The boys on Christmas

We've had such a fun weekend! We were at Sugarloaf for our Christmas with Grammy & Grampy Simpson and the Bronsons and had a really nice time on the mountain. The boys love to be up there as there's always a ton of people to play with...
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house enjoying a few presents and then brunch at Nana & Pops Dwyer's house with Matt, Jessica and the girls. It was fun chaos! Spencer is pictured above with his play kitchen from Nana and Pops, and Ben is pictured holding up two new Star Wars action figures. Smiles all day long-- no fighting and NO tears!!!!
Merry Christmas 2011!

Spence

Spencer loves to explore outside. He's only recently really wanted company on his excursions. He used to wander forever without looking back to see if anyone was following him. He's taken to motioning now, hand up & making the "come on" gesture with his fist. He does it all the time, usually paired with "Mumma"... His language is starting to blossom as well, Mumma, Dada, Bah, Up, Clock (this one is brand new and cracks me up when he says it- the "CL" and "CK" sounds are so pronounced), Duck... And pretty much "Bah" for everything else. He loves to point at things and have a label for them. He's also very much into music and enjoys dancing.

Just yesterday...

We were outside playing. It's unfortunate that both pictures I captured of the boys, they look so grim! Ben was sad that the slide was so cold (his tukus was freezing) and Spencer was sad that the ladder was so cold (he refuses to keep mittens on for long). Despite the long faces, we DID have a good time outside. It's hard to believe the ground isn't covered in snow with Christmas less than a couple of weeks away... I'm hoping for some white stuff soon!!!

'Tis the Season

We got out some holiday decorations in preparation for our Christmas tree (tomorrow?!). The boys took turns wearing the antlers with bells, getting a kick out of how they looked. Ben's school has a holiday fair this weekend and some of the students will be participating in the Holiday Parade in the afternoon (at which time Ben will be wearing the antlers... at least that's the plan). It should be a fun weekend, getting into the holiday spirit!

A day in the life...

We have some silliness everyday. Actually, we have tons of silliness everyday. It's actually not as common that Ben lets me get such a good photo of him. Spencer, however, is less predictable. He was enjoying putting the Mr. Potato Head glasses on his face while in the bath...
We got to spend lots of time outside this month-- in light jackets even. The weather has been unseasonably warm and the boys enjoy playing like it's summer. Spencer especially loves the puddles (which should be frozen, this time of year!) and frequently gets wet up to his belly button when outside.

Thanksgiving in Vermont

Due to the large amount of snow that fell on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we postponed our drive to Vermont by a day. We hit the road on Thanksgiving morning-- All four Jewetts and Grammy and Grampy Simpson tucked into Grammy's Ford Explorer. Thank goodness Jay got a luggage carrier for the top. We had a great time in VT with the Bronsons. The snow was melting quickly while we were there & Friday morning there was a massive snowball fight. People were out in t-shirts and shorts!
Such strange weather we've had in November.

Big snow in November

We've been busy in the Jewett household making snowflakes to hang in the windows. Then the real thing arrived (and has since disappeared!!). Spencer and Ben were both thrilled to see the snow and Spencer had a great time playing in the snow until he got too much snow in his face...

I'm not sure which of the Jewett boys ended up having more fun in the snow, though in all fairness, Jay was working pretty hard. It was a lot of beautiful snow!

Home Brew is a success!

Pops and I tried our home brew yesterday. Here is the first bottle!

Pretty, right? And it tastes GREAT! Nice job, Pops. :) And thanks for the take-home...

Cleaning up leaves

The boys (especially Ben) are such a big help when cleaning up the leaves in the yard. Ben carried the buckets to the truck & emptied them, then raked them all out of the bed when it was time. He also got to ride in the back of the truck on top of the pile of leaves, which he certainly enjoyed!

More than 5 years of blogging...

There aren't any photos to go along with this post, sorry. The photos are really why I do this, but tonight I realized that I've been blogging on this site for more than 5 years. The first blog post was when Jay did his first Trek Across Maine and I was 7 months pregnant with Ben! That's a lot of posts-- 300+!

I've been trying to create the blog so that it can be printed, or somehow backed-up somewhere besides the internet. In researching the options I came across the "stats" of the blog and I can actually see how many views the blog site gets as well as where people are viewing from! Quite amazing and oh-so very cool to see how many of you family and friends (and various others, I'm sure, who stumble across the Jewett Family News) check in with us. Thank you for the support and for keeping up with our family.

Now I'm off to see about downloading the blog in a PDF format that ends up being over 250 pages. Yikes. That's a lot of Jewett Family News!!

Fall

It's really starting to cool down, but we've been lucky enough to have some sunny and warm (enough) days to get lots of outdoor time. We've done raking and clean-up and, just this morning, Ben had his last day of soccer. It was parents vs. kiddos, so Jay got right in there. We were all pretty muddy by the time we got home! Ben is sad that soccer is over, so hopefully he'll want to play next year. I think Spencer would play now, if he was old enough-- he likes to kick the ball around and he mostly likes to lie down on the ball and roll around on the ground...

Happy Halloween

A Vampire and a Zebra...
Ben got to wear his costume three times this year, so we were able to embellish it each time. The red Mohawk is my favorite...
Spencer was a little apprehensive to get his costume on, but obliged after a few potato chip bribes. He was pretty amused by the get-up once it was finally on. He did well with his first Trick-or-Treating experience, following right along with the bigger kids. Several times he did try to hand candy out to the people who's houses we were visiting. Once he realized what was in there, he was ready to EAT.
A fun evening, and not too cold!

Giving a costume a try...

As you can tell from Spencer's face, he wasn't a big fan of the Pooh Pumpkin costume... We'll try the zebra later. :)

Brrrr... Baby, it's cold outside!

It was COLD this morning, but we bundled up and had some outdoor time before lunch. Spencer refused to keep mittens on...
Ben, on the other hand, requested his balaclava because his cheeks were cold.

The bike trailer on its way to storage for the winter...

Bottling the Beer

Here's Pops transferring the beer from the fermenter-- getting ready to bottle!

The process took a little to get the hang of (again), but we did it...

First bottle...

Here it is! Now it needs to hang out and do it's thing (that's the official terminology) for a few weeks... Perhaps we'll crack open our first one around Thanksgiving. :)

Fall!

Ben in the leaves. Look at those blue eyes! We had such a good time. Spence was slow to warm up to the whole process, but got the hang of it and ended up having a great time...

Ben loves to navigate in the woods... Here he is playing hide-and-seek...

Home Brew

These pictures are in reverse order of the whole brewing process, but you get the idea. Pops and I made beer yesterday. Well, we started the process and it's happily bubbling away in Pops' basement... The bottom picture is of our last brew-- a stout-- that looks and smells great, but not such a good tasting beer. We're hoping our English Bitter Ale will be more successful!

Homecoming

Fifteen years since I graduated from UMaine. Lori, Jane, and I got together for the weekend. Did some tailgating, football game, craft show, walked around campus, eating, drinking, and general merriment. It was a fabulous weekend!!!

Another Hiker

Ben has been attending Wonder Awhile Nursery School three afternoons per week and really enjoying it. He's already been on three field trips-- two of them on big yellow school buses! This past Wednesday he went for a hike up Mt. Pisgah in Winthrop, and I was able to attend as a chaperone. It was another beautiful day, and it was so cool to hang out with his class (and his new friends). It was also Ben's turn to bring snack, so we spent the morning baking chocolate chip cookies. And, um, they were pretty good, if I do say so myself....