The Gobbler Pinata & Turkey Day

 This is Timmy- The 1st annual Gobbler Pinata

 Cute Maggers & Larky get 1st whacks

 Fisher getting his Jeter on

 Finn- taking it easy on Timmy 

 Cole being dazed and confused just before hitting Timmy out of the park

 Uncle Jesse enjoying a Turkey Treasure

Would you look at that spread, yum.

Thanksgiving was pretty great. It left me feeling all warm and fuzzy, grateful, spoiled, loved, and very full. Our families are both amazing and I couldn't ask to be associated with better people. Timmy the Turkey Pinata did not disapoint, in fact he brought much glee and laughter. I highly recommend the afore mentioned activity. Aside from entertaining the kids after dinner, the adults were also quite jovial which is saying something  since we were all suffering from food induced comas. My 3 favorite foods from this Thanksgiving meal were as follows, 3)Turkey w/ cranberries, 2) Grandma Angus' cabbage souffle salad, & 1) Lindy's chocolate banana cream pie. Delish!

Top10 Thankful Goodies

Happy Thanksgiving to All of you, friends and loved ones.
We thought we would share with you our top 10 Thankfuls:

10) Our bodies- Fisher
09) Agency- Cole
08) Time-Cole
07) Hot Water- Maggie
06) Names-Cole
05) Music- Maggie
04) My Wife- Nate
03) Lips to kiss with, Smile with, and Laugh with
02) Gospel
01) EACH OTHER & YOU

Thanksgiving Eve w/ Gobbler Pinata

Tomorrow is the big day. Gorging Galore. Thanksgiving is truly a wonder to behold. The gathering of family and friends. The making of delicious food. The making of memories. The seating arrangements, the table settings, the fancy nut cups to go by each place, and let us not forget the first annual homemade Turkey Gobbler Pinata, complete with stuffing. Stuffing including mini whoopi cushions, lip gloss rings, and mini Connect Four games with which you play with smarties. I know, you're dieing to see the Gobbler and hear of the raging success. Me too. You will have to check back tomorrow as well as the day After Thanksgiving for the report. In the mean time, from our family to yours,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holy handmixer attack Batman!!

 You may ask yourself,"what exactly am I looking at here?"

 This is the top of Maggie's head w/ a bald spot about the size of 2 quarters next to each other.

 This is the right side of Maggie's bangs. Please notice this bald spot is heart shaped.

And this is our cutest Maggie and the hairstyle she will be wearing for the next 6 months. SO cute.

I know. You are saying,"What the? I need an explanation, what is going on here?" I was asking myself the same question as I heard the blood curdling screams coming from the kitchen. The first scream we didn't really respond to because blood curdling screams are pretty common for Maggie (I have taught her well) She screams loudly for things ranging from a spider across the room to stubbing her toe to, who knew, getting her hair caught in the hand mixer. The second scream, which was really just part of the really long 1st scream, we responded to. Nate and I ran into the kitchen to see Maggie standing over the sink with the beaters stuck in her hair. She had turned it off at this point, but the beaters were stuck to her head and they were stuck to her head because they had wound her hair up that tight. Nate of course 1st and foremost unplugged the apparatus. Then proceded to untangle Maggie's hair, which was covered in Pancake batter, that was like glue because they were whole wheat with only the eggs added in so far. I on the other hand, was laughing in silence with my eyes as big as saucers, in unbelief. How? How Maggie did you manage this? Come to find out, she put cinnamon in the batter and had leaned over the bowl to smell the spicey concoction when the beaters made their move. They saw a moment of weakness and attacked in full force. So after a shower, and many tears, the bald spots were discovered. We didn't know they were there in all the commotion, but Maggie soon found them as gobs of hair fell out in the shower. What's to do? I called my sister Gaylynn who saved the day. We took her to her salon, she shampooed and conditioned, combed and combed, cut and styled. And sent her out the door with a cute headband, one of many she has been sporting the last week. Thanks Gaylynn. And thanks Kenzie and Michelle for the cute headband and treat. And the moral to the story is: Ponytails.

more HARVEST

This is Cole's sunflower that he planted last year in 2nd grade. It was huge. It measures about a foot and a half across. It got so big that we had to trim most of the leaves off because it was shading our entire garden. It was like a tree. He and his friends have enjoyed eating the seeds and it is quite the sight to see them haul it around like the prize it is. I do know at one munching session the shells covered about 1/4 of the driveway, which he was not all that happy that I made him sweep up. 'Can I just sweep them into the wind?' he asked. 'NO', you cannot.

Harvest

This is it. The last of the loot from the garden. What a bitter sweet ending. Bitter because I strongly dislike buying tomatoes in the store until the 1st tomatoe of August will appear next year. Those pithy, nasty, poor excuses for tomatoes. Sweet because, YAY for canning being done, I won't be missing you. So, on Sunday we had dinner at Neil and Becky's (delish and yum, thx) and I made one of those Butternut squash you see in the picture. What a treat. My kids snarffed it down. Simply bake for around an hour and a half, remove meat, add as much butter and brown sugar as your conscience will allow, mix, and watch the anti-oxidents and vitamin C go down the gullets of all surrounding the table.Really. It works. Of course, what doesn't work with butter and brown sugar? Bon Appetit.

Works for us, Child Labor, WORK, WORK, WORK

What a fun day of staining the fence. A great time was had by all. Please take note of the safety glasses adorned by all involved. Nate's are rather Erkel-esque, wouldn't you agree? We are on a

"Work as a Family" kick the last little while. Why you may ask? Why put yourselves through that?

I was talking to my Dad about getting the kids to work and how in the world did he do it with us.

He said,"Do you really think we needed a 1/2 acre of beans?" Oh, all this time I thought that he and mom enjoyed canning to Kingdom Come. Come to find out it was all a ploy to teach us how to work. Which in and of itself is work, exhausting, back breaking (or should I say mental state breaking), work. No, really after about 4 hours I was sooo done. But, look at the fence. It's done. The kids are proud of their work. Nate and I are proud of the kids, and it does seem to bring out the best in all of us for a while.

For example:

We work together, small people getting the low areas, big people the high.

We get messy, really messy, kids loved that part.

We become bi-langual, the principle language being Whinese.

We dance and become rather silly, which is my personal favorite part.

So, onward and upward toward the steep climb of teaching kids to work and to enjoy it. It's a trick, but certainly one that pays large dividends. Right?



A SPOOK-TACULAR HALLOWS EVE

 Maggs and her friend Lydia at the school parade

 You probably can't see him because of his stealth and Ninja-ness, but this is Cole

 Those handsome eyes could only be Fisher's

 Hip Hip Hooray for Grandpa Neil's office Trick or Treat Extravaganza with cousins

 Just on their way out for the gathering of goodies

 Is this picture self explanatory enough?

 Oh the bliss of sugared confection

Pumpkins and Princess

although she looks a little too much like a prom date for this mother of one daughter