Thanksgiving 2011

This year was different, not our usual Thanksgiving, as we have always gone home to Texas. But, we had a great time around the house. While we missed the family and traditions we are used to, it was honestly a relief not to be packing up and logging 40 plus hours on the road. Also, Tommy never takes time off at home, we are always gone somewhere during his vacation time, so it was nice to have 4 days off at our house. Fun, fun, family time.



Wednesday wasn't the best start to our long weekend. I had a 9am doctors appointment, we had a 10 to 2 window for a plumber (have I mentioned I have been without a dishwasher for 2 weeks!!!) and Addison had a dentist appointment at 3pm. We redeemed the day though, by meeting Tommy for a late afternoon showing of Arthur Christmas. It was a cute movie that we all enjoyed. I had shown the kids the preview, but still midway through the show both Addison and Tommy looked at me and whispered that they were expecting Arthur the Aardvark, from PBS.

We woke up Thursday morning and pulled out all the Christmas decorations. We worked hard decorating inside and out. It is always interesting decorating a new house for the first time. My Christmas decorations filled-up my living room in Colorado. The main level in this house is at least twice as big, and I realized quickly that we needed more decoration.









Thanksgiving evening, we were headed to our friends house for dinner. They were sweet to include us in their Thanksgiving plans. Mandy cooked a yummy dinner and the girls had a blast with their little besties. We packed PJ's, knowing we would probably stay late. The older girls put them on right away and decided to have a little pajama party. Gracyn and Elle had a great time with make-up, right up to the point where the big sisters found them and told on them! I should also note that 5-year-old Faith does not have a paci, she is just playing with her sisters.







Friday morning we headed out to cross the Ohio river bridge for a little adventure in Kentucky. Our friend, Brenna, in Colorado sent us her "Flat Brenna" project from school. We wanted to make the quick trip over the river so that "Flat Brenna" could experience two states while she was with us. The girls love helping with this project and having a little piece of our CO friend with us. Mommy liked it too! Tex Mex is not something I get often here, so I was happy!!!





After lunch there was more yard decorating and we began prep work for painting Addison's room. I will post some after pics soon, but she now has pastel pink wall, with a wall of stripes. It looks super-cute and I am glad to have the last of the painting projects off my list!





We wrapped up the weekend with a great game night at another friends house. We had appetizers and desserts for dinner, the kids put on a show for us and we just talked and visited for hours. We never even got around to playing any games (or taking any pictures), we were having to much fun just chatting. I made a Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball from Kelly's Korner for dessert. It was delicious!!! We left thier house at 10:00 and all 3 girls were asleep before we made it out of their neighborhood.

We are thankful for so much this year and always. I am so happy we had time to just enjoy each other. Now, Christmas excitement is in the air!!! It can't get here fast enough for my crew.

Best Friends

Addison has two best friends in Ohio, both are sweet, sweet girls who we adore! And, BONUS, both are biggest sisters in 3 girl families. Our families have all grown close and love spending time together. They are truly an answer to one of my biggest prayers when moving here. In Colorado, all the girls' friends were our family friends and I was not ready to let that go. So thankful for the people God has placed in our lives here.

Chloe is Addison's best school friend. Her family lives 2 streets over from us....if we cut through yards, we can walk to their house in just a few minutes. And, they are on the bus together. We actually met their family last year, when Reagan and Chloe's little sister, Olivia, were in preschool together. We had a few fun playdates and had done some things as families. Then, we found out Addison and Chloe were in the same 1st grade class. With a school our size (30 something first grade classes!!!) it is so rare to be assigned to class with a friend....it was a God thing for sure!! The girls have been best buddies since then. They are precious together. I am so grateful to know who she is spending her time with and I am thankful for her mom who has become a great friend of mine. The icing on the cake has been during the last few weeks, when we began our new bible study and introduced the families of Addison's two best friends. The 6 adults and 9little girls came together easily and it has made for great friendships all around.

