Turkey Day 2009

we have been very blessed in 2009 and have so very much to be thankful for....thank you to our wonderful family and friends, old and new for adding so much richness to our lives just by sharing in it!! we hope everyone enjoyed a very wonderful turkey day. for details...all of the family came to our house for turkey day this year, making it a very full house, 13 adults and 4 kids to be exact. it was wonderful though and i was given lots of help from everyone in the cooking dept. each person brought a piece of the menu, making my useless kitchen able to handle the night. hopefully next year i can put a new kitchen to better use!! (fingers crossed!!) good food, good times, good laughs....thanks

my little turkey's posing for a quick pic before everyone arrived

the kiddos table....man, the candy corn was a hit!

the "adult" table..for the first time, i was able to sit here, haha...ps, i made the flower arrangements, no way was i paying what the florists want during the holiday. i think they turned out pretty nice

what i am most thankful for!! and nathan too:)

alyce and jackson..two peas in a pod

wesley-almost 4, olivia-almost 11mos, alyce-2 and jackson-3 1/2

the ladies

uncle ron getting some miss O time

turkey day cookin'

since my kitchen is not quite functioning up to par, i managed to be responsible for the less invasive thanksgiving foods.....fresh cranberry sauce and miniture pumpkin pies. yumm-y. this was my first time making cranberry sauce from scratch and i must say it was the easiest thing. now i cannot figure out why on earth anyone would ever eat that canned junk. simple and sweet....cranberries, oj, sugar, brown sugar, touch of nutmeg and a splash of very good vanilla!! let it simmer for a while, sounds like popcorn popping and smells like heaven. the end result....yummy, fresh sauce. bye bye...canned jelly nastiness. my pies were simple too...same as big ones, just had to roll out dough and cut a million little circles. i do not know why i did not photograph them. they were too cute and quite delish, but honestly, even at their tiny size, we were all still too stuffed to enjoy them so i think next year i will just make pies the day after the holiday.....

sweet beads of cranberry beauty

sugary sweetened

voila...fresh and sooo good

Thankful Thursday at school

Last thursday was the thanksgiving feast at Jackson's school....all of the children eat a feast of chicken nuggets, tater tots and jello jigglers together in the fellowship hall in celabration of the wonderful thanksgiving holiday. it is too cute to see all of them dressed as either pilgrims or indians. they all had a gobbling good time and i enjoyed watching them too.

little turkey toddlers, ellie and jackson

the thanksgiving prayer before eatting, this was my favorite part to see

the turkey pumpkin that jackson made

olivia enjoying the festivities...she mostly danced to the music and entertained the crowd as usual

jackson and class entering into the hall dressed in their handmade turkey day digs!!

two peas in a pickup

this image says it all....one of my favorite moments is catching jackson and olivia playing so sweet together. he loves to teach her the ropes of playing with all the toys!

a look back....

in uploading some new pics, i browsed thru my pics, only to find these older moments from sometime in the middle of summer. i remember the moment....a playdate with the mcdonald's at the "school" park. olivia's first time in a swing and jackson hunting lizards.....i love finding lost shots like these, brings me right back to that very moment and makes me realize how both jman and miss o have grown and changed since then.

olivia, about 5 months old

enjoying the swing

jackson with a not so cute face on, finding "cool clouds in the sky"

sing it sunshine

Last week jackson's class sang in front of the entire school during chapel. he was so excited for this day and even more so that daddy, olivia and I and a couple other family members would be there to sing him on. the children were so cute, so pumped up. i helped the teachers get the kids in their gear, sunshine facemask, shirt and glow stick. then ran to chapel to watch them enter in....poor jackson had a malfunction with his mask, and he would not move his head, in hopes to keep the sun on during the presentation.....poor thing, he was concentrating so hard on the dang mask, that he did not "perform like he wanted" to. he was a little sad afterwards but "his girl" ellie made it all better, see picture below. all in all, it was the cutest thing to watch, boy am i going to be a mess when he graduates from preschool and they play "pomp and circumstance".

jackson in the middle of the group trying to do the moves

concentrating so very hard on the mask, poor thing

the world is a better place next to miss ellie...all better now

momentary lapse

sorry to all for not doing better with posts lately.....life has been quite busy the last few weeks and i have not had the energy to docuument the times as well as usual, or like a good friend told me, "MIA not allowed anymore, updates please!!" so maren, these are for you (smile, wink)!

10 months!!!!

our little Miss O is 10 months old today......its really hard to believe that she is close to turning one. just feels like yesterday that she was born, tiny little thing that she was. boy has she grown and changed in these months. she is a doll, cracks us up and always seems to make the day brighter! she is pulling up on everything and moving faster than i can catch her these days. she was given a rockstar status at her 9 month checkup (which was just the other day, so it was more like her 10mth ckup). she weighed in at 18lb 2 oz and 28 1/2 inches long. that put her in the 20% for weight and close to the 40% for height. she is our petite princess as the Dr put it. perfect no matter what!!

watch out world, here i come.........