You better not pout...

Here's a sneak peak of this year's Wilson family Christmas card! Fortunately, this pose didn't make the cut. It was the first pose of my "family picture photo session" and it only went downhill from there! Nolan is always ready for the camera, I had to threaten Luke with the loss of his trains if he didn't smile and look at the camera (simultaneously) and Dane, well, hopefully he'll laugh at himself one day! Oh what a joy Santa's lap should be this year! Ho Ho Ho!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...March?

Just a week ago we were enjoying a blustery 80 degree weekend and the boys just HAD to go fly their kites. You gotta love a warm November day that makes it feel like a spring day! We finished our yard work and headed up to the park near our house where we could find wide open spaces and enjoyed lots of giggles and squeals from the boys trying to fly their kites. It was actually too gusty to keep the kites up for long, long periods of time but when they came crashing down they were up again in no time thanks to the gusts of winds that caught their kites. I was a little thankful we didn't have one of those 2 handle kites because I am convinced it would have carried Luke away! Even Dane enjoyed watching his brothers fly their kites. Maybe next year he'll have one of his own to fly!

I love the look of concentration on Luke's face in this picture.

Turtle kite

Fish kite

Nolan has mastered his kite (for the moment anyway)

A tree in the park with fall color! I love the different shades from the bottom to the top of the tree. I appreciate any color I can see because in Texas the trees go from green to brown to on the ground.

Dane and Lucy hanging out by the baseball backstop enjoying the show!

It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

I haven't decided which holiday my kids like most...Christmas or Halloween! This Halloween I got my first taste of "I want to be _______". I had great plans for their costumes and how I was going to create a "theme" for the 3 of them but this year I had to let my ideas go and embrace the costume decisions made by Nolan and Luke (I still got to dress Dane up tho!). Either way, Halloween day always proves to be very exciting. We started by preparing our pumpkins for their annual "carvings". Nolan and Luke drew pictures of what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. I did the cutting, they did the gutting! Dane even got in on the action.

As it has been in the past, the weather was wonderful yet again for our Trick or Treating adventure! I remember many Halloweens in Missouri where our costumes were covered up with warm winter coats! Not so in Texas! This year Nolan was a USA soccer player, Luke was Buzz Lightyear (to infinity and beyond!) and Dane was my little viking (he IS 1/8th Norwegian ya know!). I guess I'm a sucker for the home-made costume as I think so many others are. A run down of Dane's costume looked something like this...

A "pelt" of fur - $3.50

A viking helmet made out of a baseball cap, paper horns, tape and paint - Free

A viking shield made out of a sauce pot lid and aluminum foil - Free again!

Duct tape to attach the horns to the cap - PRICELESS!

I hope everyone had a ghoulish night to remember!

Nolan and Dane "gutting" their pumpkin

Dane posing for the camera

Nolan doing his "gutting"

Luke scooping out his pumpkin guts

It's time! This viking has arrived!

A viking, a soccer player and a Buzz Lightyear

A rare photo of me and Dane!

Drew and Dane walking together. (I think Drew was checking the score of the World Series Rangers vs. Giants, game 4)

Who couldn't love this picture!

Someone loves him a Kit Kat bar!

The Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago we made our annual trip to the Halls Farm Pumpkin Patch. We've visited another pumpkin patch several years ago when Luke was about 18 months old and well, we keep returning to the tried and true. This pumpkin patch truly resembles the "less is more" philosophy. As always I attempted to pose 3 children in the same photo and as always, I get a great shot of Nolan and Dane and interesting participation from Luke. Once I put away the camera the boys finally got to have the fun they were promised! Hay mazes, corn mazes, tractor climbing, farm animal viewing and pumpkin picking-outing. The only event we missed this year was the evening hay ride which was sold out 2 hours before the next ride. I think our pumpkin farm secret is out because every year it seems to be a bigger and bigger group of people hanging out at the pumpkin patch. Next stop...Halloween!

3 Brothers together (sorta) :)

I finally got a decent shot of Dane.

Hanging out in an old truck!

A great picture of Luke and Nolan. Sure wish I could get a picture like this with Dane included.

Luke LOVED picking out his pumpkin this year.

