Just Days Till The Fat Man…

We have been busy with play, work, shopping and more play it seems. Very busy but all good!We walked to the corner of 14th to watch the Holiday Parade this month along with most of our block. We took a chair down for our neighbor Francis (sitting behind Jo) as well, and we all gathered in our warmest to watch all the floats pass buy. It was a long one this year but quite a bit of fun and I think the kids got more candy from this than they gathered at Halloween.Happy Birthday Oma!
We headed to Myrtle Creek for the weekend of Oma’s Birthday to watch the Truck Light Parade and then join in a Christmas party at the Grange Hall with Rachelle & Connie. The Light parade was GREAT! Recommend for next year! Wow!!! The party was a lot of fun as well with a family atmosphere that for me just feels like family since we know quite a few of the folks.A growing moment for Jo.
While listening/watching some music at the Christmas Party Jo saw a kid look through the curtain on stage. She asked me “Momma…can I go on stage to play?” and I told her, “After the singing was all done,” as I knew there were kids’ getting ready for the live nativity. Then another kid poked their head through the curtain and Jo got very excited…”Momma!…There are costumes on stage…Can I go pleasssse?” I then told her to go ask Connie…Jo did just that! The next thing we saw, Connie and Jo at the stage door…when the curtains were pulled…well…There she was…a lamb on stage and was she ever smiling! Ok…I almost cried! She wanted something, she asked for it and then actually did it! All on her own! She is the lamb on the right by the way.Our tree is up and the kids did an awesome job of placing decorations all over…asking to be picked up to put some at the top along with standing on the couch to reach up high. It sure is fun for me this year to watch the kids…they just “get” so much more and it makes me smile inside. (ok, as I reread this I am a real sappy mom…when did this happen?)I grabbed some sugar cookies from the store…cheating…they are already cut out and came with frosting. But the kids had a good time painting and eating the cookies…or was it just eating the frosting? About all the painting on Jo’s cookies you see here…that’s about all she painted…the brush was in her mouth more than on the cookies. Anyone want a cookie?The kids are done with school until after the first of the year and Oma is done on Wednesday.
I think we are ready for the holiday…Hope you are as well.
Stay warm and we wish you Love.

Turkey & Snow Days

The turkey has come and gone…finally! Sheesh, even with family taking leftover turkey home we still ate on it for a week, finally re-cooking it in the crock-pot with bbq sauce for a change. Family might have been quietly laughing at me for buying the 22lb turkey, well I am laughing with you now.

As you can see we had Jill’s family at our home this year, which was a nice change for us not having to drive in any direction for the gathering. Jill’s parents parked their RV in the driveway with Dan & Carol crashing at night with them and all the kids sleeping in the house. We brought in our six-foot table for the big meal and, as you might notice, a wonderful fitted striped sheet for the tablecloth. Hey…we can be formal! It was cloth after all. (fyi, we found two table cloths stashed away after every one was gone…note for next time)

There were other funny things during the day that our home did not quite provide, not enough “nice” plates to go around, not large enough bowls for the stuffing or potatoes to be mixed in, and at the last minute Oma had to run next door and barrow chairs for everyone tushies. I don’t recall any complaints, we all just worked with what we had and ate a good meal enjoying the family company. Thank you Sandy and Carol for all you did as well.

To top off a wonderful meal with a wonderful family…the Dolphins beat the Lions!

We had a good night of snow last week, it didn’t last very long and was not very deep but we know how to make the most of what we get. A few beautifully crafted Snow Angels and one Snowman named just Bob was pulled from our front yard. Though the Angels disappeared within hours of creating them, Bob hung out for days and days finally becoming an ice skating rink for Jo and a large snow mountain for Cole and his batman car.
With Christmas heading our way now the kids have each had a chance to look at the Toys R Us catalog and given the colored coded marker for each to circle what they would like under the tree. Well just like a good kid…not one toy has gone unnoticed! Sure does not help to narrow down what they “really” would like to have but sure funny.

