It's Good To Be Back Home Again...

I just thought I'd throw a quick post up here to let everyone know that we are on vacation in NY, visiting family for the Thanksgiving holiday. We are having a great time seeing everybody, talking and laughing, sharing old memories and telling new stories. We went to look at a house and land that we want to buy next door to Mom and Dad and are desperately trying to figure out how we can swing buying it. Now we're focusing on Thanksgiving preparations and getting over to see Lincoln's family.
So I won't be blogging much this week. Have a great holiday!

A Slice of Life...

I spent all day cleaning the house on Monday so we could put up Christmas decorations. I figured it would be nice to have it done before we go away for 10 days for Thanksgiving. So we got out the decorations and "decorated" for 45 minutes. The next morning this is what faced me.




So I spent another day cleaning- and decorating.

Also yesterday, I got up bright and early to be at a Lands' End sample sale. We needed several outerwear items for our kiddos who just seem to keep growing, darn 'em. Here's my haul:


Three women's coats, a Julia coat, a Devon coat, Jesse snow pants and coat, three winter tops for Jesse including a cashmere sweater, 2 pairs of boots for Julia, boots for Renie, boots for me, jeans for me, and a lined wool skirt for me. My total: $100

Today Renie tried on my boots and tramped around my bedroom in them for a while.


And lastly, I did not just tell my kids that we weren't having Christmas this year. I told them they couldn't have a cheese stick because I was making dinner AND they're for the girls' lunches anyway. This was the reaction and subsequent attack I got as a result. Am I the meanest Mommy ever, or what?

Simple Entertainment...

This is what Jesse LOVES to do. He will gather up a few cars, find a flat surface, and sit and run the cars back and forth, back and forth. Slowly, carefully. He doesn't just ram them back and forth roughly. He gently drives them, parks them, drives another to where the first is parked, pulls it up alongside, parks it. I love the concentration.

Classroom Playdate...

On Wednesday, Devon's 4-K class hosted a parent-child playdate. The classroom was open to a small group of parents and children and literacy activity stations were set up around the room. It was fun to spend some one on one time with Devon, and to see him taking ownership of his classroom. We spent an hour cutting letters out of playdough, doing an alphabet puzzle, completing a word search,



using magnets to form the letters of his name,


(His eyes were closed in this one...)


(...so he tried extra hard to keep them open in this one!)


and eating a snack!
On a side note, I was recently putting together a puzzle that had over a hundred pieces. I was trying to throw it together quickly, just to see if all the pieces were there. Devon kept asking to help and I kept shooing him away because I figured it was too hard and I wanted to do it quickly. Despite my shooing, he quickly figured out where a piece went. Impressed, I let him continue to help me. He did such a great job! When we were done he asked to try it on his own. We took it apart, I helped put together the edge pieces, then he proceeded to do almost the entire thing on his own. My girls have never been into puzzles much so I didn't really push it with him. Looks like I need to get him some puzzles.

Fun Visitor!

Yesterday I got to spend an hour with a friend I haven't seen in 11 years! I met Mark Nugent when we were both missionaries for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) in Atlanta, GA. He was my District Leader for a while and we had lots of fun times. 11 years later we're both married with 8 kids between the two of us! He was just as I remember him- funny and friendly with a sparkle of mischief in his eye! Thanks for stopping to see us, Mark!

Where Has The Time Gone?

I took these photos of our first real snowfall. It only left a dusting, but it was big beautiful flakes as it came down.

Last Day Of Dance...

Saturday was the last day of dance for the kids. They have all truly enjoyed this session of dance. My friend Kym taught the classes at Lands' End and she did a great job. It's not easy to herd a class of three and four year-olds. Here are some pictures from their final class. Julia and Kennedy's class performed to a high School Musical song, which, of course, was Fabulous. The pictures aren't great. I'm still trying to get used to the new camera and I was experimenting with settings. I didn't find the one I needed.

SURPRISE!

Last night two of my good friends and I threw a surprise birthday party for our husbands. Devan's birthday was Monday, Lincoln's was Tuesday, and Jeff's is tomorrow. Kym hosted in her home and all three of us cooked and schemed and contributed to help make it happen. We sent out Evite invitations (no paper trail!), decorated Kym's basement, told them a bogus story about game night at the Howell's home, hired a local cover band, laid out the food and had a FANTASTIC time. They were all genuinely surprised and we had a really good turn out.

Becci worked hard on this banner.

The birthday cake

Cutting the cake

We put them up to the cutting the cake pose- then they just ran with it!


The band

We wrote our own lyrics to the song "Leaving On A Jet Plane" and performed it for them.

Me and my man

Kym and Jeff

Becci and Devan cuttin' the rug (I'm not sure how I managed to not get a "couple" picture of them.)


The guys winding down, listening to the band

Random Pictures...

Here Renie is explaining to me that she's on the counter because she needs just a little cookie, about that size.

Having a little snack. (No I didn't give this to her as an alternative to the cookie she requested.)


Crazy Julia

Jesse trying to feed Cheyenne pumpkin seeds.

And lastly, a November sunset over the countryside.