giving thanks

Our Thanksgiving was pretty low key. We missed our families, but we were thankful to be together this year and for Ross to be celebrating in America. The holidays in Afghanistan last year just makes it seem to him like he hasn't had Thanksgiving and Christmas in forever! We enjoyed our slow mornings with the kids off of school and just hung out. The weather was full of sunshine and warmth, so we played outside a bunch too. We made hand turkeys and each wrote what we were thankful for on the fingers and the warm sunshine definitely made my list for the day!

Ten on the Tenth

The idea is to take ten photos on the tenth of the month and share it, documenting a day of your life and the ordinary moments. There is beauty in the ordinary.

so on my one day to sleep in a little, I was up with my brain running at 5:30 am. I think I still haven't adjusted to the time change! I did a bunch of blogging in the morning and then when I heard Max stirring a little upstairs I went in to see him. He heard me coming, so he covered himself, but still wanted to keep reading his book!



Zoey was still sleeping... That's Buford tucked under her arm. She has had him since she was 1!




Want to buy a house?? We are busy, busy doing stuff around the house to get it ready to sell.


We took a break for lunch and then had to get more supplies...





While we worked on some outside stuff, we had the kids ride bikes around the loop.



The kids were good about keeping themselves entertained all day while we worked... We promised to have a fun day tomorrow!



look at how straight Max is sitting while playing Mariokart. And do you see how his legs are? He's so flexible.



The kids were playing tag while Ross grilled. This was Zoey's first full day out of the Boot!!



And then we had a picnic dinner in front of the TV watching Texas A&M BEAT Alabama!! WHOOOOOOP!



and now, I am officially up to date on the blog! Hooray!

Wishing you a happy November filled with gratitude.

Fall Pictures

This year we went with another family to take family pictures at one of our metro parks. The weather was perfect and lovely and the leaves were too. And I did say we got some family pictures, that is, a picture with all of us in it! Hooray!! But, I am using one as a Christmas card, so here are just some other shots of the day!









Fall is really beautiful here.






As serious as she is sometimes, you can always count on her for this kind of stuff...

Trick or Treat!

We call it Beggar's Night here. It is always a set time and day. This year, Zoey picked out a Japanese Kimono style outfit, but in non-traditional prints. Sort of a Japanese Rocker or something. She saw something similar in a costume magazine, so we just found a pattern and she picked out fabric. It turned out really pretty.





It was really cold though, and rainy. Kind of a bummer for her costume.





Max doesn't care too much, about costumes or candy, so we just put a jersey on him... It was already starting to rain here.







The kids wanted to trick or treat alone, so they did! We have a loop neighborhood and we know everyone, so it was fun to let them go. Besides the hail, they were excited about it all, despite what Max's face looks like...

Pumpkin Carving

We didn't actually carve our pumpkins after we bought them. We were so busy and then our town schedules our Trick or Treating (for Oct 30- don't ask) so I didn't think we would actually get to it. But, Hurricane Sandy brought us some rainy, windy, cold weather and the town rescheduled Trick or Treating for Nov 3. Weird, but all things considered, it worked out. Our actually Halloween was kind of uneventful, but Saturday, Nov 3 was fun.

Zoey designed and carved her entire pumpkin and then she carved Max's too after he drew on his! Mind is the one with the knife sticking out of it.


max starts off with a Sharpie. He always goes traditional.





Zoey uses actually pumpkin carving tools, you know, the little mini saw things with the orange handles. She was successful with two pumpkins. Mine broke (that sort of happens to me a lot) so I just used a knife.





Sawing away...


And Ross... Well, he busts out the power tools.





He did a good job though. he drew and carved this guy... Hi Patrick!



and here are our finished products... Mine is the one with flowers and Zoey's is a vampire Jack-o-lantern



Max's ...



Zoey's...


Mine... The light comes through both the whole and petals, kind of neat.


And Ross's


I don't have any lit pictures in the dark because our trick or treating was from 4-6 (still light out) and in the middle of it, it was raining and hailing (all that after our reschedule). We came in early and headed to some friends house for post Halloween fun.

other random stuff...

One morning I was sitting in the kitchen and looked out the window and the whole sky outside was crazy pink. It was so different than normal...



Sometimes the kids are pretty sweet. It was cold and rainy and they were snuggled on each other watching something on TV.

Pumpkin Patch, part 2

We had a really warm stretch right before Halloween (temps in the 70's), so on our next outing to the pumpkin patch, it was actually warm.

here is Zoey showing off her HUGE boot! I had to get at least one picture of it, much to her disagreement.




typical Ohio scene...


This was the day we were actually planning to buy pumpkins, but our first stop didn't have a ton of variety, or even very big ones (maybe we were too late).

See Max on the bottom? He didn't want to be a part of this... I think he is partly bummed about being the one of the bottom


And by the time he actually gets in the face hole, Ross was done smiling.



I just realized that most of my blogging words describe how I can't get everyone to look at me for a picture! I am documenting life here, so whether they look or not, I suppose I just need to take the picture and move on...

so, moving on... Pumpkins. They look way bigger in the picture. These are pretty small and were on a shelf like a Christmas tree.



Lots of the pumpkin patches are near old barns with stuff in it that the kids and Ross like to explore.




We moved on to another pumpkin barn the same day.



Max went straight to the hay bales...


The roof of the barn, it is over 100 years old.