Happy Thanksgiving!!

I know, you're thinking, "Thanksgiving isn't for another two weeks, what is this crazy girl talking about?" Well, every year that we've been married we've done a big family dinner on Thanksgiving with Jeremy's family. It's always a great time with tons of food, family, football and black Friday ads. Each year, in an effort to create our own family traditions, we have also had our own Thanksgiving meal. I'm not sure how successful we are in making our own traditions so far, because each year is different in some ways, but it's great fun (for the most part) for us. This year, our Thanksgiving meal was this past Sunday. It was all very last minute. We had originally planned on doing it the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but we found out John and Amy will be coming into town that day and Jeremy made plans to get together with another family that day as well. So last Friday, we realized the only day that we could do our family dinner was on Sunday and we mad a mad dash to Walmart to get what we needed. Here are some pics from our first "family-of-four" Thanksgiving!

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the finished turkey. I love how they look when they come out of the oven. Plus, we had a 14lb. turkey for the 2 and 1/2 of us to eat! It was the smallest one we could find!

It is not often that we are able to capture a picture of all of us. This one didn't come out well, I had to adjust the lighting... so if we look a little green, it's not because of my cooking.

This wreath is my absolute favorite fall decoration!! I made it the first year Jer and I were married. I've only used it as a wreath once, it can usually be found right where it is in this picture, laying on my table with a candle in the middle.

Kyle enjoying his meal.

Bryce even got in on the action. He ate some potatoes and played with some corn.

I wanted to thank all of you that have been praying for Bryce this week. For those of you that hadn't heard, he has been sick with a high fever (at least 103 or 104 if it goes unchecked) since just after our meal on Sunday. We spent a fair amount of time at the Dr. office the last two days trying to make sure there isn't something serious that is behind it all. Praise the Lord that today he woke up without a fever and seems to be on the mend.

Some lost pictures... and potty training progress!!

I took some pictures with our smaller camera today and when I downloaded the photos, I realized that there were pictures from the last two and half months that I had forgotten! So here are some of our lost pictures...

When Kyle and Bryce first started sharing a room I moved most of the toys into that room. It was too much for Kyle to handle at times. Here is a picture of what his room looked like one night after he fell asleep... (his room had been clean and his bed made when he went down for the night....)

Kyle went through a really strange smiling stage. Does he look like anyone else in the Polson family??

Kyle in his fun conductor outfit.

I did his hair for him after a bath. Jeremy said he looks like the "bird-man" that plays for the Nuggets. I think he looks like a rock star!

Before John and Amy moved out to Cali, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot. It is a fabulous fondue restaurant, here we are about to enjoy our last and favorite course... dessert!

The excitement at Jeremy's birthday dinner was too much for Bryce to handle. He crashed on Aunt Amy.

Bryce playing with his "Jamaican" monkey, man. Thanks, Ahmie and Grampy!!

Bryce in his winter outfit from Ahmie. He reminded me of the little kid from A Christmas Story. (In a little kid, whiny voice, "I can't put my arms down!")

His smile just melts my heart.

This was my project today. This unit was on sale at Target and was probably still too much to pay, but I love organization and my husband likes to see me happy, so we got it. I'm also thinking I can turn the tubs around to face the wall when other kids are around so there are only so many toys available. I will admit that I'm OCD and don't like toys to be without their parts, so I'm hoping this will help keep everything together.

Jeremy is great at finding deals and here is his most recent one. He found a Thomas the Train set on Ebay for one-third of the price!! I'm not sure which of the boys was more excited. Jeremy took advantage of the room I had cleaned up to set up both of Kyle's train tracks. When I came home I could hear Kyle saying, "OK, my turn!?" They were having a ton of fun together.

Kyle is doing well potty training... as long as he isn't wearing anything!! He hasn't had an accident in a while and will even run to the potty on his own to do his business (including one poo!!), but as soon as I try to put big-boy underwear on... it is wet within 30 mins. I just keep reminding myself... we're making some progress.

Here's a video of Kyle saying hi to Ahmie and Grampy!!

So Busy!

We've been pretty busy these past few weeks. I've been so good at taking pictures lately (I downloaded over 1GB of pictures from just the last two weeks) but not as good at updating the blog... so get ready!! I'm making up for lost time...

Collin has been coming over about once a week to play with Kyle while Kristina goes to her prenatal appointments. Kyle just loves these times! There was one morning where I had told Kyle that Collin was coming, but he didn't actually come. When I broke the news that Collin wasn't coming, Kyle broke down and cried, he was so bummed!! (Notice he is looking a toy catalogue, it came with his Thomas the Train set and it is his new favorite "book." He asks me to read it at least four times a day!)

