November 2012

Backtrack to November...

Here are our happenings:

Girls night/Baby shower

 Still love the hair clips my sister made for me for my Bday!

 Box fort!

 So, Duane gave a huge presentation at work. He spent months worrying about it and countless hours preparing it. He did a fantastic job and many the doctors raved about it being the best they'd heard (I wouldn't expect anything less than that). He put together a video for part of it and seriously the only words I recognized were "the, and, in..." etc. It was neat to remember how smart Duane is in so many areas. Here he had just come home from his day and saw the box fort (we moved it from one room to the living room and decked it out with lights, which are mostly inside).

William was on Amox for an ear infection he had. He loved the medicine. I had just weaned him from nursing and I could not get him to like formula! He would cringe and shiver at first drop. One thought I had was to disguise the milk color by adding food coloring. It was a no go and he would not drink it till I put in just enough Nesquick. Eventualy, I got him to like formula, but it took about 3 weeks for him to come around. Can you blame him though? The stuff smells disgusting and I won't try it myself...

 Sometimes Tristen can be nice to William.

 Kalvin wanted this pad of paper and pencil-looking pen, but I didn't want to just buy it for him so we made a deal that I would get it, and tape it to the wall. He could open it when he earned it. He worked hard for days writing down chores that he'd done to earn it (you can see the paper on the left shows the chores he'd worked on). Way to go working so hard, buddy!

 William loves sitting with the big boys at the table!

 So, Duane and I were offered a bunch of free trips if we sat in a time share presentation. I was not too fond of the idea, but we did it anyway. Just minutes before we were to leave, our neighbors came over and told us they were going to a cool exhibit where the kids could do crafts. They heard that we had somewhere else to be and actually offered to take Kalvin and Tristen! We seriously have the best neighbors! I hope we can always find good neighbors! I gave her my camera and she took a bunch of pictures. The kids had a blast, were able to see a lot of really cool birds, and got to make candles!

 

We got a bunch of "free" trips to hotels and a "free" cruise, but we have to put down $100 for each of these trips before hand. I don't know, next time I might skip the time share and have a good time with my kids at a cool place like this instead.

Kalvin's class at school had a Thanksgiving feast that his teachers put together. I was able to go and take pictures that I printed and gave the teachers to hang up. He's got some great teachers! Ms. Abrams is here in the middle of the picture.

 They made some fun turkey hats too.

 The complete meal (each parent was asked to bring something ahead of time except the macaroni, turkey, stuffing, and potatoes).

 Mrs. Perini

 Mrs. Smith (teachers assistant)

 We were very blessed to have my brother Larry and sister in law, Karri here for Thanksgiving! What a great time we had and I loved that it felt so much more like the holidays with family here!

Look at all those boys huddle around Duane's tablet to watch Megatron! 

 Pancakes for breakfast!

 Karri had some finger lights shipped to us so the boys could enjoy them. We had fun with light painting one afternoon. The kids liked to see the fun shapes and swirls they could create while jumping on Henry and Randy's beds with the 30 second exposure.

 Windo clings! They each got a package.

 Thanksgiving Eve Larry made a fire in the firepit. It took a little bit of work since we didn't have all the best supplies to get a good blaze going, but eventually it worked out and we were able roast some marshmallows.

 I love how Henry is just staring at the fire in ah.

 Henry loves stuff! He wore these 3D glasses most of the time he was visiting. We had them from a movie we saw at the theater a while back. What a fun kid he is!

 After a full day of playing, it wasn't too hard to get the kids to bed that night. Then Karri and I stayed up and baked all the desserts for the dinner the next day. It was a lot of fun and we were able to get the guys to help out a little bit too!

Larry helped to make the first home made pecan pie I've ever tried.

 So yummy!

 On Thanksgiving morning, Duane and Larry took all the boys to the snow that's a short walk from our house. Duane took pictures.

 Thanksgiving! I never thought I'd make a Thanksgiving meal, but Karri and I did it! It was so fun to see all of our creations on the table: pecan pie, 3 pumpkin pies, 1 fantastic german chocolate cake, a veggie platter, rhodes rolls, white and sweet mashed potatoes, turkey, ham and gravy.

 That afternoon we went to one of our favorite parks, Elm Avenue Park.

 Is he the cutest little guy or what?!

 I love how much fun Duane is with the kids!

Duane brought up some nice speakers from the basement that have been down there since we moved into this house, hooked them up to the laptop and we were able to watch Brave. Good movie.

 The next morning, we made soft gingerbread cookies! Well, we had the dough from earlier and it was chilling in the fridge so we busted it out this morning.

 Duane got home early that day! wahoo! It was like 11:30

 They painted a frosting glaze on top.

Big boy at the table!

 Early Saturday morning Larry and Karri drove back to Pennsylvania since they had many church responsibilities on Sunday. This day we also switched the boys to my and Duane's old room.

 We also went the theater as a family and saw Rise of the Guardians in 3D. I think the boys liked it.

 My and Duane's favorite hiding spot for hide an seek.

 Kalvin is able to get himself all dressed for church on Sunday now.

 Hair included!

 Vacuum fun!

 So, Duane was totally consumed in his presentation for our 7th anniversary, but he got tickets to a college hockey game the next weekend so we made a date out of it and ate at Dinosaur BBQ (the best around) before hand and enjoyed the game.

 Hockey is such a physical sport in that those guys really go at it with each other. The shove and hit whenever they think the ref may not call them on it. This is the 3rd game we've been to. I was again reminded that I don't want my boys playing this game. It's really got to mess with your head beating on people like that.

 The game ended in a tie at over time.