For Thanksgiving, some of our friends invited us over for dinner. Dinner wasn't starting until 6:00pm and I only had to bring some sweet potatoes. It made for a fun day. We woke up, and I wanted to go for a jog. Well, I can't jog without Snickers and Porter and Eva wanted to come along on their bikes, and Ivy wasn't about to be left behind. So our Thanksgiving lineup: Teresa with the dog on a leash, Dave riding his bike while towing Ivy in the trailer, followed by Porter on his super fast bike and Eva on her little pink bike. It had to be hilarious to see. They definitely pushed me to keep my pace up!

After that we had a nice long family nap and then still had half the day to kill. So we went up to a mountain range called Camelback. We had SO much fun hiking around. It's nice to have the kids older so they can hike on their own. Ivy is definitely getting heavy. I can't wait until she is a little more stable and can start hiking on her own.

All that exercise and time together actually really put me in a "thankful" frame of mind. It was a great way to spend Thanksgiving day!

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DINNER TIME!!!

Today for dinner I decided to cook chicken wings. I dished up the kids and they looked at it questioningly and asked what it was. I explained that it was chicken. The following conversation is word for word:

Porter picked it up and yelled "EEWWWW, it has BONES in it!"

Eva: "BONES?!"

Porter: "This isn't chicken, it's turkey. Turkey has bones."

Mom: "No, it's chicken, just with the bones."

Porter: "Mom. Turkey has bones. Chicken doesn't. Chicken nuggets don't have bones. The chicken we ate after church didn't have bones. This is NOT chicken. I think maybe you need glasses."

How could I argue with that kind of logic. So I nodded and told him to eat his turkey.

Happy Halloween 2009!!

This Halloween we let everyone decide on their own costumes.

Eva went as a pink cheetah and we had tons of fun with the pinkalicious part. Porter was a black ninja thanks to the pajama's Grandma brought back from China. And Ivy was suppossed to be a black cat, but refused to wear it. So we settled on a Hippy Chick. She totally chose the cute dress and we had the pink gogo boots. With a little blue eyeshadow she was set!

Here's our fashionista sporting Porter's flip flops. She is ALL THAT!

We had a Super Hero party at my house. Everyone dressed up as their own type of super hero. Dave came up with the name for my super hero and I choose the superhero costume. Any guesses on the name?

Family Camping

When we went to Idaho/Utah for the summer, I was really inspired by Ed and Julie and the fact that they let their kids camp in their own back yard. I don't know why, but I never really thought camping could be that simple. So once we got home and the nights started cooling down to the 70s we have started weekend camping. It has been so much fun! I honestly think Dave loves it as much as the kids do. I was going to limit their over-night experience to a pillow and sleeping bag. Dave was much more liberal with the blankets and pillows and spent a good part of the night in the middle of pillow fights. It was awesome!!

Princess Ivy

With Eva back in school, Ivy has loved getting into all the dress up clothes and taking care of her babies. Her favorite outfit is this super fluffy skirt of Eva's. We have to pull it up to her chest to get it short enough for her to wear.

Halloween Time!!

We had a friend of ours invite us to a Halloween party. It was really fun to get totally dressed up for the whole thing! I had a friend with the Cleopatra stuff, so all I had to do was find a wig. I couldn't bring myself to spend $30 on a crappy plastic wig, so I spent $2 on cheap hair dye at the grocery store and I dyed my hair black! I guess we'll see if the cheap hair dye washes out faster than the expensive stuff!

ZZZZZzzzzzzz....

When we got home from our trip to Idaho this summer, we put Ivy on the bottom of a bunk bed. For some reason, she doesn't like it there. Without fail, she will get out of bed, quietly close the door part way and then zonks out behind the door. I've tried everything to keep her in the bed, but she is not interested. Finally I thought I would cave and make up a little bed for her behind the door. That way it would be softer than carpet. But she pushed all that out of the way to pass out on the ground. The only thing allowed in her secret spot is the garbage can...luckily it isn't stinky!