Good Start to the Holiday Season!

This weekend we went shopping for decorations to do our "Basket of Blessings,"  and for our Operation Christmas Child Boxes.  The girls helped me thread the ribbon through the basket and tie the flowers on top, and so far we've seperated the kids' stuff into different bags because we can't find any shoe boxes :-)  I'm a little bummed we didn't get finished, but this week is the drop off for both these items so that puts the pressure on to GET IT DONE! 

Now, about shopping for gifts...  I need to start making my lists!  (Hint Hint... that means I need some lists, if you all feel kind enough to email me some!!!)

Just an FYI- regarding wish lists

I was asked the other day about wish lists, so I need to make sure everyone knows that YES, I do update the link on the right side entitled "Our Gift Wish Lists." 

If you have any questions, or if something needs removed from the list, please email me!
Thanks~

Amazing details

During school today:

I am reading the instructions to Kiera for her b/d page.  It says something like "b and d are best buddies.  they look alike and sound alike, but they like different things...." 

Melia, to herself: "Wow!  I never knew that b and d are best friends - that's SO amazing!..."

Me:  giggling... :-)

Wenatchee Cross

wenatcheevalleycross.com

This is where you can check who/what the cross is lit for on any given night... For the most part.  Gabe turns it on just for fun sometimes :-)  But not for all night... Just a little blink blink blink to grab your attention :-)

Fall Yummy-ness

Pumpkin Butterscotch w/ a few mini chips just for fun cookies...

Eating the leftovers from our carameled apples- delicious!

Now, may I make a request?  The next time I make these- remind me of how STICKY caramel is, and that I need to find a different recipe than the one on the back of the caramels bag!  Oh yea, plus I remembered to roll the bottom in sugar, but not to layer the wax paper with sugar!  My little "rolling" did NO GOOD when it came to trying to rip those suckers off the paper!

However, we made these goodies for our church's "Bunco and Bema" night (Halloween alternative), and they were thoroughly enjoyed :-)  I am thankful we got to bring a few apples home to enjoy, especially because Kiera was distraught that I had forgotten to give her one at church...   What's really awesome was that both our girls chose to have a big plate of salad over pizza- that really suprised several adults!  And reminded me that I just need to make more of a point to have salad at home more often!

Thoughtful things to remember

This morning we were discussing dreams.  Mine were nightmares about purple praying mantis' and Melia trying to eat one and having it bite her tongue- you can see why I needed to talk that out...  But Melia began to tell me about hers:

Melia: "Mommy, remember that girl... oh wait.  I'll need my photo book for this one."  (runs and gets photo album and shows me a picture from preschool)  "Remember this girl?  I just don't understand why she liked all the other kids but not me.  Everyday I'd ask her to play with me, and everyone else would, but she always said no." 

I found this fascinating that she was putting into words what she wouldn't talk about three years ago.  We knew this was a problem because the teacher told us about it, but Melia never would really articulate that her feelings were being hurt by this snubbing and bossing (she was also bossy about who could play with who).  Interesting.  So just because they don't mention it at the time doesn't mean they don't feel it inside.

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Saturday, the girls were instructed to clean up their room because it had been a disaster for days.  And I really mean it by disaster.  Long story short, things did not go well because of arguing, tattling, etc... So finding myself nearly in tears, Gabe and I entered the room with two garbage bags and a storage bin, and cleaned up for them.  Half a bag of trash, one bag of "donate" items, and one bin later, we'd removed all but the very minimum of their toys. 

What was astounding was the lack of tears!  They even continued to bring us toys that they found hiding!  At one point I just said to Melia, "Why don't you just keep that one?" because I was tired of digging out the bin over and over.  But she says, "But I can't have it until I show you that I can keep my clothes picked up.  Then I can play with it again."  Well, ok then.  I'll just drag that bin out again.  How can I argue with my own logic?  :-)

Carving Fun

Kiera's Butterfly... That Daddy carved :-)

I guess raw pumpkin isn't so bad... At least for an almost one year old :-)

Oh Alden- you will enjoy these pictures someday, I promise!  :-)

 

Melia's Dolphin jumping out of the water.  She worked very diligently on this, and it turned out great!

Hunting Pics

Daddy's deer :-)

 When we arrived, the kids were thrilled to have the freedom to run and play!  Kiera quickly returned yelling, "Look what I found!!!"  She was THRILLED.  As the story goes, Gabe and Shaun had been shooting at squirrels/chipmunks a few hours before we arrived, and Gabe had pegged this one... and forgot about it.  We all couldn't believe how Kiera fell in LOVE with her dead little chipmunk!

Melia, examining the specimen..

But, as you would probably guess, we could NOT keep a dead chipmunk!  This absolutely broke her heart- I cannot even begin to explain how she SOBBED for a good 20-30 minutes, and then again every time she looked at it's little tail (which was cut off thinking it would ease her pain...)  SOBBED, people.  No exaggeration needed.

Melia, later at home, watching as Daddy cuts up his deer.  She received a pretty one-of-a-kind anatomy lesson for a 7 year old, and fully loved every minute of it.  Not sure what God's got up His sleeve for this one, but boy, she's gonna be quite the little "lady!"

I know.  Gross, right?  Totally.  Gabe's.  Idea.  OK?  OK.

Pumpkin Craft- Can YOU Guess Who?

Today at Co-op in my math class we did a craft- creating a pumpkin out of triangles.  While Gabe and I were preparing last night (isn't he great!) we were discussing what kind of results the kids would come up with.  I so enjoyed watching the kids and their little brains working that when we got home I had the girls sit down with the leftover pieces... and I had to join... and then Gabe too :-)

Can you guess who made each pumpkin?  It was great fun!

 A.

B.

 C.

D.

Funny Animal Pics