A day with friends...

This past Saturday we got to spend the day with one of our favorite families!

 It was a cold day out, but we had a great time!

 One of the things that I love about hanging out with the Law's, is that the kids all have someone to play with. And they all get along (usually). Funny how it never FEELS like there's 12 kids together! It's nice.

 We went on a nice walk through Prince William Forest Park. 

Madelyn was melting down a bit towards the end (tired), and Ashlyn was sure she couldn't make it back without being carried, but somehow amazingly she survived!

 Duncan ALWAYS has enough energy to go around!

 Morgan is always so happy to spend time with Brooke!

Once we were cold enough, we went over to The National Museum of the Marine Corps, which I really enjoyed.

There was a ton to see there.

 Ashlyn enjoyed the kids 'dress up' area.

 The flag above is the very one from the photo below at Iwo Jima.

I thought that was cool.

 Ashlyn, our little marine.

 Jen & I tried to snap a photo of everyone on our way out....this is the best I got.

 If you only knew how many photos I have of a blurred Duncan running in front of the camera.

THANKSGIVING!

This year I didn't take a single picture at our Thanksgiving Day feast.

Kind of sad about that.

We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving. My sister Missy and her friend Erin came, as well as our friends the Riley's. We had good food and wonderful company.

In years past we have done our "Thanksgiving box", where we write on slips of paper things we are thankful for and stick them in the 'box' throughout the month. Then during our Thanksgiving dinner we  read them. This year we made a 'Thankful Tree'. 

Here's a small sample of what was on our tree:

"I'm thankful for food"

".... for the scriptures"

"....for my life."

"....for my pillow"

"...for knowledge"

"....for a blanket"

"....for my family"

"...for nature"

"...children"

"....Jesus Christ"

"...mommy"

"...history"

"...kindness of others"

We have so much to be thankful for!

I pray that we always remember that.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Turkey Trot 2012

It's that time of year again....Turkey Trot races at school!

First for us was the Elementary school race...

The Vice Principle and Principle stood from the roof of the school cheering the students on. The kids loved it!

5th grade was first to race that morning.

 Go MORGAN!

 Her goal was to beat her 'place' last year of 36th out of 115 students.

And she came in 28th! SUCCESS in achieving her goal!

Next up was 3rd grade...

 Duncan took off!

 This was his 1st year running the race (they start in 3rd grade at our school), and his goal was to "place somewhere in the 20's". He came in 10th out of 110....so again SUCESS in reaching his goal!

A few days later was the Middle School's turn to race.....

The sixth grade took off running.

(Can you find Ronan? His is on the right side wearing a blue hoody-with it on his head.)

The TURKEY was even there to cheer the kids on during the Turkey Trot!

 Ronan despises running. Doesn't see the point unless someone/something is chasing you.

I was very proud of him though for several reasons.

First, he participated. Second, he did actually start out running, and continued for the first little bit. And Third, he completed the run!

So, again....it was a SUCCESS!

Tents

We pulled out the kid tents the other day when I was babysitting.

Madelyn and her two friends had a blast in them!

They actually stayed set up in the living room for 2 more days.

Then, come Friday night, they moved upstairs....

Morgan came into the little girls room and they had a 'girls camp out'.

Then it was Duncan's turn...

He was smart. No need to sleep on the hard floor, just put the tent ON your bed, and you have the best of both worlds!

Morgan followed his lead as well.

Morgan commented to me "Wow, those tents are small. I always thought they were so much bigger." 

Well, they were when she was 3!

So much fun with tents!

Twelve

This boy turned twelve at the end of October.

I can't believe how much he has grown this past year!

I am super proud of all of Ronan's accomplishments!

He is now in Middle School, and has blossomed there. 

He's on the honor roll, and such a smart guy.

He became a Deacon, and was happy to leave Primary behind.

His birthday was the day before the Primary Sacrament program, and since it was so close, the Primary offered him a part and to participate in the program. "Nope! I'll be 12 by then-NOT in Primary!"

He was ready to move on to 'older kid things'.

Here are some things I LOVE about my Ronan:

He loves all of God's creatures, and wants to protect them all.

He seems to know EVERYTHING there is to know about every animal.

He loves to share his knowledge.

He has a super soft spot for his baby sister Madelyn.