I've been working on potty training Kyle. I've actually been working on it for about six months now! He really enjoyed it when the potty was new, but eventually would cry if we asked him if he needed to go or sit on his potty. My latest trick is this potty chart I made for him. When he fills up a whole row with stickers, he gets a toy. Our original prize toy was a matchbox car, but the excitement for that lasted about a day. Then I found a "cheap" Thomas the Train piece at TJ Maxx that we started bribing him with. Boy, did that work!! He's doing better, but we still have a long road ahead....

Just after we went to the pumpkin patch I decided to take some fall pictures with the boys and our new pumpkins. Here's one of the better ones. I thought it was hard to get a picture of one mobile child, it was much easier than trying to get a picture of two mobile children!

Belleview (the school Jeremy works at) did a school-wide fundraiser a couple weeks ago. It was a walk-a-thon where the goal was 500 miles. They had each secondary class set up some kind of refreshment to sell and a different activity for the younger kids to have fun with. Apparently all the riding in the stroller made Bryce thirsty, here he is trying to get his brother's juice cup. (Notice his little LL Bean shoes that I got on clearance... they are so adorable!)

Jeremy's class was selling pizza, so of course he bought a piece for his boy. Kyle ate most of it before running off to play. (While he was gone, Bryce crawled over and tried to eat what was left.)

One of our new favorite outings is the bookstore. At our local Barnes & Noble, they have a great Thomas the Train set that Kyle loves to play with. It's nice because Kyle gets to play with other kids and learn to share. Plus, as long as I have a Starbucks gift card and I don't buy any books, it's a free outing!

It has now been two weeks since John and Amy packed up their house and moved to Visalia, CA. We miss them and will continue to, but we know the people they are serving in Visalia will be blessed by them. We love you guys!

Kyle waving goodbye to the truck as they start out.

This is the last bunch of pictures that I took this morning. Our maple tree out front dropped almost all of it's leaves this past week and the wind hasn't blown them away yet. So the boys and I went out for some fall fun!

I raked up three big piles of leaves for Kyle to jump in. He wasn't too sure what to do at first and actually just went and sat in the piles. Soon he got the idea and was running around, jumping in all of the piles. Jer said that when he took his diaper off later, it was full of leaf bits!

Kyle likes to push his brother over and even announces it just before he does it. I actually got a picture of him in action today. I heard, "I push Bryce over" and turned around in time to capture this incriminating photo. Bryce usually doesn't mind too much and just crawls off to his next adventure. Kyle also doesn't seem to mind the discipline he gets after each time he does it, because he obviously keeps doing it.

Here is one of the first pictures I captured this morning and it is one of my favorites. I'm so blessed with these two adorable boys who just love to play with one another. Kyle was throwing leaves all over himself and his brother and they were both cracking up with laughter. It just makes my heart melt to see them interact like this and I'm so thankful to the Lord for such great kids.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!!

Our little family went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. We had so much fun!! Here are some pictures of our trip.

This is the face Kyle makes when you tell him to smile or say cheese. I'm pretty sure it is the same face that Jeremy used to make when he was little and asked to smile. :)


Here, Bryce is watching what his big brother and daddy are doing. He can't be left out!

This year Kyle could actually pick up some of the pumpkins. Here he is picking up the pumpkin that we picked out for Bryce.

This is the picture we took last year of Kyle trying so hard to pick up a pumpkin. Poor little guy. He was having a hard time.

My little man having fun in the pumpkin patch.

My boys.

My newest little guy. Almost seven months old!

When Jer and I got home with the boys we laid them down for a nap, thinking they would pass out right away. Boy, were we wrong! We kept hearing laughter, first from Bryce, then Kyle would laugh, then Bryce again. I finally went in there to see what was going on and this is what I found.... (you can click on the picture to make it bigger to see the damage...)

Kyle is crying because he knows he is supposed to be in bed sleeping.... you can see a wet spot on his bed where he dumped some bubbles, they pulled the curtain down, and Kyle had been tossing Bryce toys to play with. As you can see, Bryce was having a grand old time!! Boys are sooooo messy, but they are a lot of fun!!

Our Zoo Trip!

While Jeremy was with the school on their retreat, a bunch of us that had been left behind decided to spend the day at the zoo. Well, we initially didn't plan on spending the whole day there... but we went to breakfast first and ended up getting to the zoo around 11:30am (our original plan was to be there by 10am) and we didn't leave until 4pm! We wore our kids out!! It was a great day... the weather was perfect and the zoo wasn't too crowded. Here are some pictures of our fun day!

Here Kyle and his cousin, Collin, are standing in front of a life-size (9 1/2 ft.) polar bear picture the zoo has to measure up to. I don't think their little heads are as big as the bear's paws!

Here is Bryce entertaining himself in the stroller while everyone else is checking out the sea lions. He did great, especially considering he had to ride around in the stroller all day and couldn't see any of the animals.

Bryce seems to always be happy, which is great, because he has such an adorable smile!!

