Thanksgiving

I was so excited to get to host our Thanksgiving get-together this year.  My parents, grandparents, sister and her family and Lane's parents were all here last Friday.  We were so glad they could all come (we missed L's brother and his family).  Lane worked both Thursday and Friday, but he was able to get home in time for an early dinner.  He is on a rotation at the children's hospital this month.  We have much to be grateful for...it made me sad to think about the families that were spending the holiday in the hospital with a sick child.  They were on my heart and in my prayers that day.

I tried to come up with things to keep the kids busy while I cooked and cleaned.  They were making paper plate turkeys here.  

They helped me with some of the little jobs around the house, too.  They helped decorate the kids' table, they wanted to make place cards for everyone, Alexee dusted the blinds, Rhett raked the back yard, etc.  Rhett asked me why we always have to try to make everything extra clean just because we're having company.  :)

R & A sitting on the front steps waiting for everyone to arrive.  :)

Kids' table

I painted their hands for turkey handprints.  They later decorated them with markers when Jaiden and Jeryn got here.

Thankful banner across fireplace and Alexee's thankful list.

Menu, pumpkin decor, Alexee hard at work and my first-ever whole turkey to bake (I was nervous about it, but it wasn't as involved as I thought it would be.)

  

Mom brought me this pumpkin buttercream candle for a hostess gift, and my neighbor gave me the cider lane candle for my birthday.  They both smell wonderful--perfect for the holiday!  I love fall candles.

Four Generations:

My grandparents don't get to make the trip to our house very often, so I was really thrilled that they came with Mom and Dad this time.  I loved having everyone here and didn't want them to leave.  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday.

decorating turkeys

Grandmother making gravy

Mom carving the turkey--not an easy job.

Thankful for my sweet sister

Rhett did a great job taking dessert orders.  Mom made three delicious choices:  pumpkin, buttermilk and pecan pies.

It was windy and chilly, but the kids played outside for a while.

Again, it made me so happy to have everyone in our living room visiting.  I wish they could all be here more often!

My family has always taken lots of pictures.  I noticed Granddad was snapping a photo of the food with his iPhone.  :)

Time to eat!

the yummy pies:

Crosby & Jeryn

 

Blessed.

Big Buck Deer and 3rd Grade Feast

Both boys had Thanksgiving feasts at school last Tuesday.  (Alexee's class had already celebrated the week before.)  When I dropped C off at MDO, his teacher was dressed as a pilgrim.  She told him that they needed to come up with an Indian name for him to put on his headband.  When I picked him up that afternoon, he hopped into the car wearing the headband and laughing as he told me his teacher named him "Big Butt Deer"!  (He knows he's supposed to say 'bottom' instead, but having an older brother has of course exposed him to additional vocabulary.  I guess he thought it was hilarious that his teacher would give him that name!)  He didn't believe me when I tried to tell him it was actually "Big Buck Deer".  :)

Big Buck had a fun time at his feast.

That afternoon I went to Rhett's classroom for his feast.  His teacher had small containers of heavy whipping cream for each student which she had them shake and shake and shake to make it turn into butter.  The Principal and Vice Principal even stopped by to join in the fun.  They had a full meal--corn on the cob, chicken, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.  Sadly, Rhett didn't feel good at all and only ate one bite of chicken.  His throat was hurting that morning, and I was pretty sure he had fever when I saw him at school.  His teacher said he'd been unusually quiet all day.  He came home and rested on the couch, he did have 102.5 fever and it wasn't long until he threw up.  Poor guy!  I felt really bad for him, and couldn't help but worry what that meant for the remainder of the holiday week.  Thankfully, he felt much better the next morning--fever free--and only threw up that one time.  He didn't have much energy on Wednesday, but was fine by Thursday.  We didn't even have our Thanksgiving meal until Friday, so he had an extra day to recover.  The fun wasn't over yet though.  Thursday night Lane started feeling bad (very sore throat and aching), and he didn't feel good at all on Friday at work or for our family get-together.  :(  Hopefully everyone can stay well now.