Ronan is my fastest most motivated worker...it's not that he loves to work, quite the opposite! But the motivation to be DONE with the work helps him to stay on task and complete all he needs to SO very quickly and efficiently! (Always the first to be done with homework and chores!)

Ronan loves to laugh, and to make others laugh too.

He has a soft heart that is easily touched.

Ronan amazes me with the strength he has to meet his daily challenges-so proud of him!

SO happy to have you in our family Ronan! 

LOVE YOU TO PEICES!

Halloween

Halloween this year was a bit different.

First off Ronan and I were out of town for the ward Trunk-or-Treat. 

Brian got the other kids dressed and made a pot of chili though and still made it!

 (photo by Melissa Riley)

The kids had missed Monday and Tuesday from school due to Sandy. And Tuesday afternoon we learned that 12 schools in our county were still without power, and they would be deciding that night weather or not to close all the schools. For the first time, we were hoping school wouldn't be closed, because Halloween was on Wed., and the kids didn't want to miss the parties and parade!

 Brian had dressed up for work (Paul Bunyan) and came straight to the school for the Halloween parade. Madelyn came to watch in a princess costume too.

 She kept walking up to people, would pull her coat back and just stare at them, saying nothing at all. Then she would come to me upset that they didn't comment on the fact that she was a princess!

Morgan and Ashlyn were both Renaissance princesses.

Duncan surprised me this year, and wanted nothing to do with the parade or the party. He didn't dress up, just watched the parade from the sidelines with us and then went home early. Just wasn't feeling it this year I guess. 

After the parade I joined Ashlyn in her class for her party.

 She happen to be the 'Beary Special Friend' that week, and I got to see what they put up about her.

That night Brian took the kids trick-or-treating while I stayed back to hand out candy.

Hayden was originally going to do it for us, but had too much homework to get done. (He had a few teachers that were trying to make up the 2 days they missed before the end of the quarter the next day. Who does that on HALLOWEEN?!)

Duncan finally decided it was worth putting a costume on to go get a bag full of candy....

 Brian and another dad from the neighborhood took the kids together, they had a blast!

Don't you just love Madelyn as a 'Vampire Princess'? And Ashlyn switched to a cowgirl for trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween!

Sandy...

Sandy was coming, and we were told to be prepared to be without electricity for up to a week.

Brian pointed out that we didn't need to do much preparing, as we had most of what we needed already.

In September we got our 72-hour kits together, after I kept feeling this NEED to get it done. I also took inventory of what we had in our 'store room' back in September, and have been making sure we are 'up to stock' for our 90-day food supply. It felt so wonderful to 'feel prepared'.  To not have to run out to the store for anything! 

We did prepare for the storm by bringing in all our outside furniture to the garage, taking down all our Halloween decorations outside, and getting beds ready to sleep in the basement! Our home is surrounded by large trees, so that was our main concern during the storm.

 Ronan's room is in the basement, so he didn't have to relocate at all!

 We spread ourselves out, and got comfy.

 The kids thought it was great fun to have a sleep over in the basement!

 We were so very lucky to have the storm do no real damage in our neighborhood! We never even lost power!

The only evidence of Sandy was this large tree branch that broke off and was thrust into the ground so hard that about a foot of it was under!

We were grateful that didn't happen near the roof!

I know we were lucky to not be in an area so hard-hit by the storm, and we keep those in NY/NJ in our prayers.

This las week I learned of a Stake north of Baltimore that was collection winter clothes/blankets for those who lost everything in Sandy. The collection night was Monday, and we decided to make this our Family Home Evening activity. The kids had that day off from school, so we spent the time sorting through clothes and coats to find things that we could donate. I posted on Facebook that we would be dropping things off, and if anyone wanted to they could drop a bag or two by our house, and we would take it up there to them (it was 45 min. away). I was SO happy to end up with a van full of items to drop off! 11 other families helped contribute to our 'drop off', and we had to take the back 4 seater bench out of the van to fit it all in!

There was a ton of people sorting the endless supply of clothing (piled high on the stage-which I failed to get a photo of)!

The clothing was delivered the next day, just before the Nor'easter was scheduled to hit!

Those poor people just aren't getting a break!

Brian (and maybe Hayden) is going up with a work crew from our ward this Saturday to help remove debris in NJ.

Things like this help to remind me of how much I have to be grateful for.