The Fun Continues

On Shelly and I's little shopping spree we got the girls these cute fleece tops. They always love to get matching clothes. Then they had to pose for pictures. They are such girls.

Our first shopping trip to Shop Ko we just got the girls shirts, well, Kyson was quite perturbed by that. So Sat. after we went to another movie we stopped by there again and found these cute shirts for the boys. They were having great sales all weekend.

The girls all snug in their bed. They all sleep together when Megan comes over. Kambrie and Kauri have pushed their twin beds together, so when they laid across them there was plenty of room for the 3 of them.

Our fun friends left about 5:30 Sat. night. We all were sad to see them go. We have so much fun when they are here. . . and are looking forward to their next visit.

The Day After Thanksgiving

Usually I am one of those crazy people that get up at 5 a.m. to hit the stores. But not this year. After carefully examining the ads we decided that there really wasn't anything worth getting up that early for. And I'm really glad we didn't because at about 10 p.m. Kambrie started throwing up and continued every hour until 3 a.m. She was in bed with Kauri and Megan so I made her a bed on our floor so I got to hear each time she lost it. The poor girl. So needless to say it wasn't a big sleep night for me.

Shelly and I decided to run to ShopKo about 10 a.m. and it wasn't a bad crazy place to be, except this one lady pretty much ran me down with her shopping cart. I seriously had to get out of her way. . . crazy! I got what I wanted, then we headed to Target. It seemed pretty much like a normal shopping day there. I guess a little different when it is 11 a.m. not 5 a.m. We got a few movies there, stopped at Hallmark to check out the Webkinz and headed home. Quite the short shopping trip for us.

The men had been out shopping. . . not like us, but for stuff for yet another house project. They came home and started cutting and pounding out in the garage. They are making some usable storage space in the attic of the garage. Once I had lunch, I napped for a while, trying to make up for some of the lost sleep from the previous night. We took Kaden and Dusty to an outdoor skate park and shopped around for a big mirror for the kids bathroom. Came home and ate more left overs. I love leftovers!

After the younger kids went to bed the evening was spent watching Cool Tools on DIY. . . well, I wasn't really watching mostly just reading my book. Phil had been very excited to watch this.

Here they are, memorized by the Cool Tools.

Thanksgiving

The night before Thanksgiving and all through our house
were people enjoying pie. . . yup the rhyming ends here. We had several friends over on Wed. to enjoy pie. There were lots of yummy pies to choose from and time to catch up with friends we don't get to see that often.
In the midst of that, the Johnstons arrived and so our kids fun began! They came to spend Thanksgiving with us, which is pretty much a tradition with our families, I think out of the 12 Thanksgivings we have been here, we have spent 10 with them. Since neither one of our families live anywhere near us. . . we are each others families.
Thursday morning began around 7 a.m. when I couldn't sleep any longer and decided to get up and make the pies. I was really looking forward to pumpkin pie. . . yummy. Shelly started in on the stock and getting the 24 lb. turkey in the oven. Yes, we like lots of left overs! So between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. we made 3 pies, 3 dozen rolls, sweet potatoes, jello salad (requested by the kids) 10 lbs of potatoes, stuffing, gravy and roasted the big turkey. The feast was great. There were 12 of us in all enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Shelly preparing the bird, we had to d-wing it so it would fit in the pan better. That would have been funny to catch on video. . .

Rich starting to carve the bird!

Yummy pies

Rolls ready to eat. . . we have a picture of the fabulous looking bird, but it is on Shelly's camera. . . but it was roasted to a golden perfection and tasted amazing.

The girls ready to eat.

Everyone siting down to eat, except poor Rich was still carving that huge bird.

What a mess to clean up after. . . and we had been cleaning as we were cooking!

Rich enjoying one of his favorite pies, peaches and cream cheese.

A little after dinner wrestling, that is Kaden under the pile.

Kyson gets his turn.

This was Phil's after dinner activity. . . he barely made it to the couch from the table!

Kaden enjoying the pumpkin pie

Dusty digging in. Man those 13 year olds can eat!

All in all it was a great day. Around 6 p.m. Shelly and I headed off to a movie and left the guys to clean up. After cleaning all the boys 13 and up went to a late movie. So when we returned the kitchen was all clean and the kids were ready for bed. It was a lovely day. I am so thankful for our wonderful friends and family.

