The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

They are very excited about their stockings, they have checked them every day since we hung them just to make sure that they haven't missed anything yet.

I had the kids put their letters to Santa in their stockings. Santa usually writes them back when he comes on Christmas Eve.

Brendan wrote a very long list of what he wanted, Kinsey just told Santa that she loved him...

since I was little candy making was one of my family traditions. So we made peanut butter balls, olympia creams, carmels, and fudge.

With a little supervision the kids did a great job dipping the chocolates.

O' Christmas tree

Not much to say about this post, it is what it is...Cheesy!

The kids decorated the tree, we drank hot chocolate and I read them "The Grinch who Stole Christmas"

Pretty Kinsey's special doll that she had to hang.

Playing with my camera

Mr B found my camera...

They thought it was great fun taking canid shots of themselves.

Goofballs!!!!

Notice the nose? Still healing.

Thanksging and the Annual Turkey Trot

Every year, knowing that we are gathering for a huge feast we try to offset the effects of mashed potatoes, rolls and turkey by running a mock 3K. I personally hate it, but the kids love it. Uncle Jonathan puts the little ones who can't make the whole thing into the golf cart and drives them through the course.One by one they each cross the finish line. Satisfaction is felt by completing the race and the whole day you hear about how Brendan ran the WHOLE way!!! What a good little man.Then we retire into the house to eat and eat and eat and eat...then eat some more.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Apologies...

Between Thanksgiving, several bouts of the flu complete with midnight vomiting sessions in bed, two cases of the chicken pox, a continual cough that just seems to travel from child to child and never actually leaves the house, Christmas programs, and "can you make brownies (or cupcakes, or cookies) for my Christmas party tommorow", preperations for Christmas, regular old school and homework, my work, and just plain old life I have been a little busy... I still have a few more posts to catch us up to Christmas, but I have a few days off before Christmas so I hope to get them up. No promises, but I will try my best.

Thanksgiving is football

Thanksgiving we woke bright and early to watch Daddy play in the Turkey Bowl.While Daddy played on the field, the boys played on the sidelines imitating their fathers.A few hours later at Nana's and Grandpa's the boys once again escaped the hot kitchen in favor of just a little more football.

Aside from a few dropped passes Brendan's football skill is increasing and today he can throw a pretty mean spiral.

Ouch!

The day before Thanksgiving the kids were outside playing basketball. Kinsey was asking for the ball. Brendan threw it expecting Kinsers to catch it, unfortunately the throw was a little hard and hit Kinsey right in the nose and head, knocked her to the ground and resulted in a huge goose egg, bloody nose, and a very sad little girl.

This picture of course is a little dramatized, but the bruise and the scraped nose lasted for several weeks.

Kinsey's Day

Our day started with making millions of cupcakes for hungry five year olds.

Kinsey picked the kind of cake the color of frosting and how we would decorate them.

Then we took them to school. I walked in and Kinsey had been given a birthday crown and a special necklace that said "I am a star"
Mrs. Garrison had done a fantastic job making sure Kinsey felt special.

As the queen of the day, she handed out all the cupcakes, birthday wishes were recieved from grateful fellow kindergarteners.

After dinner it was time for presents.

Happily she was thrilled to pieces with everything she got, and still being the angel that she is wanted to share her happiness with her brothers and sisters. They all got down on the floor and played Hungry Hippos and Memory till it was time for ice cream.

All in all I think it was a very successful birthday. I think she felt special, loved, and knew that we were all glad that she was born 5 years ago. We can't do any better than that right.

Happy Birthday Kinsey!!!

Halloween

Our spooky Halloween started with a creepy Halloween party complete with dinner served in a pumpkin, witches fingers, trolls toes, bones, and a frothy, foaming witches brew filled with eyeballs.