Kyle had so much fun playing with Collin and Jonah. (Jonah is my friend,Keli Sergeeff's, little guy.) Here he is in Keli's wagon, wearing Jonah's Elmo hat. We had been asking him all morning where we were going and he would say, "a zoo!" and we would ask him what we would see, "animals!" Too cute! I had taken him to the zoo last year and he was more into watching all of the people and little kids than looking at animals.

The zoo had some djembes that the boys absolutely loved! You could hear kids banging on these things all throughout the primate exhibits. Here they are banging away. Bryce actually managed to fall asleep while the were banging, despite the boys serious lack of rhythm.

Here is Kyle trying to help the gorilla statue out by picking his nose for him. He was actually just pointing to the "big monkey" as he called it, but it looks like he's picking his nose!

This last picture has nothing to do with the zoo, but I had to add it because it is too cute. Bryce is sitting so well, crawling like crazy, and pulling himself up on whatever he can. It's amazing to watch him doing all these things, especially considering he isn't even seven months old. Kyle didn't crawl until after nine months. I guess Bryce wants to be able to keep up with his older brother, or maybe just get away from him so he won't sit on him anymore! Bryce had just gotten out of the tub, so he's wearing his little robe. Too cute!

A Whole Month...

since I've updated you as to what is going on in our lives. Sorry we've been MIA!! After Kyle's birthday, the whole family seemed to be hit with allergies. I have never had allergies, but let me tell you... it wipes you out!! I always try to find natural ways to help me when I feel sick, but I couldn't seem to do anything to get rid of my congestion (I still can't breath through my nose) and my eyes are still itching me terribly. We have survived though!

Jeremy was also gone for almost a whole week with Belleview's Spiritual Life Retreat. The whole secondary school goes down to a camp outside of Colorado Springs for several days; it's always a great time and usually there are several kids who dedicate their lives to the Lord. Jeremy's band, Crossfire, played all of the worship music and the kids really enjoyed it.

Along with having allergies wiping me out, the boys have decided that 6:30 is a good time to wake up. I have also been staying up with Jeremy until 11 or 11:30 at night so we can spend more time together. I'm beginning to feel like a walking zombie! In order for me to function well, I need about ten hours of sleep at night. Until I can figure out a way to get more sleep, life is going to be tough.

As for the boys, they're all doing great. Kyle loves to talk and seems to go through his day narrating everything! Bryce is almost crawling, but does what Jer calls the "army crawl". He drags himself around with his arms and occasionally uses his feet to push as well. He is such a happy baby and loves to snuggle. His pediatrician is worried about his weight. At 6.5 mos. he weighs 12 lbs. 10oz. I'm not too worried, he looks healthy, is very responsive, and seems to be ahead of others his age developmentally. It's just frustrating to have to keep dragging him to doctor appointments and spend money on copays. Please keep us in your prayers!

Kyle is 2!!

Our little boy is growing up so fast. It's hard to believe that just over two years ago, Jeremy and I had just celebrated our first anniversary and we were getting ready to welcome our first child. Now we've been married for three great years and have two boys... sometimes it feels like our house has sure gone crazy!! It only seems to get crazier as the days go by and Kyle gets older. He loves to sing songs like the B-I-B-L-E, Deep and Wide, and his ABC's. His favorite song is from Elmo's World. He knows most of his colors, shapes and letters; it is so amazing to watch him learning right before my eyes! Here he is enjoying his birthday party this past Saturday, the 30th...

We couldn't get him to eat any cake or cupcakes, he was too excited to go back and play on the playground! He did blow out his candle at least... he blows at every candle he sees, whether it is lit or not.

He did well opening presents with Aunt Amy's help. He got a lot of great gifts from friends and family including a Little People farm set, a Thomas the Train set, a Larry toy, and some great clothes and books.

Daddy enjoyed doing the "Dad thing" with the new camera we bought. Jer had gotten a camera for a good deal before we were married, but unfortunately it was a piece of junk, always telling us the lens cap was on when it obviously was not. Ugh! Praise the Lord we were able to get a new one to capture all the great and funny things the boys have been up to!

Here's Kyle enjoying his elephant chair that some friends got for him.

Here is the little guy playing with his new train set in the boys new room. As you can see, he is a true boy in the fact he couldn't leave the train set together... he kept taking it apart and trying to get it back together.

He loves to play with his trains. Every day since his birthday he drags the box out of his room and down the hall to ask me to set up the track for him. Unfortunately, he's already lost Thomas... so he doesn't have a train to drive around the track. I'm sure we'll find it one of these days... in a random drawer or under the couch...

Bryce had such a great time at the party that he wore himself out! Here he is snoozing in his swing.

God has truly blessed us. We didn't plan on having kids so quickly after we were married, but God had a different plan and I'm so glad He did. Kyle and Bryce bring us such joy and are such a blessing. We love watching them grow and learn.