Me & My Turkeys

Fun with my turkeys on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week-end was full of fun.  Getting into the spirit of things, we made Turkey Apples after school let out for the holidays Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday we made the house smell delicious with 4 different types of pies. Thursday couldn't come soon enough! Apparently, pumpkin pie works well as a hat as well...

The best part of the holidays is always spending time together with each other. 

Some of our favorite people came to visit for Thanksgiving, Don's sister Rachel & her fun roommate Theresa.

We spent lots of time together up at Don's parents house, eating delicious food & having fun playing games together, watching football, going to movies and of course, decorating Grammy's Christmas tree.

Fall Fun

It's been a busy month.  Once we got past all 5 kids getting a stomach bug within 48 hours, it's been smooth sailing.  Here are some of the fun highlights:

Michael is hard to keep track of some days...and nights.  Between school, playing ball with his friends, going to dances and camping, he is one busy freshman.

Michael, Quinten & Ade at a Stake Dance

Trevor has been busy with school projects which have included oral reports on the Mormon Migration, West Virginia, and his favorite, the Sweet Potato Harvest.  Last spring his class planted sweet potatoes as part of a science project & were able to harvest them this month.  He brought home 9 pounds of sweet potatoes for me to cook up & bring to school for a Sweet Potato Sampler day.  The majority of the remaining hundreds of sweet potatoes were donated to the Houston Food Bank.  Definitely one of the best projects they've ever done!  

Trevor & his friend Grant enjoying the fruits of their labors.

This month Hayley won the award for number of field trips.  I was able to go to one of the trips to a local college science lab where they did a few hours of hands on science experiments, including making lip gloss.  Hayley won the Character Star of the week at school last month for being kind and cooperative.  She also made her broadcasting debut doing the morning pledge at school during the morning announcements.  It was fun to hear her over the loudspeaker.  This week Hayley got her hair cut, so a picture of the new 'do will be coming soon!

Hayley with her neon green test tube

Jake has had a great fall.  He loves school and has made lots of new friends.  A quick game of tag after school with his friends on the playground is mandatory before we can leave most days.  It's fun to see older siblings join in on the game too.  Jake was able to go to his first "school friend's birthday party" this month.  What could be better than a party at a firestation.  They got to climb all over the truck and get the tour of the station too, followed up by pizza and cake with ice cream.  It was the perfect morning with his friends.

Jake with his kindergarten buddies at the fire station.

Luke is just lovin' life. He mimics all his older siblings and friends, and thinks he is as big as they are. If they can play it, eat it, or in my case, cook it, so can he.  During the school day, he keeps busy with the 2 kids I babysit, but his favorite time of day is always when everyone comes home from school.  We just love his fun smile and easy going personality.

 Luke discovering a love of Play Doh...especially playing with the containers.

We can't recap the month without a mention of Don's birthday.  We had fun playing and partying together, and of course, eating the delicious Texas Sheet Cake with Blue Bell Ice Cream.  Good times!

Our Tree

Last night we put up our Thankful Tree, a fun tradition we started last year.  Everyday we add at least one leaf that says something we are grateful for.  We also talked about this great talk by President Monson. Here is a snippit of the talk:

"A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that 'feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.'”

So Let's Give Thanks!

The Gratitude Challenge

I stumbled across this - what a great idea, especially to start November & this amazing season!

http://www.gratitudechallenge.com/

Happy Halloween

We had a week-end full of Halloween fun.  Friday night we finally went and picked out our pumpkin.  There were lots of fun ones to choose from.

Saturday morning it was time to carve.  Jake designed the face and Hayley, Jake & Luke had a blast with goop and seeds.  Luke thought it was funny to dump the container of seeds back into the pumpkin when we were just about finished. 

Saturday night was a fun trunk or treat at the church. 

The cast: a jedi, a pirate, a cowboy, and a cheerleader

Jake went as Obi-Wan this year again, sticking with the Star Wars theme of the last 4 years.

Hayley cheered us on all night long!

Trevor plundered all night long.

Luke was one of many Woody's there...although he was an original,
wearing Michael's costume from 12 years ago when the 1st Toy Story came out!

Luke finally figuring out what it is all about!

Jake & his best buddy Emmy, still trying to "hit the jackpot!"

Trev's bounty was over 16 pounds! (Hayley was close behind with 15 lbs!)

Sunday afternoon we had fun separating and counting the good stuff while watching a Halloween movie together. 

Hundreds of pieces of candy...Sweet dreams for sure!

Hope your Halloween was spooktackular too!

Halloween 2010

I know that my Savior Loves Me

On Sunday we had the Children's Sacrament Program at church. The theme this year was "I know that my Savior Loves Me". I was lucky enough to be involved with teaching the children the first half of the year, and absolutely loved working with them on this theme and the beautiful music they learned. It was so wonderful to watch them on Sunday, and listen to their sweet testimonies and the music they sang. Below is a video of one of the beautiful songs they sang on Sunday.

