Anticipation Builds

After the feasting of Thanksgiving, our 4 kids and 2 of their cousins, full of Christmas anticipation, began building their own little Christmas village. Here is a slide show of the process and the town that rose from the labor of their hands:

> >

Thanksgiving

We were all able to go to Nene and Poppa's house for Thanksgiving

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It snowed just after dinner Thanksgiving day. What a neat treat!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Family Photo time!


And time for more goofiness!!!

Dressing Up

The kids, mostly D-D and E, are still at the age when they dress up for fun things at school. D-D, being in Kindergarten, gets the most "dress-up days"

D-D had "Cowboy Days" back in October. Funny story about that. Tuesday night, we got a letter coming home saying that she had to dress up for the next day (Wednesday). I frantically began looking around for cowboy garb, traveling to a friends house a few miles away to borrow a hat and a shirt. I sent D-D to school all decked out...only to find out that she accidentally got the note that was supposed to be sent home Thursday night! She was the only one dressed up. Suffice it to say, she was a bit embarrassed that morning, but fortunately, she had a change of clothes in her backpack. On Friday, though, she was ready!!!! She enjoyed the day with a hayride and being pampered by her "Big Buddy" (a 6th grader who hangs out with D-D several times a month)!!

~~~~~~~~~~

The next dress-up day both E and D-D got to participate. THANKSGIVING at school!! They each had to dress as pilgrims. We borrowed a dress for D-D and she looked sooooo adorable!Unfortunately, she was upset about the shoes she had to wear. This is her looking pitiful as she laments wearing her shoes.

A picture is worth a 1000 words.Here are my words for this picture:
"I have to do WHAT with that turkey?!!?"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This child in D-D's class wore his hat backwards. Cracked me up!

D-D, the backwards-hat boy, and D-D's big buddy.
~~~~~~~~~~

E wore tapered pants and a white shirt. He got his Pilgrim collar and hat once he got to school.

Does the size of the hat show

how pious a pilgrim is?Or is he just a Texas Pilgrim?

At Home

There was a really great place for purchasing mums at a fabulously low price. Usually when I find places like that, the mums are in sad shape...
...but not with The Mum Man!!!
~~~~~~~~~~

Fog moving in one morning.
I loved how the side of our hill looked as the fog rolled through.
~~~~~~~~~~

Thanksgiving Decoration. Remembering Squanto and his people.
~~~~~~~~~~

Z and his cars.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Z's newest way of showing his displeasure.
Some days I
wish you could also see the beautiful sight of his foot
stomp and hear that lovely sound of
his ire. Our work is certainly cut out for us, isn't it?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love it when D-D poses!

Humpty Dumpty x 3

We have loads of trees, which means a huge abundance of leaves during the fall. Dana and E worked on raking and gathering the leaves all on one side of our yard...just below our retaining wall. The kids quickly discovered the fun of jumping off the wall into the leaves. D-D enjoyed watching, but she would not jump. I also loved seeing MG and E helping Z-boy enjoy the fun of autumn leaves.

Sock It To 'Em

Laundry. Really, I do not like to do it. It piles up quickly and there is almost always one load I forget. And, please remember, even when you think you have done it all, there really is always more to do. But of all the laundry that must be done at our house, the part that I detest the most is socks.

Maybe it is because there are 6 people who have lots of different kinds of socks.

Maybe it is because so many of them are wrong side out, or folded and balled into a cotton or polyester-blend origami.

Maybe I am just too particular.

DEFINITELY sock-OCD. Which makes the matching very difficult.

So I thought I would try an experiment to hopefully get the family in on the sorting and matching of their own socks. I decided to just skip the socks and put all of the clean ones in a separate basket...and I found that when I just threw all the socks in that basket, the folding of the other things was not so bad (it was even somewhat enjoyable!)! However, it did not take long before the kids began complaining that they were out of socks. I would point to the basket and they would sigh and go digging until they found a match. This was working rather well until Dana ran out of socks. When he told me he had no clean socks, and I pointed to the basket, I got the nicely put, but no nonsense request of, "Can you match these today, please?"

So....
I matched 'em...
I did!!!
But...with attitude:

I think my attitude needs some working on! Pray for me.

MisPrints

I was looking for some prizes the other day for our Chili Cook-off, and I saw these decorative wall hangings at Fred's. Once I really began to look at them, I had a hard time controlling my mirth!

~~~~~~~~~~

A missing letter makes a big difference!!!:::

~~~~~~~~~~
Two Mistakes:
needs an apostrophe...and...

...a letter change:

~~~~~~~~~~
Psalm 119: 165a
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ps%20119:165&version=NIV


OOOOOOOOPS!!!!!!