Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well, this post is just going to be picture overload! Yesterday was Thanksgiving, which was at my sister's house. I just took so many nice pictures (and a few funny ones) and there's so many that I couldn't narrow it down.

I am the baby of eight kids in my family...five of us were at Thanksgiving. Linda lives in California, Dianna in New Mexico, and Mark in Nebraska, so they weren't with us. But the rest of us are local.

Here is my brother-in-law Gene (Catherine's husband) carving the turkey. He is seriously a gourmet chef. He's so good, I bet he could be the next Iron Chef. He even makes everything all pretty and visually pleasing when he plates it!!

My nephew Joe (brother Mike's son) in the foreground here, but my nephew Vann (Catherine's oldest) is in the back with my sister Ann and her husband Mike just coming in the door. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of her.

Every time I tried to get her picture, she would literally turn and show me her bum!

This is Ann's husband, Mike. And yes, he is wearing spandex. :) Usually when we get together for holidays, Mike rides his bicycle to wherever we are. And this time, he rode from their house in Fayetteville to Catherine's house...33 miles. Yes, he is crazy. It's funny because when Chris and I were on our way, there was this cyclist up ahead, and I jokingly said "That better not be Mike Sorenson!" And we got up next to him and it was him!!

Here's Chris, nicely stuffed after dinner.

My brother Mike and his oldest, Joe.

Joe with the farm wagon. For a while he was pulling Dalton around in it, but I missed the photo op on that one.

My mom, enjoying the fruits of her labor...sugar free pumpkin pie.

My sister Julie with Jackson. This was after Jackson threw an hour long screaming fit. Dinner was served at around 12, so that my mom could eat quickly, then leave for an hour of adoration at church from 1-2, then she came back and we all had desert. So Jackson slept for 20 minutes in the car on the way to Catherine's, then I tried to put him down for a nap while my mom was gone. But the room he was in was too bright, and Gene went in there to get his laptop and woke him up, then Dalton walked in there thinking it was the bathroom...so the poor kid was just overly tired. He got up after crying forever, had some milk, was happy for a while, slept on the way home, and then he was just a big grumpy Mr. Cranky Pants for the entire rest of the night!!

My niece, Lauren (my brother Mike's youngest), with Miss Kitty.

Lauren with some of the horses. Lauren love, love, LOVES any and all animals, but especially horses. Sometimes I think she was supposed to be my daughter. :)

Dalton chilling on the steps to the barn loft.

Even the dogs and one of the cats got to partake in the feast. Miss Kitty with Max. Look at them, putting aside their differences and sharing food to join in the Thanksgiving holiday!!

Josie with her haul.

Jackson seemed to enjoy the horses, too. He was a bit confused, wondering why the dogs grew so big out here. Ha!

But he petted Dobber and managed to keep all his fingers. That's a pretty good accomplishment.

Dobber had just finished licking Jackson's helmet.

Dalton always gets a kick out of them, too. Here he is with Vann and Dobber.

Vann just loves kids. He's seventeen years old, and has always been great with the little ones. It's nice to see a teenage boy like that!

And I'll even post a few pictures of me with the horses. There's hardly ever any pics of me because I'm always the one taking the pictures. Dobber, here, was constantly licking my coat, my hands, my pockets, my face. I don't know what he thought I had hidden away!!

He was trying to lick my face. But I do really like this picture. I just look so happy. Which, of course, I love animals of all kinds, but I especially love horses, so I guess that explains it.

And then after we got home, we watched Elf (first Christmas movie of the season, yay!) and Dalton snuggled into a snoozing Chris to do this.

And of course, I love the movie Elf. I still believe in Santa myself, and with it being the first Christmas movie viewing, and the movie itself, I was practically sobbing by the end. :)

So all in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday, too, and found lots to be thankful for!!

Fairly Lazy Weekend

We had a fairly lazy, lovely weekend! Friday night I made Curry Chicken and Pasta, and Jackson had his first taste of it. I would label it a success, although he ended up with more in his lap than in his stomach.

This little boy is now a walking machine. For the most part, he walks all the time. He only crawls if he's trying to get somewhere fast. Like if the fridge door is open, or the bathroom door, he'll crawl super fast to try to get there before you close it up, but otherwise, he's walking every where.

Saturday I went with a friend to see New Moon. We did not face the crowds and stay up like a bunch of crazies to go to the midnight showing the first night; we're way too old to stay up that late. But I did order our tickets online about a week before. It has to be a movie I've been looking forward to seeing for a long time to make me pay movie theater prices. In my defense, we did go to a matinee, so it was a little cheaper. We got there an hour early and still had to wait in a line a mile long to get into the theater. I was amazed! I knew it was a popular movie, but sheesh! It was worth it though.

And for those of you that think it's childish for a thirty year old woman to want to see this movie, I have a few things to point out... First, this is not just a movie about vampires and werewolves. It's a love story about two people that shouldn't be together, and about their fight to do so. Second, how is this any different from all the people that love Harry Potter? Both series are aimed at a younger crowd. I'll stop there.

After the movie, Chris and the boys and I went to the square. They had the lighting ceremony, which we missed, among other activities. I had already bought my movie tickets when I found out it was the same time as the lighting. But we still got to hear some great kids singing, and the lights.

