Bunch of Paynes

I hope you all had a wonderful day of feasting and focusing on so much that we have to be grateful for. We sure did! We enjoyed a quiet morning at home and then joined some friends for a delicious meal and games. Lately, Rooke has taken to saying his own prayer before we eat together. His prayer pretty much sums up yesterday (with the addition of friends):
"Dear Jesus, Thank you for my food and my family. Aaaa - men."

He loves to give his baby sister kisses! Although we have had a few awkward moments when he tried to "open baby sister" (lift up my shirt) to give her a kiss directly on my belly. Oops! We are only 4 1/2 weeks away from the due date.

Rooke shoved the purple ear plug in Ryan's ear right before we snapped this picture. He typically doesn't wear ear plugs around the house!

Sitting down to eat at the Heaviland's beautifully set table

Jessie and I with our Hungry Girl Pumpkin Spiced Eggnog. Mmmm!

Rooke's buddy, James, is a guitar pro. Rooke was trying to learn some of his skills.

Snacking on oranges and watching the game.

So far, I've really enjoyed living close to downtown. This morning was no different. Ryan hit the books again (finals are quickly approaching), while Rooke and I walked downtown to watch the Macy's Holiday Parade! We had so much fun!! The weather was absolutely perfect (probably the first morning in two weeks it wasn't raining), and we had front row seats from start to finish. Rooke was mesmerized the entire time. Every now and then he would look at me and tell me what he was seeing, "trumpets, drums, dogs, cars . . . " but most of the time his eyes were fixed on the parade.

We stopped for a hot chocolate treat to warm up before heading home. Rooke's first!

Lately, I've felt like I truly have a preschooler and not as much of a toddler. No one asked me if he could become a Big Boy overnight! His little personality is really starting to show (even the not-so-attractive sides!) and the things he says crack me up! He is going to be an incredible big brother to our Baby Girl (who is due in just five weeks!!!!).

I had gone downstairs to get a banana for him and came back up to see this:

Ryan helped him get situated, but he was just chillin' and readin' and waitin' for his banana.

One of his new favorite "tricks". Several mornings, the first thing he's said when we walk in the room is, "I pull and zip up and down!". So far, he hasn't figured out that he could actually take them all the way off!

Rooke and I played with his name train for at least thirty minutes this morning and another good chunk of time this afternoon (thank you, Auburn!).

"Take picture Rooke, Mommy.":

"Smile. Cheese!":

His scary/mean face:

My dad worked on teaching Rooke how to spell his name a while ago. He does pretty good, but most of the time if you ask him what his name is he'll answer, "R-O-K, Rooke!". The name train helped him remember the extra letters today:

Rooke and I were blessed to spend a day with my sister while she was in town for a wedding. It was wonderful to be with her, even for a short time, and Rooke absolutely loves his Aunty Auby. Of course, I didn't take any pictures of Aubyn. Instead, I took pictures of the toy Rooke played with during most of our visit. Be on the look-out, people. It's a semi-truck that holds matchbox cars. It doesn't get much better than wheels inside of more wheels!

Seriously. If Rooke knew it, this thing would be at the top of his Christmas list! I'm on the lookout.

Totally unrelated, a video capturing Rooke's love for food and developing vocabulary (if you can understand him!)

Everyone can enjoy this video, but KayeK and Big Daddy are probably the only ones who will know what Rooke is saying! My parents read/sang this book to us when we were little. I imagine this is what my mom looked like with me trying to squeeze in her shrinking lap before my sister was born!

Like most kids, Rooke spends a lot of time in his high chair. Recently, he's taken to some new and interesting eating habits . . .

Finishing off the last of his cereal . . . I'll have to admit, I think he learned this from me.

Ryan and I always use chopsticks when eating Asian food. This night, Rooke insisted that he, too, needed chopsticks to eat his dinner.

Surprisingly, he was actually able to use them. After all, he was made in China!

"Sit high chair. Read book. Wait food." OK.

He's going to build me my dream house some day.

I decided it was time to bring in the pumpkins and do something with them (read: I was craving roasted pumpkin seeds). Clementine and Elijah came over to help us gut the pumpkins and give them a little paint job. The kids had a great time!

The boys weren't too thrilled about the idea of scooping out the seeds, but Clementine finally warmed up to the idea of the "ooey gooey" texture and dug in. Way to go, Girl!

Rooke stayed interested a lot longer than I expected and had a great time mixing the different colors of paint. "More yellow, please. More red, please . . ."

Clementine went all out, making sure that every inch of her pumpkin was covered!

The boys soon lost interest and decided the toy box was more exciting.

the remnants:

Just some random pictures from the past week . . .

Averie came over to play one morning. They were great at entertaining each other!

They did this all on their own. So cute!

Just your every day collecting-books-in-the-laundry-basket game.

Rooke asked me to take a picture of him. I said, "smile". He leaned in close to the camera and gave me this face: