Winter's a comin'

Are you ready? They're predicting a good size storm starting tonight into tomorrow. At first, I was a bit skeptical because they do this to us all the time but now I'm starting to believe that we might actually have a good old fashioned storm. Mentally, I'm ready for this. We need some snow to get into the Christmas spirit. (Also, some good cold weather to kill off all the germs hanging around) But physically, we don't have a snow blower!!!! Dave checked on one Monday from LOVE but it has to finish getting fixed. Ahhh - and he will be working this weekend. So who does that leave to clean the driveway? Maybe, this will just turn into an ice storm and not as much snow. We'll know by tomorrow. So get out those scrapers, boots and gloves along with your hot chocolate and logs for the fireplace. Enjoy the season!

Time with Dad

Shaelyn loves it when Dave is home during the day. All we hear is, "want to play a game, Dad?"
We were playing a game called "10" Sunday night with Grandpa. She wanted to play too. We tried to explain that she was too little yet to play this game. She insisted on helping Dave. She started to catch on to this game. He had to leave during one of the hands and so she played it for him. Now, she's playing it by herself against him. They usually only start with 7 cards but she knows what she's doing. And she's quite lucky at it too because she beat him yesterday and today. He still was on 5 today when he lost.

Birthday fun

Here are some pictures of Shaelyn celebrating birthday fun. First, she is with her Cinderella birthday cake. Yes, I know, she looks quite tan but that was the only flesh color I had. Next is her birthday cookies that we made to take to school for her birthday treats. You bake cookies with a stick in them and then decorate with frosting and m&m's. I thought they turned out pretty cute. I know these pictures are a little dated but you know the problems I've been having with this blog. So better late than never, I figure.

Christmas decorations

Wow, it's Christmas time again. We finished decorating the house and tree today. Dave still has to finish doing the outside lights but should be able to finish tomorrow when the weather's nice. The girls are still working on their rooms. They also like to put lights and who knows what else up in their rooms. It is fun to see all the Christmas decorations. We went out for supper tonight and drove around afterwards. There were a lot of decorations out there already. We wanted to drive around "peanut", "almond" "walnut" and "beechnut" drives to look for blue lights but ran out of time. Hopefully, later we'll be able to spot out those areas. I just LOVE those blue lights. We also had a great Thanksgiving Day. Hope you all did too.

Thanksgiving is a Comin'

Tomorrow will be Thanksgiving Day - I emphasize Thanksgiving, not turkey day. That's a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people say it's turkey day. I realize that Americans have much to be thankful for and I know that we all take it for granted. It's always good to stop and remember all that we have. Some things I'm thankful for are my family, both immediate and extended, Dave having a job right now and not being laid off, my church, good health for my family and myself (although I'm ready to get rid of this cold) but really, we have no serious sicknesses, my country - even when I don't always like the way things are done here, I believe we live in the best country in the world, and my faith in Jesus. There's no easier (and of course, no other) way to get to heaven except through faith in Him.
As a family, we're heading to church in the morning. I do love Thanksgiving service. Chelsea and I will both be playing in the full orchestra tomorrow. I love it when we have a full group - the singing is awesome. Then we're heading over to my Dad's to celebrate with the whole family. Friday will start the Christmas season for us - with the setting up of the Christmas tree.
PS - by the way, I've officially become a "Grandma" today. Katelyn came home with her "baby" from school. I'm babysitting now. I think the teacher set this baby on crabby mode because it's cried 3 times already for me today and I thought it was only supposed to cry every 3 hours. You have to put a key in and hold it until it coos. Earlier, I held it for about 10 minutes. Just now, Chelsea and I took turns and it took about 15 minutes! You'll all get to see your new niece and cousin tomorrow. Shayanna is just adorable. Katelyn will have fun taking care of her in church tomorrow too. I think she'll be sitting in the back row!

Happy Birthday, Shaelyn

It was Shaelyn's birthday on Saturday. She turned 4 years old! Can you believe it? I can't. I still remember waiting to get the referral and being in China 3 years ago. It hardly seems possible that now you are going to school and learning so much. How boring our family would be without this extra little addition. (Actually, it would probably be a little quieter too) Hope you had a fun day turning 4. We love you lots!

Hopefully, now

Alright people, I just got an email about switching my blog to beta. I'm trying it. I've tried posting like 3 different times this week and it didn't work so I'm trying now and hopefully will be able to put stuff up about Shaelyn's birthday. Later!!!

Alert - Chelsea's on the Road!

