Tree Farm

We had a busy day today. Kelly and the boys had to have her car at Romeo's to get inspected at 8:30am, Ben worked until noon, and when he got home from work, we headed to Gamble's Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree. After all that, we took the boys to Grandma's while we went Christmas shopping. We got home at 11pm and finally put the tree in the stand. We are going to leave it open-up overnight and decorate it tomorrow.

Let's rewind to our afternoon...

...Landon fell asleep on the way there and was a big bundle of joy when we got him out of the truck! Nanny was already there, so Kelly went in to the barn and asked her if she wanted to go up on the hill to find our trees. We were unable to drive the truck up this year because the ground was too soft and the owners didn't allow. Luckily, it wasn't too cold because we had to ride on the tractor up the hill to get our tree. The boys loved riding the tractor. That is all Landon really cared about. He was fussy and cold and wouldn't wear his gloves. We forced Mommy's gloves on him and he was fine while we waited for the tractor to return to take us back to the barn.

In the barn, they have all kinds of stuff that you can buy, food, hot chocolate, coffee, and candy. Nanny and Kelly had hot chocolate and Landon picked out this big "blue" star lollipop. Once Lukas saw that Landon had that he went and picked out a red one. After Kelly finished her hot cocoa, we paid for our tree and headed home.

After we got home, we changed our clothes and took the boys to Grandma's so we could do our "Santa" shopping. We went to Applebee's with his brother & girlfriend and had a very nice dinner before went shopping. We are 98% done with their shopping. We just have to pick up a couple more gifts and they are finished! We picked the boys up from Grandma's and got home around 11:00 and still had to put our tree in the stand. Poor Ben was going on 24 hours of no sleep. He was absolutely exhausted. We got a lot accomplished in one day and we are very proud of ourselves! Make sure to check back for our post on "trimming our tree"!

Oh yeah, we gave Lukas the honors of cutting the tree loose this year. He loved it! We swear, every Christmas just keeps getting better than the last:-)

Thanksgiving

We had plans to go Grandma's today, but she got sick and had to reschedule. When we told Lukas our plans had changed, he said in this sweet little sad voice "well, where are we going to have Thanksgiving?" Thankfully, Giant Eagle was open this morning and off I ran to get chicken, rolls, potatoes, corn, stuffing and gravy. I threw something together very quickly just to give him some sort of dinner on Thanksgiving. It was actually pretty darn good for being last minute! We spent our Thanksgiving with just the four of us all day. Landon and I watched some of the Macy's parade, Lukas played Wii most of the day, and we did a whole lot of lying around watching TV. Ben and I think this is one of our best Thanksgivings yet. It was very relaxing to stay home in comfortable clothes and do absolutely nothing. We will be having turkey dinner on Saturday at Grandma's and on Sunday at Great Nanny & Pappap's. So, we didn't mind that we didn't have turkey today. We also watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. Lukas is at the age were he enjoys traditions. These are the moments that make the holidays special.

We are so thankful to have two healthy, happy boys, a wonderful family, great friends, our health, our jobs, a roof over our heads, and most of all each other.

The boys and I did this artwork using their hands. They thought it was so much fun!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Bowling Boys

Lukas and I made these cute bowling boys. I was really impressed with the way they turned out. Lukas even picked out the ribbon himself. He seems to have a great eye for coordinating colors and materials. Lukas and Landon love playing with them. I may have to get more wooden pieces and do a set for Landon. They have been fighting a lot lately and didn't last 5 minutes before they were on the floor wrestling each other. Plus, it's inexpensive, fun, and they are just too cute!

Crafty Kidz

On Saturday, we took a trip to PatCatan's. We went on a mission to find little wooden boy pieces to make our "bowling boys" project. While we were in the wood section, Landon found a train and Lukas found a truck. We let them get those and they couldn't wait to get home to paint them. Landon kept saying the entire trip home "I wanna go home and paint my train."

Lukas painted his in camo and did an excellent job. We were very impressed with his artist skills. He finished it off with some Army stickers that he also picked out at the store. Landon painted his train blue and green. He did a fabulous job. He really surprised us at how well he did and how long he participated. We only had to fill in a few spots he missed. Our boys love to paint! Since the boys enjoyed this so much, we'll have to plan a trip soon for another creative project.

LOADS of fun!

It was a typical Saturday at the Remaley house. We got up, started laundry, yard work, grocery shopping and doing other stuff around the house. Landon thought it was so much fun to play with the laundry basket. He kept wanting us to cover him up with our comforter. He'd hide underneath for a good while then pop up. It's amazing that these little things around the house can entertain children for hours. We just had to post this...enjoy the clip!

Gorgeous Day

This Saturday was absolutely beautiful...Sunny & Warm! Of course we were all outside enjoying this beautiful day. The tree in our yard finally turned, but it's not as pretty as past years. Lukas wanted to rake leaves and of course Landon had to help! It was funny to watch them with the huge rakes, especially little Landon:-) We hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of Fall!

Mommy's Boy

Landon made MY DAY when I came home from work today. Every evening he greets me at the door with a great big smile and big hug. Today, he was following me every where I went and when I was getting dinner ready, I asked him what he did today and he said in his sweet little voice "I missed Mommy!" It was absolutely priceless and wish I could have got that moment on video. I definitely got my "Mommy's boy". I'm so blessed to have two sweet boys!

