Waffle Wednesday!!!

We instigated Waffle Wednesday thanks to my friend Niki!!  I love the concept of friends getting together for a super fun meal like waffles every wednesday.....with all the kids!!! 

So, we decided tonight was the night!! 

Ok...ok....it turned into pancakes because waffles were a little too daunting with so many people ... but i think we may attempt it next week!!

Andy pretty much needed a wrangler to get him out of the office.....but we got him here.

Chris only beat him to waffle wednesday by about 20 minutes.....

Proof that i was there....

{do you like my 25 cent sweater i snagged from thrift this afternoon!!???}

Oh little everett....his first waffle wednesday!! 

Hopefully he will let his mom sleep more than 5 hours tonight.....

Paul!!! 

Chris thought he sorta looked like a criminal in this shot......

{sorta looks like Jack Nicholson from that movie eh? do you know the one i speak of?}

Peek a Boo!!!

Rachel was a superstar!!!  She cooked the pancakes, cleaned everything up after....

ah....my sister wife!!

After Waffle Wednesday ended....it was off to volleyball!!!  First time back in 2 years!!!

And it rocked!

Chris took the boys swimming tonight while i was at volleyball....so now i am finishing this blog as they are on their way home with a skor blizzard in hand pour moi!!!!

Thanksgiving #2!!

It poured today.

We are tired....well, I am...chris roared out of bed this morning when he realized he could mushroom pick all morning and leave me to chill with the kids!  He was gone for like 4 hours in the pouring rain looking for mushrooms!  Fill your boots my boy!! 

Our friends arrived early afternoon.....we played, we ate a huge, wonderful turkey dinner, we watched AFV, we hid from the kids {seriously, with all this room and they all still prefer to be within 4 feet of us.....i guess one day we will miss that??}.

 Being silly......

 Adessa is a cool little girl...she wants in on EVERYTHING!!!  She didn't realize she was too small to climb....well, if she couldn't climb, she was totally going to help belay then....

 nic giving it a go!  she rocked it......

 This last shot is for Nicole.....Adessa is a sweet girl, but this is the stage.  And in a year from now, i will link back to this post and be like "see! this is what she USED to be like and she is such a happy, easy going angel now who gives you space and eats all her dinner when its actually MEAL time!!"

I had a post like that of elliot when we went to vegas...i couldn't really remember what he was like until i saw that i had posted a shot of him, not unlike this one, of him screaming in his stroller.  My caption below that shot was us at the Bellagio fountain saying it was one of the highlights because elliot had finally screamed himself to sleep and we were able to really enjoy the beauty of the fountain...in peace.

Chris left the camera in the car at dinner time, so no food shots {which i LOVE}...but Nic and i rocked it in the kitchen tonight!!  Turkey, gravy, sweet potatoes with the marshmallow top, mashed potatoes that turned out like glue but still good with gravy, cranberry sauce, roasted cauliflower, carrots......it was alot of fun....and, again, there was much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving at the Burdges

Our family had a real low key Sunday.  We are all feeling a little run down and under the weather....so it was a much pj wearing, movie watching, laying around-kind of day!  Lovely.

Around 2, we all got dressed and threw the house back together before heading out to the Burdges for Turkey dinner #1.  It was a nice drive....stopped for a coffee, and on our way we started talking about our friends Steve and Nic....i was hoping they were having a nice thanksgiving though they are both far from their families and we were looking forward to turkey dinner #2 with them on monday.

Fast forward 15 minutes when we pull into the driveway and see Steve standing at the top of the driveway, giving us a big hearty wave!!  WHA??!  Yup....Nic was already almost in the house while the girls were playing with the cousins!!  Turns our super sis in law had invited them to dinner that morning at church after finding out they had no plans that evening.  It was such a great surprise...i love having in laws who are happy to have any one who needs a family to come and share ours.......

SO, the Burdge Thanksgiving started with a walk with the parents and their kids down to the beach.  I wish i had brought the camera....because it was nice with the 6 of us watching all of our kids run down the road together.....such nice kids.

