Happy Thanksgiving!

Since we will be busy (& not at home!) on Thanksgiving, we wanted to go ahead & wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving! We hope that you get to eat lots of yummy homemade foods & spend time with family & loved ones. We are so blessed over here at the Moss house & we have so much to be thankful for. We are healthy (regardless what you may read in a next post!), we have 2 beautiful children, we have each other, we have a home to live in, cars to get us around, & we never have to worry about where our next meal will come from. The Lord takes care of us & we are ever so thankful for that. I have a little video of Jackson singing some Thanksgiving songs that he performed at school (where mama forgot her camera- honestly, can you believe that!?) So he graciously re-enacted once we got home! (Excuse Eli, because he wasn't thankful for the singing!!)

Gobble til you Wobble (or maybe don't- do we really need all those calories!?) Have a wonderful Turkey Day!

Dear Santa,

Last week, Jackson wrote his very first letter to Santa. See below.....

Pull out your reading glasses (or a magnifier) because you are going to want to read this. Look closely & you might find something funny.

It reads: Dear Santa, I have been good. I want the plane to my train set*. Love, Jackson

He was writing at an angle (during church no less!) & his "t" ended up slanting just enough to look like an "x." So.... if you look REAL close, you might find that "set" looks just like "sex!" I didn't have the heart to make him change it (plus it would be a great joke later in his scrapbook!)

She's coming around....

Well, we have had Lola for several weeks now & she is starting to come out of her shell a bit. She loves to sit at my feet while i am sitting at the computer...

She let's Jackson read stories to her when she is scared & hiding....

She let's me hide her in my jacket... (really, i am not this ginormous- it's a bad angle!I look like a giant!)
And she has even begun getting frisky every night (actually, it is pretty hyper- she acts like someone gave her catnip or something!) She chases her tail despite the fact that we remind her she is a cat, not a dog!

I have to give a big thanks to Randy for letting us get a cat. He isn't a cat fan (& has allergies in fact), but he knew i loved them & the boys have been crazy over her. They feed her every morning (each gets to give her one scoop) & talk to her all day (for Eli, that means laying beside the bed & talking to her while she hides- she still darts into hiding when he comes around!) I have truly enjoyed having a furry friend around to purr in my lap while i read or work at the computer. She is such a "sweet girl" as Jackson calls her! Here are a few more pics.... the last two, i took the flash off because her eyes kept reflecting the light, but they are hard to see. She is so pretty though!

Floam Fun

Saturday, Grandad came by for a few minutes & the boys didn't want him to leave. We tried to entice them by telling them that we were going to go to the store, but they didn't care. They really just wanted to go with Grandad. I think he felt bad, because he gave them each a buck to spend at the store.

Of course, at the store, we could not decide on what to buy so we ended up taking them over to the dollar tree where they had enough money to buy whatever they picked out. Again, they couldn't decide on anything here, until i spotted the FLOAM. Now, i had to do some encouraging (even by telling Jackson he could have pink, his favorite color), but i finally convinced them that they would have a blast with this stuff. (Not to mention, i was SHOCKED it was there because it is $6.99 at the craft store - the exact same package) This stuff is so cool. It is sticky & slimy, yet it doesn't stick to you or make your hands sticky. It molds, it squishes, it pulls apart, etc, but doesn't make a mess - even with the foam beads. Even in the car on the way home, Randy & I were squishing it all up.

Jackson quickly made his favorite letter- a P

Eli took a few minutes to warm up, but then got pretty involved himself!

Here, Jackson is concentrating on making more letters....
A, P, L, M, C, I (he is really loving all the letters these days!)
So everyone head out to the Dollar Tree & get some FLOAM- it is so much fun!! But you may not want to try the Clayton one- i wiped it out this afternoon. I bought 15 of them - one for each kid in Jackson's class for christmas!

