The Season!

The season would not be complete without a visit with the GBCN girls. This makes 15 years! Wow I cannot believe it has been that long.

S's Thanksgiving play

E's Thanksgiving celebration!

What a great way to start off the holiday season! I love the Christmas season!!!! Thanksgiving for me officially begins the Christmas season. Although stores and businesses would tell us different, I purposefully make myself wait until Thanksgiving before I sing a Christmas song, put up a decoration, or even think about Christmas shopping. I want to save it all up so I can really enjoy the seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well it is finally hear and I must say it has been well worth the wait!!! We started with Thanksgiving festivities at the kids schools, our annual Christmas get together with the girls, a great night of Christmas songs at church! So it is official we can say Merry Christmas! Enjoy the season everyone!

Peanut Butter Cookies

What do you do on a rainy day when you are stuck in the house with sick kids?? Bake cookies of course! I had to be a little creative because we are very low on cookie baking supplies! Since we had no chocolate chips--(the cookies of choice in our family), we opted for peanut butter. We used a cake mix recipe and had to substitute one of our 2 eggs for cornstarch. I was a little concerned about not having enough eggs, but they turn out okay! Maybe this will get me in the mood for some Christmas baking!

Sick!

It seems we have had our fare share of visits to the sick bed. (This is our family's name for our couch with a sheet on it, when a child in the family is sick.) The kids know that this is where they go when they are not feeling well. My mom always did this for us when we were growing up, being sick a lot as a child I found myself there many times. Although I did not enjoy being sick, the sick bed made it a little more bearable. When you were on the sick bed mom gave us a little extra love, attention, and tenderness. We have been on the sick bed a lot in the past two months. E just got over Strep Throat to have S follow right in his footsteps. I know all of this comes in cycles and soon we will all be feeling much better, the sick bed put away, and back to our busy schedules, but until then I will do what I can to make "being sick" a little more bearable--with the sick bed.

Halloween Fun!

The kids were so excited about Trick or Treating this year. We are usually very involved in activities at our church on Halloween, but because Daddy had to work and Mommy was on call we decided to stay near the house and Trick or Treat in our neighborhood. This was also the first year all the kids were actually big enough to walk the neighborhood without a wagon or stroller. (Did I mentioned that our timing was impeccable, it was also the first year that it misted rain the whole evening of Halloween--oh well! the kids didn't care it was just the Mom's and Dad's out with them that were being bothered by the cold, damp rain). As were began Trick or Treating I realized how excited the kids were. Going door to door was something they had never done. Everyone was out with their kids, we went with neighbors up the street that have girls that are close to S's age. We also ran into lots of neighbors and school friends that the kids knew. I realized as we were doing all this that the kids are truly entering a new stage of life. We have left the preschool years (all except for my baby) and are quickly entering the school age years. Seeing their friends out Trick or Treating was so exciting for S and E, it just made me realized how little time we have to influence our kids and how these early years are so important!

My mom and dad stayed at our house to give our candy and Zach's parents came by to see the kids all dressed up. We are so lucky to have such loving family close by. We ended the night a little cold and damp, but the kids had bags full of candy and had a great time!!!

All dressed and ready to go, if it would just stop raining!

Even Tinker Bells have to go potty!

The Pizza Party before Trick or Treating

Look mom! Lots of candy!


Of course Halloween would not be complete without sending the kids to bed after a long night and Trick or Treating and then...having a little treat ourselves! No! we don't feel the least bit guilty about going through the kids Trick or Treat bags after they go to bed! (We always steal from each bag evenly and they never miss it!)