Decking the Halls

We decorated the tree on Friday! Here are pictures of the kids putting the finishing touches on the tree.

We decided to put the gate up again this year to keep the kids away from the tree, but especially to keep some distance from the fireplace. **Side note--I started painting the living room, and you can see the new color in this picture! The left wall is the new color. What do you think??**

Sophie woke up with a fever this morning and has been pretty lethargic all day. Brent's working, so the four of us have spent a lot of time curled up on the couch watching movies. I noticed that Graham is really warm this evening, too. A little bit of a cough and a little runny nose, but other than that the fever is all that's keeping them down. Hopefully this will pass quickly! I made pancakes for dinner and all three of them ate and ate and ate. They haven't eaten very much the rest of the day, so hopefully that's a good sign!

We gobbled 'til we wobbled on Thanksgiving! For lunch we had "snack-y" foods (Brent's request) that consisted of BBQ smokies, meatballs and nachos. The kids got a bath after lunch...BBQ sauce was everywhere!




We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a family from church, and Fran made the cutest turkey desserts for the kids! The kids loved them! The body was a chocolate covered cherry, and the base was a chocolate covered cookie. Cute!

Yesterday we decorated the tree (I'll post those pictures tomorrow), and along with the tree all of the musical Christmas toys came out. Graham loves this dog...Blake is afraid of it. Here's a video of Graham dancing along with the dog!

Happy Thanksgiving & GratiThursday!

Happy Thanksgiving!! In honor of the day (and due to the week slipping by me), this is our GratiThursday list for the week:

1. Health! Last year Blake and I spent Thanksgiving in the hospital. Today we're all together as a family and the kids are healthy!
2. Friday I met up with a group of fabulous ladies to see "New Moon", the new Twilight movie. It was a great day and a great movie! I'm so grateful to Christy for organizing it, Jen & Sarah for being my driving partners, and Meagan and Melissa for welcoming a new friend into the group. It was so much fun!! Here's a picture of our "group":


3. Dad saved the day again! While in KC with the "movie girls", I met up with Dad to get a new icemaker for the *possessed* refrigerator and parts for the *possessed* dishwasher. Woo hoo! Hopefully these will do the trick. (Dad, can you do anything about a 20-year old TV that's showing spots and rainbows during TV programs?? Does that mean a tube is bad?? Do TVs still HAVE tubes??)
4. Kelly and Roger got a new couch, and gave us their old love seat! One of their dogs had chewed up the bottom, so I got a chance to try my hand at furniture repair. Here's the before and after--not too shabby, eh?? :-)


5. My friend Kim, who is always willing to share when she has an abundance.
6. My friend Brooke, who invited Brent and I to join their Small Group (Home Team) for our church. Since our church is so big, the church encourages Home Teams to meet during the month so you have a smaller group to feel connected to.
7. My friend Sharon and her kids, who watched the kids while I went to our first Home Team event (Brent was working, but will hopefully join us next time!!). The kids had a BLAST at her house, but I'm pretty sure they traumatized the poor guinnea pig. When I saw it, it looked like it needed a little valium... Also, Blake tried to eat a small gourd from their Fall display... (I wonder if Sharon will ever invite us back??) :-) She fed them dinner, and was surprised by how much they could eat! HA!! I told you, they can attack some groceries...I promise I feed them at home. :-)
8. My friend Fran, who invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family today. We're looking forward to it!

Official Christmas Lighting!

Brent decided tonight would be the grand lighting of his Christmas lights! The kids love them--they were excited. Here are some videos of the "event".

Kids' reaction (you can't see them, but you can hear their reaction...when this video is viewed on my camera, you can see the kids really well. I guess when it's loaded to the computer it's much darker. Bummer!! The sound is cute, though--Sophie was loving it!!):

View of the front of house:

View of the back of house/shed:

Cookie Class

Melissa and I learned a lot at our cookie decorating class! I really thought it would be easy, since I consider myself fairly 'crafty', but it was surprisingly hard! It's going to take a lot of practice for me to get good at it. The teacher had a lot of neat tools that I'd like to get (spreaders, etc.), and he introduced us to all kinds of sanding sugars, edible glitters and food colorings. Really neat stuff!!

Here's a picture of Melissa and her masterpieces:

These are my cookies:

The second one is my favorite, and I wish we had more time left in class to practice more. We were getting a little better at it by the time class was over!

Appliances

Dear Santa,

Our *possessed* refrigerator has now stolen the dishwasher's soul, too. Since the most brilliant appliance repairman hasn't been able to diagnose the problem long-distance, I'm going to need some help from you.

I'd be really, really happy if your elves could build me a new refrigerator and dishwasher and load them in your sleigh. I'm attaching pictures for your reference. What the heck, I'll add a picture of a new oven, too...I'm sure you can imagine how powerful the refrigerator's spell is, and it will only be a matter of time before the oven is hexed, too.

Working hard to stay on the "nice" list,
Jennifer

Happy GratiTuesday!

