thanksgiving

we have lots to be thankful for this year.

our house was filled with adam's family for thanksgiving day.
both girls took great pride (and some huffing and puffing) at helping prepare the meal for the family.
it was really great.

having holiday's at our home is not a new thing-the prep can be so chaotic and anxiety ridden.  this year i swore to myself that i would not get upset.  just take it as it comes....i'm not sure what came over me, but i stayed true to that promise.  everything went perfectly. except for a run in with the stove and my favorite cookbook-but nothing truly burned down-just lots of black smoke and the three w girls running around and squealing like crazy...so i consider that a win!


wednesday...

magical potion that the cookbook calls...brine! ;)

pie making

teamwork

Thursday...

the table...and adam's belt. ;)

we even norman rockwelled it this year and carved the turkey on the table!

lots going on here..

it really was a great day.

happy thanksgiving yesterday, and everyday!

~chat soon!

last game

so kate....has loved soccer.
her last game was this past saturday.
the team lost a bit of spunk since day light savings-practices were shrunk or cancelled due to lack of day light and you could kind of tell.  not a big deal.
this last game, did not turn out to be a winner, but was fun.
kate is a boss and a hoss on the field.
she keep everyone in line on the defense line.  cracks me up.

celebrating kate

so. kate turned 8 almost a month ago.
we had a fun little party for her mid october.
there are so many october birthdays in her class/grade that we combined her party with another sweet little october birthday girl.
it was a blast.
the weather was good.
the kids had fun.
it was an old fashioned birthday party.
just perfect.
i'm so glad we did it.

party favors

crafting

more crafts-super cute wooden owls

the big sissys held the limbo pole-they were so excited...can you tell?

love this

goofy little crew.

we had a carmel apple bar and hot chocolate-perfect.

best of buds

two thumbs up-even a broken one...

i looked and looked to see why they all had the same mouth position-vampire teeth.  does it everytime!

hats made from the two parts of the pinata. 

~chat soon!

carni-VAL

this year our carnival was in october.
we beat the heat-to say the least. it was freezing.
i didn't get a ton of pictures because-well-the kids are older and are able to venture off without us.  it's bittersweet-honestly.  the time is flying and in instances like this, it is so apparent.

obligatory picture.  only photo of anne the whole night.

so excited

k and her friend o are heading on the ferris wheel-we watched. from the ground.

the girl with her hands out of the ferris wheel car-is KATE.  

kates buds.  so fun.

so sweet. love them. great girls.

how did i forget to write about this?

so....kate's birthday weekend we went c.a.m.p.i.n.g.
camping.
for real.
i.went.camping.

i love nature. i love being outside. i love absorbing everything that God has made.
but-i really love a toilet. a shower. and a bed.

mid september adam came home and said LOOK WHAT WE BOUGHT-and showed me a picture on his phone-of a....wait for it...camper.

i.was.ticked.
really ticked.
there are lots of things on the list of things we need/need to do. and a camper was NOT one of them.

time passed. i saw it. (and smelled it,,,yuck)
as they say...time heals.
so we picked a date to take the camper for a weekend. (we share it with two other families) and went.

it was the most fun i have had in a long time.
i don't mean like a crazy wild time but just a great, relaxing time.
bon fires. smores. bike riding. sitting. lots of sitting. lots.of.sitting.

the girls are nature girls.  we opened the camper door and off they went.  it was just awesome.
too bad it was the last weekend before the parks close for the winter-it was just a big tease.  we have some spring weekends already on the calendar, and are counting the days.

this was about 8:10am-really too early for me.

busy little guy

the played all weekend in this little pre built leaf thing

sassy shasta as i call it.