A few weeks ago Chloe, Olivia and baby Sophie were staying with us for a bit, while their parents were out. I found this note from Chloe in Addison's notebook that night. "You are my frst best frind!". Precious. I also love that Addison wrote her the note in the top corner telling her she did an "asom" job on her writing.



The girls are learning how to write songs at school. They wrote a song together and came down to put on a show for us. It was quite entertaining.


They also read to us from Addison's library book. They made sure to do it just as their teacher would. They stopped often to ask for predictions, questions or comments.


These cute little sisters made great audience members. Gracyn and Olivia were all snuggled up.


Sweet Reagan.

Service Project 2011

We are just wrapping up a 6 week city-wide small group study called The Strong Challenge. We formed a little group with 2 other 3-girl families and then followed our churches direction on weekly bible study and activities. We met every Saturday night for the last 6 weeks. We did our study, ate dinner together, did a craft and bible study with the girls and had a great time. The study was a huge blessing to us and although the Strong Challenge is over, we look forward to continuing in home bible study with these friends.

Last Saturday night, we finished our final week buy completing a service challenge. We were brave, brave people as we headed to Wal-Mart with the 6 adults and 9 little girls (6 and under) that make up our group. We had 3 grocery lists for local families who needed help this Thanksgiving as well as 2 boxes to fill with about 50 pounds of rice to send to Africa. We knew the shopping trip would be crazy with all the girls, but we wanted them involved!!! They did a great job loading up our carts and checking things off the list. We had a few crazy looks from other customers, but everything went smoothly. We packed out the back of our friends van and they delivered everything to church the next morning to be sent out. We have spent the week praying for the families who will receive our packages. I am glad we took the girls and got them involved. Next up....Christmas caroling in our neighborhood, visiting elderly at a nursing home and shopping for Christmas toys to help those in need.

Reagan's Turkeyfest

Reagan's pre-k class had a little Thanksgiving celebration last week. The kids looked adorable in the turkey hats and shirts they had made! Gracyn and I went to the party. Miss Marsha led us in a special celebration and then the kids sang songs, we had dessert and the teacher read each student's thankful list.

Reagan's thankful list:
my parents, my friends, my sisters, shell macaroni, my big blue bunny, wal-mart, the beach, my school, texas, because my family is there, brownies and my cousin.

Christmas Decorating

The girls have begged for the last several years to have Christmas tress in their rooms. A few years ago, I bought a tiny little table top tree for the room Addison and Reagan shared. Last year, with the house on the market, we have very few Christmas decorations and nothing in their rooms. A few weeks ago, they spotted a variety of rainbow colored trees at Wal-Mart and have talked non-stop about them since. So, Pappy sent an early Christmas present and gave each girl money to buy a tree and decorations. Addison was out of school today, so we spent an hour and a half at Wal-Mart letting everyone pick just what they wanted. We brought everything home and they have spent the last two hours decorating, admiring and playing with their tress. Thanks Pappy for a gift that will last for many Christmases to come!

Addison picked a purple tree. She split the rainbow garland with Reagan and picked an assortment of pink and purple ornaments. She also threw in an ornament of a Lab puppy. It doesn't match anything, but it is her favorite.


Reagan picked a pink tree and pink glittery tree skirt. Her ornaments were all purple and gold, with rainbow garland and a butterfly ornament that she chose for a topper.


Gracyn got a silver tree, by default. It was one of the remaining colors her sisters didn't pick. She wasn't too interested in ornaments but was deeply attached to the stuffed puppy she is holding in the picture. It says "Baby's First Christmas 2011", but she doesn't care. She got the puppy and just a few colored balls.


They had a bit of money left, and picked out the movie "Marley and the Puppy Years". We are snuggling up for a movie night tonight! Thanks Pappy for all the fun today!!!

Here Comes the Bride

Reagan dressed Gracyn up like a "wedding girl" one afternoon. Her veil is actually Bitty Baby's white skirt. The second picture is what Reagan did to try to make Gracyn open her eyes and look at the camera....the manuel way, I guess. Love these 2 sweeties and the fun they have together while big sister is away.