Rhett had work to do before the feast started.  He's the classroom "payroll" clerk and had to get the sheets filled out for everyone before they left for Thanksgiving break.  He likes this job.  The students earn (pretend)$20/day for being at school and $5/day for doing their assigned classroom job.  They're fined $5 for misbehavior.  They can save up their money to buy various coupons at the treat table (for example, Rhett recently bought a coupon to sit at the teacher's desk for a day).

Note from R's teacher

All the kids were excited about the 5 day weekend!

Two Trees

The Christmas tree farm opened last Saturday, so we'd planned to go tag a tree if Lane was home from work in time.  Crosby still didn't feel great, but we went anyway since we didn't intend to stay long.  We decided on a smaller tree than last year.  Partly because last year's tree was pretty but almost too big, and partly because there didn't seem to be as many big ones available this year...maybe it was the drought?  

We briefly stopped by the new barn to see all the animals.  We stayed just long enough for this cute donkey to bite me.  I knew better than to have my hand there, but I guess I was busy taking his picture and not paying attention.  He has a strong jaw--it felt like I'd slammed my finger in a car door, but I tried to pretend it didn't hurt just in case someone was watching.

Now that I look at the picture, I think I can tell by the look in his eye that he was seriously considering biting me.  He probably thought that if I was dumb enough to hold my hand up to his mouth without a snack then I deserved it.

This is the one R voted for:

Poor C, he didn't want to be there.  I carried him around most of the time.

See you in a few weeks!

Crosby felt better Sunday morning, but since he'd had fever late in the day on Saturday, we weren't really supposed to take him to the church nursery.  Lane had to work, and the kids and I stayed at home and put up the playroom Christmas tree.  Rhett assembled the tree, tested and untangled the lights by himself this year, which was huge help!  Maybe next year I can just sit back and drink hot chocolate!?  :)

It's always fun to see their homemade ornaments each year.  They're all special!

We always put a blanket around the base and pile all the Christmas books underneath the tree.

Alexee reading a "scratch-n-sniff" Christmas book. 

Ready or not, here comes the holiday season!

My Birthday

Whew, it seems like things have been busy lately!  One week ago today was my birthday.  Lane had a shift that day, and Rhett and Alexee were at school, so it was up to Crosby and Bogart to provide the birthday entertainment.  Crosby had several ideas including playing Super Mario Bros., Legos and Hide & Seek!  After school, Micaela and the kids came over to play, then we all went to Purple Cow for dinner.  The kids insisted on telling our waitress that it was my birthday, so the whole crew came out singing and carrying purple ice cream with sprinkles and a candle.  :)  Never too old for purple ice cream, right!?

C always wants me to be Mario and he is Yellow Toad.

Bogart is already thinking about cake and ice cream!

Thanks for the new necklace, Mic!  I love it.  And thanks for coming to visit on my real b-day!

Rhett was so sweet to want to spend his own money to get me a gift card.  He interviewed me the night before to help determine which card would be best, then he asked me to take him to Kroger after school on Friday so that he could buy the card.  I kept telling him he really really didn't have to get me anything, but he said he was sure that he wanted to.  He went to the self-check-out line and asked me to go to a different one so that I wouldn't see and ruin the surprise.  He also chose a greeting card for me.  :)  Such a sweet, thoughtful boy!

With the kids before dinner--thankful for each one of them!  I enjoyed spending the day with you guys!

They always want to do a "silly face picture" before we're done.

Jeryn helping C with his Spider-Man costume

@ Purple Cow

Jaiden came home with us after dinner and spent the night.  Unfortunately, Crosby got the stomach bug during the night.  It was a rough night, and he ran fever the next day.  Lane had to work, I ran Jaiden back to meet my sister, then my friend Lianne came to pick up R & A to go to the cookout we were all planning to go to.  I waited on Lane to get home to stay with C, then I went to meet up with them and see the Partens who were in town for Thanksgiving.

Ali, Lianne and Stacy surprised me with a birthday cake there!  So we celebrated again!

Thank you, girls!  I'm blessed to have such wonderful friends!!

Ali took this picture of the kids before I got there--they've all grown so much.  I can't believe Trent and Stacy moved four years ago.  As much as I love getting to see them, it always makes me sad all over again.  These boys all started playing together when they were very small--the summer after they turned one year old, I think!?  Time flies.