Thanksgiving

This is the first chance that I have had this week to write a Blog post. I have been so busy this week!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Derek's mom, siblings, their spouses, children and significant others all came here for Thanksgiving. We were so excited to have everyone, but I knew there was no way that we could comfortably sleep 15 people in our house. We decided that renting a house we could all stay in for the weekend would be the best option. It took a lot of work to find one, but it was totally worth it. We found a great old farm house on 28 acres of land with 5 bedrooms and a huge dinning room. It was fun to all stay together, but not be on top of one another. The house had awesome toys for the kids to play with too.

We had so much fun. It was really nice to all be together as a family. I hope we can do that again sometime. I am including lots of pictures. However, know that I had over 500 to choose from, so I think I did a pretty good job narrowing it down. :)

Enjoy the pictures!

The house we stayed in. Isn't it beautiful?


A view from the back


What would a vacation be without a little Wii time?


I love her expressions.


The kids had a great time hanging out with Gordon, the fiance of my mother-in-law.


Even though there were lots of fun things to do inside, the kids prefered to be outside. The property around this place was awesome.

There were a few old barns on the property. They were really cool. The kids loved exploring them.




















The inside of a barn


Inside a barn, looking out


Jared looking out from a barn


Jared and Jenna hanging out in a barn


Brian and Jenna hanging out in the barn


Brian and Jenna from another view


They were pretty high up. I thought these were great shots of the two of them.


This is a great bell. The kids had a blast ringing it. The owner told us he would use it as a dinner bell when he lived there.


The kids had a great time exploring the property.

Derek and Jared




Adlai and Jared


Jenna, Kevin, and Jared


Kevin and Jared


Kevin


Kevin, Jenna, and Derek climbing a tree


Kevin found an awesome walking stick while we were there. He named it "Sticky." He was devastated when he thought he lost it. He was even more heart broken when we told him he couldn't bring it home.


Monkey see, Monkey do. Since Kevin had a stick, Jared needed one too.


"Sticky" went everywhere Kevin did.




Somehow Jenna was privileged enough to hold "Sticky" for a minute. I guess Kevin wasn't actually too happy about it.


Jared decided to work on his golf swing a bit while we were there. :) I think he needs better fitting clubs...


Nana (Derek's mom) bought these Christmas snow globes for the kids. They LOVE them.


Doesn't Jenna look cute in these pictures? I am not biased. :)


Jared, Kevin, and Jenna


The cousins


Our Family


The whole family


Thanks for everything family! It was an awesome weekend.

Happenings

We just got back from a quick trip to southern Virginia for Janie, my niece's blessing. My parents drove down from New Hampshire, on their way to my brother's, and my brother and his family drove up from South Carolina. It was really fun to see everyone. We stayed in a hotel. The kids love staying in hotels. Kevin was especially impressed. He thought it was amazing that they gave us beds, towels, a hair dryer, a closet, etc. Eventually we told him that we paid to use all those things, but he still thought it was really cool. The kids said they wanted to live there. That would get old really fast. :) The hotel had a pool, so they were able to swim in the pool with their cousins last night. They had a blast. It was a reminder, once again, that I really need to get my kids into swim lessons. My brother's kids are like fish. They can swim without any problem. Mine still balk at the suggestion to put their face in the water.

I, of course, forgot my camera, so I have no pictures to document the event. I am told that I will get copies of the pictures taken, but who knows when that will be my. Given that Rachel has a brand new baby, I don't expect them any time soon.

Kevin read several chapter books in the car on the way to and from my Sister's. It was really neat to see him be so entertained by reading. Derek was very happy about that.

Jenna has been wanting to learn to read for a long time. Slowly she is starting to recognize some words (other than her name and her family members' names). She recognizes "stop", "do", "and", and "Lord". I think it might be about time to pull out the sight word flash cards I have, and work on a word or so every week. Anyone have suggestions for good beginning reader books? I want something really simple, with just a few small words on each page. I am thinking I might look at the "Dick and Jane" books, but I was wondering if anyone has found anything else really simple. I would like to get her an easy reader for Christmas.

We are all feeling a lot better than last week. I always get sick through the Holidays, which is very frustrating. Since I am just getting healthy, I hope to be feeling well for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I will be healthy for Christmas this year too.

