Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be Thankful for this year (as with every other year)!  We had a great time in the kitchen preparing to celebrate.

Though this little guy is dairy free he can have some butter.  Oh how happy he was to be allowed to lick (yes, lick) the butter wrapper.

G'ma and Grandad came for the long week-end.  All of the kids enjoyed spending time with them and building the lego sets they got them.

We enjoyed our meal together as well as WAY too many desserts.  YUM!

After a trip to the Academy Chapel we headed over to Bass Pro for some black Friday shopping.

Miss J found Mr. M's dream chair (yea, that's not gonna happen in MY house).  Maybe his future wife will be more into camo decor?  He can dream.

G'ma was excited to head over to Cracker Barrel for lunch.  The kids enjoyed playing a couple of fun games with Grandad.

Thank you for coming to visit G'ma and Grandad!  It was nice having you here!

A stomach bug

It started on Friday night with Mr. S, followed quickly by Miss A.  They were sick all night.  It was rough on Mr. S, but Miss A slept through all of it ~she awoke next to me all bright and perky ready to go for the day having passed the bug with a full night's sleep,  I (on the other hand) was exhausted from being up all night caring for her~  That could have been much worse!

Sunday morning came and everyone seemed fine, but I was wondering if it really was wise to go to church.  It was nearly time to go when Miss E said she was feeling a bit sick.  I suggested it may be wise to have everyone stay home.  15 minutes later Miss C got sick.  Then Miss J.  Then Mr. M.  I wasn't feeling so great either.  Blankets, quilts and pillows were collected.  The projector was set up.  This was gonna be a doozy.

Mr. R and Mr. K were the only ones to escape this bug.  I'm thankful that Mr. R and Mr. S were able to help out while the rest of us were so sick.  I'm thankful that we didn't have to deal with two sick little ones while being sick ourselves.  Mr. K and Miss A were quite content to play and eat all the yummy snacks that their big brothers provided while the rest of us were sick.

Miss J has hit especially hard and needed a day more than the rest of us to recover.

I'm super thankful that we got this bug over with before Thanksgiving.

AWANA Grand Prix

It was fun to get back to participating in AWANA (and all that goes with it) this year after a 3 year break at the last assignment.  All of the kids (except Miss A) are in a club this year.   They all had a good time thinking up the designs and putting together their cars.

1. Miss E wanted to do a Lego brick.  Nice and simple.

2.  Mr. R attached a Lego Star Wars fighter to his sleek black car.

3. Mr. M's red race car

4. Mr. S's yellow race car

5. Miss J's blue race car

6.  Though the cubbies did not officially participate in the race Miss C and Mr K wanted to do one.  Together they came up with the idea for a 15 pax van. :)

None of them won awards for speed or design this year, but they all had a great time; and that's what is most important with this. :)

I love homeschooling!

It's hard work.  Moments like this make it all worth it....

3 year old hanging out with big sister while she is doing school work.  He is looking through her Biology book checking out all of the pictures and asking her about them.  She gets to review what she's been learning and he is hanging on every word!

A visit from the W family

Some dear friends from Arizona came to visit us this past week-end.  Their oldest is in a speech and debate group and there happened to be an event just 15 minutes from our house!  We were glad they were able to find an excuse to come visit so soon after our move.  We've missed them.  They had a bit of a shock to their systems when they arrived.  We had snow and it was COLD (so cold that AWANA was canceled the night they arrived).  Yep, we enjoyed lots of indoor fun!

*Some sweet time gathered for singing before bed

*Oops!  The kids got a little riled up JUMPING every time they sang "he arose!"

*Such sweet girls, happy to be together

On Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Academy to see the Chapel.  We thought we'd get there before the next storm.  Instead we met the storm there.  It wasn't too bad, just COLD!

Thanks for visiting W family!  It was great to see you!

Happy Birthday Miss C!

Miss C turned 5 this week.  She's been thinking about and planning out her birthday all year.  Thankfully she was somewhat realistic in dreaming of baby dolls and unicorns.

Since Miss A was sick, Miss E made the unicorn cake.  I think she did a great job.  More importantly; Miss C loved it!

Hat storage

Did you think you were going to find some great way to store your children's hats this winter?  Some fool proof way to keep from losing them or having them strewn about the place?  Yea, I'd love to see that too!  Instead you get to see how Mr. K is using a brother's hat to store his cars.  He gets some big points for creativity here! :)

"Hey, mama, my cars in here!"

To show that is was not just a passing moment.  Yes, he really did walk around the house and cuddle with the cat like this.

Operation Christmas Child Boxes

My kids look forward to this all year.  They save all year.  They plan all year.  This last Friday was the packing day!  The kids sorted and organized.

They cut up wrapping paper to line their clear plastic shoe boxes.

All but Miss A packed up their boxes.  Each child did 3 for their age group/gender (I helped Miss A with hers).

The boxes waiting to be delivered.

*Yes, THEY saved.  They have a big jar that they put their $$$ in all year.  They work for this money.  They even put Christmas and birthday money in here, on their own, no prompting from us!

A quick look at the past couple of weeks

It was crazy hair night at AWANA...

A picnic, Operation Christmas Child shopping, and a nap (while waiting for Papa Murphy's pizza) on an errand day...

Loving on a kitten...

Stitches are out!  A doughnut to celebrate...

Miss C was so excited about her new snowsuit.  She dressed her doll in it and slept like this...

There's a quick update on some of the "cute" that has been happening.  I thought I'd post an update since babies don't understand "fall back" so I'm up extra early this morning.