Thanksgiving 2009 (part 1)

We had so much fun on Thanksgiving weekend, where to even start? Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took...
[baking day Wednesday--I made 108 huge rolls so everybody ended up taking home a pan of them AFTER Thanksgiving dinner]
[all my kids love to help when I start baking but Kate is the one who stays by my side till the bitter end...spoon, apron and all. she taste tests everything, heck-she would eat the egg if I let her. she has some crazy open-minded taste buds]

[Thanksgiving morning tradition...smoothies and parades on TV]


[in the car on our way to Mommer & Papa's house for our feast]

[Clark Family-this was taken a couple years ago. love 'em!]

[niece Jaci]

[worm catching]

[nephew Gage]




[the happy couples]

[Kimball & Tiffin]

[me & Jay]

[Jordan & Janell][shooting off rockets with Uncle Jay]

Slow Saturdays

There's rarely a weekend when Jay isn't working Saturday or there's nothing going on. So this was one of those nice, slow weekends...finally! (with nobody sick:) We went to a hobby shop (the kids went NUTS looking at everything there) and bought a couple rockets to set off for Thanksgiving and ran a couple of other errands. The rest of the day we spent riding bikes around the neighborhood and playing at the park with some families. I love Saturdays spent just like this one.
[I should've taken more pics of the kids riding bikes]

[Anna practicing on David's bike] [I used this weekend to practice my pie for Thanksgiving - Cream Cheese Caramel Pecan Pie...but it didn't totally knock my socks off so I might shoot for a pie of the chocolate variety...bound to knock my socks off]

[riding to the park in our neighborhood]

[David did a photo shoot of Blake while I wasn't looking...turned out so cute...I love all of his different facial expressions]

Anna's bird nest

We have dinner almost every Sunday at Grandpa & Grandma Olson's house and all the cousins love exploring around their yard. Last night, Anna found this little bird's nest on the ground while she was wondering through the trees. She was so excited she begged me to put it in a tupperware so she could take it to show her class at school...

Where did she get these moves??

Enjoying the nice weather, too?

Give a little boy a truck...

[...and he knows just what to do]

Go away

We cannot get rid of these yucky colds going around here. Most of us were sick with colds and coughs a couple weeks ago and just when we thought it was over...BAM...it hit us again! This time with sinus and ear infections. The day after Kate started antibiotics for her ears, she woke up with a fever. By mid-afternoon it shot up, no joke, to 104.4 (gave her motrin & tylenol), then 104.8, then 45 minutes after the 'fever reducers' she got up to 105.2! I about fell over when I read the ear thermometer! She was so hot so I stuck her in a bath (with her screaming the whole time) and gave her ice cold pedialyte. Finally, 20 minutes later her temp started going down and the meds kicked in. Not fun. Still fighting what we've got now...PLEASE don't come back!
[yes, that's a polly pocket in her cup]

Buzzing the boys

David's hair had gotten so long! I miss it already and wanna keep it grown out next time...but I think he is still so cute with this buzz.
This was Blake's first chop--kind of sad to let go of that baby hair on top. I'm loving his new buzz...much more macho even through all that sweetness.

Before

After

YUMMM

Always our favorite when this time of year comes around...

Everything's cool here mom

From these are the days

Spiderman rocks

An apple a day...

...won't keep the tooth fairy away [according to Anna]. Trying to lose that stubborn wiggly top tooth...

Kate's party

This was our little get together on Kate's birthday with some of her favorite people...Grandma, Grandpa, Mommer, Papa and a few cousins. She looks so cute with her new haircut (done that day)...it is SOOO much easier to do and never gets snarly any more. What a fun 3rd birthday!

I found a glass cake stand awhile back at my friend's garage sale and she gave it to me for two dollars...yay me! I was so excited to use it for Kate's cake...my first time making a cake outside of a 9x13 pan and my first time actually decorating one. I had fun doing this...but there's still a lot of practicing to do :)