Chelsea passed her drivers training class on Thursday so we are headed to the Secretary of State office tonight. She's very excited to get her permit and show me her driving skills. I'm not sure if I feel the same way?!! I can hardly believe that she is old enough to be driving yet. It seems as though I have just finished this with Katelyn (and still am nervous about her sometimes). I know it's a big step for these kids. So be prepared - she's on the go! Congrats, Chelsea!

Exhaustion

We've returned home from our day of shopping. What a lot of fun we had. We managed to hit a lot of stores. It was already busy. I think people are starting to shop earlier every year. (How dare they invade our time & space!) We had a nice extra guest share lunch with us. Later, we hit the Olive Garden for supper. Yummy! Then it started to rain. What a pain! Then there were the looks when we checked into the hotel. We loaded all of our packages onto the cart to make the two trips necessary to get them all in. It does get somewhat embarrassing. There was a lot of laughter when we were trying to get to sleep. And speaking of sleep - I didn't get much of it. Cheri was continually waking me up and harassing me all night long. I may have to take a nap this afternoon. In spite of all these problems, I'll be willing to go again next year with them!

Shopping

Tomorrow's the day I go Christmas shopping with both of my sisters. We start off in the morning and hit all the big stores, then on to the mall. We get to stop for lunch and then continue on. It is so much fun plus it makes it so much easier. We draw names for our kids. This way when we're shopping, we have their Mom's there to help pick out what they want. We get to go out to suppper at a place where our husbands don't usually want to go. After this long, exhausting, laughter-filled day, we end up at a hotel for the night. We carry all our packages in with everyone watching and wondering about what we've been doing all day. We get to hang out at the hotel together for the night. It is so much fun. I really don't know how long we've been doing this for, but we love it. I totally recommend this for any sisters!

Do your duty

I'm sure that you all know that today is election day. This is just a friendly reminder to do your patriotic duty and get out there and vote! I didn't really have to wait long this morning but would have been willing to. I'm worried that my candidate won't get in (go DDV) but at least I did what I could to help the moral (and economic) factors of this state. Our freedom to vote is what many countries are striving for so I don't think that we should take it for granted.

Congratulations Katelyn!

All right, I'm trying this for the 3rd time! Arrrrgh!!!
Katelyn received a letter yesterday from Kuyper. It was an acceptance letter. She was pretty happy. We kind of figured she would get accepted but it's nice to have it in your hands. Now we'll start working on more forms - registration and scholarships. Hopefully she'll be able to get a few to cut down the costs. Way to go Katelyn, - Get ready for a lot of fun next year! 

Canning Applesauce

Cheri and I decided to can applesauce today. We did it at her house so I don't have pictures but you can check out her blog to see our accomplishments. We were a little bummed that the apples cooked down so far - out of 2 bushels we only got 24 quarts. That narrows it down to 12 quarts a piece for the whole day's work. :( But at least we have something. Doing your own tastes so much better than store boughten. I don't know if it's because we grew up with our own or not but I remember the first time I tasted store boughten. I took a big scoop onto my plate and took a taste and was utterly disgusted. We said we couldn't remember ever doing any canning while it was snowing outside. Then we decided to put some Christmas music on to put us in a wonderful state of mind. Don't worry - the music didn't last long. Although we heard that Thanksgiving is 3 weeks away and Christmas is only 7. I know - I'm not at all ready for that yet!
Chelsea had to do her 3rd drive today - on the highway. She was a little concerned because of the snow but it wasn't a problem. She said it was fun driving fast on the highway - is that scary or what?

Halloween - The Search for Candy

The night Shaelyn was waiting for finally came last night. As you can see, she was a duck. (And awfully cute if I say so myself) You should have seen that tail waddle when she walked. Cheri got here around 5:00 to eat supper. We were ready to go by 6:00. It was a little cold but I had put a sweatshirt under the duck costume to stay warm. It made the costume a little tight but I figured it was worth it to stop any complaints of the cold. We made it through the development but Cheri quit before doing the side streets. Chelsea wasn't with so Shaelyn was going to share with her and Dad. I think every year gets a little easier with her getting older - you don't have to carry or put her in and out of the stroller! We did manage to get quite a haul at the last house we hit. Thank goodness we got there when we did because we were told that they were almost out of candy!

She fell asleep on the way home. I tried to get her into bed and take off the costume but as you can see, she woke up, telling me, "oh we're home now. I wasn't asleep. Can I have my candy now?" Then she proceeded to divide it all into piles to split up. At least she's willing to share.