It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have had a Christmas themed weekend here. It started off on Friday (after I went shopping!) by going to the mall for the deck the mall. The kids got to decorate a cookie, horse and carriage rides(too rainy) and milk and cookies with Santa. Avery was so excited to see the big man himself! Zack of course was too old for the picture. Then Saturday was the Prescott annual light parade at the square. We all know how Avery loves loghts so this is right up her alley. We had a great spot staked out and had a great time. Zack didn't join us this year since he wanted to stay at his friends birthday party. He is growing up so much I know all too soon he won't want to do very many "boring" things with us. He still does love doing most things though. This I let him skip for some much needed boy time!
Also this weekend Keith put up the loghts on our house. The kids look forward to this time since they get to join him on the roof. Avery has NO fear and walks right up to the edge and almost gives me a heart attack! She didn't stay on very long. I will post a picture of the finished project tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent this day thanking God for all of the blessings in our life! We have so many it is almost impossible to count them all. What a wonderful life God has given us!

The morning started out with some cool weather and the clouds were so low I had to take a picture of them on the mountains. The girls wanted to help me with the cooking again this year. They love to cut up the apples for the applesauce. They also helped with the pumpkin pie, the fruit turkey (see picture below) and made napkin rings. It was such a wet day we couldn't really get outside. After we ate we went to see the movie Bolt. It was so cute! We ended the night going to see the Valley of the Lights. This is free except by donation so we go often during this season. Avery is so amazed by lights and it is so fun to watch her! We had such a great day together we just wish we could have seen all of our extended family as well. We miss you all!

Craft time

We have been busy this past couple of days getting our school work done and doing some crafts. The kids and I made indian headbands and tomorrow we will make pilgram ones. Today we went to the library for craft time with Miss Joyce. They made cornhusk dolls, pinecone turkeys and turkey ring toss. Zack was at his friend's house so it was just the girls and I. We had fun until Kaylee got upset because her turkeys legs wouldn't stay on. They turned out really cute and will be our centerpiece on Thanksgiving. On another note I thought I was seeing things when gas went under $2.00! It is so nice to be able to fill up my tank for under $40.00 again. We also seem to have a jack-o-lantern in our house. Kaylee keeps losing her teeth and they never grow back in. She now has 3 holes awaiting new teeth!

Our weekend

This weekend we had a lot of fun family time. On Saturday we stayed around the house and cleaned. The boys went mini golfing to have some guy time. That night we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner thanks to a gift card from Grandma and Grandpa. Then we decided toset up our Christmas tree. I know it is so early but the kids are already into the season. We usually do it on Thanksgiving but we wanted to be able to look at our tree during turkey dinner. The kids love decorating the tree. It is so nice to sit back and have all the decorating done for you. Although sometimes I have to have them slow down! After we set that up we enjoyed hot chocolate and watched The Santa Clause.
Today we worked on the garage cleaning it out and getting stuff for ebay. Then we decided to go hiking. We haven't got to go in awhile since we have been so busy. We went over to Lynx Creek, one of our favorite spots. Avery of course had to be our leader until she pooped out and had to get a ride on Daddy's top bunk. We had a fun time spotting all of the fairies homes (holes in the trees). It was a great day here in the low 70's or so. After the hike we went over to Awanas and Keith and I enjoyed a coffee together. What a great relaxing weekend!

A busy week

The last couple days of this week have been quite busy! On Thursday the kids and I went with some friends down to the park at Anthem. The kids love to go here as they have a huge play structure, sprinklers, ducks to feed, a rollar rink and a skate park. They really enjoyed the sprinklers this time since it was so warm! It is so nice to go during the day of course when all the other kids are in school.
After a fun day at the park we had a party that night for a Jessie Tree ornament swap. This will be our first year doing the Jessie tree and kids are so excited. It starts on December first and goes to Christmas. Every day there is a bible story and an ornament that goes with it. We had a group of 25 ladies each made 25 of the same ornament and then we go swap so everyone has all of them. It was so cute to see how creative all the ladies were. The kids had a great time as well playing outside in the dark on their property. They had a big bonfire and played hide and seek.
On Friday we had to go back to base to get my new ID that expired. We also took some things down to the thrift store. While we were there we bought a game of twister for 50 cents. The kids have had a lot of fun with it! We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to Build a Bear with some gft cards we found. They were so excited since it has been so long since we have been to one. Zack picked a coyote, Kaylee a koala bear and Avery dog. We headed home and stopped in Antem to eat a pretzel. It was a lot of fun!
Tonight we set up our tree. It is so early but the kids get so excited for the Christmas season we decided to do it this weekend. We usually do it Thanksgiving night. I will post pictures of that tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be another quite day. Just church and then home. AWANAS is a short night and most things are cancelled this week so it should be quite. We will be doing a lot of crafts and fun things this week!

Just another week

It has been a rather uneventful week around here. The usual business but nothing too exciting. We have started a new history program which the kids love that's called Story of the World. Tonight the kids had flight school at church and for rally night they brought in a drag racing car. The kids were so excited to see it so I took a couple pictures of them by it!