Daddy's Song

For years, the girls and I have teased Tommy, singing....We're the queens of the castle, and your the stinky rascal.

This weekend, the girls and I were taking forever to get out of the house and loaded in the car. He made up his own song...I'm the king of the castle, you women are all a hassle.

Poor guy, he's got his work cut out for him.

Addison ~ 6 1/2

~We were so proud that Addison was chosen to participate in her school's Circle of Friends group for a friend in her class who has autism. Addison liked Thea from the first day of school and right from the start she began helping her in class, at the playground and on the bus. Their weekly meetings, where Addison, Thea and 2 other girls meet to play games and do special activities are a highlight for Addison. Last week we had Thea and one of the other girls over after school. They had the best time jumping on the trampoline. It was amazing to see how Thea interacts with the other girls. The can make her laugh like crazy!!!

~She loves school and is doing great. She comes home happy everyday. We work hard each night practicing reading, sight words and spelling words. I miss her like crazy all day!!!

~Soccer is finished. It was rough year for our little team. They won the first game by one point and then didn't score another goal all season! They never seemed to be bothered by it, thankfully they all had fun.

~She loves chapter books! The library here isn't the greatest, so it is a habit that costs us a fortune, but that is okay! We read her anywhere from 2 to 5 chapters a day.That is in addition to bible reading, her reading to us, picture books for little sisters and the books she goes to bed with each night. She listens for as long as we have time to read. Hopefully in the next year or so, her reading ability will catch up to her comprehension ability and she can read them to herself. Just a few weeks ago, she started reading the preview on the backs by herself.

~Every-other Sunday, she and I teach a pre-k Sunday school class at church. She loves it. She is always disappointed when it is our off Sunday. We teach the 9:00 service and then at 10:30 she goes to her class and we attend worship. Our class if full of boys....usually 5 or 6 boys and only 1 or 2 girls. It took us a little while to figure them out, but we love them!!!

~She often used the word "more-ly". Like she more-ly likes playing outside than doing homework. Girls more-ly play with Barbies than boys.

~Addison is animal crazy right now. She loves animals of all types. She begs us to take her to PetSmart so she can see the cats up for adoption. She reads about animals and all her favorite shows are on Animal Planet. She is always training/walking/taking care of Maggie. Anything to do with any animal, she loves it!! She always says when she grows up she is having tons of animals and no kids.

~We had the girls' Christmas CD playing in the car for the first time this year. They sang along for a minute, to "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus", then Addison said, if Mama was kissing Santa, then Daddy would come in and say, "HEY, What are you doing kissing my wife?"!

~Addison came home laughing like crazy on Thursday afternoon and told me that she had missed lunch. Apparently they go from the playground to the lunchroom (both monitored by aides while the teachers have lunch). Many classes are coming and going at the same time. Addison and 2 of her friends didn't see their class leave and stayed outside for an extra 30 minutes. They came in just as their class was lining up from lunch to go back to class. They were never missed during lunch (???) and had to eat in the classroom when they got back.

~Addison in an expert on everything!!! She always has an explanation for any circumstance and she will ARGUE over her ideas until you just give up!!!

~She is impatient. Just like her Daddy, she does not like to stay in a restaurant for a minute longer than she has to. If she is in a restaurant (or anywhere) past when she decides she is done, she will persistently begin letting you know she wants to go.

~She has two best friends here, Chloe and Brooke. They are both sweet, precious girls with families (and little sisters) who we are friends with.

~We are starting down the orthodontic road. Addison's dentist said at her last appointment that she probably needed a spacer to correct her cross-bite. We are getting a second opinion from an orthodontist in a few weeks, but it looks like we are about to start shelling out cash for teeth!!!

Miss Julie's Wedding

Reagan's sweet teacher Miss Julie got married last night. She was a brave woman and extended invitations to both of her classes to attend. Reagan had been telling me for weeks that she was going to the wedding and I kept trying to break it to her gently that the wedding was for Miss Julie's family and friends and that she wouldn't get to go. Then, what do you know, a few weeks ago, Reagan marched right out of class when I picked her up. She headed straight to her mailbox, pulled out an adorable invitation and said, "I told you I could go!". She was right. Miss Julie had precious invitations made for the class, which she gave them with bride and groom chocolate lollipops.

Reagan has been so excited to attend the wedding. She sweetly said that Addison could tag along and we picked up 2 other friends along the way. I took the 4 girls to the ceremony, where the preschool kids and parents made up most of the back 3 rows in the chapel. It was so much fun to see all the kids and mama's dressed up. Funny....only one little boy from the class came, but nearly all the girls!!! After the ceremony, the kids took a class picture with the bride and groom and then they blew bubbles at them to send them off to the reception. It was a fun night. My only regret.....it's probably the first time I have been dressed up in at least a year and I was out with 4 girls 6 and under, while my husband was at home with Gracyn! Maybe next time I put on a dress, we can be together!

Happy Halloween

We raced home from the pumpkin patch, and started a big pot of potato soup. Addison was off the bus a few minutes later, and just a bit after that the girls favorite friends showed up. They are inseperable with their buddies Brooke, Faith and Elle, so we were thrilled to have them come trick-or-treat with us.

They came early, we ate a yummy dinner and then got the girls dressed for the festivities. Our other favorite 3-girl family lives a block over, so they made their way our direction and the girls made the rounds together. Our neighborhood is great for Halloween. They had tables of candy set up in the cul-de-sac with a haunted house and a fog machine. Houses are spaced far apart here, with long drive-ways, so many people set up fire-pits at the end of the drives and hand out candy from there. The big girls raced ahead and the little girls poked along behind. Somewhere in between, Reagan got lost, and after a small heart-attack I found her about 3 houses ahead (that's a long way here). She had crossed a small neighborhood street and was happily hitting houses.

We eventually made our way home to get jackets and a wagon for the little girls. They had a blast handing out candy for a bit. The youngest 4 girls never made it back out, but Addison and Brooke had endless stamina, so Mandy and I took them back out for a few more blocks. Pohahontas had to be forced to put on a jacket at the very end, but only wore it because I made her.

We ended up with PILES of candy....more than any year before. I spent Tuesday pondering what to do with it all and thankfully mentioned it to a neighbor who had just the right thing for it. Her church is very involved with a low-income trailer park in a town nearby. They go weekely to serve the people there, providing food, clothing and friendship. I was so proud of my girls when they willingly, with happy hearts, chose 15 pieces of candy each and bagged the rest for our neighbors to hand out during their ministry. What a great end to a very happy Halloween. Now Mama is tired and needs some rest!!!

Schappacher Farms

The Halloween marathon continued Monday morning. We started off at Gracyn's weekly Mommy and Me bible time (Reagan tags along). After it was over, we grabbed a quick lunch and then Daddy met us to take Gracyn home for a few hours. Reagan and I were off with her class for a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Schappacher Farms.

It was a beautiful fall day and I had a great time focusing on her alone for a few hours. Reagan is my wanderer....it is a small miracle that we have never lost her (at least we hadn't until later on Halloween night), so one of us will ALWAYS be on her field trips with her. If I ever had any doubts about that they were confirmed when I, along with the rest of the group was listening intently to Farmer Butch talk to us about the animals. I heard one of Reagan's teachers shout for her and looked up to see her wondering off to the corn fields 50 yards away. That girl is in her own happy world sometimes!!! Once we corralled Reagan back to the group we feed donkeys and cows and saw (from a safe distance) the turkeys. Farmer Butch told us all about working on the farm and gave us a pumpkin to take home.

I enjoyed the day with my girl and thought the farm was fun. Good thing, because I hear we go there again in kindergarten.Between Reagan and Gracyn I could get the same tour 4 times in the next few years!


In true Guess girl fashion, Reagan is a head taller than all of her class.


Farmer Butch chose Reagan to demonstrate how to feed the cows.


My girls love animals!!!


Loving this sweet time with my girl.


There she goes off to see the rest of the farm.


The whole class.


Sweet girl!