Football Fun!

Our boys spent the day at a FREE NC State Football Game! Our neighbors got tickets from his work and since they were out of town this weekend, they passed them along to us as a thank you for taking care of their pets while they are away. They have never been to a game before and didn't realize that the tickets were for a luxury box suite that even included a free buffet lunch! What a great surprise and blessing!

The girls spent the day at home finishing up the Christmas decorating, wrapping gifts, and watching "The Parent Trap"!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Hope you had a blessed day with family and friends. What a great day to stop and reflect on all we have to be thankful for... I count my blessings today for my wonderful husband, children (even the ones I have not met yet), family, friends, my home, our country, my salvation and so much more. We spent the afternoon at my Mom and Dad's house, my Mom blessed us with a huge dinner with all the trimmings. I was in charge of desserts... we had homemade pumpkin pie, Harvest Pound Cake (this one is delicious with chopped apples and nuts in it), Pumpkin Dessert Squares, and Pilgrim Hat Cookies (made by Nathan & Emily).

"Family Night" & November Snow!

Our homeschool co-op fall semester ended this week and we had "Family Night". This allows the kids to display some of the projects they have made and some of the classes do presentations. It's fun for the kids and we always look forward to it.

Nathan took a class on "Slavery in America" where he learned what life was like for a slave. I am so impressed at the things he learned and some of the things he came home and taught me that I never knew. He also took a class called "Investigate This" where he learned how to do research and write reports. He made several different file folder reports on minerals, jellyfish, Yellowstone, Endangered Animals, and one about himself! I count it such a blessing to be part of this group and for other Moms that use their talents to share knowledge with my child. Emily took a "Little House in the Big Woods" class where they read and discussed the entire 1st book in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series and made some really fun crafts. Her other class was a "Picture This" art drawing class. Her "Little House" class did a short skit for family night acting out scene from one of the chapters, here she is in her pioneer attire!

We were tickled to wake up Friday morning to snow flurries! We don't see a whole lot of snow here, and we have never seen it in November so this was a treat. It lasted just long enough to make a light dusting on the deck and for the kids to ask if we were taking a "snow day" off from school!

Gobble, Gobble

One of our grocery stores had a great sale this weekend with turkeys for 29 cents a pound! Since I am always on a mission to stretch our food budget it made sense to pick one up, cook it and make it into some meals for the freezer. We'll call this the "before" picture... a 20 pound bird for less than $ 5.00! And after...I spent yesterday turning him into 13 meals of Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Divan, Easy Turkey Stuffing Bake, Hot Turkey Sandwiches, and Turkey Noodle Soup! I figured it would be a blessing to have some ready made meals, especially if a baby may be coming soon...

Thanksgiving Crafts...

The weather has turned COLD this week...it feels like February instead of November. Here are the kids and the dog enjoying the first fire of the season! They lay down there for hours and play in front of it... We've been keeping busy making some Thanksgiving art projects. Em made this one with markers and graph paper..I love how it looks like an old needlepoint sampler.

These handprint turkeys turned out pretty cute too...

Still alive...

No, we are not dead...just been sick all week! Nathan decided to share his bronchitis with Emily and I, so we have spent the week sick and miserable..fevers, coughing, achiness, trips to the doctor and laying on the couch watching more episodes of Little House on the Prairie than I can count! We are slowly on the mend and hopefully will be able to get back to our normal routines and schoolwork next week. I honestly have not been this sick in YEARS and Emily has never been this sick... we stay really healthy around here and it has made me realize how for granted I take our health. I need to be more thankful for the days that we wake up feeling wonderful and ready to start a new day, after a few days of not having those I really miss them!

Happy Halloween!

Just a few fun Halloween pics to share...

After years of dressing up as Tinkerbell, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and every other Disney Princess, Em decided to go a whole different route this year! I saw this idea on the Family Fun website and she loved it. We got the puppy costume at the thrift store for $3 and her and I made the box of pups! She got loads of compliments on it...I think it turned out precious!

Nathan dressed up as his favorite...a Baltimore Raven! He is no fair weather fan, even when they play awful he still loves them!

We did a little trick or treating downtown in the afternoon...

In the evening, we decided to trick or treat at the mall instead of around our neighborhood. They were randomly selecting various trick-or -treaters to be in a costume contest and Em was chosen. She won first prize..a $ 25 mall gift card! She was so excited!!

Princess was just overwhelmed when they started dumping all their candy out! We decided she could have one treat, an orange dum-dum! The crazy dog sat there and licked it like a human!!

It was fun watching all the babies dressed up at the mall, we kept finding ourselves imagining what we'll dress our little peanut up as next Halloween!