Presents

As most everyone knows, I LOVE presents. Adore them. Could care less is you wrap up a piece of paper. I am a serious"It's the thought that counts." kind of girl. Sooooooo, if you are reading my blog, leave me a present under my tree to the right of this post. It's so much easier than commenting. ;-)

Two presents, a scooter, a kiss, and I am NOT thankful for PB & J......at least not on Thanksgiving.

Ooops, behind a bit in my posts. I wanted to post something deeply insightful and full of meaning, but my kids do such cute things that I know you'd be way more interested in those. Sooooo, here are a few things that have happened the past week or so.

Kyla loves to do anything her brothers do and has upgraded her adventure skills to riding a scooter.....by herself.

Thanksgiving was fun. It was just the five of us which was nice, although Jamie and I spent three hours cooking dinner to have the meal last all of ten minutes. I am not kidding. Our kids are not Thanksgiving food people. I read in a parenting magazine that we should be thankful that our children ask for peanut butter and jelly instead of the Thanksgiving meal (something about them knowing their own minds????), but I have to say that I was not amused and less than thankful. Here are before and after pics of our yummy meal (notice the bottle of ketchup in the after pic).=)

We decorated for Christmas on Friday. When Josh was one, I got this great idea to decorate a Christmas tree skirt with my children's handprints. I usually forget and do it after Christmas. This year, we actually did it on the same day that the tree went up. I can't believe how big my sons' hands have gotten. I am going to run out of room on my skirt by the time they are teenagers. =(

Finally, Santa came early this year and delivered two of my favorite presents under my tree. I'm just glad that they were delivered when their sister wasn't awake to see it. I doubt the tree would have stayed up. ;-)

OK, I added this in at the last moment. Mr. Penguin here is a last year gift from one of the kids' grandparents. It sings "Winter Wonderland". Kyla wasn't so sure of it at first...in fact, she told it to stop and pushed it down. Things have changed though, and as you can see, Mr. Penguin has become a favorite. =)

Love to all!!

P.S. Sean now has an older brother who lives with his Grandpa. His name is Joshsean. He does not like turkey and especially dislikes squash. *Sigh*

Sean's "Imaginary?" Friend

We think Sean has an imaginary friend. We say think, because his friend's name is Grandpa. Sadly, Sean hasn't had very many opportunities in the past few years to meet his grandpas. He saw one last year briefly, but that was it. The other many grandpas that he has, haven't seen him since he was really little. Still, we talk about his grandpas often, so we were a bit surprised to hear certain facts about his grandpa that didn't quite mesh with what we know about his real grandpas.

For example, Sean's grandpa does not like green beans, broccoli or any other vegetable that Sean does not like. He lives far away, but he likes to make snowballs, snowmen, and play outside. His grandpa has a six year old brother, too. =) Now, I know a grandpa that does not like veggies, but I do have to say that none of his grandpas have a six year old brother.

We have enjoyed Sean's imagination, and it's cute to hear him talk about his grandpa and what he does and does not like to do. We do have one little problem with his grandpa though. The other day, I came upstairs to Kyla's screams to find Sean throwing shoes at her. When questioned as to why he thought this was appropriate, he told me, "My grandpa says it's OK!". Both Grandpa and Sean ended up in time out. =)

FYI: Most of you know that Sean has been sick for quite some time with a chronic cough. In August, he was tested for cystic fibrosis which, thankfully, came out negative. BUT, the cough is still here, so we are back to the pulmonary specialist again. Sean is now on four weeks of aggressive antibiotics. Sinusitis is hard to get rid of in small children, so we are hoping that it is the cause of his cough. The doctor wants him to have a CT scan on his sinuses, but we are going to wait to see if the cough comes back after the four weeks of antibiotics (which it has before). Asthma may be the case, but Sean never responds to asthma therapy nor has any wheezing. It could also be reflux. If not any of those, then we will have to explore other options which include looking at cystic fibrosis again (apparently the test can be done wrong) as well as another disease that causes the hair in his nasal passages to not work. Neither of these diseases are very good. Please be praying for my little boy so aptly named "God's wonderful gift of grace".

Life

It's been busy here in the Sproul household. We have painted pumpkins with paint and our faces with pudding (although the pudding was really supposed to be eaten) =).



I really need to include some pics of the kids painting these bad boys. Kyla fell in love with the paint!By the way, the pumpkins in order were painted (from left to right) by myself and Jamie, one pumpkin each), then Joshua (Who has requested that he be called Joshua and not Josh. Apparently, his teacher calls him Josh....makes him unhappy....can't blame her, so do we. =) ), Sean, and Kyla who each painted two pumpkins. It really was more of a Fall activity (since done after Halloween), and the pumpkins are now gracing our table, and will for Thanksgiving as well. Fun. Fun. Fun.







We couldn't live in Hawaii without at least watching some surfers. The surf isn't tremendously high yet, but they were still amazing to watch!!


Happy Veteran's Day to everyone. Yesterday, our church had a service where soldiers and spouses shared about their trials and blessings with deployments. I learned many things. Mostly, that my friends are extremely strong women. It was a blessing to hear their stories.


Veteran's Day is not the same in our house unless Jamie has to work. Here is a picture of the band in our Veteran's Day parade. It's so nice to have them back. =) Kyla and Elmo both enjoyed the parade. ;-)

Wild Wild West

Last Wednesday, We attended our church's Fall Festival which was held at a Horse ranch in the North Shore. SOOOO MUCH FUN!! Think Texas Hoedown in Hawaii. We had our picture taken, western style......, and even though it was raining most of the time (during the picture as well), we all had a great time.




Josh was there for the candy(*SIGH* So much like his mother), and played every game that would get him some. He played some of the games many times. The potato sack race was by far the one he played the most. After all, whether you win or lose you still get THREE pieces of candy!! Jamie decided to be funny and race him hopping backwards. =)







Sean sat for thirty minutes while a wonderful teenager painted a spidey face on his face. Yes, he already had a mask, but you can't get enough spiderman in our family. His candy was a lot less, but he still managed to get in a few rides of the merry-go-round and went through the bounce maze many times. Sean is there for the adventure. If there isn't adventure, he'll create some of his own. =)

Kyla had her first cotton candy at the Fall Festival and loved it. She was a bit iffy about the merry-go-round, but after a bit of encouragement, wouldn't get off it. Of course, another favorite area for her was the balloon guy who made her both a puppy and a bear.

Needless to say, we had a great time all around!! Enjoy the pics! =)