We Are Thankful...

We had a very nice Thanksgiving weekend. Cubby stayed home Thursday morning (giving up playing in a Turkey Bowl game) to eat french toast and play with the kids! Whatta' sweet guy.

He also cleaned our oven...a HUGE ordeal if you'd seen the inside of our oven after monkey bread dripping all over the bottom...multiple times. It was so great because instead of having to clean it myself and do a million other household things that I usually have to do, I got to just chill out and watch the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade with Emily and Christian. Such a treat. Incidentally, the Buzz Lightyear balloon was the biggest hit.

After naps, we went over to my mom's house for dinner. She had made all of the "essentials"--turkey, homemade rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes, etc...(I brought a salad and some cookies and my grandma brought some heavenly pies!) Dinner was beautiful, delicious, and, with the two kids, crazy. Emily enjoyed her garlic bread, blue jell-o, and stuffing. Christian devoured his corn-on-the-cob, green beans, and rolls. It was wonderful!

We have so much to be thankful for this season. I am so grateful that Abraham Lincoln recognized that We, as Americans, needed to have a day to give Thanks to the Lord for all of the blessings that He gives to us all year long. Happy Thanksgiving!

Emily, Miss Emily...

Since Emily will be FOUR on Monday, I wanted to do a last "hurrah" to her three-year old days. I'll do two of her likes and one major dislike.

First off, puzzles. Emily really likes puzzles. Here are two of her latest ones. The first has 63 pieces. We got this one a few months ago and she does this one all by herself! The second one has 100 pieces. We got this one on Monday and we do help her "get started" a bit. Still though, 100 pieces? We're thinking that's fairly impressive.




Secondly, Emily and her "slight" obsession with the color blue. Okay, it's just a bit more than slight. She has loved blue since I can remember. Lately, however, I've noticed that some of the blue things in our house (mostly, her toys) have been disappearing. After quiet time today, I go into her room and low and behold, some of the blue items are on her nightstand! All set up. She also has a container full of just blue things. She's a bit of a hoarder, I think. In any case, it's pretty cute.


Finally, the dislike. This is very funny. Emily ABHORS Cheerios. She seriously has a major aversion to them and will avoid a Cheerio at all costs. As a baby, it was not always so. She used to eat them, but then, her sensitive gag reflex would come in and throw them up. Yuck. Ever since, she will yell out "Mom! There's a Cheerio on the floor!" should Christian drop one of his. She also has a super-sniffer nose when it comes to this cereal. She can smell a Cheerio in church, on peoples' breaths, even if no one is eating them and they're up on the counter. It's so bad that she won't even go near a Cheerios box.

Now, being the good parents that we are, do we exploit this? Of course we do! Emily's bedtime antics were so bad at one point that we had to resort to threatening Cheerios. And, mind you, all we had to do was threaten with the BOX. We never had to even take any out. She got so mad about this one night though that she yelled, "This isn't fair!" and got up the courage to kick the box over! Hilarious to say the least. Now, just the mere question, "Do we need to get the Cheerios out?" is usually enough to curb any unruly behavior.

These last three years sure have been fun. Well, fun after the first five months of her life, at least. (I just shudder when I think about that time...) We are just so blessed to have such an amazingly smart and quirky little "big" girl! We love you, Emily!

Love In My Family

Lately, there have been many examples of love shown within our family and I just wanted to make note a few of them that I've noticed. To the reader: this may be a bit sappy...consider yourself warned.

Emily and Cubby have always had one of those great Daddy-Daughter bonds. Tonight, they "made a recipe" together. Actually, Cubby is in-charge of bringing food in tomorrow to work and so he and Emily put the breakfast casserole and monkey bread together tonight. They were dancing and singing to music, Cubby was helping Emily to read and measure out the ingredients, and they were just having such a great time bonding. It was really heart-warming and Emily was just so tickled to be "helping" out so much.

Christian has been so sweet with his kisses and letting Emily give him hugs and kisses (usually he thinks she's trying to tackle him and pushes her away). He and Emily also had a grand-ol' time running around our kitchen-living room loop, roaring like lions (or dragons, or whatever makes those noises). Both got a huge kick out of it and it totally wore them out! Here is a picture of Christian, mid-ROAR!

