November, A Little Late :)

I figured I shouldn’t skip over our month of Thanksgiving so I’ll give you a little re-cap :). October starts the craziness around our house with my kiddos birthdays and that craziness just kept right on going through November. We actually stayed at our house for Thanksgiving and had some family come to us instead of us traveling back “home”.

We celebrated our thankfulness all month long with our turkey. We added feathers throughout the month with things we are thankful for. It was a fun way to record what we are thankful for and he also made a very cute decoration on our table.

Some of his feathers read:I am thankful for….

Mommy and Daddy..Our Warm House.. The Zoo Sunshine.. Our Veterans..My Wonderful Family..Keenan and Trinity..Football..Food

We had a great visit with my parents for several days before Thanksgiving. I actually made my first full Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and all the trimmings! I can’t take all the credit though, my Mom showed me the ropes of the whole roasting a turkey thing and dinner turned out DELICIOUS! As for the turkey…. it was way easier than I thought it would be, if you’ve never tried it, you should it was super easy.

My parents left Thanksgiving morning and Gabe, the kids and I watched a little bit of the parade and took naps and my in-laws arrived in time for dinner. We had roast,  ultimate mashed potatoes and a few other yummy sides. We also had a great visit with them and our boat now has a nice new custom made cover!! Gabe and my father-in-law worked on that the whole weekend and it turned out spectacular, much better than the blue tarp (that had a few holes) that wasn’t big enough to cover the boat!! Thanks Doug for all the time, effort and materials!!!

We also made a banner to remind us to give thanks! We learned about the first Thanksgiving and made Squato’s Snack.

Squanto helped the pilgrims learn how to hunt and plant good yielding crops. He taught them to plant two dead fish with three seeds of corn in little hills of earth. This would give them the best yield of corn.

Oreo’s=hill of earth                   Candy corn=corn                             Gummy fish=dead fish

We continued our lessons in life and in the books. Gabe helped Trinity make a scale for our math lessons on comparing weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a hit with everyone! The kids enjoyed playing (aka learning) with it for several weeks.

We made pumpkin pie!!! (One of my favorites) Keenan helped stir the pie filling, it was very yummy! He loved it, with a little cool whip on top of course!

We had a good month of family and thankfulness and as is tradition in our family we put up our Christmas tree :)!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving

Father’s Day Weekend

We spent Father’s Day weekend enjoying the great outdoors with Gabe. Saturday we spent the day at the lake, finally for the first time this season. It was also Keenan’s first time out on the boat!   

Sunday we started the day with Gabe’s present and Biscuits and Gravy, Gabe’s favorite breakfast. After church we spent the afternoon at Wildlife Prairie Park. Lots of the animals were out, we watched them feed the Bison and Elk and we hiked to a special slide! Trinity wanted her turn to ride on Daddy’s shoulders since Keenan had been riding in the backpack.  

These Bison were HUGE, it was really neat to see them up close.

Trinity braved the huge slide on her own, after her first time down she didn’t put her brakes (a.k.a. her feet) on and just flew right on down. She laughed and smiled the whole way down every time she went :)!

Keenan need a little more help, he and Daddy hiked up the steps and then went down!

After the slide we hiked back to the car and went home to take much needed naps!

We ended the day with my parent’s arriving for a visit :)! It was great to see my Daddy on father’s day! It was a wonderful weekend spent with the best Daddy my kids could ever have!

Happy Father’s Day

Several months ago I came across a gift idea online that I thought was really cute and I filed it in the back of my mind (where things usually get lost!) for Father’s Day. Well this time my memory served me well and about a month ago I started collecting the items needed for our Father’s Day present for Gabe.  It turned out wonderfully!!! I’ll save the final product for the end and show you some of the fun we had on the way.

The original way needed a vertical, 5, 4x6 opening picture frame……….we looked everywhere and couldn’t find one without spending a fortune online so we improvised. We spelled out WE (heart) DADDY, instead of just DADDY. Here are our many attempts to get good pictures and by “our attempts” I mean me and the kids. I usually enlist Gabe’s helps on projects like these because photographing a 20 month old is near impossible!

Mmmm, look Mommy dropped fruit snacks in the grass.

  Wow, was that a bird!

That dirt looks like fun!

Keenan this is how you do it!!! Keenan…  Keenan…..aw he’s not paying attention, go figure!

Mom, I’m outta here, you don’t need the “Y” do ya?

Drum roll please------------- Introducing the final product!

As you can see, after two packs of fruit snacks for Keenan throughout the photo shoot and one for Trinity when we were finished, we took some great pictures. Most importantly Gabe loved it and proudly took it to work this morning to hang it in his office!!!

Memorial Day

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed back home for a visit. We stayed with my sister and her family. It always makes for an interesting stay with 5 kiddos, under 5, in one house! We played at the park and had a picnic, we feed the ducks, visited all the Grandparents,celebrated my Dad's birthday, ate at Olive Garden, went to church and played on the slip-n-slide and the baby pool! We had a great time, here are a few pictures of the fun!

Keenan and Ainsley playing in the water table, Keenan enjoyed this more than the pool!

The big kids played in the baby pool more than the “babies” :).

                            They all enjoyed the slip-n-slide!

Ainsley was taking a break sitting on the “front porch” and        

she got totally upset when Keenan tried to join her! I love her expressions, notice her hands turned up like “Why is he trying to sit here with me!”.

The kids and my Dad with his birthday cupcakes, complete with candles and Transformer rings!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2008

A Mother...

When you're a child she walks before you,
To set an example.

My mom set a wonderful, godly example and I hope to set the same example for my beautiful children.

When you're a teenager she walks behind you
To be there should you need her.

My mom was always there for me even when it wasn't the most pleasant place to be. Thanks Mom.

When you're an adult she walks beside you
So that as two friends you can enjoy life together..

My mom has become a wonderful friend! I enjoy sharing my life with her! I pray that by the example she has set I can walk my own children through these phases and come out on the other end as their friend.

Author Unknown

I had a wonderful day today!! Trinity sang at church, we went out for breakfast, we bought flowers, the kids took good naps, we planted our flowers, we went for a bike ride and enjoyed the evening outside! I also got the perfect cards one made by Trinity and one that said "Mom-we wanted to get you something FUN and exciting for Mother's Day------But you've already got us!" Boy isn't that the truth :)! I love being a mom.