Jake, Hayley & Trevor all had speaking parts in the program.  Jake spoke about the Holy Ghost and Hayley gave a talk about her baptism & of course, just had to wear her baptism dress.  Trevor had a couple of speaking parts,  including telling the story of the miracle of Christ calming the storm.  The 3 of them also sang one of the verses of a song, Follow the Prophet, by themselves. They did a fantastic job. I think this is one of the first times Jake has actually sang all the songs in front of the congregation. His expressions are priceless, he is all business up there!

Because everyone was dressed up nice on Sunday (someone was even wearing a tie!), we tried to get a quick picture. Luke kept running out of the shot towards me, so it was really more of an action pose as everyone was taking a step forward to be in the picture with him.

18 months update

It's hard to believe Luke is already 18 months old.  He had his check-up last week and the latest stats are: 2'9" tall (75% ), 26 lbs (50 %) & head circumference of over 20 inches (off the charts...that's our Mangum noggin'!).  The weight may be a little sketchy.  For the first time ever in all my visits to the pediatrician, Luke refused to get to the scale, throwing a ginormous fit, screaming, arching, kicking....you get the picture.  It was so bad, the doctor came in the room because he thought someone was hurt.  This from my normally easygoing, chill-out kid.  So the only other alternative was for me to go in the hallway and stand on the big scale with him, & then weigh me without him.  Lovely.  Of course, as soon as I sat him down & I stood on the scale, he took off streaking down the hall, looking back at me laughing.  Such a goof.

Luke loves to play with legos and blocks.  He is always climbing into or on top of things, like the table or on the keys of the piano, trying to get on top of the piano.  His favorite time of day is usually when his brothers & sister come home from school.  But Luke's absolute favorite thing to do is cook.  He loves to get the pots and pans out, complete with a spoon and hot pad & go to town.  Luke only says a few words right now, but it is fitting that one of them is "hot" & he will always point to the stove when I am cooking, wave his hand & say "hot, hot".

Luke thinks he is so big, just like his brothers. He loves to color like Hayley & read books like Jake. He is great at cleaning things up & always wants to be in the middle of the action. He hates to be left behind. Luke is always the first one to the door after family prayer in the morning because he knows it is time to leave for school & he wants to make sure he isn't left behind. A couple of weeks ago Michael was going camping. We opened the door to go load up the car & Luke grabbed the sleeping bag and carried it all the way out to the car, very determined to be a part of the action.

One of the best parts about being 18 months old is being able to go into the nursery at church - woohoo!  One of his favorite things there is playing with the bubbles & watching him try to blow the bubbles is hilarious.  I got a lot of soapy kisses on Sunday! 

We love you sweet Luke!

Family Recipe by Hayley

Found posted on the chalk board today...

Being Happy (Family recipe)

Say a prayer more than three times a day

Thank Jesus for stuff we have.

Be kind.

Show respect.

Choose the right.

Stir well.

Now you have a happy person!

Thanks Hayley! We love your recipes :)

YMCA Halloween

Friday night we went to our YMCA's annual Halloween party.  It was a fun night of games, pumpkin painting, haunted houses, fortune telling and face painting.  Jake was so excited after his fortune was read.  Apparently he is going to be president one day.  Woohoo! 

Hayley with flower face paint

And of course, we went on your typical Halloween live camel rides! 

Jake and Trevor had a blast.

Hayley loved the dancing and hula hoop contests.

Luke had fun just watching everything and trying to snag his brothers lollipops all night.

Let the hauntings begin!

Looking for trouble

Quiet is good, except when it gets too quiet...you know the kind of quiet I mean. Too quiet can mean trouble. So I sometimes I have to go looking for trouble. And this time, I love what I found ...

Melt my heart - books and kids giggling, some of my favorite things.  Love it!

Just Me & my Brothers

Luke has got to be one of the luckiest, most loved kid brothers of all time. All the kids are great with him. Hayley has a special bond with Luke, but sometimes there is just something about big brothers that is a little bit different.

Maybe it's the way they take you crazy down the slide (or try to do underdogs on the baby swings!)

Or cuddle together,laughing at crazy homemade Star Wars videos...

Or spin you upside down, then put you on their shoulders and run around crazy...

No matter what, these brothers stick together.

Luke just started the flop when he doesn't get his way. One morning I took something away from Luke and upset, he immediately flopped to the floor to start his fit.  Right then, all 3 boys simultaneously flopped right next to him & started wailing so loud, Luke lifted his head off the floor and started laughing hysterically. It was classic...and he hasn't flopped since!