My cutie patooties

Last night we headed over to mema & grandad's (basement) to have the boys pictures taken. I am a TERRIBLE mother in this realm because i have not had the boys formal picture taken since Eli was 7 months old (GASP!). I take so many day to day shots & scrapbook them, that formal shots escape my mind. But i know that our family would like new pictures to display (& my own walls need an update!). Since i am working on christmas cards next weekend, we had to get a picture ASAP! If you are a family or friend that normally gets pics from me (or even if you aren't but think you would like one, i will try to accomodate!), take a peek at these & let me know which pose(s) you would like & what size. You can email me or leave me info in the comments section of this post (just fill in "open id" section if you don't have a google /blogger account). A BIG thank you to grandad for taking these for me- they turned out GREAT (even if Eli was grumpy). Sorry if this seems impersonal, but i figured it would be easier than trying to figure out who would want what in what size. (Daddy, order what you think grandaddy would want too). I will put an order in once i think i have everyones response. (Oh, & keep in mind that you will be getting a christmas card with a 4x6 on it of the two of them together- so if one 4x6 of them together is all you need, then just let me know that a xmas card will suffice)

****CHANGE to original post: After making a xmas card template, i have realized that the 4x6 will need to be cut down some on all sides, so if you need even just a 4x6, let me know!

{Jpose 2}

{Jpose 1}

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{JEpose 6}

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{JEpose3}*xmas card pose

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Trick or Treat!!

For Halloween, Jackson decided last minute to wear his dragon costume. He had been practicing the cowboy all week & then after getting ready to go, he changed his mind! Eli wore a candy corn costume that Jackson wore when he was about 18 months old. And he was just as cute as Jackson was back in those days! I decided to put that costume on him because it was handmade (by Nanny), next year it would be too small, & because Randy said it was his favorite costume to date.

We were invited over to a friends house from church for a weinie roast & then for trick or treating in their neighborhood. Here is Eli imitiating Randy warming his hands over the fire pit.

Emma & Leah were invited to the roast as well... they came as Hannah Montana & a surgeon. (Ellie... maybe in a couple of years you could wear this! Daddy would love that!)

Here is Eli kissing Hannah Montana (he checked her out pretty well before going in for the kiss!!)
THis is the kids going up to a house. Jackson is waiting patiently while Eli stops to check out his loot!

That was a few houses before Jackson squatted on a lady's front porch & stated "I have to pee!!!" so the lady kindly offered her facilites. Randy was mortified, but he took him anyway! It was that or a bush!

After trick or treating, we loaded up the car & headed over to a few last stops before going home. We went to Grandma & Papa Evans house (where Kaleb was dressed as spiderman....)

And then our last stop was to Mema & Grandad's where cousin Becca was handing out the candy.. yumm!
All in all, i think the boys did great. Eli really got into the door to door thing & was so excited each time to get something for his bucket. ANd combined the boys got enough candy to feed an army! I combined it all (to hide in the pantry to save from a CONSTANT asking for it!) and it filled a BUSHEL basket! That is absurd!!

Tweetsie Railroad

The day didn't start out well, as the train ride stopped for the indians & the outlaws to fight & shoot (some blanks!). Jackson just kept his ears covered & Eli was just trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from!

Randy and I, and Jeremy & Kaleb rode the ferris wheel & we were able to get some fun shots of J & K.....

The boys also got to ride plenty of rides! I don't have a lot of the pictures because i was on the rides too & Aunt Marie took them with their camera (send them to me, Marie!!!) Here they are on the planes..... but they also rode the merry go round, cars, tilt a whirl, etc.....

We had some photos opportunities on the horse & carriage. Since Eli's favorite animal is a horse, it was suiting!

And we also got to go into a feeding area & feed some animals. There were lamas, goats, & deer. This was everyone's favorite part i think! Here is Eli feeding a deer....
Mama feeding the deer... i had never been so close to a deer before! (Not one alive anyway!) Jackson fed the lama who was greedy!
Here is a little video for evidence....

On a side note here: Jackson went with me to buy these cones of food for the animals. As i was paying, he was holding them. I hadn't mentioned the fact that it was animal food yet, and as i heard a crunch, i looked over & yes, the 4 year old had taken a bite! YUCK! He spit it out about the time i screamed!

We took the chairlift up to miners mountain....here is Randy & Eli in front of us....
And this is them behind us (on the way back down). Excuse the blur, but they all turned out that way on the way back down! (Again.... Jeremy got a great one of all of us! HINT. HINT)

And here is Jackson sitting next to me on the chair lift. He really enjoyed this, but i have to be honest, i was a little nervous to have kids on this thing! This picture pretty much sums up the day.... Eli tuckered out! We went for one last ride on the merry go round, & he fell asleep on the ride! It was too funny!