Just some of the famous guests that blessed us with their presence included Darth Vader, Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost Boys, Little Red Riding Hood and the Woodsman, Dracula, Ariel the mermaid, a Super Mom, Luigi, and Snow White. I think we even had a cow, a chicken, and two separate but together eyeballs????
When we awoke we found a gigantic spider in the corner, he was so large that just over night he had filled the whole house with cobwebs.

We had a costume contest and played lots games with prizes for all.

Then we headed out into the dark spooky night to brave the ghouls and goblins for the coveted bag of trick or treat candy.
Soon our bags were heavy and our feet ached and some of us were ready to return to our warm home safe from the monsters that we kept encountering.

But for some of us the night was young and there were friends to be made with the neighborhood ghosts. In the end after we dragged our heavy bags home we ended up piled up in front of the TV watching "The Nightmare before Christmas", "Casper", and "The Haunted Mansion", exhausted and sugared out but all very happy.

At last

"I lost my tooth, I lost my tooth" Quite literally Brendan's tooth fell out in the middle of the night and although we scoured the bed, sheets, pillow and floor we couldn't find it. The tooth fairy came to visit nonetheless and we found out that even a lost tooth was worth a dollar to the tooth fairy.

The onset of fall

Jackets are finally donned as the weather gets a bit chilllier. Tonight we are getting ready to go see G-Force.

McKinsey

Kiki is so full of life and energy. She makes my heart smile. Today she was bouncing up and down and up and down. When she finally stopped she put her hand over her chest and her eyes got really big "Oh, my heart is beeping"

She has a little bit of a vain streak in her, this was picture day, but she needed some pictures before pictures.

She has gotten into the habit of asking me to take pictures of her every time she feels pretty and I am happy to oblige. She must feel pretty quite often because my camera is filled with pictures of this little beauty.

"Who's been sleeping in my bed"

I hear a sound like sawing logs coming from my bedroom. ???? I walk in and who was snoring away, but Mr B. As you probably guessed he wasn't really sleeping, but he sure put on a good show.McKlicker thought she needed to try my sleeping mask too. Gotta love her.

Look at my tooth

He is trying to show you that his tooth is loose. In this picture you can't see past his finger.

And this picture he is trying to push out his tooth with his tounge. Either way you can't really see it, but his tooth is loose and he is hoping to lose it at school so that he can get a tooth necklace to bring it home in. Needless to say we will keep you posted on the excitement of the loss of the first tooth.

Just in case you wondered...

The picture is fuzzy and not the best, but it is the idea that I wanted to capture. Every single person in this picture loves Brendan and McKinsey, every single one of them consider them a cousin, a neice, a nephew, a grandchild. So while they are far away from you and all your family who love them, this family loves them here. I just wanted you to know just in case you ever wondered.

Labor Day at the Cabin

So, Labor Day rolled around and it was announced that every one of my brothers and sisters were going to the cabin. That is 18 adults and 35 children... Sadly my work schedule is made six weeks ahead of time and I had already been scheduled to work.

But grandpa was not about to let his grandkids be left out of all the craziness, so right after school on Friday I packed everyone up in camp worthy attire and they loaded up in Grandpa's van, I told him I thought he was crazy. But he headed up the mountains with all my kids anyways.

I sent the camera with Taylor for documentation. They all came home and told about the food, so I guess there was something fantastic about the mounds and mounds of food.

My kids all got to sleep inside the cabin, probably to the unhappiness of some.

They told me they pretended they were indians in the trees somewhere behind those trees is a lake that they were taken out in the canoes by adventerous aunts and uncles.

They played and played with new cousins and cousins they hadn't seen in a while. Friendships were made and renewed.

The boys stayed up late into the night telling ghost stories (according to them, according to my father, they stayed up talking about and making bodily noises who do you believe??)

Obviously it wore them out whatever they were doing.

They sat around the campfire and sang songs, roasted marshmallows and were treated to a coyote story by nana and grandpa.

At the end of the day I think they had a wonderful weekend, and they came home as dirty as they could possibly be and stunk to high heaven of campfires. Every one of them in dire need of a good bath.