Sibling Love

One of my very favorite things is to watch my kids play together. Molly has always loved playing with Stockton but, lately, he has loved playing with her as well! They'll sneak off together and play for pretty long chunks of time. Most often they go into one of their rooms, close the door, and do who knows what. I check on them every few minutes to make sure all is well and then enjoy the time I have to get things done.Stockton seems to be growing up so fast...probably because he follows his sister around and tries to do everything she does. He is her little shadow. He has started to say her name-it sounds a lot like "Mama" but just different enough for me to tell the difference. Molly doesn't seem to mind her shadow too much; if she starts to get annoyed she just says she needs some quiet time and then she goes in her room, shuts the door, and plays. She is very mature about it all. She is also growing up so fast.From the day we brought Stockton home, Molly has been patient and kind to her brother. Occasionally she gets frustrated when he gets in the way, but for the most part she has learned to either share with him or redirect him to something else. I watched the following interaction last week:
Molly was trying to play with some new Christmas toy, but Stocky kept getting in the way and knocking it over. Molly said "Stocky, please don't" over and over in a very nice voice. Finally she just said, "Okay, fine, Stocky, let's do this instead" and both of them went and played with something else.Molly is also very proud of everything that he learns. I've never seen her be jealous if he's getting more attention from us. She gets just as excited if he learns something new and is right there cheering him on. We think he is very lucky to have such a nice sister.I am so happy to see them becoming such great friends. I am also relieved that they play so well together since I will have my hands full in just a couple of months with Baby #3. I've completely lost track of how many weeks I am by this point, but my due date is March 14th, which seems to be approaching extremely fast. We've also known for a couple of months now that we are having a little girl, which we couldn't be more excited about.

Life is going to get crazy soon!!!

A week of Halloween and a bit of Thanksgiving

We (meaning Molly) celebrated Halloween four times. She had picked out her costume ...a pink fairy...on a trip to Walmart a month earlier and I couldn't get her to change her mind. (Not like I tried too hard-she was so excited when she saw it at the store and even more excited when I actually bought it for her!) So she needed no encouragement to get dressed up for each party...

Her first party was at dance. Since she doesn't let me watch I have no pictures. But they played games, had treats, and danced around to songs like "Monster Mash" and "Witches Brew."

At the ward party we played a bunch of different carnival-like games and then trick-or-treated through the halls. We spent most of our time at the cake walk (although I guess it would be called the "sucker walk" because the kids got a sucker when their number got called). Stockton won a sucker right away but it took Molly forever. Literally, about 15 minutes. Don't you think the people running it would notice that we had been there forever and just call her number? That's what I would do. I swear the same kid won over and over. Oh well, she persisted and eventually won a Dum-dum sucker.We went trick or treating at Grandpa Gene's work. Stockton got the hang of trick-or-treating very quick...take a piece of candy, put it in his bucket, move on to the next desk or office. It was really cute watching him. Molly had fun too, although she apparently forgot how to talk, or more specifically how to say "Thank you." But the kids made bank in the amount of candy they left his office with.We had a Halloween party that night at Justin's parents. I was in charge of the games. We played Bingo which really didn't work very well with all the crazy kids eating the M&M Bingo markers. Molly and I had also made a pinata earlier that week (talk about a mess!)...it worked well enough although I think next time I'll try to hang it up better. The pinata itself was so strong that the string holding it from the ceiling kept breaking. But eventually the kids hit it hard enough and the candy rained down on them. Molly and Tiana also had fun making a haunted house in the basement.We also had a party at my parent's house that weekend. My mom always goes all out with cute themed food and games...and Molly looks forward to seeing her cousins and their costumes.Hmmm, trick-or-treating. Not much to say about that. It was pouring and Molly only made it to three houses before she was done and wanted to come in. I felt bad but she didn't seem to mind, especially when we let her rent a movie from Redbox and turned it into a family movie night with popcorn (she chose the newest Tinkerbell movie and loved every minute of it). The rain stopped after a while but she didn't want to go out again...Saturday was a busy day so we carved pumpkins the next day (the real Halloween since it landed on Sunday).
*****

We've done a Thanksgiving Tree two years in a row so I guess it's now a tradition for us. Molly came up with something to be thankful for everyday. When we asked Stockton what he was thankful for he would usually point to something, say an animal sound, or Molly would help him.It was a Moyes Thanksgiving this year so we headed up to the cabin. Despite the fact that there was no hot water in the kitchen the meal turned out great...I'm always amazed that my mom can make so much yummy food and have it all ready at the same time. Molly has so much fun with her cousins and everything is extra fun at the cabin: we played the Wii, she slept on the top bunk in the bunk beds, they assembled foam gingerbread houses, watched movies, got new Christmas jammies, and just played all day long. This was Stockton's first year to really experience Thanksgiving dinner, but he decided to take a nap instead so he completely missed out. Molly at least tried everything although didn't love it (it wasn't my mom's cooking, I just think it's not such a kid-friendly meal)...and she thought it so silly that her cousin Chloe wouldn't eat turkey and had a hot dog instead!

Fall Field Trips

First off, we went to a pumpkin patch with Molly's school. I wish I would have known about this particular pumpkin patch earlier...close to my house, free, super fun...we would have visited much more that month. It wasn't huge but boasted of a petting zoo (with a baby kangaroo!), hay castle, straw bale maze, a huge area with corn to play in, and a wagon ride. Both of my kids loved it there...

(Hailey, Molly, Jade, Emma, Matthew)It's not Halloween without a visit to Gardner's Village to see the witches. That's where we headed as soon as we left the pumpkin patch. The older kids went on a scavenger hunt for the witches, we did a pony ride, and visited the petting zoo. We weren't aware that when you enter the petting zoo, you are actually walking around with the animals. This was okay until one of the goats ate Abby's paper which caused some tears from Abby and Molly and lots of laughs from the grown-ups!Stocky lovin' his first pony ride

I traveled to Kentucky to visit the Broadbents for 6 days. I went with my mom and dad, but without Justin or the kids. They all stayed at Justin's parents...April took care of the kids in the day, Justin at night and on the weekend. All reports I heard were that both kids did great! Which was wonderful for me...I enjoyed some shopping, some site seeing, and spending lots of time with Jeff, Ali, and two of the cutest little boys ever!At a candy shop in IndianaBack to real life and a trip to the Bean Museum on BYU Campus. Again, a place that we just might visit when we're feeling the winter doldrums. Great big animals everywhere made Stocky happy. He liked pointing to those that he recognized and making the sound they make. The preschool group had front row for the reptile show and then we walked around looking at all the animals. Matthew and Molly holding a python skinMolly was excited to see an Alaskan moose, because Grandpa Moyes just got home from hunting for one.

The Museum was fun, but the best part? Lunch and ice cream at the Creamery after. Yum!(Hailey, Bailey, Charlie, Jade, Sam, Molly, Stockton, Matthew)