Marg was super woman putting this huge dinner together for everyone....they have been working like mad with bathroom renovations to be finished by this weekend for the big dinner.  And its not until you are an adult that you realize how much work and money goes into putting a dinner like this on. 

When we got back from the walk....Marg had put together a 'harvest hunt' for the kids around the house.  She armed all the kids with baskets and set them loose in the house to look for boxes of raisons, little pouches of seeds, fruit snacks {she got things that are healthy that they could put in their lunches}.  Elliot loves these hunts....so thats who inspired her!

Happy Adessa!!

Big dinner....{i am not liking my editing program since i had to get rid of photoshop....back on the learning curve.....}.....but here we all are!  Gordon threw us all off by talking about some history of thanksgiving-Laura and I had already compared notes to what we were going to say we were thankful for!! {which is a yearly tradition!}. 

He also read us some statistics of people around the world in regards to how we compare with health, wealth.  Its very humbling and we really have no idea how fortunate and blessed we really are.  But here we all are, healthy family and lovely friends and loads of good food....the only thing that would have made it better would have been having my family here too. 

Isaac and Wren......i love these two together.  Very creative and fun spirits....

Flora.....so nice to have here come up for Thanksgiving.

Chris was asked nicely by me to take a picture of laura and I....he decides to fiddle with all the buttons on the camera, adjust things....after awhile, i can't smile anymore while he fiddles...so i get mad.  Well, here is the shot the boy got....my eyes are closed and he is yelling 'show me your teeth when you smile!!'...i figure if i had fangs i would have shown them to him then.....grr..laura found it amusing.

Steve and Adessa.....

After dinner gordon did giant monster airplanes with the kids with his drafting paper....hilarious to watch these monsters soar through the air - we all got out of the way....

Isaac was the biggest fan of the giant paper planes....

i don't know what Mike is doing here, but it makes me laugh when i look at it.

Who knows where Wren gets it from??

Near the end of the evening, Ava crawled up on Margs lap for a back rub...i thought it was terribly sweet...but marg has asked to not be in the blog because she doesn't like the pictures, so out of respect, you will just have to picture how sweet it was to see a little grand daughter crawl up on grandmas lap with a full belly and lots of playing all done....getting her back rubbed.

 

It was a nice night.....

 

Happy Thanksgiving.....

Elliot made this with his kindergarten class on friday!  Isaac said it was pretty funny that half way through his day, the kindergartens class came through his classroom, pecking and gobbling their way through!!  Would have loved to have seen that!

Magic Trick!!  Now you see your bracelet........

Now you DON'T!!!  {They thought this was hilarious....}  Isaac is currently going through a really annoying stage (at least for the photographer in me, its annoying), to pop his head into any frame i am trying to catch and be silly....it takes a threat to keep that noggin out of the picture...which doesn't make things too fun for me...hence, a lack of picture taking, hence lack of blogs....{he wasn't happy watching me crop his head out of the above picture....couldn't do it in this one.....}

Jon and Mel came for supper on friday night....we never really see them anymore

 since they moved across the neighborhood.....

Before this cold hit me full force, i made JAM!!!!  Thanks to my mom who sent me this amazing pectin she ordered online, i was able to cut the sugar down by half!!  And its still SO good!!

Elliot woke up with croup again this morning, thought it was gone...but its not.  I have been on my back for the last 24 hours or so....sorta miserable...can't hear out of my right ear.  Isaac stays up til 11 and up at 7 and is still going strong...i don't know where he gets the energy.

I am glad to be home this weekend and not out and about feeling this way....we have a dinner tonight at the Burdges that i am looking forward to, but then it'll be back to bed for me.
But I am thankful {through all this fog!}....we have so much to be thankful for, we really have no idea and no appropriate words big enough to say it all.....if i was feeling up to it, i would write an entire post on every thing i am thankful for. 
I am reading "1000 gifts" right now.  What I have gotten out of the book so far is:
 When you are able to name the gift, it is like saying thank you to God for giving it to you. 
So go on, name your gifts, say it outloud or write it down......
Happy Thanksgiving and if you are reading this, it is probably because I have given you the address because I love you.....which also mean, you are a gift to me.....yes YOU!! 

