Decorating for Christmas

This year I went to a gazillion garage sales and found about 80% of our Christmas items including our Christmas tree pictured above.  I got it for $5 which included 1 large bag of lights (only one strand of them worked) and some bags with ornaments and more strands of tinsel.  I was happy with how our tree turned out.  I look forward to not paying $40 - $50 for a Christmas tree next year or the next or the next.  I did miss the smell of fresh cut evergreen but I am told you can buy it in a can which I think we will do next year.  We found out this year that McKenzie is alergic to a ton of stuff including trees and that artificial is the way we will need to go in the future.

My parents gave this to us this year and I LOVE it!!!  I need to find a better place for it though cause Alex kept playing handball against the front door and his ball would bounce behind him and knock into the snowmen.  No permanent damage but that might not last long.  We'll figure out something better for next year.

I saw a pattern to make this wreath in a little booklet you find when you are in line at the grocery store.  It had a whole bunch of ideas for Christmas crafts and fun goodies.  I think I made 9 of these to give away this year.  It was hard work but I had fun doing it.

Thanksgiving with the Stapf family

We had a great time with Delayne and her family over Thanksgiving.  Here are Eliza and Allison playing a game with only a fraction of the pieces needed.  I guess it doesn't matter if you are two and three and don't know how to play the game anyway.

The weather was so great that weekend.  It was sunny and warm Thanksgiving day, got rainy Friday night and was gone by Saturday.  Thursday was a great day to go to the park.

This was such a great picture of Bonnie! 

Eliza looked like a little angel with a halo of light shining above her head.  She is the sweetest little thing and I love her to pieces!!  (Now if only I could understand her.)

All the boys were doing a great job of hitting the balls that Michael pitched to them.  Delayne and I got in on the action as well and did great!  It was tons of fun.  Brett chose to stay home and get some quiet time and hopefully got some sleep while the rest of us were at the park.

Ethan found a wall outside in the back to hit the soccer ball against.  He and Alex had a good time playing handball against our house.  It drove Delayne and Brett crazy!!  Oh, the noise!!! 











I didn't get any pictures of it but we had ham with mashed potato casserole, green bean casserole and some other stuff for Thanksgiving dinner.  (Sorry, its been a while and I've forgotten.)  I know we had pumpkin pie and Marinelli's apple cider.  We also had an apple pie we got from Apple Hill.  I love Thanksgiving!!! We also had the kids make turkey placemats and write on the feathers what they were thankful for. 

Lily's Blessing

I only got these pics while at Lily's blessing celebration.  It was so great to see everyone! Everyone, from my family at least, had a great time!  Lily is so beautiful and sweet and I can't wait to see her again, as well as the rest of her family.  Dinner was great thanks to Spencer and Jenny and others who contributed.  Thank you all for a great time! 

McKenzie's teeth

Its kinda hard to see but McKenzie has lost the two teeth just on either side of his top front teeth.  He lost one 3 or 4 months ago and then the other just a couple of weeks ago.  And neither of the permenant teeth have started coming in yet.  I don't know what is going on with that.  I think I need to get him in to see the dentist to see if there are any teeth up there to come down.  Poor guy!  But he DOES look super cute with those two teeth out.

In the Homecoming parade

A couple of Fridays ago I took the kids to walk in a parade for the Homecoming game for Rosemont Highschool.  We walked about 2 miles with others from the boys elementary school.  There were about 20 of us there from our school.  The group behind us was walking so fast that we ended up walking behind them a couple of times.  I was carrying Allison for a while and it was hard to keep up.  We had a good time though.  We saw people we know lining the sides of the street to see the parade.  I didnt realize it was going to be such a big thing.

Apple Hill

Last Saturday we went to Apple Hill and the kids rode horses and went on a train ride.  We all had a great time!

Allison on the toilet

Allison still has not shown the much sought after signs of wanting to go potty on the toilet.  A few times she has said that she wants to go sit on the potty.  Yeah!  Well, then nothing happens.  She just sits there and then says she is done, wipes herself, flushes and gets down.  The other day Michael saw her looking like she was going in her diaper and he quickly took her to the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet where she went potty.  Wahooo!!!  But since then, nothing.  Well, a couple of days ago, she said she wanted to sit on the potty.  I stayed in there with her and read her a book.  Nothing happened.  I asked her if she was done and she said, "Yes, I done."  Then 3 seconds later she says, "Actually, I have to finish my book, so I not done yet."  After she was done with her book she said she was ready to get down.  I am eagerly awaiting the day when she actually goes potty on the toilet!  When oh when will it come?