I can't think of much else going on. We are really excited about Thanksgiving this year. Derek's family is coming here. We are really looking forward to all being together. We rented a larger home for while they are here. I just can't fit everyone comfortably in my house. It should be a good week. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are a few random pictures from the week:

Kevin took an "AR" test this week. (I am not really sure what that is, but it has something to do with reading). He did really well, and one of the rewards was a styrofoam airplane. He was so excited. I had to beg him to wait until we got home from the bus stop to let me put it together. He kept trying to put it together while we were walking home, and I was so nervous he would break it (which would mean a major melt down, from him, not me). :) Here is the finished product:




Derek has been staying home later a couple of mornings each week so that I can run. On those mornings he will take Jenna to school. That can be problematic because she needs a booster seat to do that, but sometimes I need both booster seats for later in the afternoon. We decided we needed to buy an extra one to keep in Derek's car, so we wouldn't have to worry about it. Jared loved playing with the box. :)


Speaking of Jared, he loves to dress up. I really need to look into getting him some boy dress-up clothes. He decided to be a fairy this week.


Here he is casting a spell on Derek. "Bipity, Bopity, Boo!" Can anyone say "blackmail" and/or "wedding video"?

Sick

I don't have many pictures this week. We have all been sick. Now that I have disclosed that, you are all grateful for the lack of pictures, huh? :) For the most part we have just been dealing with nasty colds. We have all had it, and are all on the mend. Jenna missed school on Friday because she was vomiting Thursday night. Otherwise we have all just had coughs, runny/stuffy noses, sore throats , and a general "stuffed up" feeling. I think I got it the worst. My voice is still pretty bad. I am feeling better than I did on Tuesday night and Wednesday - hallelujah.

We did have someone over for dinner this week. He is a friend of ours, and his wife has been out of town for 6 weeks, attending to her deathly ill mother. I was trying to keep everything somewhat nice for him (you know, toys picked up, cushions on the couch instead of the floor, etc.). I was doing pretty well with that, until the very end. About ten minutes before he was supposed to be at our house (and a few minutes before Derek got home), I realized that Jared was sitting in the pantry with the door closed...NEVER a good sign. I opened it, and he had poured salt all over the floor and himself. Lovely. He went to time out while I cleaned it up. One thing I learned about salt though, is that it takes a long time to really be cleaned up. I swept the floor several time over the next two days before I felt like I was no longer walking on salt. Ah, the joys of parenting. :)

That is a lot more salt than it might appear. If you look closely, you can see it on the plastic around the paper towels.


The salt outside the pantry is from when I picked him up, and it fell off of him. There was another pile like that in "time out" after he had been standing there for a couple of minutes.

Fall

One of my favorite things about living in the east again is Fall. The colors are AMAZING! Unfortunately I didn't capture any on film. I did not even try. I knew that I would never be able to capture on film what I saw. It was breathtaking. Every time I drove down the road with the trees encasing it dressed it colorful leaves I would just smile to myself and take it all in. I knew it would not last long (a few days at peak and then one week later the leaves were brown and on the ground), so I just tried to enjoy every minute of it. What a beautiful earth we live on!

One of the kids favorite things to do this time of year is to play in the leaf piles. We have tons of leaves (we practically live in a forest), so we can get huge piles of leaves for the kids. Here of some pictures of their fun:

The kids playing


Kevin buried in the leaves


Jenna buried in the leaves


Jared buried in the leaves


Kevin running through the leaves


Hired help. Just kidding. The kids are anxious to help rake the leaves (even if it is only to jump in them).


Since the weather has turned colder (well, except for this weekend which was in the upper 70s), the kids are playing inside more. Here are two funny pictures from play time. Jenna loves to dress up in her dress up clothes. We really only have girl dress up clothes, so Jared tried to dress up with her. I had to force him to take off the dress so we could go to the store later that day. :) Who knew I had a cross-dresser?


The kids love to wear our extra t-shirts around. We thought this picture of Jared was so funny. He really is a ham. :)

Happy Halloween!

Ahoy Mateys! This here pirate family raked in a large booty this past week.

It all started Tuesday, when the youngest members of our pirate ship crashed a Halloween Party at church.


They threw bean bags at pumpkins, fished for prizes and paraded around the gym showing everyone that pirates rule!






Shiver me timbers! There's a scary look for you. You had better watch yourselves, or he might make you walk the plank!


