Happy Thanksgiving Pilgram!

Our Thanksgiving began aboard the Mayflower II, a seaworthy reproduction in Plymouth Massachusetts. Not as grand or exciting as Mr. Bates made it seem, but still cool to behold!





The view of the Atlantic Ocean from the Plimouth Palisade.A kind Pilgrim taught this little one how to strike a wedge with an English accent.The same little boy was denied his request to stoke the fire.

On Thursday, Em provided us with a beautiful table and a scrumptious meal. It was our first official D&E Family Thanksgiving!!! We successfully navigated the difficulties of only having one oven to cook the various dishes, and enjoyed a great meal. E shined in her pinnacle of domesticity.

MOST GRACIOUS ADORABLE ONE

While sitting in my den/home office/study this morning at about 5:30 am or so I began hearing some scampering upstairs. Expecting to hear one of the boys beginning to scream, I prepared myself for ignoring them until they either woke the other one up of went back to sleep.

Then I heard the scampering enter the bathroom and then the kitchen. Expecting to hear the MOST GRACIOUS ADORABLE ONE begin barfing, I prepared myself for ignoring, I mean prepared myself to go upstairs and help her. As no violent heaving noises were heard I figured she simply need a bowl of cereal to calm her stomach. Then the scamperer descended the squeaky stairs. Next, my beautiful wife entered with a cup of milk and a plate with two pieces of

melted cheese and a bowl of applesauce for my breakfast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She woke up before the sun even thought to and made me a yummy, fortifying and much needed breakfast. I had just been dreading having to come up with something to eat and contemplating stopping at the Dunk (Dunkin' Donuts) on the way to the OR. What a wicked awesome wife I have!!!!!

Movie Night, A Zoo, and a Creamery

The weekend began with a fun movie night with M and the boys, Curious George, and individual popcorns. It was a wicked fun. George is a great movie and M hadn't seen it yet. The boys cuddled with us the whole time...wicked cute. Max giggled the whole time and Sam watched intently and was sad when George was captured.
This was the view out our window (across the street) yesterday morning. Most of New England's leaves are on the ground, yet our street is just starting to fall. It is wicked pretty.
I finally got us to all get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful day. So we went to the Providence Zoo. Its a pretty good zoo, not quite as grand as SF and definitely doesn't compare to San Diego's, but still an enjoyable stroll.

Max's best friend from Pre-K was there too and they went around together the whole time. They are both wicked hyper and ran around the whole zoo together.
This bird kept trying to eat my son's finger.
Creepy stranger.
We stopped at a garage sale, which was over, on the way home and picked through the leftovers on the street. So the boys had to ride home with their heads tucked under a plastic pool. Can't beat a free garage sale. Sam wasn't too happy under their!

Then we had to satisfy the cravings of a pregnant woman who wanted a "real hamburger". So we found a Newport Creamery and got some wicked yummy grub!

Ripley's Believe It or Not--Primary Champion

My oldest son, many of you may know him he's the one who looks like me, on Sunday for the second time received the "Most Reverent" reward in primary. Yes, my boy who acts like he's been eating Apple Jacks and chocolate soy milk for breakfast. The first time it was for Sacrament meeting and he is now 1 away from a hat trick this week with the award for being the most reverent during the primary hours!!! The first time he got a little pack of face cards for his prize and luckily the second time it was some sort of puzzle chain.
He has done very well in church the last few months...That's MY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(He also memorized his part for the primary program two weeks ago!!!)

Dat have cow milk?

We recently made a Costco run to Massachusetts and loaded up on the coveted Soy Milk. (That made a certain little boy very happy. We put the 4 cases in the storage room since no one really has room for so many soys in ones kitchen. The said little boy then proceeded to try to smuggle various amounts from downstairs to the kitchen. When he realized that he couldn't get away with that, he took them all out of their boxes and lined them up. (Oh yeah this was while I was in the bathroom...and he called to me "Dad! Bet you can't get out of there without tripping!") As I exited, my way was blockaded with the empty cases and I found him trying to count the 42 boxes of soy milk lined up in the storage room. (I also had to pick up the ironing board and a few folding chairs which he happened to be buried under as well.)

Later that day, after driving around looking for garage/tag sales, finding another free dresser and some good garage sale steels, and a fun library trip we headed off to Snow White's Spooky Halloween Birthday Party! (See pictures below.)

Then the rest of the night was spent ripping out the front door and putting in a new one.
The end.

Apple Picking

Thursday we went to Pippin Farm to go apple picking (see Pictures below).





These were extremely crunchy juicy delicious!


I think she is the most beautiful one I picked!!!!!!!!!!

Columbus Day Cranberry Festival

Monday's trip found us in Carver Massachusetts at the Edaville Cranberry Harvest Festival. We had just seen an Oceanspray commercial and wondered about what the guys were doing in the water and how the cranberries got there...Well we learned. It turns out they flood the cranberry bog and there is a machine that knocks the berries off and they float up and then are gathered together. Then a big pump sucks them up into the truck. After that I'm not sure about how we get the juice to Costco...that'll be our next trip!!


