Purple Thanksgiving

I bought Emily several new outfits a few days ago after I realized that she only had a couple and really needed more. Today she chose a purple outfit to wear. Purple has really been the color we use for Danielle, but it was a beautiful deep purple that I knew would look great on Emily. Danielle was with me the day I picked it out and she wanted it too, but I didn't buy it for her as she already has plenty of clothes.

Well the drama that ensued after Emily put on the purple outfit, was not pretty. A battle that I chose not to fight. Before lunch at Uncle Dale's house we made a quick run to Walmart, that was luckily open on Thanksgiving this year. I got her a matching purple outfit.

So this will be the year of that the girls wore purple to Thanksgiving. We had a nice dinner and a fun time visiting with family. Too bad I didn't take a picture.

The highlight of our day was seeing the new Disney movie Tangled in 3D at the theatre. It was an awesome movie. Best animated movie I have seen in a LONG time, and we see most of them. Tangled gets my vote for my favorite princess as well!

P.S. We had no wishbone this year. My mom did the cleanup after Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Sunday and the carcass was thrown away, wishbone included. Brian remembered the wishbone from last year and asked about it, we just kept saying, "we don't know what happened to the wishbone." I think he may have also been looking for redemption from last year's contest.

Christmas Cards from Shutterfly

I just got my Shutterfly 2010 cards and gifts flyer in the mail. They have a great selection of cards, I am having a difficult time choosing. Do I want 1, 2 3 or more pictures of my cute kids in my cards? They have flat and folding cards, in several different sizes. In addition to cards, they also have calendars, and photo books and photo gifts. Here are some of my favorite photo cards...

I love getting photo cards in the mail from my friends and family. It is a great way to get to "see" how much their kids have grown, or fun things their family did during the year. It is much more personal that buying a traditional boxed card at the store. You can also create your own personal message.

I have used Shutterfly in the past to create our special family Christmas card. The site is very easy to use. You can upload your pictures quickly, and drag them into your card design. Personalize your card, and put it in your cart. Simple, and at this time of year when we all have hetic schedules simple and quick is what I am looking for.

Go to Shutterfly.com and see what photo cards are your favorites.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Today was not and warm and sunny as the forecast predicted, but we still headed out to Motley's Tree Farm to cut down out very first live Christmas Tree. The kids had fun checking out the pigs and goats, and variety of birds.

They also had a really fun "tire" horse on the swing set. They sold them in the gift shop. They are only $69.99, too bad they are not in the budget, because they are super cute.

Although the kids could have continued to play, I rounded everyone for our mission to pick out a tree. They had three varieties that you could cut, two were not typical Christmas Trees they were cedar, and cypress trees. They were pretty trees, but not what I had in mind. There was one variety of pine, which was more of a typical tree, especially for someone who grew up in the Rocky Mountains. They were also going to get in some cut firs, but not until next week, and we had time on the schedule today.


We settled on the pine, and then began the hunt for the perfect tree. There were a couple in the running, but Brian spotted the finalist at the beginning of the hunt. Everyone liked it. Eddie cut it down, and we drug it to the path, where the tractor to it and us back to the front. There they shook it and bagged it.

Brian got to run the shaking machine, for some reason he thought it would be loud.

Brian watch intently as they bagged up our tree.

The kids played some more and fed the animals, while I tried to warm up browsing the gift shop and drinking hot chocolate. Then we loaded the tree on top of the van, and returned home.




Everyone helped get the tree ready, put on the lights and the ornaments. It was a super fun day and the tree looks awesome in our family room. I like having a real tree, it smells nice, and I like the authentic look.

I enjoyed our visit to Motley's Tree Farm. It is a family business, and we were greeted by the owner. It feels good patronizing local businesses. Someday though, when we have our own property, we can plant our own Christmas Trees and cut one of our own each year.