Today I am thankful for this post, because I'm really in a "GrouchyTuesday" type of mood. This post makes me flip the switch on my attitude and look at the positives.

1. I had a CT scan this week to check out the lymph node problem, and the doctor wants to monitor them for another month before he decides if a biopsy is the best course of action. I'm grateful that they aren't growing at a startling rate--and hopeful that it just goes away altogether!


2. Living on this strict budget is a complete bummer sometimes--Monday I ran out of yummy-smelling lotion, and knew it wouldn't be a justifiable splurge for a while. Unexpectedly, when I got to work that morning, my friend Ronda gave me four bottles of lotion in my FAVORITE scents! WAY too coincidental to be coincidence. Ronda's boss is allergic to the scents, so Ronda had to get rid of them. God is so good!


3. I'm grateful for Kelly, who watched the kids for me last night so Melissa and I could go to a cookie decorating class. The kids absolutely loved spending time with her!


4. I'm grateful for Melissa, who is a very patient friend--this cookie decorating class was my gift to her to replace a 'promise' of a cake decorating class from THREE years ago.


5. I'm grateful to have such an industrious husband, who almost has the Christmas lights on the outside of the house finished! He put a LOT of effort into them, and they're going to look great!!


6. I'm grateful that anyone still looks at this blog since I've been so lax in updating it. I pinky-swear that I'll post a lot in the upcoming weeks and get some pictures of the kids on here! Here's a cute one of them after their bath the other night. You can tell they're 'winding down' watching TV right before bed:

www.BeTheMatch.org

Brent and I are officially members of the national bone marrow registry! We've volunteered to donate bone marrow if we're picked as matches for patients. The initial process was simple--they send you a kit with swabs that you sweep the inside of your cheek with and send back. The testing is completed and added to the registry, and if you're determined to be a good match for a patient they request more thorough testing. If you'd like to help, click on this link: How You Can Help - help patients in need of a life-saving transplant.

Happy GratiTuesday

A day late, but this is what we're grateful for on this beautiful Veteran's Day!

1. All of the soldiers who fight for our freedom, and continue to re-enlist even during hostile times. For their families who support them and keep things running smoothly in their absence.
2. To the Sedgwick County Health Department for holding H1N1 vaccine clinics--our kids were able to get vaccinated yesterday!! It was very well run and a smooth process, even with three toddlers in tow. :-) I am EXTREMELY grateful that we were able to get them vaccinated. I know a lot of people have differing opinions about this vaccination, but I am THRILLED.
3. For my friend Caryn who's always eager to share.
4. For my husband's skills in dealing with the *possessed* icemaker, which went out AGAIN. ("Dear Santa...")
5. For my friend Karie, who is helping watch the kids today!!

Happy GratiTuesday!

Things we're thankful for this week:

1. Melissa and Kelly and their co-workers that made our kids' pre-Halloween trick-or-treating experience great! Their offices are so welcoming to our trio, and we look forward to it every year!
2. Kelly, Kelsey, the Bowman's and the Cantrell's for putting together awesome goodie bags for our kids for Halloween! The kids are loving them!!
3. Sophie's last gymnastics class was Monday. We loved the class, but are grateful it's over so we can have some 'home' time on Monday evenings.
4. My friend Christy for inviting me to the 'New Moon' movie premier! I am REALLY looking forward to it! I'm thankful for Brent encouraging me to go, too!
5. Health! So far, so good--the kids have managed to stay well this week!
6. Friends' suggestions for a new doctor. Brent and I are in the market for a new doctor, and we appreciate the help finding a good one!
7. Our babysitters. I'm thankful every day for them, but am especially thankful during this cold/flu season that they're so reliable. Their immune systems must be amazing--so far they haven't had to take any sick days, which makes ME have a happy boss at work! Hooray for that!

Here are some pictures of Sophie's last day of gymnastics! We might sign her up for a new class after the first of the year--she really enjoys it.

Halloween Weekend

We had some good friends come and spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon with us this weekend! Tana and Suann came down from Topeka, we were sad to see them leave!!

Remember the lights that Kelly gave the kids for Halloween? One of the boys broke theirs (by banging it against his bed), so Brent had to do a little 'pumpkin surgery'. He fixed it, though, and it works great! NOT fixing it was not an option, though...the kids carry those lights everywhere!

PICTURES!

Here are some pictures of the week's festivities!

Last weekend we went to Night of the Living Zoo with Caryn, Josh, Kyla, Ryan & Caleb:


Wednesday night Devin & Sydney helped me take the kids to one of the church's fall festivals:

Devin & Graham


Sydney & Sophie


Blake (Mommy was his 'helper'!)

Their finished pumpkins:


Friday we went to Melissa's and Kelly's offices to trick-or-treat. :

Melissa & kids (notice that Graham and Blake switched costumes on Friday!)


Kelly "feeding the animals"!


Kelly gave them these great lights in their goodie bags--they LOVE them. Remember these...you'll see these on tomorrow's post, too.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures from the weekend!