Thanksgiving time

The days after Thanksgiving mean eating pumpkin pie by candlelight at 11 am... just because.

...insisting on playing outside in just a diaper because clothing is so overrated, even in 55 degree weather.

And drawing time with Dad. Whole scenarios can be played out on paper...

While Dad's drawing of a Clone Trooper, R2D2, and a Boba Fett head get new bodies from Ian.

We had a full week off with Jeremy, a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with family, and lots and lots of time together. So much fun and many memories of our last Thanksgiving as a family of 4! We are soaking it in, knowing next year a new little personality will be here to join in the fun. Hope your Thanksgiving was just as peaceful.

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Advent begins today! Candles are up and ready for the first lighting tonight. So excited for this month and all it will bring.

Eloise

I couldn't resist. The thought was too strong for my hormone-laden mind to ignore. We all missed him so much that another cat seemed like the right thing to do. And this time, a kitten!

This is little Eloise Eva. She is 12 weeks old and a little spitfire. I was unsure at first if I was up for it... or rather her. She talked constantly and wouldn't let us sleep. But then slowly, her little lap naps and soft purring won us over and she's here to stay for good.


We got her for free from a woman that seemed to love her and wanted her to go to a good home. Eloise was one of two left in a litter of six babies. Ian went with me to pick her up and on our way home I realized that she was infested with fleas. The next morning I discovered she had a bad case of worms. She spent the first night in our bathroom which didn't settle well with her... she was scared and lonely. But by the next day, after the flea medicine kicked in and after many many little grooming sessions with me and a comb, she began to feel better. She's completely free of her little problems, both inside and out, and I can tell it's made a big difference. She's also putting on weight. She was only 1-1/2 lbs and very skinny but she's eating enough to make up for what she lost so I have no doubt she'll be plump and happy soon.


She's soaking up the attention now. She jumps into any lap that's available and her constant talking has softened to just the occasionally meow when she's hungry. Ian picked out her middle name Eva. He said she reminded him of the girl robot in Wall-E who was white and black with blue eyes. It suits her just fine.


Welcome home Eloise Eva.

Halloween love and the aftermath

Superman and a Storm Trooper ventured out Saturday night to find some candy. It was so cute to see their faces when we walked up to these houses that we see everyday, knocked on the door, and were given candy. We made it to about 8 houses and then they both declared they were ready to go home. I think they were more excited about digging into their candy stash rather than getting more.

Ian as Luke Skywalker dressed as a Storm Trooper. And he means serious business when this costume is on.

We stopped by Papa's and Grandma's house first and practiced knocking on their door before the real work began. It was a successful Halloween!

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And now that we have handfuls of candy lying around.... Did you know that sugar suppresses the immune system? Having the equivalent of one can of soda (8 tbsp of sugar) can depress the immune system by 40% for hours... up to 7 hours in fact. So let's say you have some form of sugar for breakfast, your immune system may only be functioning at 60% for the entire day. That leaves you vulnerable to all sorts of germs and viruses. And that's assuming you only have 8 tbsps of sugar all day. Add more soda, a piece of candy, some coffee cake, a mocha... and suddenly your system is suppressed continually. That makes it really hard for your body to function at it's best during the sick season.

We've been fighting some cough-runny nose-thing this entire last week. We've been keeping it at bay and it's been pretty mild so I debated on whether to let the boys have the candy from Halloween. I was worried that the work the herbs and veggies and vitamin D we've been doing would be undermined by the sugar. But they hardly ever eat traditional candy and they were so excited that we decided to let them have some. And of course, then I had some because I just couldn't resist a little Milky Way bar (or two) that was sitting next to me.

Then last night I realized that this cough and runny nose I had held at bay was hitting me full force. Being pregnant, my immune system is weaker anyway, then add in pure sugar and suddenly there's not much to keep the little germs from invading. My head is full, my nose is running, and I cough constantly. Ian is doing about the same.

So today I brought out the veggies and decided we had to add some nutrients back in. We've spent the past month going between juicing our veggies and fruits and making smoothies with them. This morning I decided to use the juicer and went with apples, lemon, romaine lettuce, fresh ginger, and 2 beets.

The boys love to help with the juicer and I know this gets them excited about drinking their vegetables.

Their favorite part is watching the different colors of juice pouring out in the bowl. "It's GREEN! It's RED!"

Then we immediately drink up, not even bothering to clean first, to maximize all the enzymes and nutrients the juice gives.

Today was red mustaches thanks to the beets!

Ian is a really good eater but Sawyer is not, he's as picky as they come. But somehow, he loves the juice we make with our veggies and fruit. The boys know it's made of vegetables and they know vegetables keep them healthy. It's my goal to keep it fun but real and I don't think you get more real than drinking beet juice.

This juice was good, tart, but good. I love the way it makes me feel and I'm hoping our colds will be gone very soon because of it.