Christmas is coming...

This year we added a stocking to our collection. I had to snap a pic of this one!

We started our "Elf on the Shelf" tradition last year. This year was fun because Oliver really understood it and every morning he would wake up and search for the Elf and there was a great excitement when he found him!
Our tree.
Our advent Calendar. Also a big hit this year. Mostly because it was jam packed full with candy!
The boys "decorated" a ginger bread house this year. Not sure how much candy actually made it to the house and avoided their mouth, especially on Wesley's part, but they had fun nonetheless.
Marsha gave us the advent calendar pictured below. Each day had a little book which told part of the true Christmas story.
Here we are decorating...

Oliver is 4!!

Holy cow! It's hard to believe that four years ago Oliver Moses Fay entered the world as a tiny little newborn baby. And now, well now, he is a highly intelligent, humorous, and energetic pre-schooler who says things (when his middle brother demonstrates mastery of the memorization of all four Wiggles names) like, "Mom, Wesley knew the yellow Wiggle was Greg. I was so proud of him." He blows my mind daily with the stuff he says.

This year's party theme was Superheroes. Was there even a question. We held it at AZ Air time (a trampoline place) and for the first time invited some "school" friends. Fun was had by all. Here are some pics...

Aunt Mary helped/ taught me how to make cake pops for Oliver's party so, in the light of the theme, we made Super hero cake pops! All the boys thought they were awesome and, most importantly, we impressed the birthday boy!

Some of his buddies...








Nothing like some blue lips!
In their super hero poses. My mom was gracious enough to make super hero capes for the kids party favor. They all looked awesome and even the girls got in on the fun in their pink ones!

A Visit with Santa

Michael took the boys to go visit Santa and Steph and Stephen's community center. Oliver was into it. Wesley, on the other hand, well you can see for yourself...

Crosby's Dedication

This past weekend we dedicated Crosby at our church. It is such a crazy busy time of year for everyone and we are not excluded from that. The holidays would be busy enough with three young kids but adding the Christmas production to it all makes it extra insane. So there is little time to reflect but on Sunday morning I woke up and although it was a rush to get out the door in time I took a moment to just be thankful. I have dedicated three sweet boys in the last four years. Three, handsome, smart, lively, funny, and precious boys. We truly are blessed. So although it seems there is never enough time in the day to get it all done I realize that there is always time to just take a deep breath and say, "Thank you Jesus." We have A LOT to be thankful for.

Three Brothers

Nana and Papa babysat the night of grandparents day so Michael and I could go to a school for homeless children that MMCC parters with to take family pictures at a Thanksgiving event the school was hosting. Thank goodness for Marsha taking pictures because lately I have NOT done a good job. She snapped some of the boys and she was even brave enough to attempt to get a picture of all three of them looking at the camera and smiling. Not an easy task.



The boys were singing songs in the bath tub. This is just one of the many.

Grandparents Day

Last Tuesday was Grandparents day at Oliver's school and for this year (it will change next year when Wesley's in school) Oliver had all four grandparents to himself. They had been practicing several songs and poems for quite some time in preparation for their little program and although I did not make it (I figured four people was enough representation from the Fay family that I opted to keep the younger and more squirmy little ones at home with me) I heard it was a fantastic performance. Here a few pictures and a little video from the morning.

With the "Papas"

His class
According to the grandparents his little voice could be heard quite clearly above the rest and he knew all the motions. (they may be a little biased:)

In his classroom!



The sun was pretty bright but this is him and his little buddy Connor. Marsha has NEVER been more proud than when a few minutes after this photo after Oliver had just come down the slide when he attempted to grab Connor to re-take this photo without the sun in their faces. He has definitely learned how to stage a photo from his Nana.
Nana, Papa, and Oli-Mo

Mimi, Papa G., and Oli-Mo
A little video of a portion of the performance:)

Halloween 2011

This year the boys were extra excited about Halloween, especially Oliver. As soon as we mentioned it was time to start thinking about costumes the countdown was on. I am not sure how many times I got the question, "How many days until Halloween?" but I am going to say it was a lot. For this year's festivities we all met up for some Chili at Steph and Stephen's house. Their neighborhood is full of trick or treaters and the houses are close together, which means less walking but more candy. Overall, it was a VERY happy Halloween.

My dad trying to get the boys to eat before the sugar rush.

Papa with Crosby, pre-costume.
Nothing like a bath in the sink in the middle of the kitchen.
Great Papa with little man.
Our little family. Well, I guess it's not that little anymore.
Excited? Maybe? Them with all their loot.

Father and son.

Oliver entertaining Crosby.
His second costume was Woody from Toy Story.