Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous thanksgiving weekend.  Just the 6 of us (still surprises me everytime I say that.  Are there really 6 of us now?!?), hanging out all weekend, having a great time just enjoying each other.

We decided to do the turkey trot again.  This year we all ran it - while, I jogged a bit, Olivia ran about a quarter of it, Levi rode in the stroller, and the 3 oldest boys all ran.  I gave the boys a monetary incentive for a fast time, and it seemed to encourage them a bit. Last year they ran it in around 11 minutes, and this year Harrison came in at 8:40ish and Noah about a minute later. Maybe next year we'll go for the 5K!

Kids under 8 were free, so I even registered Levi.  He had a number and everything:

Poor kid had just fallen asleep in the car when we got there.  He was great the whole race, even though he was pretty tired.

We got home and got busy cooking.  I kept it simple. I wanted to focus my energy on family time, and not creating a fancy meal that no one was going to eat.  I made a roast chicken, which the kids helped prepare, and our turkeys were in the form of a veggie tray, and fruit platter, also prepared with the kids helping.

The roast chicken was delicious, finished cooking in an hour and a half, and we still had plenty of  leftovers.  

The next day we spent the morning decorating for Christmas

And then headed off to the Christmas Kickoff in Dayton.  There was a little bit of a snafu with forgetting wallets, so we missed out on eating at our favorite place, the Country Cupboard, but we still managed to have a great time, going on a hay ride, visiting with Santa, watching a free movie, and enjoying the lighted parade.

Then on Sunday we finally built our Gingerbread house.

It's so fun that we are really starting to have some solid yearly traditions, that the kids are remembering and looking forward to.  Dayton, the turkey trot and a gingerbread house are definitely Thanksgiving weekend traditions we plan on continuing.

Thankful

For Thanksgiving, I wanted the kids to elaborate a little more on the immense blessings that we enjoy.  Sometimes it is a bit hard to pull it out of them for night time prayers, but I was excited to see them fill up a list in the week before Thanksgiving.  This started out as a FHE activity that we carried over on the next few days.  Each meal, we would try and get every person to list ~5 things. We wrote them on paper strips and made a huge long chain. I did my best to try and not allow duplicates because I wanted them to think.  We quickly got beyond the standard list and figured out some great blessing

I am thankful for:
smiling - L
swing set - H
rain - S
Chickens and hens - O
Ridley Pearson, Dave Barry, JK Rowling - H
coloring pages - N
Hello Kitty shirt - O
trampoline - H
Cinderella - O
Dad coming home from work early - M
our Bishop - S
comf pile - N (a big pile of blankets and pillows)
our baby brother - N
pie - M
Jello - N
ibuprofen - H
letters - O
Sleeping Beauty - O
crawling - L
Disney vacation - S
Balloons - O
flowers and roses - O
reading - H
beautify day - M
animals - N
Bible - N
candy turkeys - N
primary teacher - N
hot cocoa - H
General Conference - S
church - N
jackets - H
dad - N
warm soup - S
Oreos - H
loving children - S
origami - H
playdoh - O & N
skirts - O
ovens and cooking appliances - N
grandmas - O
holidays - N
Scriptures - N
families - O
Moses - S
prayers - N
pajamas - N
Minnie, Mickey and stars - O
our garden - S
pears - O
cars to drive - S
my mom and dad - O
mom's cooking - N
apples - N
leaves - O
jumping in leaves - N
Levi's naps - M
my sewing machine - M
electricity - H
princess dresses - O
doctors - S
flex time - S
warm clothes - S
a temple close by - S
computer - N
my brothers - N
movies - N
ninjago - N
house - H
books - H
internet - H
muddy buddies - M
a helpful mom - H
Rapunzel - O
princess dolls - O
blueberries - O
obedient children - M
Levi - H
strong bodies - S
strawberries - O
Legos - N
tomatoes - O
listening - N
gravy - H
rolls - S
football - S
music - L
vitamins - N
Cinderella cup - O
friends - H
safe neighborhood - S
piano - M
chicken nuggets - O
board games - H
mommy's effort - O
soldiers - M
turkey trot - N
mom's green thumb - S
green lawn - M
tools - S
our freedoms - M
the great plan of salvation - H
puffs - L
free roaming to crawl - L
veterans - N
thanksgiving - N
mashed potatoes - S
our time on earth - H
sandbox - O
family activities - S
KOG - H
a helpful dad cook - M
birds - O
books - L
home teachers - S
candy - N
schools - S
cousins - O
creativity - S
flowers - O
thanksgiving dinner - H
vacation from school - H

The boy's beds

The construction of the boy's beds was a long time coming.  Since Noah was born, the two of them have always been in the same room.  For all of our time in San Diego and Maryland, we had them in an Ikea bunkbed.  After a few months in this house, we decided to sell the bunk bed (yeah craigslist!) and make them some more traditional beds.  As usual, Mollie found a plan on Ana White's website (http://ana-white.com/2010/02/plans-simple-bed-full-size-inpsired-by.html).  These looked very sturdy and not too difficult to make.  Of course, everything takes longer when you actually make it.

I rarely have a full Saturday to dedicate to these projects.  With soccer games and lawn care, the day always goes too fast.  I started with the headboards and footboards.  Mollie and I were forced to improvise when we could not find any 4x4 posts at our local Lowe's.  We bought 2x4 and some hardward that would allow us to attach the side rails to a 2x4 instead. (This involved a little bit of learning with my router.)

I got the beds put together right about the time that I grew frustrated with the boys jumping on their mattresses.  For some reason, mattresses on the floor are the perfect jumping toy.  But when I put them on a framed bed, then that does not happen.  I was so rushed in fact, that I didn't do any finishing.  They slept on raw wood beds for a few months.  Then (after finishing other more pressing projects) I got back to the beds.  We had since found 4x4 lumber at Home Depot (not Lowe's)  and were ready to take on the task of correcting the posts and finishing it.  I'll note only in passing how much I hate finishing.  The endless sanding, filling, resanding. One way that we get around this is to use spray paint.  Because I don't have to wait hours inbetween coats, we can paint the whole thing in less than an hour.

Here's the finished project: