Thanskgiving

Well, I promised photos for Thanksgiving but it was such a day that I didn't take any photos. Sorry! I will try to paint a picture with these words...LOL

Anyways, we cleaned and played Wednesday trying to get this small house ready for a lot of people. We baked our pies Wednesday night too. 2 Pumpkins, 1 Apple, 1 Lemon Meringue Needless to say we had fun! Thursday we got up late...6:00am and Jessica put the turkey in and KJ made some cranberry tea in the crock pot. After that Jessica started all the other cooking. Mashed taters, yams (2 kinds) frog eyed salad, Deviled eggs, Stuffing(in the turkey) Ham, Turkey, gravy, relish tray, corn, and rolls (made by our friends). We had the elders, Bob, and a new family in our Branch over. We had to get a table from the church to hold everyone. By the time everyone went through, it didn't even look like we had touched most of the food! This was the Elders first of three dinners. Bob was tired by 2:00pm and we sent leftovers home. Haylee and Adam and Jack stayed until around6:00pm playing games. Jack is 2 1/2. We had so much fun! We then visited two widows of the branch with pie. Lastly we had the missionaries back over for pie that evening. It was such a fun and enjoyable day. It was great to be in our house, to talk to family and to be able to get to know the new family more.

Hope all your Thanksgiving days were as wonderful as ours! Can't wait for our next blog...as it seems I might actually get back into the swing of keeping in touch again!

Halloween

What a fun time of year this is. Our family is getting ready to be very busy with the Community Choir Jessica is singing in for Christmas, and all the things a Branch President gets to do in the month of December. We are very excited to be together as a family and build on the traditions we started last year. Holli is so excited for Christmas as she remembers last year well. Halloween was fun this year too. There is a book from the library about kids who dress up as bug superheros. Holli was butterfly girl and JD was bumblebee boy. We homemade most of their costumes and had such a blast. We went to the church party and then hit a few neighborhood houses. We still have candy left!

Our trunk for the Church Halloween party.
The back of their costumes.
Meet Butterfly girl who's powers are using her smart brain to figure things out and Bumblebee boy who is so tough with his stinger.
Our pumpkins!

One year later...

I guess blogging is out of style! I just wanted to add some current pictures up for anyone who still might be reading this blog. I am going to try and start up again because this really is a good way to feel up to date with family and friends.

This is our family picture. It's not perfect but warms our hearts to look at those little ones! We took this up in the mountains near our house.

KJ took JD to his first Priesthood session. They looked so cute in their matching red ties and all!
During hunting season, Holli saw some deer out in the field and just had to shoot them like Dad did. So she took her bow, shot about 6 feet and was the happiest little girl on the planet telling everyone how she got to really shoot a deer.
This summer we got a tramp from a neighbor who was moving. The kids spent countless hours jumping on that thing. It has been great!!
Natalie and KJ are playing Wii. They are boxing and it's about 11:30pm! It was so funny to see them at it!

Some other things we've been doing. We have put in a deck out the back of our house, a walk way to it and the sliding glass door. We also did sod up front and put in Natural Gas. KJ's boot shop was put in during May and he is now moved up there. This winter we hope to really vamp up advertising and get the business very busy again. Holli and JD are growing like weeds. JD is talking some. This, That, Cat, Dog, and Mom and his favorite words right now. Holli is doing some preschool at home. She loves to do it and loves to learn the letter of the week. Jessica was released from Relief Society and is back in Nursery for now. Branch living is SO much fun... Hope to post more soon.

October doings

The real side of Holli. She is so happy! So wild! So wonderfully 2.
Yes, JD is INSIDE the pumpkin! It was so big! Holli loved showing off her pumpkin!
JD was all about the "Icky" stuff inside Holli's pumpkin.
Once again, Holli would not help carve the pumpkins! Icky she kept saying.
We spent 1 1/2 weeks down in Sanford. Holli, Jed, and Porter all played so well together. In fact, we still are praying for Porter at prayer time and we play "Jed & Porter" with paper towel cardboard swords.
The Family at Halloween. JD was a hunter. Somewhere there was even an orange bib. Holli was a fairy for the pictures and a princess the rest of the time. (She wouldn't wear the wings anymore)
Holli went through a spell where she had to sleep on the floor. I told her one night that she had to start out in her room and if she woke up she could come into our room. I found her at 3am just barley inside our room, fast asleep. So asleep that she didn't wake up when I tripped over her!
Holli has learned that if she pushes her bike to the top of the ramp, she can coast down it. She has so much fun doing this. It's tough to learn how to ride a bike on dirt roads!
Wednesdays are long days for us since KJ has meetings that night. We pulled out the fort and set it up. I have to admit that once it was up, not much playing was done inside it. They'll play more in forts as they grow up.
Our first taste of foods. JD did ok with his first taste. Not nearly as good as Holli did, but we are up to eating 3 times a day and loving food! :)