Thanksgiving 09

Our tradition for Thanksgiving is to get together and make homemade raviolis. They are so good but take a crew to make. But they are definitely worth the work.

This year Gavin was old enough to help. He liked to help Kylan roll out the dough.

He helped Stephen roll the raviolis after they were filled with meat.

Beck got a chance to roll a little dough.

This year Jenney's boyfriend Newt and his girls, Alex and Jayden, also helped.

Here is Jayden, Kandie, and Alex playing with the dough.

Nick and Ethan filled a few.

Jenney and Newt were pros.

Hunter even got in on the fun for a little while.

Stephen always makes a ton.

Heather loves to help out also.

After the raviolis were done, we made some crafts that Newt and Jenney brought.

Kylan helped Matthew make a craft.


Jenney helped Kandie and Jayden make angels.

On Thanksgiving day Stephen carved the turkey.

The kid table with four of the kids.


Gavin in his chair.

The big table

After dinner Ethan and Kylan couldn't wait to break the wishbone. So they pulled and pulled.

Hunter helped Ethan pull but they hadn't let it dry out enough.

So after a little bit of time and some microwaving, Hunter and Ethan got to pull the wishbone.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

My Blog

I haven't posted very much in the last few months because of two reasons.



One being TIME. I started taking classes again in January and just have not had any extra time to do some of the fun things that I would like to do. I also started a Facebook page. Although I enjoy blogs more, it seems there are more friends and family using FB. So, I take time to post and look at other peoples' pages at times.



The other being, I started this blog to help keep in touch with family that we don't see very often. I wanted to be able to share my family's life with extended family that we only see a few times a year or less. I wanted them to be able to see some of the things that we are up to and see my kids grow, even if it was only through pictures.



But it seems that only one or two people look at the this blog and although I enjoy posting on this blog more (I think it is because it is a lot like scrapbooking), I have limited time. I understand that most people do not have time to follow everyones' My Space, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. Maybe I should be spending my time actually scrapbooking and getting my personal and kids scrapbooks up to date. So I have had a hard time "finding" the time to post on this blog with so much going on in my life when I feel that it isn't being used. Since there are more friends and family on FB and seem to use it more, maybe I should just change over and use FB more. I won't get the enjoyment of telling the story in the way this blog gives me but FB will give me the chance that I want to keep in touch with extended family, which was my first intent. So I am torn but I think that I have made my mind up. I might change my mind later (which I do quite often).

So for now, if I post at all on this blog it will be few and far between. It is just too bad that what I enjoy doing, not everyone enjoys.

We love Fall! (take2)

Here are some more pictures from another walk we took this fall.

Stephen and me

Stephen and me


Stephen and me

Stephen and me

Kylan

Hunter

Beck


Gavin


This shows some of Gavin's personality.

Trying to get everyone to look at the camera and smile is hard sometimes.

We love Fall!

Our favorite season at our house is the fall for many reasons. But one is the changing of the leaves. We love taking walks and seeing the colors of the leaves.

Hunter

All four boys being silly.

Kylan was daring and climbed out on this log.

Kylan

Beck checking out the leaves and water.

The four boys pose for one last picture.

Kids say the darndest things!

My kids say funny things all the time. They make me laugh all the time. Here are some of the things that my kids have said today:

Beck ,"Mom, I have so many diamonds." (When I looked to see what he was talking about, his hand was full of dimes.)

Gavin, "We need batteries." (The light in my closet burnt out last night and I haven't changed it yet. Gavin saw that it was burnt out and said that we need some batteries and went and grabbed two different packages. What a cutie!)

Beck, "I'm just making fun of you." (He said this after he tried to trick me. He meant he was just kidding.)

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year. The kids loved dressing up and getting all the candy. And I think that we got more candy than usual.

The kids schools' had dress-up day on Friday but Kylan couldn't wear his costume to school because of no capes or masks, which was what his costume was. So he decided to combine a few things that we had at the house and go as a redneck.

The kids and I helped at Hunter's class party and it was fun to see the kids' excitement and their costumes.

Saturday we had the Draper family Halloween party.

Everyone was so cute in their costumes.

Beck was so excited to wear Newt's cowboy clothes that he let us borrow.

Cowboys Beck and Matthew

Gavin Lion

Snow White Kandie with cowboy Beck

I made my witch's brew.

And we ate worms.

And beetles.

And eyeballs.

After putting together a picture.

And playing a couple of games

We had our traditional pinata.

Youngest to oldest.

Gavin Lion

Snow White Kandie

Cowboy Beck

Cowboy Matthew

Harry Potter Hunter

Ninja Turtle Austin

Scooby Doo Ethan

Skeleton Kylan

Pretty Jenney

Cowboy Newt

Cinderella Shauntae

Shaggy Nick

Witch Heather

Cute Stephen

CANDY!

Thanks grandma for the fun party.

After the pinata we headed inside and had a witch's brew float. This is the best there is.

Next we headed to a trunk or treat at Nick and Shauntae's church.

After that we went regular trick or treating. We had not done this for many years. My kids loved it and I think it has now become something that we have to do every year.

Halloween '09