilarious!  But the best thing was that Dr. Adolph Brown is an amazing, faith-driven man with quite a story.  He dares to put little snippets in here and there about his faith.  I noticed Bible verses woven in here and there, which I'm sure went over the majority of the audience's heads, but how refreshing!!  Check him out if you have a chance. 

 

 Jason flew to New Orleans that day for his friends' annual fantasy football draft, so it was just the boys and me for the weekend.  Reid had been begging for someone to sleep with him, so I promised him I would.  Reality hit me that I really didn't want to sleep in his bed and get kicked in the face or back all night, so I let him sleep in our bed.  Ahhh...temprapedic king sized mattress--THE way to do it!  Reid did great and seeing this face made it all worth it for sure.  Notice all his friends...T, caterpillar, new caterpillar, lil' turty (turtle)...

The following Friday was Bennett Blastoff, our version of Meet the Teacher night.  The families come and bring students and their supplies to meet their teacher, see the classroom, etc.  I knew it would be absolute chaos and Jason would have Carter with him, too, so they came early.  I had to take advantage of the photo op, even if my new kindergartener wasn't too excited about pictures.

He was all goofy smiles meeting Mrs. Ray, who teaches across the hall from me.  Notice the shoe?  I'm not even sure how he managed to do that.  And yes, this was the best pic I could get.

I also have Stacey Ray's daughter, Hailey, in my class this year.  It has worked out perfectly because Stacey and I have compared them for years with "does Hailey do this??" and "glad Reid isn't the only one" stories.  We teachers had to create a Twitter account and tweet things this year, so what cuter kids than our own??  :)

Day one arrived.  Jason dropped off Carter at Holli's, then brought Reid to school so I would have time to get my room just right and breathe before the masses descended on the kinder pod.  My little kindergartener looked pretty darn adorable, if I do say so myself!

Still couldn't get a very good picture with them, but it's a memory.  That first day was really odd, almost like a dream.  I'd be in total teacher mode and look across the hall and there was Reid!  I can't imagine it any other way.  Don't get me wrong--Reid is still the immature follower who karate chopped Mrs. Douglas in the hall when he was aiming for his friend (because apparently, planning to karate chopping a friend in the hall isn't nearly as bad as a teacher?!) and I'm ready to wring his neck, but how fun it is to see kindergarten from your own child's point of view!  It's fun and trying to be a teacher mommy, but I would have it no other way.  I'm thankful Reid is a Bennett Bear this year!

To celebrate a successful first week (or in my case, surviving the first week!), we made a slush run to Sonic.  I nearly didn't get my mint slush back from this little sweet tooth.  Apparently we have another Sonic lover in the family.

Summer Cousin Fun

What fun would summer be if you didn't get to hang out with your cousins??  Laura and the boys got to come see our house before school started back up and we had to take full advantage of our new community's amenities.  The boys loved the playground (which I always thought was ridiculous and weird because it's very odd and quirky...and not at all friendly for little ones, but the big boys thought it was great)!  We enjoyed a couple of hikes before it was too blisteringly hot.  They even found a tree to climb.  We chased frogs, caught minnows, hunted grasshoppers, and picked sunflowers.

Everyone would have a little quiet time with movies, devices, or naps.  Then it was round two!  It was so hot that we had to nix any additional outdoor activities except for the pool.  It was hard to get a picture, but Laura managed to snap a super cute one...and everyone was actually looking!  Reid is such a follower that we'd had a long talk before getting in the water about how he can't swim independently quite yet (although he insisted he could) and since I have to be right next to Carter, Reid had to stay on the steps or wear the puddle jumper.  In one ear and out the other, I guess, because it wasn't five minutes before he took off after Alex (who can swim independently) and scared himself to death.  Needless to say, he had to wear the hated puddle jumper the rest of our time at the pool, no matter how much he complained.

We somehow managed to squish everyone into the car for trips to other places.  I loved this picture of all of them!

Evenings were full of playing outside, scarfing down some dinner (Carter loved eating with all the big boys), showers/baths, and storytime.  Then we adults looked forward to some yummy meals or take out, since Papa John's is still the only place that delivers here.  In usual sleepover fashion, it takes some separating and warnings of "go to sleep!" before any boys would snooze.  It was wonderful and a teensy bit sad that Ben shared Laura's room.  It means he's getting older, but how wonderful that he wanted to read for hours before going to sleep.  And let's face it...he'd never be able to read with Reid and Alex ganging up on him, lol!!

We snuck in a very quick trip down to Laura's house, too, or Reid wouldn't have ever let me hear the end of it.  He got to join them on their last day of VBS at their church.  I was a little bit surprised that he was so timid about going into the classroom and hope he hasn't inherited my social anxiety!  He ended up loving it, of course.  That day allowed Laura, Carter, and me to make my first trip to Torchy's Tacos...mmm!  Oddly enough, we ran into a friend's wife who had just returned from living in France for several years.  Her son and Carter are just a few days apart.  Small world!

It was a short, but fun trip.  I happened to check on the boys one night and managed to snap a picture of this cuteness...Alex was reading to Reid.  It's amazing that they're all growing up so much.

But the funniest thing?  Carter couldn't get enough of Casey's cage.  I literally couldn't keep him out of it!  Poor Casey was probably super excited to get rid of us so she could have it all to herself again.

I'm so glad my sister is state side and that we can enjoy time with our boys.  There's never a dull moment with four of them!  And how wonderful to spend time with her.  God knew what He was doing when he created the sibling bond :)