Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all are having a wonderful day and that you're surrounded by loved ones (and not too stressed about it either)!

In preparation for our Thanksgiving meal, I did something I haven't done in years.  I made a chocolate pie.  Not just any chocolate pie either, it's the kind of pie my grandmother and mom would make when I was growing up.  It's quite special.  

I'll share the family recipe with you all though.  First you make a traditional crust.  I use the recipe out of my Betty Crocker cookbook that my grandma gave me when I got married.  Then you cook the crust and let cool.

After that you take a box of Instant Jello Chocolate Pudding and mix it per instructions and pour it into the pie crust.   Ta-da!  There you have it, the chocolate pie of my youth.  Simple, but tasty.  

The Thanksgiving Chocolate pie (and a mini apple pie for James).

 

I told the kids I'd make us the chocolate pie and then showed Taylor the finished product in the fridge last night.  It was bedtime, so as I walked her upstairs to her room, I told her all about how her great-grandma and nana used to make that same pie for me when I was her age.  

"Really!?!" she said, "Can I get the recipe?"

"Sure, I think I handle that,"  I answered.

"Then I can make it for my kids someday!"  she finished.

 

This morning the kids have been working on their Thankful Lists.   

 

Here are some of the things Logan is thankful for: 

(in no particular order)

Jesus, Nexus, boots, books, toys, money, cups, food, scissors, Taylor, myself, H2O, paper, electricity, pens, Daddy, Mommy, cars, Legos, birds, house, bed, USA, the human body, cords, pencils and ears.  

Taylor's list, (in no particular order):

Heavenly Father, Jesus, family, toilet paper, boots, Mom, Dad, books, toys, cars, Nexus, scissors, tape, butterflies, rainbows, US flag, pencils, clipboards, skeletal system and eyeballs.

I think they're off to a great start.  I'm thankful to have made it on their lists.  It's always nice to know someone is grateful for you!

Logan's is very interested in birds lately.  It started out as a Cub Scout thing, but he wants to continue to learn more.  We've checked out lots of books from the library and we've sprinkled bird seed in our backyard to attract birds.  

 

Logan uses some binoculars to do some birdwatching out our back window.  A few days after we put out bird seed we noticed lots of small birds out there.  Logan looked them up in his bird fieldguide and decided they are Oregon Race Sparrows.  He also observed that, "birds move a lot, that's why they're so hard to investigate!"

Well, I need to get back to our holiday festivities. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

By the way, I'm thankful for you!!! 

 

 

    

 

 

Camping With Papa

 Papa.  That's what my kids call my father.  And they adore him. You'll soon see why.

We recently went camping with him.  Well, he was hunting and we joined him for a couple of days. 

The kids loved it.  They got to sleep in a tent.  They got to have a campfire and roast marshmallows and decide that they like them better not roasted.  They got Pop Tarts (a little camping tradition I can't get rid of). 

With James in school all summer, this was the first time we'd gone camping in months.  In fact, James wasn't able to come with us because he was... in school.  

 My dad taught them to fish.  Logan was so excited about that.
(I remember Dad teaching me to fish when I was a kid.  I remember those very same tackle boxes.  I remember Blue Gill and Large Mouth Bass.  I remember having fun on the lake with my dad).  

 Now here we are, my dad teaching my children to fish.  All eager to learn. 

Taylor even held the pole for about two minutes.

Then she was off to walk around and see how close she could get to the water before I got after her.  She looked in the water and discovered dozens of tiny fish.  Then she and I went on a walk and let the serious fishermen carry on.

Logan loved fishing and didn't want to stop.  We saw a fish jump to the left of the dock and then felt it jump under the dock.  Logan was determined to catch a fish because he knew there was at least one out there.
 

 He was getting pretty good at casting by the time we left. 

 Then Papa taught Logan to shoot a bow and arrow.  Logan thought it was the best thing ever.  That's all he wanted to do, the rest of the time we were camping. 

 We went over some safety rules for both shooting the bow and for fishing.  After that Logan kept saying he couldn't shoot the bow and arrow without "safety vision.  You know when a grown-up has to be with me."   (Supervision)

 We all learned to shoot the bow and we all practiced enough to get pretty decent too. 

 Logan, the Archer.  He kept asking if we could "do archery."

 It was beautiful weather while we were camping.  Cold though, partly due to the fact that we didn't really pack well for cold weather camping.  Snow was forcasted for that night or next day.  So we decided, much to the kids' disappointment, to cut the camping short by a day.  

 This is what camp looked like the next day or so.  Glad we missed it. 

 It's beautiful though.

Anyway, you can see why the kids love spending time with Papa.  He's always busying doing something and usually it's something really cool, like camping or chopping wood or fixing some broken thing or another.  

They also love him to read stories to them and sit on his lap or just talk to him.  They love him to show them how things work, such as one of his clocks.   

Thanks for being the best Papa in the whole wide world! We all love you more than anything!  

Love you Dad!!!  

 

Taylor's new look

Taylor's pretty excited about something.

Here's a  BEFORE picture.

  DURING.

And AFTER.

 

 So so pretty, with earrings! 

The other night Taylor told me she wanted to get her ears pierced.  That was the first time we'd ever talked about it, but it seems she had been thinking about it for some time.  She'd noticed friends with pierced ears and then finally decided she wanted hers pierced too.

I told her she needed to talk to her dad about it.  So she did.  James was very sweet.  He told her how beautiful she is, just the way she is and that she doesn't need earrings to be pretty.  She readily agreed with him, so he said she could get her ears pierced.  

She had birthday money from her grandparents, so she went for it.  She was super excited and couldn't wait.  The first ear piercing went fine.  Then it started to hurt, but the lady quickly pierced the second ear before Taylor could change her mind.  Once the initial pain wore off she was happy again.  She was very brave and tough.  Never shed a tear, until we had to clean and twist them that night.

She tells anyone who will listen that she has her ears pierced now.