Stacy and Ammon came over for some Thanksgiving fall fun. We traced hands and turned them into turkeys.

The Moms stepped in when it came to poking the brads thru. We read the Thanksgiving Count Down book and colored Pilgrims and Indians. We finished off with cups of hot coco and marshmallows. Lucas breaks out in giggles and excitement when he hears that Stacy and Ammon is coming over. We look forward to getting together again in December.

Little Brian had his 1st Thanksgiving dinner and program at preschool. He did super.

 We couldn't be more blessed this year for Thanksgiving. We had the Murray family over before they moved to Texas and Jerry joined us later for dessert. The menu consisted of.. Blueberry deep fried turkey, homemade rolls, crescent rolls, sausage and mushroom stuffing, sweet potato casserole, tip top cranberry salad, raspberry pretzel salad, and mandarin orange salad w/ poppy seed dressing

On the dessert menu we had pumpkin ice cream layer bars with the gingersnap crust, pecan bars, cranberry white chocolate chip cookies, and apple blackberry pie. I tried several new recipes and happy that they all turned out to be winners. It worked out well cuz the kids table was in the kitchen and the adult table was in the living room.  The blueberry turkey was so good that there wasn't much for leftovers. Bummer for me cuz I wanted to try out a new Turkey chili recipe. I think everyone needs to at least try a deep fried turkey once in their lifetime. Brian will never go back to regular baked Turkey. We only got a 10 pounder cuz I was going to do a ham too but that was crossed off the list as well as the green bean casserole and the creamed corn casserole. I love food and gatherings with friends and family. It's easy for me to get carried away and it's always soooo fun. I'm already making my food list for our Christmas gathering.

 Happy Halloween

magic watercolors

After nap time the boys drew with a white crayon on the white paper. They then used water colors to paint over their artwork making the drawings magically appear on the page. Grandma picked up a books and magic pens at the airport and the boys loved them so she's been on the hunt to look for more. 

Landmark Park Part 2

After eating and playing at the park we took the boys on a walk to see the animals and reptiles. I think it was a great learning experience for them in pointing out all the different trees and leaves and fish swimming in the stream. Brian is at a fun age where he is soaking it in the information.  He remembers a lot.

 We stopped at the General store for some icecream. The store had some really neat antiques from the early 1900's It was all very fascinating. Driving home I asked Brian what his favorite part was. He said "Grandma"

The weather has been so perfect we dared not go inside. After picking Brian up from Preschool I ran in grabbed a few things for lunch and off we went to Landmark park. Landmark park is a park/agriculture museum.  There was nobody else there so we had the place to ourselves.  

Grandma is here while Brian is out in California. We couldn't be happier that she is here. She brought some Halloween books for the boys. They just can't get enough of her and look forward to  her bedtime stories every night.

Our very sweet neighbor Stephanie gave us a tour of her haunted house and then treated the boys to goody bags full of candy and all sorts of fun things. Jacob would walk around with these on and if they fell off then he'd come to you and hold them up until you put them back on.

Brian has a mouth full of goodness while he shows off the rest of his loot.

Brian is getting crafty.

Brian broke out the sewing machine.I've never seen him sew before so this is my proof. He made his own jedi costume for his Sister's Halloween party. I'm really impressed with how it turned out. I will have to post a picture of the finished product.

2011 Halloween additions

We enjoy Halloween a lot around here. The cool weather, heating the kitchen up by cooking yummy food, pulling out the fun festive decor. I find my decorations on clearance and that is when I met Henry. Henry was from last year at Kmart. It wasn't until a year later I opened the box and he didn't have any pants or a piece that connects his legs to his torso. Brian saved the day with a trip to Home Depot and a trip to Lil B's closet. The boys love him and Lucas is constantly pushing his voice button.

Love the yard sales. I found three of these to line our walkway.

I made this a few years ago and built up a nice stash of Halloween fabric. You can never have to much Halloween fabric right?

Last year in California I was at a craft show and was inspired by a garland with Christmas lights. I had a box of purple lights laying around and went to town cutting and tieing. This is a great project for those like me who can't sew to save her life.

Now I'm just trying to figure out where to hang it. There's an extra 3 feet laying on the floor not pictured.

First Day of Pre K = success

Little Brian has been talking about going to Preschool for weeks and would beam at the mere mention of the word.

I asked around at the Mom's meetup group for Preschool recommendations and they all raved about this one. Brian attends Preschool at the Calvary Baptist church from 8-12:00 Monday thru Friday. He has "Discovery Days 3 times a week starting today so they warned us not to dress them in anything nice cuz it can be a get a bit messy.

He held my hand as we walked down the hallway, went straight into his classroom and never looked back. He did super. I wanted to walk in, introduce him to his classmates, and find him a seat but I caught myself and backed out of the room telling him to have fun. The teacher smiled at me and offered to take the bag of supplies (crayons, 2 types of glue, hand sanitizer, clorox anywhere spray, baby wipes, change of clothes with his name on it etc etc) upstairs to the other classroom. I couldn't figure out why kids had their initials on their clothes and now I know why. I wish that room had a one way mirror. I just wanted to stay and watch him interact with the kids and all. Brian did awesome. He got a good report. A green light so we'll see if he gets all 5 green lights to win that prize at the end of the week. He wants to go back tomorrow. Pictured is Ms Jamie Jernigan and here the kids are to address the teachers by their first name. Mrs Fabreka his teacher was out due to her Grandfathers funeral. First day was awesome and Brian talked the whole way home about winning games, working on his ABC's and not liking girls.

In the discovery class they had him cover his name with stickers and played the name game. My hopes are to take pictures of his artwork/projects and make a collage of everything he's done. We'll see how that goes.

Past few glorious days

The past few days have been wonderful. there has been some of this

and this

a fully stocked ice cream bar

and this
and tacos (not pictured)

There was game playing and card making,

Family all joined in celebration of him turning 1 and him turning 30.

Gosh, I love my boys.

and of course you can't have a celebration without this.

It was sad to say good bye to family. They traveled so far and left so soon. Luckily for me I was able squeeze in an impromptu quick mini photo session with my fantastic extended family. That eye candy is coming soon.

A very very special thank you to my very dear friend Stacy for all her hard work and talents. She is my sunshine and my world would be a bit dull without her. A huge thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell, Danny, and Lara for being here for making this weekend so special. We know it was a sacrifice and appreciated you putting family above all else. Thanks again. We love you.