Funny

This just makes me laugh. Probably because it's an inside joke with Phil and I.

When Heads come together

That is when heads collide. Kyson ended up with a small bruise on his head and Becca has a huge black eye. . . and it still looks terrible.

Boredom or creativity

Kambrie finished her ICEE, then. . . .

she made all these rings with her teeth. Don't know about her. . .

Revolutionary War

Kambrie and Kauri's class just finished their Revolutionary War unit. They do a very in depth study of the war, The Declaration of Independence and then are assigned a person to study and write a report on. When this is all done, they put on a event where they dress up as the person they researched. This is a really fun time for them and it is great to see what the costumes look like. One kid had on his mothers high heeled boots and a bright red wig. I was laughing so hard until I heard him explain his person and that he was "very tall and had bright red hair". Then it wasn't quite so funny. After the performances we went to their classroom and had refreshments that people back then might have had. Excuse the sideways video's, don't know what I was thinking.

There is the outfit I was talking about.

Reading Dilemma

I've been reading the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo for a long time now. . . taking breaks to read other smaller quicker books. I'm on page 750 out of 1078 and I just bought two new books today, one is 1,000 pages the other about 600. I need to read several books for the book clubs I go to, come up with a short list of books to recomend. . . and I just want to plunge into one of the new books I bought today. Why do I do this to myself??? I'm such a reading junkie. I really should have maintained willpower and not bought books today, but I needed a boost. . . now I'm torn. If anyone has read The Count. . . please tell me it's worth reading to the end, I'm getting to side tracked and may loose interest. I have really enjoyed it so far. . . just having a hard time picking it up lately.

Another Kyson Funny

This happened several weeks ago. . . Let me preface this with a little history from Kyson and his bedding. He still wets the bed every now and again, depending on how much he drinks before bed. We try and keep on top of it. . . but it doesn't always happen. I really try not to get frustrated when it does happen and usually just say "Oh, Kyson you peed in your bed." And then throw his bedding in the washer.
So I was in the laundry room pulling our bedding (Phil and I's) out of the washer and putting it into the dryer and Kyson came in and saw me doing this.

Kyson: with lots of expression "Oh Mom you peed in your bed!"
Me: laughing. . . "no Kyson, our bedding just needed to be washed."
Kyson: "Oh I KNOW. . . Dad toots in it."
Me: laughing even harder. . ."no Kyson, bedding just get dirty and needs to be washed."

Apparently this was the first time Kyson had witnessed my washing any one's bedding other than his, it's a logical conclusion. . . right?

Kyson is seriously my comic relief most days.

The Fence Project

This "simple" project started out to keep a few deer from eating our precious plants. It quickly grew into a large project with over 160 feet of fencing, 26 fence posts 6 foot high, 1 large gate (14 feet high) and one small gate all stained to look good although our family will be the only ones to see it. The picture below is half way through the project.


These pictures are the "complete" project although Phil says there needs to be something for the new grape plants to climb up.

We are wanting to hang a sign from the gate, any suggestions on what it should say? Burton's Garden, The Crazy Garden, Veggies for Sale. . . just kidding. That and the grape thing will officially complete the project.

Halloween

I LOVED Halloween this year. It was a great day. It was busy, but fun. I was busy all morning getting ready to host a birthday lunch for a friend. I love making food for my friends, so I had made rolls, chicken salad, and pumkin bars. . . in addition to a yummy salad and fruit. It was fun to have lunch with some friends I don't see very often. The day was so sunny and warm. Kyson came home from school with the bottom part of his pants zipped off. . . shorts on Halloween, a very rare thing here. Then he was off to play with a friend for the afternoon.
After the kids got home we started the process of getting everyone ready. Kaden (sadly I didn't get a picture) wore a shirt that said "this is my costume" and his funky smiley face p.j. bottoms. He went over to our old neighborhood to trick or treat with a bunch of friends, then ended up spending the night at Isaacs house. I always feel comfortable when he is at their house. Such a wonderful family, we really miss living next to them!
After the kids got ready we went around our neighborhood. Our kids are pretty much the youngest kids here, so we don't get a lot of kids trick or treating. So. . . the neighbors really give our kids tons of stuff. . . like full sized candy bars, bags of Cracker Jacks, animal crackers and rice krispy treats. They had so much in their buckets that we left the bigger stuff at the house while we went to our old neighborhood. It's fun to go see all of our friends there and the kids have a great time. The weather was so warm that the kids didn't need to bundle up at all. . . another rare thing for Halloween. After we finished we went to see Pat & Keith for a while. She has had surgery on her foot and is pretty much house bound. They are always fun to visit with and the girls especially love seeing "Auntie Pat."
I think we got the kids to bed around 9:30, then we just relaxed. It had been a busy day but so, so fun.