We ran into several people we knew, including Betsy and Alex and their kids. Here's Dalton with Taya and Gwyneth. I love how Taya has her arm around D and Gwyn. So motherly!!

They also had miniature horses (with reindeer antlers on!) giving rides to the kids.

Also had camel rides, which I failed to get a picture of. But here's a decent shot of the square (with food vendor booths in front...I should have taken a picture from the opposite side of the square, but we were leaving at this point and I didn't want to walk around again because we were already close to the car.)

Then Sunday, Chris took advantage of the nice weather and put up the lights outside. An added bonus is that he was dreading going through the strings, trying to figure out which lights were causing an outage on half the strand. But when he went up in the attic to get them, he found six new boxes of lights! I bought them last year after Christmas on clearance (technically I bought them for the tree inside) and forgot about it. So we just trashed the old lights and used the new ones. Big time saver!! And of course, Dalton helped.

No, he did not actually get on the roof. He's not coordinated enough for that (he is, after all, MY son!).

And Jackson supervised from the front porch. :)

Today I started making pie (chocolate cream) for Chris's Thanksgiving dinner at work tomorrow, and in the morning, I'll get up early and make a banana cream pie before the party (I didn't want to make it tonight because the bananas would turn brown).

All in all, it was a great weekend. I'll try to remember to take pictures through my pie making tomorrow morning to post the recipe on here. It's SO easy, and yummy to boot!! I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

And The Winner Is...

And the winner of the Beginner Block Set is:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:6
Timestamp: 2009-11-14 19:49:25 UTC

6-The Harris Family

Congratulations!! Heidi, please email me at woofitup1@cox.net with your address so that the block set can be shipped out.

Thanks to all who entered the contest, and keep reading; I'm sure there will be more giveaways in the future!!

Block Set Giveaway!!

Okay, so here's the scoop...I am lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to give away a great item from CSN Baby. They have really great toys, baby/kid goodies, bedding, and nursery furniture, so check them out!

Click here to check out all the info on the beginner pattern blocks!

If you want to get in on a chance to win this great item, please leave a comment to this post. I will leave the comments open through Friday, and I will pick a winner on Saturday, November 14th. If you win, the blocks will be shipped directly to you, so make sure there is a way I can contact you about shipping info (either comment using your blogger, gmail, or google account or leave your email address in the comment). Good luck to all!!!

Trick or Treat!!

The boys finally got to go Trick or Treating...well, kind of. We went to Lance and Lisa's house last night for a small get together, and so the boys got their costumes on for the big occasion!!

Who is this fearsome (okay, no so much) skeleton?

Oh, wait, it's just Dalton!

And isn't this just the cutest spider you've ever seen??

Here they are, walking to their first (and only) house!!

And the waiting is just soooo long...

But who should open the door but Chewbaca!!

Dalton didn't quite know what to think of that as he was expecting Lance or Lisa. :) He completely got thrown off and forgot to say "Trick or Treat!" so we had to prompt him...

But they had fun and that's all that counts! I failed to get a good picture of the boys together, and wanted to dress them up again today to do it, but Dalton declined. Oh, well. Thursday we'll be going to Betsy's for a play date, and they get to dress up again. Her kids were also sick and didn't get to go anywhere, so all the kids will get to wear their costumes!

Tomorrow I'm doing a fun giveaway kid's toy, so check back in tomorrow for a chance to win!

Oh, The Ecstasy

As the boys are feeling better, my body has given in to exhaustion. And for two days, I have pretty much sat on my hiney, just watching the boys get better, and enjoying their laughs and the way they play together. As a result, my house has become a national disaster. I keep waiting for the National Guard or Red Cross to make an appearance and declare it...

So I sat today, thinking about how much I didn't want to start cleaning, and wondered... Is there something around here that needs to be done, but in doing it would also be fun for the kids? And then I had my answer. Jackson was taking his afternoon nap, and Dalton was vegging in front of cartoons.

When you take this...

And do this...

What do you get? I mean, what do you get other than three huge blisters on your hands, and a questionable lump on your head from smacking yourself with a rake?

Well, you take a certain four year old, and lead him out of the house, with his eyes closed. He's already excited because he's been told to keep his eyes shut, and that means there is a surprise.

And then you say... "Okay, Dalton, open your eyes." And you get one supremely, ecstatic four year old!

Who then proceeds to do this...

And this...

And this!

And he's basking in the sunlight because he's been stuck in the house sick for ten days.

What must it be like to be four years old, and so happy to just have leaves to jump in. Is it heavenly?

Is it just the most wonderful thing in the world, like Christmas and your birthday and getting a new brother all wrapped into one?

So I told him that if he threw all the leaves around, he'd have to help rake them up. So he did...and if you notice the progression of the next three photos, and the position of the rake, apparently you rake leaves by swinging it like an ax.

So then we went in, and Dalton informs me that he doesn't need a nap, but he proceeds to fall asleep on the couch anyway. So I take advantage of that time to do a little cleaning before Daddy comes home. And when he does? Well, we wake Jackson up, and go outside to enjoy the leaves some more!!

And it just wouldn't be a fulfilling first-time-in-leaves experience for Jackson if he didn't get buried.

And of course I had to join in the leaf jumping. The landing wasn't quite as soft as I remembered it.

But the love was better!!

And Dalton thought so, too.