Will's Little Surprises

Over the last couple months, Will has been leaving us little surprises.  Good surprises.

One day at lunch I made my name out of pretzels.  Will was finishing up his lunch when I had to go upstairs to change Wyatt.  When I came back down, my name was rearranged to this (he went and got a checker for the dot!):

He still spends a lot of time coloring and drawing.  It always makes us feel special when he addresses some of his drawings to us!  He has been very good at imagining what something looks like and then drawing it.

Will's Castle

Barge on the water while it's raining



A Christmas tree with a snowman cutout, colored and pasted on the top



He also loves to surprise us by leaving us something under our pillow.  He made this one extra special by putting a ribbon on it!



a tree and Will



Will surprised us with this car, he's never drawn a person in one before, or holding a steering wheel!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving because it is the one time during the year that it's pretty much mandatory for all Schnaubelt family members to attend.  Thanksgiving has turned into THEE Schnaubelt holiday.  We are a simple family and don't go wild with Christmas gifts but we use Thanksgiving as a  time that we show our gratitude and love towards each other.  On Thanksgiving, we traditionally give our parents Christmas gifts and all the grandkids pick names for a gift exchange.  In the past, the adults have picked names or done a White Elephant.  This year, we did a white elephant again, which is always a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, we were missing my brother Mike and his family as well as my brother Tom and his family.  Fortunately, we were joined by Jeff's dad and my cousin from Michigan, Mike Emaus, and his family.  I remember Mike Emaus being around a lot when I was growing up and think of him much like a brother.   It's pretty amazing since he always lived in MI and we always lived in WI.  He always has a positive attitude about things, a HUGE warm heart, a smile on his face, and I refer to him as my "crazy cousin Mike Emaus" since he will do just about anything!
Our family is big.  And it's getting bigger - which I love.  I love big family gatherings but it's getting difficult for anyone to host and ensure everyone is comfortable!  A couple years ago we rented a large house near Two Rivers, WI.  Almost everyone had their own bedroom and there was plenty of space to sprawl out.  I loved the rental house because 1) it was right on beautiful Lake MI  2) it was in a new location so there was a lot to explore 3) it was a 4 day weekend with family with no pressure on a family host!
My brother Jeff hosted Tday last year and we hosted this year because we knew not all siblings were able to attend.  I look forward to the Tday where everyone can attend and we rent a neutral location again! 

Tday always gives lots of opportunity for Girl Talk!

Caroline and Wyatt

Diane Emaus and Noreen

What is a Schnaubelt get together without Hearts?

Tom Leiting looking comfy after a big meal!

Popper...always asking for trouble!

Halloween 2010

Halloween is one of our favorite events each year.  Will is always so excited about the Halloween season and loves to find "scary guys!"  He showed Wyatt all the ghosts, goblins, and monster decorations in the neighborhood so that whenever we drove somewhere, Wyatt would always say in a voice attempting to be scary, "SCARY GUYS!"

The boys had 3 dressup opportunities this year: their babysitter's party, Sophie's 5th birthday party (costume party) and trick or treating on Halloween.

Will had 4 costumes to choose from and he especially loved the viking outfit my mom found for him.  It was perfect as it fit right in with the "How to Train your Dragon" movie, which is one of his favorites.  He was a viking for the 2 parties and an astronaut for trick or treating.

Wyatt was a pirate and fit that description perfectly!  It was cold trick or treating and Wyatt spent most of his time in the wagon covered by 3 layers of blankets.  But Will was a totally different story.  I've never seen someone so excited!  He really got the concept this year.  He RAN from house to house in our entire neighborhood and never stopped.  I thought he'd slow down toward the end but he never did.  After being out for a little over an hour, we came in for some dinner.  There was 15 minutes left of trick or treat time, and Will was ready to hit the 2 roads in the neighborhood that we skipped.  So off we went, Will and Mom running to see how many houses we could hit before the 7pm deadline.  We nearly made it to every house, and even though it was only a small portion of the neighborhood, we bagged almost as much candy as we did the first hour.  People were POURING their left over candy into Will's bag.  Now, I certainly didn't want all that candy in the house, but it was fun watching Will's eyes light up to all that extra candy he bagged!  I'm sure Wyatt will be ready next year to run with Will!

Daycare Friends (Will in his Viking costume)

Will loved pumpkin carving this year, he would have carved 10 pumpkins if we let him.  He was excited to eat some of the pumpkin this year!