The Feast

Orange-Thyme Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli Casserole, Sausage-Apple-Cranberry Stuffing, and Gravy...

The wanna-be turkey turned out awesome! So juicy!

Gabe got out of bed and joined us with some chicken noodle soup :)

Stuffed and happy!

My precious Gabe is having a hard time getting rid of a stomach virus. It hit a couple days ago and is just lingering. I was baking an apple pie, and then noticed a huge mess Luke and Lily got into, so I had to bathe them. Afterwards, I couldn't find Gabe.... poor thing put himself to bed at noon. He's always been such a beautiful sleeper. I have several pics since he was a baby of him sleeping. Love you bud...

Thanksgiving morning cuddles :) I asked Gabe this morning how his tummy felt. He said "A dot good". I have always loved his descriptions of things!

A this is what I call "Surfer Cowboy meets Elton John" ;)

One roll of painters tape: 2 dollars

A whole day of fun creating a town for cars: Priceless

We're a team

After having the bump on Luke's nose removed, I am supposed to keep Vaseline on it. It's not easy to keep him from wiping it off. It really needs a bandaid on it at all times. Luke doesn't really like it, so everybody pitched in and wore one just to keep Luke from ripping his off :)

Fun day with cousin Zach

My nephew Zach came over last weekend while his sister had a tea-party with her girlfriends. It was a gorgeous day! We even got to watch the combine harvester gather the soybeans from the field behind our house!

Lily woke up with Cindy-Lou-Who hair!

Zhu Zhu Pets

Supposedly these toys were all the rage last year. They are little hamsters that move around and "battle" each other. My kids just got into them and it's perfect timing because they are all on sale for $3! They had some money saved up so now they each have a couple. Santa might bring some of the accessories ;) It's been really sweet to watch them all play with them together. It's not easy to find an activity that interests babies all the way up to almost 8 year olds, but these things are so cute! I just loved watching them all huddled around together, cheering their pets on and laughing!

A little Thanksgiving decoration project

There's a new sheriff in town...

This kid trips me out sometimes! Check out this get-up...

That's a coffee filter in his left hand ;)

Precious dirlie...

RECESS!!!

We enjoyed an afternoon at the park last week with Shannon and her kids. It was a beautiful fall day. My gang took up all the swings... my cup runeth over :)

A few weekends ago, Anne watched the kids so Justin & I could go on a lunch date in between his trips out of town. We decided to go to Barnes & Noble and have coffee. I saw this book and had to read it. It's very cute and clever. And so true! We had a good laugh, but it did make me think. We are so "plugged in" as a society. The new advances in technology are neat, I won't lie. I would love to own a laptop, and iPad, a smartphone... but there is beauty in simplicity. I don't want an iPad reading my child their bedtime story. I want to do it. I want them to play more board games and card games than video games. My kids don't own any handheld video games or a lot of the other fancy stuff they have out there for kids, and I hope they don't grow up resenting me for that. We can't afford it, but like so many other things, sometimes you have to be forced into a situation to be able to see the beauty of it. Fancy things aren't bad. I want them! But I am thankful for the kind of life that is not too focused on those things. If you're not careful, I think they can blind you from the real important stuff. ...Anyway, that's my shpeel. Check out this cute book next time you're at the book store :)

Isaiah's Soccer Party at YoZone