Thanksgiving is past...

Well, I'm back with another post. Long time, I know! No pictures this morning but I'll get to that later. Seems I haven't been wielding the camera as often as I used to or as often as I should! I have ZERO Thanksgiving photos. However, I DO have a list the kids made of what they're thankful for. I'll share those with you! Oh, and I didn't help them come up with the things they're thankful for!

Azriel's list:
Feasts
That the Pilgrims came to America
Love
George Washington
Our World
Our Home
Jesus
Our Family
God
Our Beds
Freedom
Bibles

Avigail's List:
Our Pets
Movies
Cousins
Friends
My Stuffed Animals
Our Aquarium
Cozy Blankets
Mommy and Daddy
God
Squanto
My Toys
Everything
Candy
Spankings (no joking!)
Food
My Brother & Sister
My Grandparents

Mark and I had lists too, but they're not nearly as entertaining!

For Thanksgiving we had Mark's mom over as well as his work mate, Pete. I made a brined turkey, stuffing (which didn't turn out so well), mashed potatoes & gravy, Butternut Squash puree, Green Beans, Party Salad, delicious rolls, and I don't know what else. Well, there were pies! I made an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and a pecan pie. I can now say that every last piece is finally gone. I think Mark wants me to make another pecan pie and Pete wanted another apple pie so there might be pie crust in my near future! Maybe I'll make that today!

It's hard to believe that the month of November is already gone. I'm now 39, having celebrated my birthday on the 5th. We are now done with birthdays until the new baby comes in March. Then, of course, we have Liberty's birthday in May.

Speaking of Liberty, she's finally starting to talk. She's also starting to really blossom into her personality and test her boundaries. This is both fun and exasperating!

Azriel and Avigail are doing very well and are starting to get the hang of sounding out words. I think full on reading is not too far in their future! They are both bright and delightful children and their creativity knows no bounds. I think they're very artistic!

The kids and I began Christmas decorating yesterday. That was fun and there's so much more to do! Liberty is fascinated by the lights of Christmas and is thrilled whenever she sees them!

Mark took down one of the dead birch trees in the front yard this past weekend. Saturday we had an outside clean up and work day. I cleaned out the flower and garden beds and mowed. Mark cut down trees and his mother came over and raked 8 bags of leaves out of the back yard! WOW! The front looked so nice and now it's covered in branches. Fortunately the wood is nice and dry and beautiful and I think it will burn in our fireplace for a couple years. It's nice to not have to buy more wood. Mark did an incredible job of getting up there and safely cutting branches. Nothing got destroyed and he managed not to fall or get injured. I love that he can pretty much do anything he sets his mind to doing!

I can't wait to decorate the outside of the house with lights! That will have to wait for Saturday though! Mark is starting his second job today. This will be hard on all of us but it's necessary at this time. We're doing the Dave Ramsey plan. I'm following a cash budget and we're going to get our debts all paid off. We figure it will take about 2 years (on the high side) but hoping for less! The nice thing about this extra job he's taking on is that it's flexible. It won't interfere with his REAL job or any overtime he gets from that! And if we find it's far too taxing on him or on the family we can cut back some. It will be a learning & adjustment process but I think we'll all do fine. We have goals and we are motivated to make them happen so as long as it's a team effort I see us as being successful in this new, yet difficult, chapter of our lives. The bright side is that when it's DONE, it's DONE. We'll never go there again! We have learned our lesson the hard way and I think that sometimes that is the best way if you don't want to repeat your mistakes!

On to more Christmassy subjects...
We are going to go to my parent's home for Christmas this year. We are all so excited about that. The kids have already packed to go to Grandma and Grandpa's on more than one occasion. They were ready to go yesterday! We haven't been there for Christmas since they were babies. They'll get to have lots of fun with the cousins! I think it's been a while, too, since Mom and Dad have had little ones spending Christmas eve/morning at their house so I think it will be just as enjoyable for them! Though I'm not sure Grandpa Ron will enjoy the EARLY Christmas morning that comes with having little ones in the house! With enough coffee though, he'll muddle through! :-)

Well, I've rambled quite enough for now. Liberty is walking in here and I should go! I'll get on posting some recent pictures later today or this week!

Blessings to you and yours!