~birthday~

So my birthday was a couple of days after Thanksgiving. Even though I had to work I still had a great Birthday! The boys took me out for dinner. Where I opened up a gift that they gave me. They bought me a purse, some gloves and some earrings.(I also got a purse from my dad and step-mom, some cloths, a visa gift card and some goodies from my mom and Roger, Peggy gave me some money and lots of birthday wishes from family members. It was a great day! Thanks to everyone for making my birthday such a special one!

Fun at the park!

 Bry really wanted everyone to go to the park. So before Rachel and Bennett had to go home we took the kids to the park to burn some energy! Johnny Apple Seed park was a huge hit with everyone! Even the adults had a great time! The kids wanted to play tag and they talked Bennett, Rachel and Kimney into playing with them! There were a few other kids at the park with their families and they joined in the fun!

Kode hiding high up on the equipment hoping that no one would be able to tag him from below!

 

 the girls just wanted to swing in the tire swing!

 

 Bry and Kris! (Kris is a neighbor boy of ours. He was in the area when we all decided to go to the park so Bry asked if he could join us. Hes a great kid so I had no problem with him hanging with us for a while)

 

Jordan loves the monkey bars. She played on these for a long time!

 

All in all everyone had a great time playing at the park!

Our Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving was a great one this year! Mac's family came to our house for Thanksgiving this year! It was so fun to have everyone at our house! We had Rebecca, Dave, Peggy, Kimberly, Bennett, Rachel and their 3 kids! We had a full house but we all had a great time!

Jordan, Kimney and Hannah playing a card game!

 

Kode, Bry, Kris, and Bennett playing a little ball!

 

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner was lots of fun! Everyone helped with all of the food!

It was so nice that not only 1 or 2 people had to do all of the cooking. We socialized, snacked, told stories and laughed a lot while we cooked!

 

Kode just loved being in the kitchen helping out where ever he could! Grandma Peggy taught him how to make stuffing!

 

Bry, Hannah, Isaac and Jordan played the Wii, played board games, and played in the back yard. They had a great time just hanging out!

 

Just putting the finishing touches on the stuffing!

Great Job Kode!

 

Mac got a really cool cook book from Roger a few months ago and in that book it had a recipe that recommends you cook your turkey on the BBQer! So he decided to give it a try. The turkeys were so good and moist! This picture does not make the turkeys look very good. But they were so good. I would defiantly BBQ turkeys again!

 

Dave brought a spiral ham. So him and Mac decided to cook it in the dutch oven! The ham was wonderful! I am not sure why food is so much better in the dutch oven but it is!

So the boys are checking on the ham!

 

Kode and Mac checking on the turkeys!

They are just about ready!

 

Rachel cutting up some nuts for a salad!

 

Just about time to eat!

 

Dave cutting up the ham!

 

Mac cutting up the turkey!

(sorry not a very good picture but that's all I got)

 

Just finishing up the last minute things!

 

Time to eat!!

 

The kids enjoying all of the wonderful food!!

 

Jordan and Hannah enjoying their turkey dinner!

Rebecca and Dave

 

Bennett and Rachel

 

Grandma Peggy and Kimney

 

Everyone enjoyed playing basketball in the basement!

Mac shooting a few hoops!

Rachel and Bennett enjoyed competing against each other to see who could score the most points in one minute! It was fun to see everyone enjoying playing basketball!

 

Dave and Rebecca brought a very fun card game called The Great Delmonti!

Its a card game for all ages. Old and young! We played that game for hours!

Here are just a few of us playing the card game!

 

Isaac and Jordan playing battleship!

 

I am not sure what we were thinking but some of us decided to venture out on Thursday night and check out the black Friday/Thursday sales. The parking lot was so crazy (as a matter of fact when we were pulling into the parking lot there were 2 ambulance's pulling out) but we decided we still wanted to see what this black Friday sales was all about!

Just about to walk into the chaos!

 

We all found a little bit of something that we wanted to purchase for a Christmas gift! None of us had ever been Black Friday shopping before. It was interesting to say the least. Most people in the store were going crazy on the movies, games, and TVs! None of us were interested in any of that stuff. But those people that are there for that stuff were a little crazy and they were doing just about anything to get what they wanted! But all in all our venture out to the store was not very bad!

 

Anyway our Thanksgiving was a great one! Thanks to all of Mac's family for driving to our house for Thanksgiving! It was fun to have you at our house!