Fall

My favorite time of year is here. The leaves are beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow. The air is crisp, and the holiday festivities are beginning. Last night Emily had a homework project, to make a turkey out of a pinecone. Eddie created this masterpiece for her to take to school for her Thanksgving feast on Thursday.


Brian also wanted to make a turkey pinecone. We found some extra pinecones near Brian's school, but they were all closed. As you know you can find anything on the Internet, so here's how you open a pinecone: put in oven at 200 degrees and just watch it. Our pinecones were really wet from recent rain, so it took a couple of hours, but it worked. I loved that my house had an awesome pine scent while they were in the oven.

On Saturday, we are going to the tree farm to cut our own tree this year. I am excited to have a real tree for the first time, and I am actully looking forward to decorating.

We are planning to have "Thanksgiving" dinner on Sunday while my mom is here. I bought a turkey on sale last week, and I ordered a pumpkin pie from the youth at church who are doing a fundraiser. We are planning on homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy and of course a courtesy vegetable (even though most people in this family are not too crazy about veggies).

Next week I am hoping to wrap up my holiday shopping. I am making my list for Black Friday and trying to decide if I can muster up the strenght to brave the crowds.

Here are some pictures of our visit to Emily's school on Thursday for her Thanksgiving feast. The cafeteria Thanksgiving feast was turkey and stuffing with gravey, green slop, and yams. It looked awful, I am glad that we didn't encourage Emily to buy lunch that day. Everyone's pinecones looked cute, but Emily's was the best. There was a very cute squirrel that was a close runner up.

Light Bulb

Another light bulb went on for Brian today. At school his class has been working really hard on addition this year, and Brian typically uses his fingers or counts the objects on the page. Eddie taught him a trick last week about saying the biggest number and then counting from there. For example if you were to add 7+4, you would say seven and then count (possibly using your fingers) eight, nine, ten, eleven.

Today while working on his math packet, Brian told me that his teacher had taught him a shortcut, and proceeded to explain the above example. So I guess Mrs. Morton gets credit for this trick. Sometimes it just takes a few exposures to the same concept to actually grasp it.

I love that his teacher LOVES math. She enjoys it, and she challenges the kids, which helps them learn to love and appreciate math.

I am Thankful...

for the Internet. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I would post some things that remind be about being thankful. The Internet is a great resource and you can find almost anything that you want, and definitely some things that you don't want. Whether it be something to buy, or information, the Internet has it all. Last night I downloaded a bunch of pictures from the kids birthdays and our trip to Disneyworld, and then I deleted the memory card for the next use. After browsing through the pictures, I noticed I was missing some. I realized I had no pictures of the kids first day at school or Danielle's 2nd birthday. I was devastated! I sulked all night about it. Then today at church I had the idea to check the Internet to see if you could recover pictures from a memory card. I know that even when something is deleted on a computer it is really still there, but I had never experienced this with a memory card before.

So I googled, and guess what? You can! I am thrilled that these precious memories will not be lost nor, the photographic proof that they happened. I love writing down these things so that I can look back at the special events, learning moments, and funny stories. I am thankful for the opportunity to write these down for my children to cherish. I am thankful that the Internet helps us do all these things.

Here are just some of the pictures that would have been lost.

Honor Roll

Williams Magnet School has figured out a better way to honor students who make the honor roll. Instead of a boring assembly with a certificate or ribbon and inviting the parents to attend, the kids get to go on an educational field trip. On Tuesday Brian and his honor roll classmates went to the Museum of Discovery as their reward.

I am especially proud of Brian this semester as he was awarded the most improved in his class. We had a bit of a rocky start this year at school. Perhaps it was that everything was new. New school, new teacher, new friends. Change can be difficult, especially for Brian. But he is doing great. He had an awesome report card, he is reading and doing math very well. We don't even have too many struggles over homework.

I think it was a bit of a learning curve for me too. I struggled to learn a new teacher's personality and style which is unlike other teacher's we have had in the past. I think we have all adapted pretty well. Now how many more days until Thanksgiving break?