The pirate, the queen, and Frankenstein.

This is a Bell dress, but Kauri said she was a "Halloween Queen"

Kyson kept this in his mouth for a good 30 minutes. . . it was pretty quiet. Love the earring.

The full effect of the costume. He loves being a pirate.

Kambrie said she was Frankenstein. . . don't know, but she had fun creating her costume. I pretty much buy things here and there on sale and then put it in a costume box. Then the kids figure out what they can use and then we aren't really buying much at Halloween time.

Skater Dude

Kaden's current passion is skate boarding. He started showing interest a few years ago, and has really stuck with it. He will spend hours out on our driveway practicing a new trick or riding around the neighborhood. He has always had good balance and it is paying off! It's fun to see him excited about learning to do something new. I'm just glad he has found another thing he likes to do that gets him out of the house and he gets great exercise. He usually comes in the house all red faced and sweaty, chugs down some milk or other food and out he goes again. Sadly after taking these pictures he broke his board on Saturday. . . bummer. I guess a board can only withstand so much pounding. A couple of his good friends also like to skate and they will either go to the outdoor skate park or an indoor one for 4-5 hours at a time. When they go to the outdoor one they pick their hours carefully. During the day there aren't as many "older" people there and so then there isn't as much smoking or foul language going on. At the indoor one they have great rules and it is a fun safe place for kids who like to skate. After watching Kaden skate I have a greater appreciation for skaters. It takes a lot of work and is very hard, but is so cool to watch all the tricks. Never thought I would have a skater kid. . .

Kaden mid-air doing an ali (I think that is what it is called.)


Doing some trick where you flip the board over then land back on it right side up.

One of the last days of the life of this board

A friend gave him this rail, he has gotten really good at it and could jump over it. Actually I think that is how he broke his board was by landing on this, one to many times.

Turkeys

These turkeys keep running around by our house. Funny thing is that they hide around Thanksgiving time. Self preservation is a strong thing.

Pumpkin Carving

Last Monday night we carved our pumpkins. It is so fun now the kids are getting older and can pretty much do their own. Phil and I aren't trying to juggle helping 4 kids! Kyson still needs quite a bit of help, he basically picks the pattern, helps mark it on the pumpkin, then Phil carves it. Kyson was funny about digging the "guts" out of the pumpkin. It seriously grossed him out. One wouldn't think he would get squeamish over such a thing, but he is. He was gagging at one point.
I managed to roast some of the seeds as well. That was a request from the girls, and they are the only ones who really like them. It was a fun evening. . . and only a few power tools were brought out.
Kauri doing her pattern. She does a really good job by herself and doesn't really want any help.

Kambrie having fun

Phil and Kyson getting started. Phil was singing and being goofy. Still entertaining after 16 years of marriage.

It took several shots to get a picture without his mouth open!

After being Mr. Reluctant, Kaden did a great job on his pumpkin. The hair is courtesy of the drumel drill.


The finished product

Cute boys

Pie Eating Contest

Last weekend, not Halloween, we attended a party at our church. In addition to Chile and Square Dancing, there was a pie eating contest. Phil and Kaden ended up in the same round, which was good for picture taking. These were normal sized pies. . . they were both sick after.

Kaden in wondering how much more he can take!

Phil, making sure he isn't out eaten by his son.

The champ. He was unbelievable. Not only did he hork down this peach pie after eating chili, but he could have entered the next round. . . and he actually ate more chili after this. He is a bottomless pit.

The party was country themed, so we all (Kauri, Kambrie, Kyson and I) dusted off our boots and hats to get into the spirit of the night.

Some of their friends from church.

Kambrie and her BFF. They are so funny together.

Kambrie and Kauri and another good friend. They all had tons of fun that night.