Seft Portrait

This drawing of Kode was setting on the table the other day! I had a good chuckle when I saw it the other day! I asked Kode how come he drew this of himself and he said he had some spare time throughout the week in class so he decided to draw himself! Good Job Kode!You did a great job!

~Decorating~

 So we decided to get our Christmas stuff set up a little early this year! Since we are going to be having lots of family at our house for Thanksgiving this year and Mac is having a work Christmas party the weekend after Thanksgiving we thought that we better get our stuff up and get it up quick! The time is going by so fast and if we wait I am afraid that it just wont get done! So we are officially ready for Christmas at our house!

The boys love helping me put the decorations on the tree and they do a great job of helping me!

 

Kode has a good eye on where the ornaments need to go so there are no holes on the tree!

then it was time for Mac to set up the village! Wow that's a job in itself! It takes a long time to get his village set up! He even had to add another level onto the table in order to get all of the villages set up! We add a couple of villages to our set each year! If we don't quit purchasing villages soon we will have so many that we will have to set up the scene in the middle of the living room and its gonna take up the hole living room! Anyway this collection has been so much fun to collect!

 

Then I asked Bry if he would set up the manger scene. He loves to set it up so he was very eager to do this and he did a great job of setting it up!

All in all we are all ready for the holiday! Its gonna be a great one this year!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

You only get one day a year to eat lots of  turkey so enjoy yourself!

Have a great day!!

Basketball

 Kode had another Basketball game the other night! This was a very important game cause his team was playing against one of our neighbors. (this particular little neighbor boy has been egging Kode on and being real mean to him for a few weeks now and when he found out that his team was going to be playing Kodes game he was walking around the neighborhood and school saying that his team was gonna kick Kodes teams butt. One of these days Kode is gonna have enough of this kids mouth and he is gonna give him the what for!) So we were hoping that things were going to favor Kodes team! Anyway it was a great game!

Kode got to be one of the starters on the team that night!

I love it that both coaches are willing to give Kode a little more one on one coaching when he is confused! The coaches are so willing to work with him and take the time to answer his questions as he has them! This has been so good for him! 

 

 at the start of the game the other team had a technical foul.(all the kids have to have pure black shorts on. No color on the shorts what so ever, If anyone on the team does then they automatically get a technical foul) So the ref asked Kode's coach to choose a kid to shoot 2 free throw shots and Kode's coach choose Kode. We were so happy for Kode. He made the first shot and scored a point for his team. Although he missed the second shot. But hey that was great of him to make the first one cause he has never practiced shooting any free throws.

Great Job Kode!

 

 Let the game begin!

 

 Kode played a great game! He was very aggressive!

 

 and he did better at rebounding the ball this game!

 

 concentrating!

 

huddle up!

 

So the final score was:

35 to 16!

Yes Kodes team won the game!

We were so happy for his team. Great Job Lakers!!

 

Needless to say the little neighbor boy has said nothing to Kode about kicking their butt in basketball ever since! All I have to say is "Karma is a BLEEP isn't it!!!

 

Anyway this win puts us that closer to our team being able to go to finals in mid December! We are getting excited!

Baking

 So on Sunday all I did was bake pumpkin muffins for our thanksgiving feast! (they are for the kids and their families at my work) We cook with the children in class but theirs only 1 oven in the center and we are one of 5 other classes and there is only so much time that we have with the children during the day. And to be honest with you its so much easier to do it at home myself and get it done. I had to bake around 200 pumpkin muffins. It was a bit crazy but I did it! Woo-hoo yea for me!!

well here are the supplies that I used!!

 

before the oven

 

then after they came out of the oven!

 

I do have to say that my house smelt very good all day long cause of the muffins!

(It was funny cause Kode kept coming into the kitchen and asking if I was "done yet" and I would always say "no" It felt as though I would never finish!) Anyway, I am done prepping for that feast now I just have to focus on my families feast! 

Homework

 Homework!

An adventure everynight!

 

 

 

 

Bry had assigned homework each night from his teacher. (and lets just say he tries to get away with what ever he can. He has his teacher wrapped around his little fingers. She thinks he walks on the moon!) Well at home mom's not so nice. I make him do it all!

(I know I am such a mean mom. He tells me that all the time) 

 

As far as Kode! He dosen't have homework from his teacher. He has mom work. I have him do a math sheet each night and read to me! He gets so mad at me all the time cause I make him do it but its only going to help him in the long run!

 

Anyway homework is sometimes a pain but its something that needs to be done each night. Its a good habit to get into. School is only going to get harder and harder!