It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

Mike left early (really early) Friday morning and won't be home until late tonight. To keep everyone's mind off of Daddy's absence we jumped right into getting ready for Christmas. We decorated the house, put up and decorated the tree(only two broken glass balls from Lilah - so far), pulled out all the toy nativities that we have, bought a poinsettia (I love them!), and today after church made ginger cookies with red and green sugar on top. It's so fun to start celebrating early! The only problem is the kids ask me a hundred times a day when we get to open presents.

Thanksgiving

On Wednesday we prepared for Thanksgiving by making turkey hats! The kids had fun making them and I thought they looked very cute!

We also had a special FHE that night and made gratitude lists. Each of the kids had to list two things they were grateful for every year of life. I've included their lists below.

On Wednesday and Thursday the kids spent a lot of time outside with their dad - playing, riding bikes, and cleaning up leaves.

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house with Mike's brother Sean, Rachel and little Ginny and Rachel's brother Rob and his family. We had a table of 10, two highchairs, and little Ginny. Everybody ate until they were stuffed! The kids played and the adults had a good visit. It was a good day.

I am so thankful for all of my blessings. I'm grateful we have this time of year to reflect on our blessings and express gratitude. I am very grateful for family. I love my 'little' family so much. I'm thankful for a loving and fun husband. I'm grateful for the family that I grew up in. I'm thankful for the means we have to communicate even though I am clear across the country from them. I'm thankful they could all be together even if I couldn't be there. I'm thankful for Mike's family and the way he was raised. He has very loving parents. I am thankful that his family can all be together tomorrow for Jennifer's wedding! I will miss seeing them all and Anna Elise is sad to miss seeing Jenny's dress!

Madeline's list of 4
my family (she named all of us)
ME!
my class
coloring pictures

Calvin's list of 8
Heavenly Father
Jesus
our house
our garden
turkey hats
my family
my bike
my clothes

Anna Elise's list of 12
Jesus
the whole world
our house
food
electricity
my family
Mrs. Byrne (her teacher)
my bed
long hair
my toys
singing and dancing
my body

Leaves

See those two little piles of leaves on the front lawn? One on each side of our brick path...



Yes, those two piles right there (there used to be three).

They are Calvin and Anna Elise, waiting to surprise Uncle Sean, Aunt Rachel, and their cousins Morgan and Ginny.

The kids love to be buried in the leaves!

The sunset that night.

Madeline's New 'Do!

Madeline had a haircut, both her and mom 'helped'. One of us cut the back and one of us cut the front. Which was which? I do have to say she cut it pretty even, I didn't have to do much trimming when I 'fixed' it. I'd just not take quite so much off the next time...you certainly couldn't take more off!






The beautiful artwork on the wall in the background is hers.

The Bike Hills

We live really close to a BMX bike course. The kids like to ride their bikes there, but the hills
are pretty tough for little kids with training wheels. Calvin broke his training wheels off a while ago and has now perfected his bike riding skills enough to go on the 'bike hills' all by himself.



The video was taken with Mike's phone, so not the highest quality...

Halloween

The kids had a great time dressing up this year! We were able to go to two "trunk-or-treats".

We were all costumed out by the time Halloween was actually here!

Anna Elise was able to wear her cousin Talia's hand-me-down poodle skirt. She and Calvin

were 50's sock hoppers, Madeline was a ballerina, and Lilah was a pink poodle.

Hey Eli, do you see Calvin's eyes? They both work just fine now! =-)