Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at my mom & dad's house.  I volunteered myself and my kids to bring little table decorations.  We made these pilgrim hats & filled with candies.

We also cooked a turkey, a macaroni salad and chocolate cream & strawberry rhubarb pies.  After dinner we tried to play a game, but it was a little chaotic with so many children and my habit of taking pictures.  

Jameson and Lincoln played on the floor for us for quite a while so we could try to enjoy the game. 

We also took construction paper and made everybody turkey hats.  Man we are getting a lot of turkeys around here!

The 3 amigos.

And this one makes me laugh only moments later.

Ella and Kailey talked grandma into a sleepover that night and kept her up until 1am! 

Under the pool table, Alissa & Kaitlynn enjoyed their stash of tootsie rolls they took from the cups on the tables.

After the festivities slowed down at mom and dads we headed to Devin & Johnna's to see some Braithwaites who didn't really gather this year.  Lincoln met his cousin Ava who is only a couple weeks younger than him.  

We have so much to be thankful for!  This year I had my kids make Thankful Turkeys rather than our traditional Thankful Tree.  They just wrote what they were thankful for on his feathers.  I think it's always good to take a season to remember all we are blessed with.  We have so much and need to always remember to give because of this great blessing.

A whole lot of tonsil tissue.

So, after at least 10 doses of antibiotic for strep throat this year these two got scheduled to get their tonsils out.  We did it all in the same hour.  The girls had to be at the hospital by 6am and they were ready to go.  It was a freezing cold morning so they were all bundled up and got to sit by a fire while I admitted them.

Grandma & grandpa were nice to let us borrow their Ipad so each of the girls had one to play while we waited.  It didn't end up being very long of a wait, thank goodness.

They got to share a super exciting Jungle themed room.  Each of their beds had a bag with a stuffed animal, coloring books, crayons and hair net.  They thought it was pretty awesome.  The nurses took great care of them and one of them even rolled them back to the operating room to check it out before hand so they weren't scared.  He gave them a mask to practice smelling.

A little more Ipad while they waited.

And here they are after.  Molly woke up ready to puke and just wanted to keep spitting.  She would only sip the slushy they gave her but after some loves she cuddled up and went to sleep.  Alissa on the other hand slept for about 45 minutes after bringing her back and when she woke up she was ready to just eat the whole cup of slushy.  It was interesting how different they were.  We also noticed while monitoring their heart rates that Alissa has a slow beat like Dustin and Molly's is high like mine.  Super interesting how they could be so different like that.  The doctor said their tonsils and adenoids were both huge and Only about an hour after Alissa woke up and we were home.

That night our neighbors across the street brought over dinner along with LOTS of extras.  Each girl had a gift bag with coloring book, story book, crayons & fuzzy socks.  They also brought jellos, puddings, popcicles and a stack of movies for us to borrow.  It was a humbling and amazing delivery.  Grandma Debbie brought over a equally amazing delivery with FROZEN pajamas and cups and a huge Frozen coloring book.  She also brought lots of good soft foods like gogurt and mac n cheese.  One of our other friends the Petersons brought the girls some new popcicles and some painting and lacing activities.  They loved all of it and I loved it too because it made it so much easier to keep the girls down.  They weren't feeling that great, but they still wanted to get up and do things.  We really are so blessed to have great friends and family that take good care of us.

The girls recovered quickly with no issues.  The biggest problem was just keeping their tummies full on yogurt and things that felt ok on their throats and then keeping them from doing hand stands and jumping on the couch.  I am grateful and am really hoping this is the end of throat sicknesses for a long while.

Playing in the Leaves

We got to go take some pictures of Dustin's niece Kara and her husband at the park the other day and while we were there we had a few of our own.  Ella was hunting with her dad.

Yum!  Leaves!  Probably tastes better than some baby foods.

My mismatched kids.  Molly didn't even wear matching shoes.  The quality of my mothering may be going down just a notch.  ;)

 

We tried to get one of all of us together.  This is about the best one we got.  ha!

Lincoln got to ride in the swings for his first time.

It was a hit!  No big breaths or acting nervous, it was pure bliss for this boy.

And since when can my 4 year old do the monkey bars?  Holy cow these kids are growing up way too fast on me.

Halloween

We had another successful Halloween.  :)  For Achievement Days we had the 9 year old girls put on a carnival for their younger siblings.  Each girl was in charge of their own booth and Ella's booth was the photo booth.  She did a great job taking pictures of everybody.  I got a picture of the activity day girls toward the end.  They were pretending to eat Ella.

Every year the school puts on a costume parade.  We went and watched both girls parade around the school in their cute costumes.

Every year we just have the kids borrow a dress up from grandma or find one in our box of costumes but this year we got creative with Ella's costume.  With an old pillow, a cheap Tshirt and some spray paint and adhesive she became Cotton Candy!  She got lots of attention and compliments on her costume.  Everybody loved it.

Alissa and Molly were witches.

And Lincoln was a Tiger.

I love my annual picture of the kids on the step in their costume.  They are so cute! 

I happened to glance outside and see Miss Cotton Candy catching a ride in the neighbor boy's wagon.  I laughed so hard and had to catch a picture.  

Even dad dressed up for us this year.  I have had this Caesar costume in the box for years and finally he put it on.  

THE LOOT!  I'm pretty sure they got enough candy.  

Happy Halloween!