A thankful Thanksgiving

I loved having family down from the Secret House this last week. We were able to spend alot of time to together which is something that I really needed. Bud and I were even able to get a night alone for date night. Thanks Forte and Carl. That only happens when family comes down. Faith and Grace loved playing together. Dressup, puzzles, painting, you name it. The highlight of the week was by far the holiday parade. Although quite cold the Starbucks line was right behind us. Well worth the 20minute line. Grace loved her sucker she recieved at the beginning of the parade and all of a sudden she forgot how cold she was when she tasted it. Here are some pictures of the week.

Happy Thanksgiving

My grandma's famous stuffing is smelling up the house and memories are filling the air. I love stuffing and I love Thanksgiving. It is early. Everyone is still sleeping; much like my house when I was little. Mom wakes up early to start the stuffing and turkey and everyone slowly wakes up to the smell of sweet goodness. Thanksgiving time is such a great time to just sit back and realize how thankful we really should be each day. As Grace and Faith run and play through the house I see what a good big sister that Faith will turn out to be next year and what a great cousin Grace is to Faith. This Thanksgiving will be different. I am cooking and mom is not. The tradition lives on. Green bean casserole, crescent rolls, cranberrry sauce and grandma's famous stuffing. Although the church is the gathering place this year, may everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving and may we all get stuffed like a turkey.

She takes after her mom

Scrapbooking is a joy for me to do. I love throwing paper on the floor knowing that it is ok if the entire area is covered. I am scrapbooking; it is messy. Faith has a crafty side to her also. She loves cutting, glueing, painting, coloring, drawing, sticker sticking. You name it, she loves crafts. The other day I had all my pictures out trying to update my books and she decided she was going to help out. She got her own cardstock out with the glue and continued to glue piece upon piece until she had 15 pieces of paper stacked on top of each other. She then took the stickers and placed them where she wanted. She had purchased some princess ones of her own. It was a joy to spend that time with her doing something that I love so much.

Movie and popcorn

So we decided to ditch the cleaning today and cuddle up on the couch for a good movie. We went to the movie store this morning to find a good one. Faith picked out Piglet's Big Movie. It was so cute. She enjoyed her buttery popcorn and lemonade and paid attention to most all of it. I love the longer attention span these days.

Where has November went?

I know that the holiday time flies by but I just realized that today is Friday and next week we only have school three days. Then my family will be here. Yeah!! This last week has been crazy with meetings and working late. I have been having morning sickness when I come home in the evening time which makes computer or family time the pits. The nauseous feeling will pass soon and then maybe I will feel better. Faith is doing fine now. She was sick yesterday and spent the day in Get Well with the nurse. Woke up at 5:30am vomitting. But she played as hard as she ever has last night running and jumping into Bud's arms or maneuvering through my legs. I guess that is what we get for having her in a single room yesterday for majority of the school day. She had many things to play with including a new kitchen, puzzles, books and movies but she was ready to get her energy out. We will spend the weekend getting ready for the big dinner next week. Sometimes I think it would be easier to do Thanksgiving here. The girls could sit at the picnic table by the big table. Otherwise I found out all my dishes have to be prepared for 30 people. Man, that is a lot of food. The goal of having it all together was to decrease the amount of stress from preparation.

Be a good listener

Faith has caught onto that saying, "Be a good listener." She has caught onto it so much she is now telling her toys and food to be a good listener. I have over heard her talking to her babies in which she tells them they are going to time out or not going to the park because they are not being a good listener. She told her toy pig he could not play with the others in the shaving cream yesterday because he was not listening. Tonight, it was her peas. Yes, her peas. Some of them were rolling over her plate out of their correct place and she could not eat them. She told them that if they would not be a good listener and stay where they belong she would eat them. So she did just that along with the full sound effects of crunch crunch crunch as loud as she could get. I think about a two year old's mind and wonder if I was ever as cute as she was. Sometimes I just look at Bud and smile because she is just so wonderfully amazing and enjoyable.

The beautiful horses

With the three new horses living here we are all just as excited as can be. When T, our neighbor, called yesterday and said Faith can ride Teddy we hurried home from the store. She quickly got her shoes on and as we opened the front door, there was Teddy waiting for her. She hopped up there with T and rode around the back yard a few times. She had so much fun. Hurry, Grace, you have see these horses. Maybe we can all ride them at Thanksgiving time.

Monkey toes

Today as Faith and I drove home from the birthday party I realized that she has the family toes. I know Carl, Pa Pa, and I all use our toes to pick things up or do things that we are too lazy to do with our hands. Well as we drove home she asked for some fresh air in the back seat. So I rolled her window down and to my surprise the window seemed to magically go back up. She had taken off her shoes and socks and was using her big toe to roll up her window from her carseat. She started to laugh when I asked if she used her toes. That's my girl! When all else fails, use your toes. I remember Carl pulling my hair with his toes when I was little. I remember Pa Pa pulling my leg hairs with his toes or pinching my arms as we layed on the couch together. Oh, the toes. I'm glad that they have been passed on.

A new day

As November 5 came I was excited to awake that morning at 430am just to get on the internet to see the presidential results. As I was hoping for Obama, Bud was hoping for the other. His views are similar to McCain as he does not want more government, is pro-life and a veteran. However as I continued to research Obama I realized that his views were more what I believed. I believed that a man of different race would be able to change the country. It was just what we were in need of. As I tried to keep my eyes open as long as I could on election night I dozed off. However I opened my eyes just long enough to see that Obama had won Ohio and was ahead in Florida. It was at that very moment that I realized he was going to change the way Americans felt about politics. Those people who had been hard Republicans realized that the better of the country would be in the hands of a Democrat. It is also my desire that he may be a strong leader in the next 4 years. That his name will be a name that Faith begins to know. That he is from my home state too. That she will remember going to the poles to vote with her mommy. She will have her "I voted" sticker and her Obama 08 sticker that she wore to school for a keepsake. I agree, we all need a new bumper sticker just like Forte said. I found one that said, "Practice saying it: President Obama" or try this one, "I voted for that one."

Two and counting

Brooklyn is learning quite fast these days. She is very eager to try new things. I am working on number recognition with her. Although one day she may know all her numbers the next day she may only pick up a handful of them. All in all, she does a wonderful job. She is learning to count objects. With Autumn here, she counted pumpkin seeds and then glued them onto the matching numbers. In class she counted pumpkin pictures and then had to find the matching number and glue it on. At the library yesterday she found a counting book with Curious George. She was counting to 20 and was just as excited as can be.

Rainbow party