Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always a fun time with family. We were so happy to have my sister Heidi with her whole family here from California.

The day before Thanksgiving I got a weird itch to do something creative just for fun. I think it was a little ambitious for me to do this the night before because it took a bit longer than i had anticipated. I made 40 of these little turkeys out of Oreo's, Reece's miniatures, mini chocolate chips, and candy corns. Candy corns are extreemly difficult to find after Halloween! I had to go to about 5 different stores to find them. I think they turned out pretty cute. The kids all seemed to like them.

Cali decided to get a bit ambitious too. She has been wanting to attempt making a TURDUCKIN for the past couple of years. This year she did it. What is a turduckin?...It's a chicken with stuffing, stuffed into a duck..with a little more stuffing, which is then stuffed into a turkey...with a little more stuffing. Take in mind that each one of the birds is each completely deboned. They are then all sewn together. I was amazed that the birds could be deboned yet still remain intact. All I did was help with the stuffing and provide the oven to cook it in. It was quite yummy...very flavorful! However, it wasn't real pretty to look at.

Then, of course, we always have to ad the traditional picture of our pie spread. We had 13 homemade pies this year.

We have dinner every other year at my parents with the thought of hitting the in-laws on the "off" years. Then the thought is that pies would be done on the alternate years. It seems that our family is a bit unusual with so many HOMEMADE pies, so everyone seems to stick around for pie no matter what year it is. My parents rent one of those big bouncy thinks for the kids. It takes up a big chunk of their back yard. The kids all love it. That is where the kids end up...but this is where the adults end up...crashed! The football games are on, but I am not sure how much of them actually get watched.

Family Togetherness...Ha!

Ok, it's catch up time. Life seems to be flying by so quickly!

Back in November we had a little scare with Bob's mom being airevaced down here to the valley thinking she was having a heart attack and the doctors couldn't keep her blood pressure down. Everything turned out just fine...no heart attack...just an adjustment in the meds. All the siblings came into town with everything going on, so they decided to use this opportunity to get some photos done for the first time in YEARS. This was quite a feat. This first picture was how most of them went...not a whole lot of seriousness with this bunch.

We finally got one good enough to give his parents for Christmas.

Miracle"s 1st Birthday

I realized that I did not post anything about Miracle's birthday. Shame on me! That took place in August. I really will get the hang of this blogging stuff sometime. But for now things might be a bit out of order.

Miracle was so excited to open presents. She was thrilled with her new toy cell phone. She loves anything with buttons to push!

We also gave her a new doll. I think that will be the grandma thing for when the girls turn one. I think every little girl needs a doll to play with.

Then of course comes the birthday cake. Cali made chocolate cupcakes with gooey chocolate frosting for her.

She got stripped down to nothing too and then she chowed on that cupcake. chocolate was everywhere. But she sure enjoyed it!

Evelynne's Birthday

Evelynne turned 1 today! She had more fun opening presents and tearing all that paper than she did with the actual presents.

What she really wanted was the cake! Carter and Dian made sure that Evelynne was stripped down to nothing but her diaper first. She had 2 cakes...the one everyone else ate, and one just for herself.

She had more green frosting on her! Pure bliss!Ah, and she was so willing to share with everyone!

Tanner's Ingrown saga continues

Disclaimer: This one is not for the faint of heart...again! I know, I know....GROSS! But we do what we have to do, right?

Tanner seems to get these serious ingrown toenails every 3 months....in both big toes! I don' t know how he walks around with them. I know they are bothering him quite a bit when he is practically begging me to take care of them again. the last time we went through this I told him if he gets them again, then the next time we will have to remove the whole toenail. So that's what we did.

We numbed him up, removed both of his toenails, doused him with Yarrow (That's the stuff making his toe look black. It isn't pretty, but it is wonderful stuff. sure helps things to heal real nice!), Then got him all bandaged up. He's still smiling. Actually, he said he felt much better the next day. Hopefully this will last for a while this time.

Garden Time

Ok, we totally revamped out garden. We changed our watering system from having everything on drips to an irrigation system. We had gone to a Preparedness Fair in our stake and attended a class on gardening. The guy who taught the class brought detailed pictures of his garden. He had about as much space as we do and his yield was incredible. So we decided to give it a try.

We put a plastic container around the heads and cut 3 holes in the bottom of it to divert and diffuse the water flow.

I then planted a couple different lettuces, cucumbers, broccoli, parsnips, beets, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, peas, turnips, carrots, and spinach. I know, that may be a bit ambitious, but just maybe...

Then we gave the watering a shot. So far, so good. Our homemade diffuser seems to work pretty good. I will post more pictures as the garden grows.

Birthday cake for Grandbaby!

I just finished making this birthday cake for Evelynne's 1st birthday tomorrow. I had fun making it. I will post more pictures of the birthday party, but I just had to get this one out there.