Much To Be Thankful For

We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend. It was wonderful to have Rob home for 4 days straight, and to get to spend so much time together. Sadly our Thanksgiving dinner guests had the stomach flu, so it was just the four of us for the day. When we found out they weren't coming, we threw the turkey in the oven and headed to the movie theater to see Disney's Enchantment - so much more fun than tidying the house! Jake was an angel and slept almost the whole time, while Haley and Rob and I laughed and laughed through the movie. Above: Haley helps Rob prep the turkey for the oven...resulting in lots of questions about turkey birds and turkey lunchmeat...

We then came home, enjoyed our dinner, and prepared for Shop-Till-You-Drop Friday. Rob got up at 2:45 a.m. in order to be one of the first people in line at Sam's Club, where he scored a big-screen LCD TV, as well as a few other hot items. By the time he got home, the kids and I had been up and were ready to go. We didn't see many other kids out shopping that morning - are ours the only kids that wake up at 5:45?!? Below: Haley poses with our table...note the lack of snow in the backyard.

Now the Christmas tree is up (no lights on yet, however), and we're looking forward to the Christmas season. We are thankful for all of our friends and family, and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Haley and Jake with the obligatory olive-fingers; Jake drains his glass of apple cider.

Someone's In The Kitchen...

Haley and Jake decided to give their dad a little help in the kitchen tonight while he was cooking dinner. Haley's a great sous-chef, stirring and pouring and only occasionally dipping her finger in to taste.

Jake, on the other hand - he's not such a great helper. Below you can see his emotional progression as he was told "no, Jake, you can't have the full container of sour cream" and then "here you go, now you can have the empty container." This sweet boy can be quite feisty too!

Haley participated in her first Primary Program today at church. She was nervous and kept saying that she wouldn't go up, but we practiced the songs all week and she bravely went up when it was time. It helped a lot that she got to sit next to her good friend Audrey. The children were all so cute and there was such a sweet spirit. It's wonderful to watch her face her fears and (sniff) become such a big girl! We were so proud of her.

From Head to Toe to Head to Toe to Head to Toe...

We have many books in our house - novels, sci-fi, classic literature, cookbooks, textbooks, gardening books...the list goes on and on. They're in the living room, kitchen, basement and bedrooms. So it's really no surprise that our kids love to read as much as we do. And we're glad for that - most of the time.





Jake is in LOVE with two books in particular right now - Eric Carle's "From Head to Toe", and Margaret Wise Brown's classic "Goodnight Moon." He gets so excited when he heads over to the bookshelf, beating his chest and saying "ooh, ooh, ooh" like a gorilla. Rob is much more patient than I and will read them to him over and over. One day after reading the "gorilla book" to Jake for the umpteenth time, I had a stroke of genius and asked Haley to read it to him. Big sisters are the best!

More Halloween Fun

Halloween seemed very drawn-out this year! Here are pictures from various festivities:

Haley's preschool had a costume parade and the kids sang a few songs. The kids were all too cute! I love that they're not yet embarrassed of mom and dad and wave excitedly when they see us.

After the preschool parade we went to UND so Rob could show the kids off in his classes. I refused to be in costume, but Haley and Jake made up for it. Jake read and acted out his favorite book, Eric Carle's "From Head to Toe", and Haley sang them a Halloween song - in front of 200 students! We were very impressed with their stage presence.

We decided to put Jake to sleep before carving pumpkins - my patience can only go so far. Haley, Rob and I had such a good time designing our Jack-O-Lanterns and stayed up a while afterward in the dark sipping on hot chocolate and talking.

We attended a really fun party on Halloween night - fun food, fun games, and trick-or-treating. We could not keep up with Haley as she ran door-to-door! The kids were intent on the candy, but Haley managed to play Wrap the Mummy, and we cheered Rob on as he - successfully - bobbed for apples.