Growing

It's December and almost two months have gone by since my last post. I have been contemplating how to write this entry and that has resulted in my putting it off more and more. So as the boys near the end of their naps, and I sit in a partially cleaned living room, I will just catch up as best as I can.

Halloween and thanksgiving have come and gone as well as many more noteworthy experiences. The boys are growing so much every day that I can hardly keep up with them. I don't see babies when I look at them anymore. I see little boys. They play together, share their toys (and take them) they wrestle with each other and with Chase and me, they swing from furniture, climb on everything, jump on the couches and race around the house. They blow bubbles, pet Kita, read to themselves, and try to cheer the other up when they cry. They are the most amazing human beings I have even known.

Shortly before Halloween, my mom came for a visit. We took the boys to Simmons Farm where they have great fall activities for young kids; a hay ride, pumpkin patches, a petting zoo and a lot more. We took the boys on a beautiful crisp morning. They looked so sharp in their new fall coats. We went to the same farm last fall to get our pumpkins and we went on the hay ride but the boys were so little they weren't able to do much more than just sit in the stroller. This year they loved running around amongst the pumpkins and in the corn maze. While I searched for Indian Corn, they were happy to munch on their cookies with Grams and play in the tall stalks.

My little Halloween party turned out to be just that; little. A few people canceled on me but we still decided to have it. There were a lot of yummy home made snacks and a big pot of chili for everyone. A few of the boy's friends came and everyone looked great in their costumes. Unfortunately Chase wasn't able to be there for the majority of the party because he wasn't able to get off work early enough but we all had a good time none the less. The boys were so adorable as little dragons. When Halloween rolled around, they were so excited about getting back into their costumes. We didn't take them trick or treating this year though because it was raining really hard all night and the boys were already fighting colds. But the four of us sat outside on the deck handing out candy to all of our neighbors. Their costumes were perfect for cold weather as they covered their heads and hands. Everyone who came up to our house was so taken by how cute the boys were. And they had a blast watching everyone come and go. With every group of kids the boys would run to the edge of the deck and shout and point at them. They had such a great time!

Between Thanksgiving and Halloween Chase and I went to our first Steelers game. It was a really crazy experience. I'm not sure if this is widely known, but Pittsburgh fans are some of the best fans there are. Even if all of the teams in this city were terrible, it would still be a sports town just because of the fans. It's incredible. We got to the game and there were tailgaters everywhere we looked. It was clear that many of them had been there for hours. They had their grills out, they were all playing corn hole, people had tents set up, music was blaring, and almost everyone was drunk. It seems like with fans like that the teams would have to be good. Unfortunately, this year, the Steelers are proving that theory wrong. Anyway, the game itself was a lot of fun. We had box seats and they won! In addition to watching the game, I was really happy just looking around at all the fans in the stadium, which by they way, is really beautiful. It's an open air stadium with beautiful views of the city, the rivers and Mount Washington. We also went to a Pittsburgh vs Colorado hockey game. We were both so excited to watch our old team playing our new team. Yes dad, our new team :) However, once we got there, both of us were cheering for Colorado. And the Avs won! The Pittsburgh fans weren't too happy with us, but the Avs deserved the win, not to mention how badly they needed it. It's been far too long since Colorado has had a good hockey team. Go Avs!

We didn't forget about the boys during all of this fun though. The Ringling Brothers Circus came to Pittsburgh in November and we went as a family. It was a big deal for us to take the boys into the city at night and expect them to happily sit through a two hour show at a big indoor stadium but they did so well. There was so much going on that at times I was worried that they were just getting overloaded with stimuli, but they seemed to be fine. After about 45 minutes they started to get into the show and start clapping with the rest of the audience, smiling and laughing at the clowns and pointing at the animals. As Chase and I were getting them all ready to go near the end of the show, they were pretty ready to go home, but then the motorcycles came out. The finale was, I believe, six motorcycles driving around in one of those round cages. I was most worried about this one because of the noise and all the flashing lights but these boys were completely transfixed! They stood up in their seats, were smiling, shouting, pointing and clapping all at once. They absolutely loved them. I couldn't believe it, but then again, I should have known better considering the fact that they are Chase Knotwell's kids.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful break for us. Chase had four days off for the holiday which was such a treat! He hand't had many days off at all and we were really missing having family time. The boys had slight colds and the weather wasn't the greatest, so we weren't able to do much outside or out of the house (as far as taking the boys anywhere to play) but we had such a good time as a family just being together. With our busy lives it's easy to forget how important that time together really is. Thanksgiving day was wonderful. He watched the boys while I cooked. This year we had a smaller turkey, but I still cooked the full meal: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberries and pumpkin pie. We have so many things to be thankful for. I wish that there were more days out of the year dedicated to looking at our lives and reflecting on things that we are thankful for. Thanksgiving is the only "official" day in our culture, but it helps remind me to be thankful through out the year.

We don't have our Christmas tree yet, but are hoping to get it this weekend. It's hard for us to fully get into the Christmas spirit with all of our family living out of state, but the main difficulty for us is the weather. We have had a few good snow falls already this year and some cold days, but over all, winters in Pittsburgh are quite mild compared to what we're used to. We got winter coats and ski bibs for the boys. They look so cute all bundled up! We're just waiting for a big snowstorm so that we can dress them up and take them outside to play. It's supposed to start snowing tonight and continue through the weekend, but they are forecasting rain at the end of this storm which means it's just going to get messy.

We're going to have a quiet Christmas here, however, quiet may not be the right word. We decided to give the boys an early Christmas present last night. They each got a new truck to push around and they were so excited when Chase brought them down stairs. They pushed them around until it was time for dinner and when we picked them up to put them in their seats they lost it. They were so sad to have to leave their trucks. And between dinner and bath time we made the mistake of letting them play with them again and were left with two toddlers screaming in the bath tub because they weren't allowed to bring their trucks with them. Needless to say, the trucks went back up into the office before they got out of their baths. But this morning, they were just as excited as last night to play with them.

Merry Christmas everyone!