After collecting their booty, the young pirates returned to the ship, to await another opportunity for treasure. As luck would have it, Friday was their lucky day. Pirate Kevin came back to our ship from the local elementary school with lots of goods. Well done lad! Pirate Jenna participated in a parade at a local preschool, to once again show the others that pirates are the best. She too came back aboard with a large amount of goods. They are turning into very good pirates.

Pirate Jared decided to go in disguise to watch Pirate Jenna parade around ordering others to walk the plank.


Pirate Jenna had a wardrobe malfunction (notice the upside down eye patch). I guess that is what happens when we allow non-pirates to help her get all her gear on.


After returning to the ship on Saturday, this here pirate family decided to dress down and decorate some pumpkins.

Pirate Jared painted his.


Pirate Jenna painted her's too.




Pirate Kevin designed his, and Pirate Dad carved it.


Pirate Mom designed and carved hers.


This is actually how Pirate Mom and Dad "carved" the pumpkins (that's a drill in his hand). It works well for getting smaller details.


Pirate Dad found, copied and carved his design.


What would a Pirate's dinner be without some good old spiders dipped in blood! Yummy.


After looking over their treasure from earlier in the week, the three young pirates decided it was lacking. They recruited mom and dad Pirate, and prepared to ransack the local establishments in search of more treasure!

Pirate Jared


Pirate Jenna


Pirate Kevin


Pirate Mom


Pirate Dad


One of Pirate Dad's tattoos (we all had tattoos, but I didn't get pictures of anyone else's)


The whole crew...looking respectable


Ready to fight for our treasure!


Here are the three young Pirates about to head out the door.


I am happy to report the raid was a success. The young pirates came back with pumpkins full of treasure (no pictures of course, because we wouldn't want any enemy pirates out there to see it, and try to take it). We are now back on our pirate ship looking for the next unassuming city to ransack. Beware!

The Weekend

On Thursday evening I got a call from my sister asking me what it felt like to be in labor. We talked a bit, and it sounded like she was in the beginning stages of labor. She asked if I would go down for the weekend to help her, if she had the baby. She ended up have a beautiful little girl early Friday morning. I had to rearrange a bunch of things, but I was able to do so quickly and easily. Everyone was really understanding.

On Friday night I headed to Suffolk to spend the night at the hospital with Rachel. I got there about 11:30p. It was perfect because she was about to head to the nursery to feed the baby, so I was able to go right away and meet her. (She (the baby) had to stay in the nursery for observations). She was very awake and alert (just like a newborn to be awake and alert at midnight :) ). It was fun to hold a newborn. They are so tiny! I have to admit that I was glad I didn't have to get up every three hours through the night to feed a newborn. :) That is one major advantage of older kids - no night feedings.

Anyway, I stayed down in Suffolk/Chesapeake at either the hospital or Rachel's house all weekend. I had a great time. I am pretty tired (though not as tired as Rachel, it's worth it though, right Rachel?). :) I drove back this evening, and am happy to be home with my family. I missed them. Congratulations again David and Rachel! Thank you for letting me come down, and hang out with your beautiful children.

Derek and the kids stayed here. On Saturday the kids played outside, and Derek got some random things done around the house. Then they tried to get pumpkins. The first place they went was closed (the ad said it would be open - so annoying). The second place they went, the pumpkins were ridiculously expensive. They ended up going home empty handed. We will be going pumpkin shopping for family night tomorrow. :)

Today they went to church, a baptism, and then were invited over to someone's house for dinner. One thing that I have really loved about being out here is how well our friends from the neighborhood and church take care of each other. They are often aware when either Derek or I am out of town, and will invite the rest of the family over for dinner, or bring us a treat. It has happened multiple times. I am very grateful for it.

We didn't take any pictures this week, and I don't have any pictures of my sister's new baby. However, a few weeks ago Derek showed the kids how to use a program on our computer called Photo Booth. He thought they might get a kick out of it. Basically, it takes four quick pictures like one of those photo booths in the mall that teenagers get a kick out of squeezing into and making funny faces. Our kids LOVED it! They took about 280 pictures in just a couple of days. Derek and I spent an evening looking through the pictures. It was hilarious. For the most part, Derek and I weren't around for the pictures, so the kids personalities really came out. Enjoy!