It happened. . .

Yesterday morning, Zoey's loose tooth finally decided to come out. It is so little! Since Grandma and Grandpa are in town for the weekend, Zoey is sleeping in our room which gave Tyler and I an enjoyable experience of being in the same room with her when she discovered that the tooth fairy had visited. Here is how it went down. . .

Zoey put her tooth in a little gold organza bag for the Tooth Fairy and put it under her pillow. Then she eventually went to sleep.

Zoey woke up at around 5 am this morning. She reached under her pillow and pulled out the toothbrush that was left by the tooth fairy. From under my covers, I hear her whisper, "Yes!" Then she very politely comes over to me to show me the toothbrush. I asked her to try to go back to sleep for a couple of hours and she did.

At around 7 am she sits up in her bed and starts to examine the toothbrush in the light of the window. Again from under my covers, I hear her whisper in just a sweet voice, "Wow! It's a Barbie toothbrush! It is the one I have always wanted!" Then she leaves the room to go tell Daddy about this awesome toothbrush. When she comes back to get the toothbrush, she can't find it. She looks under her pillow and finds the organza bag with four quarters inside. She squeals in delight, "Mommy! The Tooth Fairy left the bag! And there's money in it!" Then she went back on the hunt for the toothbrush.

So she looks around a bit and decides that maybe the Tooth Fairy made a mistake and came back for the toothbrush. I assured her that I didn't think that was the case and I got up to help her look. There was a little glitter spread around on her bed. I asked her what that was, and she and I decided that it was a little fairy dust left behind. Zoey figured it was a clue and if we followed the fairy dust we'd find the toothbrush. That wasn't the case, but we did finally find the toothbrush in the living room, for those of you who are wondering where it went.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. We went over to Nana's and Poppa's house for dinner. As always, the food was delicious and it was nice to hang out with the family. The kids had an abundance of energy--I guess they didn't eat enough turkey.

Zander and Zoey pretended to take a quick nap.

Mmm. . .pie.

Zoey's goal was to get in as many pictures as possible.

Some other updates and funny quotes from the family. . .

• Zander is officially climbing out of his crib. It has only happened twice (that we know of) but it means that a big boy bed is not far off.
• Zander is a proficient singer of the alphabet. He sings it when he wakes up and to help him fall asleep.
• Zoey is learning all about money. She gets a commission each week for doing her chores. She is expected to give a portion of her earnings to church each week, the rest is hers to save and spend. We are trying to teach her that giving is good and all that stuff. . .so I asked her last Sunday if she knows what the church does with the money she gives. Her response, "They give it to other people. People who don't go to church so they don't have to give away their money."
• Zoey's language is developing daily. Some of her new vocabulary includes words such as--"ah-zah-wah" According to Zoey that is Spanish for "I have an idea." "Botswana" is Spanish for "There is underwear in my sock drawer."
  

The Tooth Fairy Will Be Coming Soon!!!

Zoey is 4 years old. Tonight she came to us with a loose tooth! I was under the assumption that this doesn't happen until the 1st grade, so I didn't believe her at first. But, she proved me wrong. Zoey has mixed feelings about this loose tooth thing. She has gone from scared to excited to sad back to scared and a little excited. She told me what she is most scared of is swallowing her tooth. That is my worry too! She is however excited for the Tooth Fairy to visit, now that we explained who she was. (No, not the scary tooth fairy that was Uncle Eric at Halloween . . .

We will keep you updated on the actual loosing of the tooth and give updated pictures!

A Wordle for Grandpa

Today is Grandpa Nyhlen's 60th birthday!
We want to wish him a happy one!

I had a tech class late tonight and learned how to
do a wordle. Our homework was to figure out a way to use it.
When I got home Zoey was still awake (big surprise!),
so I asked her to tell me about grandpa and what makes him special.
If you click on the picture below,  you will see her words.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Halloween Weekend

We ventured up north to spend Halloween with Grandma and Grandpa Nyhlen. The main purpose of the trip was to spend the weekend with Grandpa in honor of his 60th birthday (which is today). That was accomplished. Zoey was able to hand deliver the card and all the money that she made for Grandpa. She was very excited for Grandpa to get his Zoey bucks for his piggy bank. She wants Grandpa to be rich.

The other goal of the trip was to go trick-or-treating with the cousins. So a witch, a pirate, Tinkerbell, and a bunny rabbit all went around the neighborhood and did a little trick-or-treating.

Zoey was sick on Sunday which threw a wrench into our travel plans, but I am happy to report that we made it home late Sunday night and she spent the day today recovering.

Here is Grandma passing out candy to a few of the only trick-or-treaters that came to the door. (And in my humble opinion, the cutest trick-or-treaters ever!)

Zoey got creative with carrying all her loot!

4 kids excited to get the evening started.

Zoey and the rest of the kids had a blast messing
up all of the leaves that were piled up in the back.

On Friday we hung out at Rob and Nicole's house. Here is the best picture I got of all the kids.

Last weekend we went to our church Halloween party. Here is Zander at the Balloon Pop room.

One of the newest additions to our home--a Dalmatian Molly.
Zoey named one of them Sally--maybe this is her.