Now go count your gifts and say thank you for what He's given to you too.....

Donkey in a well......

I love this....when i first started to read it, i sort of welled up a bit....you know, 'aww...that poor donkey'....but THEN!!!  The donkey blew my mind!!! 

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.

2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happens.

3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.

4. Give more.
5. Expect less from people but more from God.

Oh my sister wife......how i do miss you.

Especially right now as it is time to make lunches.....they were much more fun when you were here....you and your impish looking smiles not dis-similar to the one you are giving the camera in this picture on the left.....

Quiet, Rainy day home with the Croup....

Want to hear a story about how Croup crept back into our lives?  Well, sit back, check out the homemade spaghetti sauce that simmered all day yesturday awaiting dinnertime and the nasty butt muffins that i just can't seem to perfect and normally end up chucking into the garbage....relax, and enjoy the story.....

It was a dark and stormy night as we heard a wail of desperate proportions down the hallway in the wee hours of the morning.  Little Elliot was having trouble.  His "throat hurt" he tells daddy, who spent the next hour trying to consol the little lad with all the tricks in his book.  Around 3, elliot began asking for the hospital because nothing was soothing him and it sounded as though his throat was closing up as the morning progressed.....which is terribly scary for everyone involved!  The first time it happened, we called the ambulance...the second time it happened, we drove him in quickly....this time, we listened to him and put him into the car all bundled up with his blanket and his care card and chris drove him towards the hospital while I stayed back with Isaac. {Who, by then, was happily sitting on the couch, remote in hand, and in all that hustle, had gotten dad to agree to let him watch a little early morning infomercial tv!}.  {Which, btw, ended quickly the minute the car drove away = bummed out 7 year old}

  So, Elliot falls asleep on the way to duncan and wakes up to Chris pumping gas.....says he doesn't feel much better, but he isn't hysterical anymore....so Chris asks if he would like a happy meal.
Happily chewing on a chicken mcnugget as he comes into my room at 4:20am, while everyone else is back in bed, I can hear him playing in the hallway with his new mcdonalds toy. 
He puts himself to bed a little while later.
Parenting a boy with croup is a little less scary with a little experience under your belt....you keep in the back of your mind that nobody dies from croup, its just terrifying to go through.

So, from a panicked call to the ambulance to a Happy Meal is sort of a nice transition.

Yesturday, this was our day......fire on, pj's, slow cooker, books

Today actually isn't looking much different....Elliot put himself back to bed this morning.  We cuddled in bed looking at baby pictures and now i am finishing this blog that has taken all morning....he is such a sweet boy, and if i am being honest, i am loving him being home. 

I have missed him alot since he started school.

Saturday fun with the Fitzpatricks.....

I guess we were tired....but we did get up to feed kids, put a show on, let the dog out, help the group out with a problem they were having with the soundboard....but then we both went back to bed to read (chris) and watch an old movie on Netflix (me), but we fell back asleep and stayed in bed til after lunch! Best morning ever!!!

But then the kids decided to use us as trampolines saying it was enough time in bed.....so we called up one of our favorite families and met them at the forest museum for some afternoon fun with the kids.....no pics from that since its on their camera, but here are some shots from the evening back at our place!

Here are Nic and i trying not to go crazy with the kids crawling all over us....can't beat 'em, join 'em!! So we snagged a few costumes and tried them on!!

 Barney?  With a weird stumpy arm??

 Monkey with a decent bra?

 Spidey and Spidey....

 The 'all business' look.....again.

 Not to toot my own horn, but does this quiche not look amazing!!! Also made an apple crisp that rocked, but we ate it too fast for a picture!

 The boys finally got back from mushroom picking and promptly grilled them up for us all to eat....i just thought this was a funny picture as EVERYONE was in this one corner of the house at the same time!

 Best camera on the market and my pictures still suck......bleh...not impressed, but i guess you get the idea.

 Beautiful, sweet Adessa....hardest one to keep occupied!!!

 Apparently Nic loves Steve.......well, thats what the window says anyways.....

Always memorable with these ones around.....i like them.