Tree yet to get - Santa yet to visit…But our lights are up and we are feeling the holiday spirit.

Chair – Arrrrg

Well as most of you know we have not been frightened to do projects around the house and some of them have been very large. Not knowing what you don’t know can help you tackle things you just shouldn’t at times.Neither Jill or I had ever upholstered before and we had no idea what we were doing, well it sounded like a good project for us.

The whole job went really smooth, we both figured out what we did best and just worked together like a fine oiled machine. No backfiring on this engine…I know, hard to believe. Jill did an awesome job on cleaning the chairs and then she took Jo to pick the upholstery out. Good Job Oma and Jo, Moma approves!ARRRRRGGGgggggggg!Cole and one of his new dress up characters. A cowboy hat with staples, necklace and a bandana and Cole becomes “Jack Sparrow”. No sword so he uses his light sabor...he is happy.

Ok, while typing this up the kids just came out in this! I laughed hard! I have no idea on this one! But they said they looked “Hot!”.One day I think I will take a photo of the kids every time they change their cloths in one day. Some days it can be a LOT. It’s only 10am right at this moment and Cole has changed four times and Jo is working on her third. Gotta Love It!

Parade and Cows

We loaded up the van for a weekend down south and this trip we loaded two extra bodies for the ride down and back. Cousins Derian and Hannah were getting to go over the river and through the woods with us to Grandma’s house, Grandpa’s too. All four grandkids spent a night together with just Gma & Gpa and were very excited. The ride down was sure different, more conversations in the back seats than we are use too and some of the discussions were funny. The older all the kids get the more fun they sure seem to become, purposeful funnies from them.
On Saturday they went to town for the parade and were lucky that the sun shone on them for at least that part of the day. They all had little sandwich bags for caring the candy that they picked up but those just were not large enough. The gentlemen that were standing behind them yelled and hollered that candy needed to be thrown their way so all four kids hauled quite a load. Oh, and I hear that Cole has been recruited into the Marines now and someone tried to get him to promise the Army but they were told he was already spoken for.

The twins had a great time with Gma & Gpa, ending with the new Santa Clause movie. They fell asleep as Oma drove them down to Rachelle and Connie’s for the rest of the weekend. Worn out for sure!
We took a walk to Connie’s folks place down the road to feed, pet and ride the cows. The kids were excited and sure seem to enjoy walking down there more than I can get them to do at home. I guess country living suits them.
The apples were red and the kids were throwing them on the ground for the cows, well Jo’s boots were red too…see where I’m going with this? She had a couple cows try and eat her boots right off her feet. She got a little scared but they only gummed her boots before figuring out they didn’t taste good and she laughs about it now. We learned that red rubber boots are not the best choice to wear into cow field.

COUNTING DOWN TO TURKEY!!!

Trick or Sick?

Well, we had a fun time on Halloween, the kids were so excited that it was hard to get them to eat dinner and, WOW, were they chatty!
Once there was a little good food down their tummies the kids got into their costumes and headed out the door! According to them we could not get out of the house fast enough. Our first stop was the McBee’s home to pick up the first bit of candy and presents that come as well. Francis always buys them gifts for Halloween instead of just the candy. New books and some squishy balls to play with, a photo or two and out the door we ran.

We meet up with a neighbor kid to walk with, Savannah the Princess. We crisscrossed our street as we headed toward the church at the end of the block, trying to time the party the church had starting at six. The three kids almost ran from house to house and we said hello to the neighbors that passed out the candy. The church was fun, a few games and a couple small plays to watch and more candy. Yummy!

Home after that to hang out and eat candy, and did they eat!! Cole not so much but I guess Jo ate more than we thought because around 5am she woke throwing up. We have been battling some colds here at the house so we thought that hey…she might just be getting sick. But then when she got up at 9 and it rushed out of her other end…well lets just say that she is very limited on candy today.

YIPPY...TURKEY MONTH!