Happy Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving post before the actual day?! What is up?? Well, nap time for the next 7 minutes, so here we go.
This is Thanksgiving art work at our house. The first are turkeys the kids helped make/decorate. Then, I asked them to list 5 things they were thankful for to write on the feathers. The last picture is from school -- adorable!

Will is thankful for: Christmas, turkey, houses, newspaper and Red Raiders (as in Texas Tech - he thinks they're pirates)

Ellie Kate is thankful for: birthdays, babies, colors, Casie, and Christmas trees

Too cute not to post

These are just a few cute pics from the last week or so.

They will totally hate me someday for posting these, but they were too funny. Elle insisted on wearing her tutu like this.

"I'm beautiful!"

rocking out - hilarious!

And I'm absolutely in love with this first picture below. Will was not posed at all, just working away and I asked him to look up. This perfectly captures this stage for him.

Autumn leaves are falling

Twirling, swirling,
They all fall down!
(This is part of a song the kids have been singing at school and just seems appropriate for these pics.)
We had great weather the last 2 weekends so we got some good leaf-raking done. This weekend was easier since J was home. While the kids didn't exactly help, they did have fun walking through our piles of leaves and attacking us with the bubble shooter. I need to remember that for next year - it was a great distraction for them!

Excuse the messy hair - this was shortly after naptime :)

I think our tree is so pretty right now!

Getting Daddy with the bubbles

It was dusk, so these pictures are pretty dark, but there's a sneak attack happening here.

Will's first game at the Fieldhouse

Lucky Will got to enjoy his first KU basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse last Friday night. He and Justin went and had a great time! Justin said he was "pure joy - the happiest I've ever seen him". Apparently, Will was enthusiastically cheering for every Jayhawk basket. He was thrilled to get pictures with Big Jay and Baby Jay. And he loved seeing all the big trophies in the Hall of Fame. I tried to portray just how lucky he was in getting to go to a game since Mommy was 18 before she went to a game there! I'm not sure he got the point, but he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Rock Chalk!

Tinkerbell and my knight in shining armor

If nothing else, my kids get good use out of their costumes each year!
First was the Halloween parade at J's office. They both have trick-or-treating down pat this year and had a blast! Their bags were so heavy with candy afterwards that they were dragging on the ground.

The lobby of each floor had spooky decorations.

I love their expressions in this one!

Can we go now?

And, they're off!

Checking out their loot

 Then we had Halloween brunch (the day before Halloween) with Grammy & Grandpa.

They got to decorate pumpkins

And have yummy treats!

On Halloween, they got to wear their costumes to school and have a party. I LOVE this pictures of them!

 Then we had trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Halloween night. Aunt Casie came over to help. We went to 9-10 houses on our block and called it good. As in the past, the highlight is handing out candy to the other kids who come to the door.

waiting for trick-or-treaters

Happy, happy girl!

Shoving a whole pb cup in her mouth...just like her mama!

Look at all that candy!

And the silliness begins

We had beautiful weather and lots of fun. Incidentally, I also had a doctor's appointment on Halloween. All is checking out great. Baby boy is still big. We discussed moving my due date up to Feb. 12. However, I told her I wasn't too concerned about the due date. My kids never seem to make it to that point anyway. I know we'll have a c-section, so we'll schedule a date and if he makes it until then, great. If not, he'll come when he's ready. Now it's time for getting the house (and ourselves!) ready for this new baby and upcoming holidays. Lots to do, but I really do love this time of year.

Happy 5th birthday, Will!

"I'm 5!!!!"

We celebrated Will's 5th birthday with a family party last weekend. He had a great time playing with his cousins! We had his request - vegetable soup, along with chili, hot dogs, snacks, and yummy cupcakes. He was so thrilled to pick out all the veggies to go in the soup. It was really adorable to see. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but I think it was pretty good!
As you can see, he got tons of stuff -- and he's been having such a great time playing with all of it in the evenings this week. He was pretty excited to get Monopoly and Operation. I'm so thankful he loves board games as much as I do! 

Oh my gosh, look at all this awesome stuff!

With his special request - chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles.

I love my new Woody PJ's! Thanks, Aunt Casie!

Both our kids had fevers after the party. Will was fairly subdued throughout the party, but seemed to have a really good time. Neither ate dinner. They had tylenol, lots of juice and water and went to bed. Thankfully, everyone felt better in the morning.

He had his school party on his actual birthday and had a great time there. When we got home, he was showing me all the stuff he got -- Legos, games, Rescue Heroes, and then he was ready to sit down and work on the 1st grade workbook his teacher gave him. I love this kid!
After opening presents from us, we had his b-day dinner of choice: chicken and macaroni & cheese. I tell ya, we should really be enjoying this time with such low expectations!!

A happy birthday boy with his dragon guys.

We had such a fun time celebrating this amazing little boy! I can't believe how quickly 5 years have gone.

Boy oh boy!

Before I left for the conference, we had a sonogram to see how things were looking. We were surprised to learn that we were having a BOY! Actually, Justin thought it was a boy all along; I just thought it was a girl. Regardless, our baby and I both looked healthy - that's mostly what we were hoping to hear! Baby was measuring a week to ten days big based on our anticipated due date. I assured the sonographer that this would be fine - I'm not a 40-week kinda girl :) I've been feeling lots and lots of movement lately, which I LOVE! It's one of my favorite things about being pregnant.

Will has thought the baby would be a girl, but he seemed just as excited to learn he would have a baby brother. The other day at school he was telling his teacher that he thought we should name the baby Max. And that his "big name" would be Max Junior Nichols. On the way home, I let him know that Daddy & I had come up with a name for the baby and told him what it was. Will got very quiet in the backseat. I assumed he was processing this new information. Soon, I realized he was crying. This marked the beginning of about a 30-minute meltdown in which I finally got him to verbalize what was bothering him. "I just don't feel like I'm getting to help with the baby. You and Dad decided the name and didn't even let me help."  Oh my. I walked right into that one and had no idea! Of course, I felt terrible. I love that he is so excited to help (we'll see how long it lasts after Baby arrives), but I just wasn't anticipating this. I gave J a heads up so he wouldn't bring it up when he got home. J's response: "Did you tell him this isn't a democracy?" Nice. We've moved past this hurdle, but still haven't talked much about the baby's name around Will. I tried to come up with other "big" things he could help with - choosing the paint color for the baby's room, helping get his clothes ready, etc. But Will has decided maybe he only wants to help when the baby is OUT of Mommy's tummy. Fair enough.