Finally, Cubby is always showing his love to me (most of the time he's super pesty and thinks that is what I want), but both Monday night and yesterday evening he got it just right.

Sunday night I started to feel a cold coming on...yuck. By Monday at 5:00 I was so tired and didn't even want to heat up left overs for dinner. Cubby came home with pizza and then continued to feed the kids and clean up afterwards while I rested. It was really nice. Not that he doesn't help out and clean up on a very regular basis, but it was just extra special because I was sick and got to rest.

Then, last night, I mentioned to him how good some hot chocolate sounded, not thinking he'd read anything into it; I'm always making comments about stuff that "sounds good" (who doesn't do that?). Next thing I know, he's in the kitchen, and making hot chocolate on the stove, with milk and everything. It was some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had. I just want him to know how much I appreciate all of the "little" things he does--they're not so little to me!

Our family, like many others, has its ups and downs. I just wanted to pause and reflect (and document for future reminders!) some of the ups!

Folder Tag

Well, I've seen a 4th of 4 and a 6th of 6 (fourth picture of fourth folder, sixth picture of sixth folder). I'm going to go for the 5th picture of my 5th folder!



This is Emily in January of 2006. She had just turned one. These were a few of her favorite things: her Dolly, her Wiggles slippers, and her toothbrush.

Anyone who is up for this should play along!

Act Quickly! Free Photo Book from Snapfish!

My friend, Jaimi, sent me this email about a free photo book from Snapfish.com! (You do have to pay for shipping, but hey, nothing's THAT free, right?) Apparently,Oprah did a feature about decluttering your home and this was one of the ideas. It's a $30 value and it would be a great Christmas gift. You have to act quickly though: the offer is only good through Nov. 14th (you have to "claim" your book by then--and make it by the 16th!) Thanks, Jaimi, for the great tip!

Just follow this link for your free book!

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

What Can You Do On Sunday??

'Lots' of stuff!! We had a really fun Sunday today! It was Stake Conference which, we usually try and brave with the kids. However, Cubby kept the kids home because I was singing as part of the choir and since Christian cries (REALLY hard) whenever I go up for just one song, we didn't think he'd do too well with me up there for two hours. Thankfully, it turned into a beautiful morning and since Daddy's so much fun, Emily and Christian have had quite a day! Here are some of the highlights:


"Woody" and "Buzz" made an appearance


"Buzz" loved playing in the leaves!


Emily and Christian got to go on a wagon ride around the block

Then, after going back out for a family walk and coming in for some dinner...


Daddy built Emily a great fort ("cave")



We ate rootbeer floats! (The second video is one that Emily took and, I think it turned out great!)


Finally, the kids were able to fit-in some coloring time. We hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Zucchini Pie

This is a super easy and tasty little recipe from my Gooseberry Patch "Meals in Minutes" cookbook. It's great for those huge zucchini's from your garden (or in our case, our sweet neighbor's garden!).

Zucchini Pie

4 c. zucchini, sliced and quartered
4 eggs
1 c. biscuit baking mix
1 onion, diced
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. oil

Combine all ingredients together in a mixing bowl; spread into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 mins. Serves 6-8.

Christian, Peter and I loved this. Cubby and Emily did not. Oh well, 3 out of 5 isn't bad!

For Posterity

Well, I'd better document our Halloween, for posterity's sake. It was a beautiful evening--very un-Nebraska at Halloween. (We are known for the Halloween blizzards now and again.) But, it was gorgeous! We picked up Grandma and headed over to a neighborhood with lots' of little kids (Emily had a "scary" encounter with a mummy on a front porch last year and we wanted none of that this year!) Emily had started to fade again and so she rode around in her wagon; she doesn't like candy anyhow and so I don't think she was too upset about riding. Poor girl! (Incidentally, we did go to the doctor's on Saturday and found out what was wrong and got some antibiotics. She is now back to her busy and happy self. Thank goodness for modern medicine!) However, the night wasn't a total wash for her as she's already asking about what I think her friends are going to be for Halloween next year! Christian picked up on what to do pretty quickly and proceded to run from house to house, trying to eat each piece of candy that he'd received from the previous house, before "asking" for some more! I even got him to say "trick-or-treat"! I tried to get it on video, but I didn't catch it quick enough and he was way too busy for a retake. He LOVED Halloween and was a huge sticky mess at the end of the evening.