A Day at the Dallas Arboretum

It's hard to believe that 11 months ago I purchased tickets to the Dallas Arboretum and we are just now getting a chance to use them! Monday morning we dressed up the boys, packed picnic lunches and headed out to the Dallas Arboretum where I was hoping to capture a few cute pics of the boys. The lesson I learned is that getting 2 boys to smile is easy, it's getting the 3rd one to cooperate that was the hard part. And you would think that cooperation would come from the oldest but not true...Luke is unable to look and smile at the camera for any group picture! He loves to have his picture taken alone but cannot take a group picture. I suppose he doesn't like sharing the "lime light". In any case, we enjoyed walking through the Arboretum, checking out the fish in the ponds, exploring the child-sized buildings in "Texas Town" and checking out the lily pads (which was exciting for Nolan because in kindergarten they spent an entire week studying pond life!). My sister Jackie joined us for the Labor Day weekend and beyond! She is helping take care of Dane this week before she heads back to Missouri on Friday. All of the boys (especially Luke) are going to miss her dearly! Who else will read books to him and fetch him "fresh water" at bedtime?!?!

Let the posing begin! Luke strikes a pose the moment we get into the gardens.

Nolan and Luke photo opp!

Nolan and Dane

Dane smiling for the camera

An attempt at a family picture

Aunt Jackie posing with her 3 Texas nephews!

Brotherly love (and then right after this picture was taken Nolan instructed Luke to get off of him!)

Sisters!

Luke and Nolan posing with me!

Too tired to smell the roses!

1st Day of School - 2010

The official start of school began today with great anticipation last night! Luke went to sleep right on time but Nolan just couldn't get to sleep. I guess the anticipation of 1st grade was just too much. At 10pm I bid him my final good night. This morning both boys got dressed, ate their pop tarts and did their obligatory 1st day of school picture poses. As you can see, Luke's beloved "chicken" was available for pictures this morning as well. 1st day of school is such a terrible rush! Before we even had time to video tape the event we were walking into Nolan's elementary school and back out again in what felt like 2 minutes flat. Kids and parents were everywhere! This year Nolan looked a bit more apprehensive than I remember him looking last year in Kindergarten.

Next stop, Primrose! Luke is officially a "big kid" and now he attends Pre-K in a new classroom. This year Luke will wear his official Primrose uniform and rejoin some friends from last year's preschool classroom. His teachers are Ms. Babe and Ms. Garcia. We know Ms. Garcia from Nolan's Pre-K school year and she's soooo excited to have another "Wilson boy" back in class with her. Both teachers are young and hip so I think he'll have a great year too!

As for me, no tears (who has time, anway?!) Just lots of pride knowing that they are happy and well adjusted little boys happy to be in a learning environment. Last year and this year I took off work for their 1st day of school and I think I am going to make this my new tradition. I like being able to take my time with them in the morning and I enjoy every moment of it.

Nolan - 1st Grade (2010)

Luke - Pre-K (2010)

Luke & Nolan - 1st day of school (2010)

Nolan with Mrs. Robinson

Luke getting ready to enter Primrose (he's finally growing into his backpack!)

Oh Dane...seriously?

Call him an explorer who ventures into territories where his older brothers have never gone before...the toilet bowl! It's too bad that I wasn't able to snap a picture of him when I first found him because that picture would have shown him sitting in the bowl like a bird in a nest. And he was smiling so big! Tonight felt like a F4 tornado hit our house. Dane began the evening by shimmying under the baby gate which keeps Dane and Lucy out of the cat food and cat box (or at least now it keeps Lucy out). He was helping himself to huge handfuls of cat food which I had to extract with my finger from his clenched shut jaws. Guess what? He bites!! I finally had to let him chew up the last few pieces (ewwwww...gross, I know!) It was shortly thereafter when I found him in the toilet bowl. Is it too much to ask for a few minutes to change clothes and use the potty? Apparently so! Then, when I was getting everyone ready for bed I went into Luke's room and found ALL of Luke's books pulled off the shelves in his closet and scattered across the room. I don't think I can blame that one on Luke...I'm convinced that "Tornado Dane" barreled through Luke's room as well! And just like a tornado, the havoc he created took him probably less than 3 minutes!