Tis' The Season Prep

I am proud of myself, we are taking the holiday decorating slowly this year instead of our normal "get it done" attitude where we end up exhausted. It is nice to do a bit here and there and enjoy it a bit more. 

 The kids nutcracker collection...it grows a little each year and they are both a bit Type A and have to have them lined up tallest to shortest. It is pretty funny to watch their process with this. 

 They also decorated their little bedroom trees. 

 A whole new meaning to Santa is watching you and he will know if you are good or bad. Our favorite lighted santa head is watching over the kids art area. We can see him outside too, one of our favorite decorations. 

 The front porch is coming together. A swag wreath made by my aunt on the door and the deer that Jeff's grandpa made. All very special. 

It's time for holiday shaped little pizzas. 

 And time for fun holiday pics. The kids think this hilarious. Now we know what Fieldin would look like as a small ankle biter dog... 

Giving Thanks

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with family. We were all sad to leave especially the kids. 

As usual, we all pitch in to make the meal. I can honestly say, this years was the best feast yet. Over the last 6 years of us getting together to cook, I would say we have the process down. There sometimes is a mess up which just turns out to be a good memory.  

 Dad gets to work on the potatoes 

 While Fieldin and Uncle Larry play some checkers, luckily he kept an eye on Fieldin since he likes to make new game rules.... 

 One of Gret's favorite things, making deviled eggs with Aunt Barb. She looks forward to this. 

 yes, the cat traveled with us again this year. He stayed away on Thanksgiving day but did some begging for ham the next day. 

 The rare joy of snow... 

 decorating grandpa's tree. This was alot of fun, especially seeing all the fun ornaments from the past. 

 Jeff and Gret worked on a raisin cream pie from great grandma Violet's recipe and it was soooo good. 

 Before the food fun, the four of us and my awesome aunt did a 5k turkey trot race. It was COLD. The 4 of us are not used to twenty degree weather anymore. I think this race should be a new tradition. 

 Before the race 

 Fieldin ran a kids race before the 5K and got third place. 

 Remember I talked about those food mishaps that become funny stories. Well, it was my turn this year. That is not a delicious cookie. That is supposed to be ham glaze. Yes, seriously, ham glaze. 

And it isn't Thanksgiving time without watching the Apple Cup. Poor Cougs :( 

And memories of this girl trying to solve a brain teaser. Grandpa challenged her to it with $1 for the prize. There was no stopping her and she did win the dollar.
What a great Thanksgiving! 

Thankful Books 2015

It is time for the kids to do their yearly thankful books. They have each done one since they were three years old. In all the years past,I helped scrapbook their pages but this year I gave them blank books and they did them all by themselves in their free time.  Here are just a few of their pages, we enjoy reading these each year. 

 Fieldin was thankful for his cat, and school and his teacher. 

 and of course thankful for football 

 and for books...

 and art..

 and games.

 Greta was thankful for God and books....

 and for herself as well as school, cooking and baking, nature and family among other things.

This year they shared alot of the same things they were thankful for which was fun to see. Food, the sun, books and family always seem to be recurring items over the years. 

Around Here

 Around here, I've been so happy. This time of year means we get busy with projects, hibernate, rest and enjoy family time. The kids have been busy making a HUGE mess of the art room but in this house that is encouraged. 

 This boy is OBSESSED with football, he can tell you anything about the game and can call plays before the announcers on t.v. Just like he lived and breathed Star Wars for three years, now he loves football. Can he play? Nope. Mom and dad get final say, and we say it is too dangerous. Sorry lil man. 

 When he is not playing football, talking football, or studying football this kid has been perler beading like crazy. 

 and baking....or more like tasting his baking...

 Greta has made friends with the double boiler to melt chocolate. 

 making candy in molds, cookies and peppermint bark. 

 heating a dough

 It looks like it is time to retire my cooking duties to these two :) 

 Around here we've been working on cross stitch and some sewing. This is for Greta. Lumos is a spell in Harry Potter to get light. This was done in glow in the dark floss and will hang over her light switch. 

 the ever changing art table. Today there is a book report poster in progress, a star wars ship model to paint in progress, perler beads and coloring books...love it. 

other wise, life has been busy and photos are forgotten. Greta is busy with school, 4-H, band, church activities, math club and volleyball tryouts. Fieldin is content to be at home chilling and taking a winter off of sports for the first time in years. 

Ball Girl- Year 4

Greta is a ball girl for the OSU woman's ball team again this year. She worked at the first exhibition game of the year and is scheduled to work some games during the season.

 back to work, she has this down after 4 years....

The Noise From The Garage

The noise from the garage....is opposite of quiet.

 

Three drummers in the house, two drum sets, two snare drums, three sets of drum sticks and a bell keyboard.

And surprisingly, one sane mom.

As for the neighbors, well, I'm not so sure. 

Happy Halloween

This was the first rainy Halloween since we moved to Oregon and boy did it pour!

Before it rained, Fieldin was out in the backyard playing football like he does most days lately. He used some of his birthday money to buy an all weather football which was a pretty smart investment.

 Around 6 p.m. trick or treating began. This was also the first Halloween we had without Greta :( She left us for a party with friends so Fieldin trick or treated for 2 hours in the pouring rain!

 Darth Vader and Katniss Everdeen, both ready for the rain.

And a cat that didn't want to leave the candy supply alone. We

get a lot of trick or treater's every year.

 On our way to drop off Greta and take Fieldin out for candy

 His haul, I could not believe how much he got!

 The kids sell back their candy to a dentist because they like cold hard cash more than candy. Here they are going through trying to decide what to keep, then they get the scale to see how much they have. This is their yearly tradition.

They went first thing today and sold back 14 lbs of candy and they earned $28 which they have already spent....