Mr. Turkey

Kyler came home from school Tuesday signing a new song.

(tune of Mr. Thumbkin)

Mr. Turkey,
Mr. Turkey,
Run away,
Run away,
If you are not careful,
You will be a mouthful,
On Thanksgiving Day,
On Thanksgiving Day!

I love Thanksgiving and all it means:
Family time
Fall is in full swing (Perfect weather for Hoodies)
Long weekend
Baking
Fireplace
Black Friday ads - the quiet time it gives me when the kids make their Christmas List pictures

Most importantly: Time to reflect on my many blessings

** My 3 little Turkeys - o how they drive me crazy most of the time, but they are worth it
** Steve and all his crazy ideas - I love how hard he works to give us everything we want
** Family - immediate, extended, memories of Grandpa and Grandma; everything about family
** Friends - we've been blessed to have wonderful friends in our lives
** Our jobs - we're fortunate to have jobs; when many people don't
** Our little farm
** Amazon - can I be thankful for that? What about online shopping in general?

Tuesday, Kyler's class had a Thanksgiving feast with the other kindergarten classes. His class were Turkey's, the other classes were Pilgrims and Indians.

Kyler also had to make a feather that showed what he was thankful for. Any guess which is his?

Yes, the painted Green and Yellow feather

Jake's class has been studying about immigration, explorers and the early settlers. His class put on a play about the Southern Colonies. Him and his friend were "Miss States".

Friday Date Night

It's not important where you go or what you do... it's just about spending time together that matters.


Steve and I don't have "Date Nights" as often as we should, so last night I decided it was a great time to have one. We started out with a family adventure to Fort Lupton to get a snow blower for the skidsteer. Since we had the kids - that doesn't technically count as a date. So.... about 7'ish I suggested Steve call Dee and see if she could watch the kids while we went "out". Of course she was willing to help us out. We dropped the kids off and away we went.


Where to you ask?



Like I said - it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you're spending time together. Steve was awesome and very supportive last night. I have never been in so much pain. Who knew that something so tiny and small like a Kidney Stone could cause so much pain! O MY GOODNESS it was awful - way worse then child birth.


It started with sharp pains on my left side - sort of in the back, sort of in the front. Then in moved to the front lower stomach. After about 4 hours of pain not going away, and nausea starting, I decided it was time to go get it looked at. The ER was busy (of course) so we waited and waited. Finally they took me back, gave me some pain meds and put me on the list for a CT scan. Everything turned out "OK - just a kidney stone". We got home about 12:30am.


Morale of the story - Drink lots of water.


All in all - today is much better. We're off to see HP's showing of Puss in Boots.

Volleyball Recap

MaKenna played Volleyball this Fall with the Rec Center. It was her first time doing a rec center sport. She did very well and had a lot of fun. The team was small and lost every game but 1 ( I think). She learned a lot about teamwork, sportsmanship and patience. Specifically, MaKenna learned is very competitive and has no patience for other girls who don't have the same level of enthusiasm and "go get'em" attitude. She couldn't understand why a couple girls would just stand there and not get the ball. I'm not sure she is cut out for Rec sports.

Here are some pics.

Serving

Serving

... it's over!

Speaking of competitive...

Yes that is Jake playing on MaKenna's team and she is LESS than happy about it. There were not enough girls on her team at the last game (and the other team wouldn't let them borrow any), so we were grabbing anyone we could from the spectators. Jake did very well actually. It just didn't sit well with MaKenna.

Halloween - 2011

Just like every year before... we begin Halloween planning with big hopes and plans. Jake wanted to be "The Oregon Duck", MaKenna wasn't exactly sure, but knew she wanted to be something "sassy", and Kyler planned on being Jack Sparrow. Things got crazy and busy - before we knew it we had a week to get things done. The kids were great and came up with different ideas that would be easier and use what we had already. We only had to get a few things.

The end result...A rodeo clown, a Rodeo Queen, and a Bullrider.

Winter? Already?

Fall is my favorite season - cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon - perfect jeans and hoodie weather. Colorado has a wonderful fall season. One of the reasons I love living here is all the seasons we get. Where else can you have all 4 seasons in one week. The previous post showed nice fall colors on a beautiful and warm Friday afternoon.

They say in Colorado - if you don't like the weather, wait a little bit... it will change. Here are pics of Tuesday night (10/25) / Wednesday (10/26).

The first snow of Fall/Winter 2011 came in Tuesday night, after a very warm Monday. It started out as rain and turned to snow. The snow was very wet and heavy. Branches were snapping and breaking by 10pm Tuesday. You can see branches down and the weight of the snow on them from the pictures. Both of Steve's trucks had branches laying on them. The kids has a snow day due to all the branches and trees down.

We lost power somewhere between midnight at 2AM. We didn't get it back until after 6pm on Wednesday. We did have hot water because we have a gas water heater. The furnace is gas, but the blower and all that is electric. The gas fireplace doesn't have a pilot light - uses electric start. The pellet stove has an electric feeder, blower, and start. Amazing how much we rely on electricity. we did get the generator out and get the freezers and fridge hooked up. We managed fine and it wasn't a big deal to "rough it" for 16 or so hours. Believe it or not - there are still folks without power scattered through out the area.

Fall in Colorado (10/21/2011)

Friday (10/21/11), we took a little road trip over I-70 to Grand Lake and back to Fort Collins via Hwy 14. The kids were on Fall Break so we thought it was a great time to go look at the fall colors (and pick up a small dump trailer).


Grand Lake, CO


Rand, CO



HWY 14 - Poudre River

Easy Whiteboard Menu

I saw this on a blog and thought it would be a great activity for MaKenna and help with the chaos here at home. It was a great idea and MaKenna enjoyed making it. As for the chaos... hasn't helped much - but then again we modified the menu the 2nd day we had it. It's the thought that counts and I thought it would help.

It's just decorated paper in a cheap photo frame. The glass is the whiteboard.