Happy Thanksgiving!

These are the Pilgrim cookies we made this week. The bottom is a striped shortbread cookie. It's topped with a chocolate dipped marshmallow. We used icing to draw on the buckle. Very easy, very fun, and very tasty! See the chocolate mouth!

Ryan's either yelling "Touch Down" or "Ta Da"!

Kenzie and Katie were great with Ryan.

We enjoyed a fun and family-filled day at my cousin Julie's house in Loveland. The kids have such a great time together. I am so happy to have relatives nearby with whom to celebrate the day! We ate all the usual thanksgiving dishes and the girls especially loved tasting some of the 6 pies we had! Chocolate cream was a hit!

Can you see the chocolate around their mouths??

Cheese!!

I know this is dark but here's Ryan rocking out to Bill's Garage Band. He really enjoyed the music!

We've Elved ourselves! Merry Christmas... a bit early, but hey, why not?

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ryan's First...

Ryan really really needed a haircut. Yesterday, I took him to SportClips (because that's where the boys go!), sat him on my lap and he did really well getting his first haircut. Only at the end did he get a bit squirmy and I needed to pull out the sucker to distract him. I think it turned out pretty well.

Also this week, he's been taking a few first steps. They've been so random that I haven't been able to get the camera in time to record the momentous occasion. But I did get him on tape pushing his rocket car around and trying to keep up with it as he pushed it out ahead of him. It's pretty cute! Very soon, he'll be running around keeping up with his sisters!!

Catching up!!

First things first.... So long Marilyn Musgrave! The end of this political season means the end of Marilyn's term as Congresswoman. After 3 tries, the liberal bullies have pushed her out of office. This also means the end of Greg's job working as a Constituent Advocate, helping people on behalf of Marilyn. Please be in prayer that God will guide Greg as he initiates contacts and interviews and discovers where he's meant to be in this next season of our life.

Halloween 2008

Emily is a jester. Abby was a hula hula gal.

We thought Ryan would be a cute cow but the costume didn't fit. At that last minute, we dressed him as a cowboy- minus the irritating hat! They all got LOTS of candy for their troubles.

Emily lost her 2 top front teeth within 3 days! I have had the most fun trying to get her to say various things and listening to her lisp. "Say Christmas!" To which she'll reply "blah! I'm not falling for it, mom!"

Em also had to get glasses a couple weeks ago.

She LOVES them and they help her see better at church.

Here's Ryan playing a duet with Gretta Hansen.

Maybe they'll grow up to make beautiful music together!
Greg and Ryan enjoyed one of Emily's last soccer games this fall.

My two little girls are growing up.

I can't take a picture of them without them wanting to "strike a pose"!

Ryan's new past time is climbing into the dishwasher! He loves to put things in and take things out... Oh, to be young again and enjoy the simple things in life!

One day, he'll actually help put dishes in. Can't wait!

Another fun thing is to take pots and pans out and put them in and see how much noise a little boy can make! Can't wait for him to put these to work in the kitchen and make us some vittles!
Last but not least, we had the exciting opportunity to see Sarah Palin up close at a rally in Loveland. We waited in a line for almost 3 hours and barely made it in. At the last minute we were able to get VIP access and get up to the very front to see her. It was an incredible event- very fun!

This and That

I did something the other day with my girls that I used to do when I was a little girl. I would get together with my friend Sharon. She'd come to my house or I'd go to hers... we'd get into the cupboard and look for any ingredients we could reach. A little of This and That. Flour, sugar, butter, salt. We'd throw it all into a bowl, mix it up, stick in in a pan and bake. Most of the time it turned out hard as a rock. Usually tasted terrible, but it was so much fun!

So the other day the girls were wanting to bake something. I wasn't sure what if I had the ingredients to make something specific... so I thought it would be fun to just add various ingredients- without following a recipe. I encouraged or steered the girls away from adding things like ketchup and pepper... and we came up with quite a tasty cookie! Emily dutifully wrote down the measurements as we poured in our ingredients (just in case it was edible!). We came up with these little chocolate, peanut butter cookies rolled in coconut. They were yummy! Maybe next time I'll let them try out whatever ingredients they fancy and see what it would taste like... but I was in the mood for a cookie! :) It was fun to make a memory in the kitchen with my girls who are growning up too quickly!

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