"Hey you! Hug!"

Or perhaps he is saying, "Save me from that monster dog that keeps trying to eat my nose!"

Actually this reminded me of a visit I recently had to see a friend who had just had a baby.  We chatted for a little while and then I got up to leave.  I was not 4 feet out the door when I hear a little (but BIG) voice say, 'Hey, you!'.  I turn to see my friend's little 3 year old looking at me, his arms outstretched and his deep brown, sweet Laotian eyes demanding. 'KISS', he says.  'KISS'.  So I go to him and he lands a big smacker right on my lips.  Hee hee.  What a cutie.

Ahhh.  Well we did get a good storm through last week.  Not our first storm of the season, but it certainly brought the cold.  Brandon's 20 min commute turned into an hour long one that day.  But the rest of us enjoyed it.

 Here are a few shots of the kids at play:

Henry would run out to be with the kids, then would get snowballed a few times and beg to go back inside.  Two minutes later he'd be whining to go out again.  Too bad his lack of opposable thumbs makes it hard to get revenge...

Little self-portrait with a new friend

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my favorite holidays.  I love just being with my family and cooking and eating.  All good.

I am grateful for my husband who puts in all he has to our marriage.

  I am grateful for my kids who have such loving hearts.

I am grateful to God for His peace and love and patience and constant reaffirmation that He is there and that there is purpose to our time here on earth.

I am grateful when I feel love and understanding dissolve feelings of judgment and fear.

I am grateful for hope.

We made and ate dinner today with just the 6 six of us.  I could tell I was getting a little overstimulated at times as I was trying to prep the turkey and such and was being called on every 30 seconds by another child needing help interpreting instructions for what they were working on.  But I found my quiet place ;) ....in my head... and enjoyed the time with the kids.  With only one disaster (Sean lost hold of the key lime pie he was holding...darn bendy disposable pie tins... and it hit the floor with a satisfying thud and spewed it's contents across half of the kitchen), we declared the feast a success. 

Dressed for the occasion with my girls

The beginning of feasting...Rin was giving me a contorted stink face until I finally told her she looked constipated.  That brought out the smile. :)

 Perhaps those of you who are more observant than most, noticed that, although the plates are clean, it looks as if there are already some of the yams and stuffed mushrooms missing.  And you might have thought that odd.  Well done!  Although we ate alone, we did pack up some of our dinner to take to a friend.  Our La Grande YW president, Sandy Nelson, is down here in Aurora with her parents and most of her siblings.  Her father had a live liver transplant at the U of Colorado hospital a week or two ago, the liver being donated by her brother-in-law.  They have rented an apartment for a couple of months, as dad has to stick around until the doctors feel confident that he is accepting the liver.  As of today, both patients are 'home'(at the apartment) and looking good, but not getting around much.  It was fun to chat with Sandy's mom who, as coincidence would have it, home teaches (with her husband of course) Brandon's Aunt Irene and Uncle Jim back in Boise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Something burning?

My kids, especially Sean, love to tease me about burning dinner.  Not that I do it THAT much, but apparently enough.  I just am so easily distracted.  Oh look! Squirrel! (family joke)

Anyhow.

Last week Brandon and I arrived home to the smell of burning.  Something.  We rounded the corner to the living room to see Catherine laying on our new(ish) couch pillow propped up against the gas fireplace, reading.  Oblivious to the fact that the pillow was charring beneath...

The pillow insert.  The outside is a thicker fabric and must be partially synthetic as it more matted and melted.  Actually didn't look too bad.  But seeing the inside was a little scary.

Yes, we have previously instructed our children NOT to put the pillows on the (dog hair covered) ground and yes, we have instructed our kids to lay outside the tile area when enjoying the fireplace.  Sometimes the best lessons are learned when your hair is on fire. Or nearly.  Good opportunity to more effectively teach the children that fire behind glass is still fire.  And still hot.

BOO!

Halloween is really not my thing.  I don't like being scared, can't even turn on the TV for the whole month of October because even the most innocent shows have turned into blood and guts, and I'm not really a fan of neighborhoods turning into cemeteries (just seems a little disrepectful).  

Despite this, I really enjoyed the season with my kids this year.  The weekend prior to Halloween we headed up to Longmont (an hour north).  I had seen an ad for a corn maze up that way, which seemed a perfect excuse to visit my old friend who moved to Longmont from La Grande not long after we moved here.  Sis. Joan Frederickson's husband of about 50 years passed away back in February.  I only knew him after he had slowed down alot, but always enjoyed going for a visit.  He liked to sneak candy to my kids when we were there and loved to show his sculptures that decorated his home.  He made detailed creations of horses and people out of wire and papermache. "Poor man's bronze', his wife would say.  On first glance, though, they actually DID look like bronze statues, being so delicately formed and painted.  We got to spend an hour with Joan reminiscing over lunch.  She was such a support to me during my time as Relief Society President.  Always sharing a wise word when needed and keeping me smiling with her quick sense of humor.  Glad to see her again.

After lunch the family and I headed out to the corn maze.  Perhaps you can see the line of people below, behind the go cart track.  They are outside a fence waiting to get in.  We waited 45 minutes....not expecting that, but everyone in line was cheerful and time passed quickly.  Once inside the farm we had a blast. 

The admission included go carts...they also had adult size ones.  Unfortunately no one got a shot of me taking Sean down. ;)

So sad I didn't get any more pictures!  There was no line waiting inside the farm.  We spent more than an hour in the maze, splitting up into 3 teams.  Catherine and I made it to the 12 main checkpoints (which, according to our map meant we'd walked about 4 miles), at which point we made our way out.  Thomas and Papa exited first, but didn't make it as far.  Milla and Sean were only about 10 minutes behind Catherine and I but actually did the entire 18 checkpoints in the maze.  They were truckin'. And were declared winners.  Following the maze we tried out squash launching, fed some chickens, go-kart raced, and then finally took the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Our guide was a sassy older farmer that said  'Keep your chins off of the railing of the truck, because if you bite your tongue when we hit a bump, I'd have to cry'. And we better stay in our seats because,  'If you fall over the side, I'd have to cry again'. Hee hee.  Good times.

Thomas was already in zombie mode here

We decided we needed a little healthy food before heading out trick-or-treating.  Here the kids are showing off their banana ghosts, pretzel and cheese broomsticks and orange and celery pumpkins.  Below is our attempt at an eyeball pizza.  All was quickly devoured

Zombie Thomas

Everyone loves a Basselope (made, of course, by Catherine in her sewing frenzy this week)

Sean making a very convincing Slender Man. Milla and Catherine were very pretty were wolfs. Hard to see, but they each sewed fur leggings and arm coverings, ears, tails, and had bead and string head pieces.

 Trick or Treating was a success.  Judging from the 10% tax by the parents, the kids each scored nearly 200 pieces of candy.  Hopefully, they will eat it quickly so that we can spend all next week brushing teeth.

The kids pumpkins (which replaced our garden grown ones that were smashed by passerbys earlier in the week)

Milla's 15

Dressed to the nines for her friend's pre-halloween 1920's murder mystery party.

Fifteen years ago I was a 22 year old holding the future in my hands.  And not knowing what to do with her or how to help her grow.  But time moves on as it always does, and help comes and we (hopefully) get a little wiser along the way.  My sweet Milla now stands about even with me in height and is more beautiful than I could have imagined, inside and out.

Happy Birthday, Love!

Milla's Portal birthday decorations (from a computer game for those of you not in the know)

Perhaps you can spy Milla's brand spankin' new braces? She is not loving the sore mouth, but is smiling nonetheless.
Pictured here with her Portal black forest cake.  Yum!

Hugging Grandma Eyre's stuffed turret (Portal, again).  From Mama and Papa she got a wood carving set and (of course) a new book series by Beka Cooper