HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We spent our Thanksgiving day over at Stacy & Mike's house. We (again this year) had A LOT to be thankful for. We had a delicious meal and great company. We got to spend the day with Mike, Stacy, Megan, Alex, Dad, Bonnie and Jim & Marilyn McCullough.

Rena loved the olives. Luckily Stacy had extra cans on-hand! Maleah & Rena have a great time with Megan. They love hanging out with her reading books and playing dress-up with her dolls.
We don't usually see Cameron once we walk in the door at The McCullough's. He takes off to find Alex and spends the day with him playing with Alex's toys. Yesterday the Nerf shooters were a big hit!
Stacy was the cook and it was an excellent meal! Not even one lump in the gravy! :)
Time to eat!Luckily Dad & Bonnie were in town again this year. We are always glad when they are here to celebrate with us.
The kids -- Cameron, Alex, Megan, Maleah and Rena.
The BIG kids -- Jeff, Stefanie, Stacy and Mike.

OUR OWN LITTLE TURKEY

Rena made a lot of projects at school today that she was very proud of. I like the turkey hat the best, but she also has a new placemat and a new necklace.

A PRE-THANKSGIVING FEAST

I spent the morning this morning in Cameron's preschool classroom helping with their Thanksgiving Feast. It was a fun morning filled with painting projects, games, story time and food. The stories were, of course, focused around Thanksgiving and being thankful. Part of the story telling included each child telling what they were thankful for. It was pretty cute -- a lot of the kids just said the same thing that the 1st person said -- that they were thankful for dogs & cats, but a few others were original.....one little boy was thankful for gummy bears, a little girl was thankful for her mommy, daddy and two sister (which I later found out that she is an only child) and Cameron was thankful for his friends -- which nobody else had said. The Feast was good also.....not exactly traditional, but good. It consisted of chicken nuggets, fries, corn, cranberry sauce and a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie. The kids liked all of it!

Cameron's preschool class wearing the hats that they each made.

GOOD LOOKIN' HATS!

Dad and Bonnie arrived into town yesterday and along with them came new hats for everyone! Bonnie picked them up for the kids at a Crafts Fair that she went to.....except for dad's -- we're still trying to figure out where that one came from! :)

CAMERON BUILT A BIRDHOUSE

A few weeks ago Cameron decided that he and daddy needed to build something with some wood and nails. I asked him what he wanted to build and he just wasn't quite sure. So he and Rena started brainstorming. First they thought a teeter totter would be cool. I told them that a teeter totter would be cool, but that maybe they should think smaller for the first project. So they thought for a little while longer and then decided that a Lemonade Stand would be good for a first project. After that suggestion I decided to join them in brainstorming........and suggested a birdhouse! Cameron thought that sounded like a good idea so he got on the phone, called Jeff at work and told him that they need to build a birdhouse.

After a quick trip to Home Depot the work began.....

.....and a couple of weeks later we have got this red birdhouse outside of our dining room window just waiting for a bird or two to move in!

I WANT AN APPLE

You're going to have to jump higher, Rena!

Climb Cameron climb!

Thanks for the lift daddy!

RENA'S NEW HAIR-DO

I don't know if I can really call it a new hair-do or not since her last "style" wasn't much more than a bunch of long, straight, blonde hair on top of a little girls head. This cut isn't much different except that it's nicely controlled, tangle free, easy to brush and best of all her bangs are straight (since I wasn't the one cutting them!). Rena has been talking for weeks about going to the Beauty Salon and was very excited when we got there. She did great during the cut and luckily she loves her new beautiful look!

THE AFTER:

THE BEFORE:

I knew it was time to get this cut when the ends dipped into the toilet while she was trying to wipe the other day! YUCK (as Rena said)!!

MORE GHETTI, PLEASE

It has finally happened..........I have found a meal that all 3 kids like -- and they even ask for seconds! The good thing about the meal is that it's easy to fix. The bad thing is that it is MESSY! It is the only thing that we eat that the kids ever wear a bib (and that doesn't really even help). I'm not really sure if they actually like the spaghetti or if they just like the fact that they can "slurp" the noodles. At this point I don't really care what the reason is. I'm just excited that they are eating what I cook! :)

A PIRATE SHIP

Cameron and Jeff went over to the local Home Depot on Saturday morning for Cameron's first "do-it-yourself kids workshop". The project this month was a pirate ship. He got to build it at the store and then he came home and painted it red. He had a great time doing this and is very proud of his ship. I'm sure we will be doing many more of these Home Depot classes in the future!

IT'S SO EXCITING -- AND PINK

Today was a very big day for Rena........she finally got her preschool t-shirt this morning! We have been waiting for this t-shirt to arrive since the first day of school when we ordered it. She has asked her teacher Miss Connie about it several times in the past 2 months. So this morning when we took Cameron to school Miss Connie had it out and waiting for her. Rena was so excited that we had to put it on before we ever left the school. I think she really just wanted it to be like her big brother who has 2 of the same shirt in different colors. Whatever the reason is she sure is excited and proud of it!

OH RENA!

This is how much Rena loves her Halloween candy..... After dinner last night all of the kids got to choose a piece of candy out of their Halloween bags. Well, of course, after Rena ate hers she wanted another one. We told her that she could have another piece today. So, she picked out her candy for today and slept with it! When we went up to check on her last night this is what she looked like -- holding onto those Nerds so that no one would take them!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Cinderella

Winnie the Pooh

We spent last night trick-or-treating with our friends Leif, Jill, Campbelle and Christian. This is Campbelle and Cameron checking out their treasures and eating a treat after out trip around the neighborhood. The candy on the table is actually only Campbelle's and Christian's.........there was even more on the floor for Cameron, Rena and Maleah.

Here's Rena this morning deciding what to have for breakfast. She was so excited about her candy last night that she had to have her bag on her dresser next to her bed while she was sleeping. And, of course, she had it with her first thing this morning as she ventured downstairs extra groggy from a late night out last night.

We actually started our Halloween celebrations last Friday with a party at our house with Campbelle and Christian.

Christian and Rena decorating their Halloween cookies. YUMMY!

And last Saturday night we joined a group of friends at The Woodland Park Zoo for the annual "Pumpkin Prowl". It was a fun night!