Bammer didn't want to go on the fast Elephant ride so he got to go on the Carousel with Momma.Sammy immediately look down to Mom and said: "Hep Momy, Hep!"
Special appearance from "Kuris Gorge," you should have seen the big smiles on the boys!

Welcome to New Hampshire (and Mass)

We had a great trip yesterday. We started off our trip with a few garage sells, where Max bought himself a Cinderella figurine (What else would a four year old boy want? Well the answer is an old Ritz cracker tin, which was thrown into the deal for a $1 total.). We then proceeded on our trip to see the fall colors. The trees were gorgeous as we traveled out of Rhode Island, through Mass and into New Hampshire. Brilliant reds, vibrant yellows, and cool oranges. After multiple pit stops at a road side farm's produce stand (where we found more pumpkins, fresh corn, and sweet crisp apples) and more garage sells, we arrived in the town of Jaffrey (probably population of 500-1000 including the 200+ scarecrows).


It was a cute little town and they were having a festival called "Scarecrows On The Common." The had bobbing for apples, face painting, pumpkin bowling, a ball toss, and the coup de gras Scarecrow making!!! Most of these were free except for the scarecrows, which was a scout fundraiser.

So Max and I, with a little help from Bammy, set to work on our Scarecrow. We had mom and The Fae draw faces on the provided sacks, chose hats from the hat pile and clothes from the clothes pile and built it on a wooden cross provided by the Boy Scouts. Max, naturally, chose a Santa hat thus setting a winter/Christmas theme from the start. Then after a few rejections by Max of some of the clothes I tried to chose we settled on green pants and a red shirt/blouse. (What else do you do with a Santa hat). Thus began the creating of Bert, the two-headed pregnant Christmas thief. It was a blast having Max help me tie/staple/pin and stuff a scarecrow, a first for both of us! They also both enjoyed jumping in the piles of hay distributed about the common.

Fall Preview

Tomorrow we are heading for New Hampshire to enjoy the Fall Colors!!!

http://www.visitnh.gov/ The Monadnock region is reported to be at its Peak of color.

So check back soon to see how it all went!

What's your favorite...

Here are the updated favorites:
What is your favorite fast food? In-n-Out (A triple-triple animal style!)
What is your favorite Disney Movie = Pirates of the Caribbean
What is your favorite Sea Ranch memory= rock hopping with winterfresh, SF- Tommy Toys
What is your favorite Sister-Listeneth.

What is your favorite place to lunch while in high school? Teryiaki Kitchen (Though Favela's was good as was Joe's)

WHO'S your favorite 2-doors-down neighbor that moved far away to Michigan and then even drove 15 hours to visit you in Rhode Island? -Browns

Why did I think your birthday was on the 5th? Your brain isn't working. (Wrong ? format...you always had a hard time with this one Brown!)


Well in our family heritage we have a tradition for birthdays...Everyone present asks the birthday boy/girl what their favorite...is. So I've already been sung too and asked a few favorite questions a day early today so I thought I'd share them and add few extras.


What is your favorite Jungle Animal? Tiger and/or Liger
What is your favorite Primary song? Beautiful Savior (in German)
What is your favorite thing about Rhode Island? I don't know, we keep leaving the state to see other things. (Waterfire was wicked awesome)
What is your favorite shell fish? Dungeness Crab (No not the Quahog, at least not yet)
What is your favorite primary (baby) tooth? #C (Yes I know C is a letter not a number but tell that to the AAPD)
What is your favorite son? SamWell
What is your favorite name for your future daughter? Veronica M. Warner
What is your favorite dessert? Flourless Chocolate Torte (with Raspberry Sauce)
What is your favorite book? Duh, The Bartimaues Trilogy
What is your favorite way to announce that your wife is pregnant? "I got another one past the goalie!"
What is your favorite thing Emily begins to do when she is pregnant? Long belches
What is your favorite memory of your children? Today was fun playing out on the Trampoline in the rain...then coming in for Hot Chocolate! We also made yummy rice crispy treats and Sam helped me make pizza dough.

IT'S FINALLY TIME!!!!

Now that the long boring summer is over and we can stay in side and veg...It's finally time to watch primetime television...and we finally have cable (Some may have heard about our unfortunate experiences with direct TV and dishNetwork, in short we are surrounded by tall trees, thus no satellite reception) Here are a few of my favorites (From fav to less fav): Veronica Mars (Tuesdays), NCIS (Tuesdays), Survivor (Thursdays), Prison Break (Mondays), Criminal Minds (a new favorite, Wednesdays).




Opps! How could I have left off the much anticipated and hoped for third season of THE OFFICE!!! (Can't wait til tomarrow) This can squeeze in next to Veronica and NCIS at a close 2nd place and/or first place, cause face it Kristen Bell is adorable.