Happy Thanksgiving!

For your Thanksgiving viewing pleasure...



Who needs parades and football games when you have this?!

Oh the joys of having sisters! Are there no blue, black or red goggles in this house?! Poor little guy. Tell me he won't grow up all warped!

(I haven't taken a picture of him wearing the big floppy yellow straw hat with a big yellow flower on it yet, but knowing how ornery this boy is already I'm thinking I may need some bribery pictures for later on in life.)



So anyway, moving right along....

Somehow I don't think washing Jake's mouth out with soap is going to do any good (that is, whenever he starts talking where we can understand him).

Why?

Because I caught him with this...

Yep, that would be the soap bar from our shower. I know... EEEEEWWWWWWW!!!

At least this time he didn't also rub body wash all over his face and hair. Like last time.

Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving!! And that your turkey dinner tastes better than soap!

We will be (future tense...I'm writing this on Wednesday but setting it to post on Thursday) celebrating Jessica's 6th birthday, cooking turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, broccoli, rolls, and pumpkin pie, eating birthday cake, and possibly taking that whole turkey dinner over to someone else's house where our church will be having Thanksgiving all together. (Most people up here have family far away so our church has Thanksgiving together.)

And if you're going to brave Black Friday, good luck to ya. I'll be home snug as a bug!

Double Digits

Do I need to reintroduce myself? It's been a while since I posted so I have some catching up to do. We've got two birthdays in November and it's one down and one to go. Mackenzie turned 10 this month (Jessica has a Thanksgiving birthday this year and I'll post about it later on.)

I can't believe we're in the double digits now. That "estrogen ocean" thing is getting scarier by the minute!

Mackenzie asked for a chocolate two-layer cake with pink icing. She did the sprinkles on top herself.



And yes, it really is November here in MONTANA. You know, where it does get cold in the wintertime. You wouldn't think it since Mackenzie is wearing short sleeves and Rebecca is wearing a tank top. At least the other two have good sense (either that or they couldn't find their summer shirts that I hid).

We invited the girls in her class (all 5 of them) over for a little birthday party. Oh my head!

Actually, it went pretty well and wasn't too torturous. We don't do parties every year but we try to do them every now and then. Winter birthdays are hard because you can't really have the party outside and let the wide open spaces filter out the madness.

Fun Game?

Jake: Mama!

Me: What?

Jake: Mama!

Me: What?

Jake: Mama!!!

Me: What, Jake????

Jake: MAMA!!

Me: Yes, Jake?

Jake: Maaaama!

Me: Jaaaake!

Jake: Mama!

Me: What?



Wanna play?

It's usually only mildly annoying (and mildly cute), but when your throat is on fire it's not fun at all. He gets mad when you whisper.

You might have won Love Starts With Elle!

Remember the Love Starts With Elle tour a few weeks ago? You might have won a copy of the book afterall!!

Check it out! Here's what Rachel said on her blog:


Thanks so much to all the bloggers of the "Love Starts With Elle" blog tour. Applause, applause.

And a big thanks to all who signed up to win a free copy here at rachelhauck.com.

With so many entering, I just couldn't pick two so I went to Thomas Nelson with an idea and they heartily agreed.

EVERYONE IS A WINNER AT RACHELHAUCK.COM!

They are graciously supplying the needed books for the 63 who sighed up for the drawing!

Please send your name and address with "LSWE Winner" in the subject line to rachelhauck@gmail.com and I'll get those books mailed out to you in the next few weeks.

Congratulations everyone!


How 'bout that?! So if you were one of those who had left a comment on Rachel's tour post, go claim your copy!!

Halloween Night!

Why is it you can never get one decent picture of a group of kids?

Because they're kids. And kids wiggle, and giggle, and jiggle...and cry.

This year for Halloween the girls all wanted to dress up as princesses. (Rebecca is a "fairy princess," thankyouverymuch! Do NOT call her just a princess. She will correct you. Oh and don't tell her that's actually a "bride" costume I'd found at a consignment store.) Of course Jake is Spiderman.

He's protesting here because the girls got him in the car too soon and I had to get him out for pictures. He was ready to GO already!

I took several pictures trying to get him to laugh...or something. And when he does...

...Jessica looks away.

*sigh*

So anyway, the kids got home from school and all their school parties and hallway parades. Then after dinner we gathered up and paraded to the neighbors (well, not loud-car neighbor). We have an elderly couple across from us and each year they have a bowl of candy to give out. So when we showed up they were thrilled. We were their first trick-or-treaters in 15 years! (The kids were sick the past two Halloweens so we didn't go out then.) We live out of town, can you tell?

After that we went to town and trick-or-treated up and down a block where a couple of teachers live, then we went to a community party full of games and goodies.

They had this little set-up for picture taking:

It was so DARK in there I wasn't sure what kind of picture I'd have when we got home. Hmmm, not bad!

Stan missed out on all the hoopla because he's out hunting this week for opening elk season. I'm sure he's completely broken hearted! *grin* Actually, I know he misses seeing the kids all dressed up and excited, but I doubt he misses the craziness part.

Maybe I'll be able to post a picture of a dead elk when he gets back!

Oh, I also have to tell you that we went to trick-or-treat some friends of ours who the husband works with Stan. And while Stan is gone this week our friend is using his work truck. So when we pulled up to their house and the girls saw daddy's truck in the driveway they all said, "Hey!! Daddy's here!!!"

It was so cute!