Teacher Conference

We had parent/teacher conference this afternoon with Lukas' teacher. Everything is going well academically and he's right on track. She gave us a folder with some of his work and reviewed his progress/report card with us. We are all the same page, which is great. They only thing he really needs to "grow on" is Letter Formation. She made a two sided template and gave us a dry erase marker for him to practice. She knew that this was our main concern and we appreciate the extra help. We showed it to Lukas and he thinks it's great. He used it a few times this afternoon/evening.

She also told us that he "shines" in:
Spelling
Math
Listening:-) (yes, she had a smile face beside that one)
Very polite

This week he also brought his science text book home to show us. He loves science! We really like that she sends home the text books so that we can review them. Lukas really enjoyed reading and reviewing the book with his baby brother. It was so cute to watch Lukas explain everything to Landon. We are so proud of our little man. Keep up the great work:-)!

1st grade school picture

We got Lukas' school picture today! We really like it. We think he smiled like this on purpose to show off his new smile:-) Can you believe he lost his first tooth 2 days before picture day. LOL!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Landon and I went to church this morning. He got lots of Halloween treats from members of the congregation. Lukas had his first bad dream last night. We watched a halloween movie with vampires. He was up a couple times last night and confided in me that he thought there were vampires in his closet/attic. Needless to say, he ended up in our bed half of the night and he slept in for church.

On Friday night, it was trick or treat night here in Vandergrift. The boys got a lot of candy on Wednesday, so I talked them into lighting our halloween lanterns and their pumpkins and handy out candy for the other kids. This is actually the first year that we handed candy out at our house. I made it fun for them and let Lukas stay in his costume that he wore to school and Landon wore his little halloween shirt. I also gave them two glow sticks each. The fire truck was driving around and came up our street, stopped in front of our house and gave the boys a big peppermint patty. They were so excited! It was a bit chilly out, so we only stayed out for about an hour then we headed back in our warm house. We did get more trick or treaters and the boys loved when they would come to the door. Lukas was so cute with this one little boy who was dressed as a dragon. He had to be about 1.5, little younger than Landon. Lukas opened the door and said "Hey buddy, Happy Halloween! Here you go, have a good night. Bye, Happy Halloween!" He was really into giving out the candy. As I watched him, it seemed as if he was an old man giving out candy. It was very precious. After we shut the lights off, he said "Mommy, can we hand out candy next year? This was so much fun!" I told him we sure will if it falls on a different day than Leechburg's night.

Posted are two pictures. One is of the jars I made (Lukas made the tiny little ghost on the right) and the other is the boys.

Hope everyone had a Spook-tac-u-lar Halloween!

Halloween Parade

Lukas was in the Leechburg Halloween parade tonight for his cub scout pack. We joined a new pack (pack 553) this year for many reasons. We are happier with the change. Lukas is a tiger cub and he gets to wear an official uniform and absolutely loves it! We don't have the neckerchief yet, but he looked really good. He looks so grown up! Seriously, this brings tears to our eyes. They had to dress in their uniforms tonight and the money they won gets donated to Toys for Tots. Lukas really loves being with his friends and walking in the parade. We wish it could have been a little warmer:-) Lukas kept saying "Mommy, it's cold!" Poor little guy.

Trick OR Treat

Tonight, we went to Trick or Treat night in Leechburg. Lukas was overly excited. He went as an army soldier. Landon was sleeping when I got home from work, so he was a "bundle of joy". He didn't want to put his costume on. It took me a good twenty minutes to get him ready. He was a cowboy this year. This was the same costume Lukas wore a few years ago. I love this coat my mom made. I just really wish he wouldn't have fallen asleep because he would have been more himself and enjoyed the trick or treating. He did OK, but was very backward and was attached to my hip. I didn't get good pictures of Landon because he wouldn't corporate, but Lukas' pics didn't turn out too bad. His face paint wore off quickly because he said his face was itchy. We had fun and the boys got LOTS of CANDY...too much! Thanks to all of our family for the BIG BAGS! We love you all.

Red Ribbon Week

This is Red Ribbon week at Lukas' school.

Each day this week, they are to do something to show they are against drugs.

Today was CRAZY HAIR DAY! Lukas was really into this which sort of surprised us. He had lots of hair wax through his hair topped off with freeze & dry hair spray.

This is the schedule of events for the week:

Monday – Wear your favorite team jersey. (He wore his Steelers jersey)

Tuesday – Crazy Hair Day! (See Pic- he's still a cutie with crazy hair!)

Wednesday – Wear Red

Thursday – Wear your shirt inside out

Friday – Wear your halloween costume to say "BOO" to drugs (He's wearing his Army gear)

As you can tell, it's a fun week at school for him:-)

Carving Pumpkins!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day...it was sunny and hit 80 degrees! Landon and Mommy went to the grocery stores early this afternoon and when we came out we cooked out on the grill. We had the best burgers ever! After we ate, we decided to cut our pumpkins outside. The boys were so excited! Landon was really into it and we were very surprised. Lukas insisted on saving the pumpkin seeds to bake them. He did really good with his pumpkin too. We wanted him to draw his own face this year, but he wasn't comfortable enough. He said it wouldn't turn out good. So he told us what he wanted and we did what he said (triangle eyes, star nose, and a smile with a tooth). Landon didn't really know what he wanted, but he did want circles for the eyes. Mommy created his pumpkin face. Landon was very interested in putting the shape cuts back into place. He's very good at doing puzzles and knows all his shapes. He loves Lukas' star nose and kept saying the lid of the pumpkins are "suns". He's too cute! When it got dark, we lit them and they just love them, especially Landon. He loves to take the lid of his pumpkin off and on. I wish they would stay this young forever.

We had a fantastic day and are all very excited for trick or treat night on Wednesday!!