Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  We had a great day and hope you did too.  I started out my day with a 2 hour work out so I could spend the rest of the day stuffing. my. face.

We had David, Blanca. Cecilia, Alex, Kati, and Karen over for dinner and Dave and Adreanna joined in for dessert.

 

Dinner was traditional with some Mexican flare.  It was delish.

 Kati and Kahau getting ready to chow down.

 Karen and Braley ready for some games.

 Ce and Ansen well.....who knows. But they are having fun.

 We had smoked turkey and all the fixings (dressing, green beans casserole, yams, salad, deviled eggs yada, yada, yada) and mole, rice & beans and tamales.

 The kids table.  They really enjoyed their own space.

 After feeding our faces we planted ourselves down and rested with a movie and some wrestling.

 It was Alex's 1st Thanksgiving (He's David and Blanca's nephew) in the US of A and it was also his birthday today!  We put some candles in a pumpkin pie and sang him a birthday tune.  Did he love it?  Sure he did.....I think.  After singing we had Apple Pie,

 Lemonade Pie,

 Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin cookies and Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Yum!

 The kids braved a game on the Wii and had a little dance party in the family room while Jason and I

 scored a Black Friday Deal.  First time ever we actually went with a purpose.  It was kinda fun but not really.  At least we can say we have done it.  The amount of people were just insane. Last year we went and all we bought was a gallon of milk (seriously) so we were pretty much crazy spenders this year.  I know, we totally live on the edge.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.  We are aware of our many, many blessings and count you among them!

Sunshine state

Happiness thy name be Florida.  Most specifically thy name be Brockie and Meadow.  Jason had a meeting in Tampa and lucky for me Anders and Nikki just got stationed close to there this fall which means I got some quality time with out cute niece and nephew.

We also got some quality beach walking time.  There are very few things I love more then hanging out on a pretty beach.

Miss Meadow

Mr. Brock.  He was a busy boy and this is the best shot I could get of him.  Love every inch of this wiggly boy.

Brock and Uncle Jason spending some quality time on YouTube.

Anders and Nikki just got a new puppy.  Her name is McKinley and she is feisty.  She is going to be an awesome family dog and she is great with the kids.  She also thinks she is a cat and often she sits perched in the living room window.

Look at this pretty girl snuggling me.  Love her to pieces.

It was a nice little get-away for us too.

I love get-aways!

Readers

 I love to read.  Love, love, love it.  I have always wanted to have readers for children and for a while it looked like only 1/3 of my posse was going to fulfill my dream.  Some just did not enjoy it.  It was work for them and too frustrating to enjoy the story if they were reading on their own.  Over the years we have tried different methods to get our littles interested and some methods have worked out great while others....not so much.

  Imagine my *hearts delight* when out of the blue all 3 kids decided they love to read!  I am one happy mama.

Kahau is playing the game with Katniss and Peeta in the Hunger Games series at the moment while Braley is off on adventures with Percy Jackson and his friends.

 Ansen and I have flipped-flopped roles. Instead of reading him bedtime stories, HE is reading ME a bedtime story most nights. On nights when daddy is home for bedtime they sit together and read a choose-your-own-adventure book. Those were Jason's favorite as a kid and Ansen is really into them right now.

 For the past week or so I've even caught this (personal scripture reading) on a regular basis.

 Yep, pret-ty happy mama right here.  I think I'll just go shine my "World's Most Thankful Mother" badge now.

 Here's a big no-no except that I couldn't bring myself to say "no."  Last week during dinner the kids each had a Friend or New Era in front of them as they ate. I didn't even ask them to put away their reading material. Occasionally someone would look up, inform everyone else what they just read about/what they learned and then look down and resume reading.  I heard a choir of angels singing from the heavens above. I'm sure of it.

Now for a confession. I drank a 1/3ish of a Coke last week. I had a headache and couldn't find any Excedrin (when is it going to be on the shelves already!??!?) and there was one of Jason's Coke's just staring at me.  I drank some.  I admit it.  It was nasty and it burned but it did help my head ache.  I'm have not been converted to Coke.  Let me be clear.  I am not converted.

What is your favorite book/series?

Volleyball/Soccer

Both seasons are over!  They were fast and furious and both Kahau and Ansen did awesome.  It was so great being their cheerleaders this season.  Kahau starts basketball this week and Ansen starts basketball in January.  Braley's still in the pool.  Busy, busy group!