My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It was probably the first holiday in recent memory where I actually felt relaxed, because the kids were so busy playing with their friends and family that I could enjoy being with my friends and family!  And of course, being a guest at someone’s beautiful home and eating their delicious food was a great bonus. 

Here are the girls checking out the dessert table:

Bubba and her buddy:

My kids showering sweet Anna with love (you can barely make her out in Becky’s lap!):

Adorable Carolina and my girls – such a great group!

Here’s another one of Susie’s Thanksgiving school papers.  It reads (translated): “I am thankful for my family, life, teachers, children, friends, doctors, my pets, animals, people who take care of me, my world, my house, mommy, daddy, jimmy, becky, danny, me, learning, food, dinner, breakfast, lunch.”  I’m thankful for all those things – even mealtimes – too!

We had our first significant snow of the season today, although it wasn’t significant enough, if you ask my husband!  The kids were chomping at the bit to go outside as soon as the flakes started to fall, and we were all delighted to see that it was perfect snowman-making sticky snow. 

Here are the kids when they first ran out into the yard (it was probably good it took me nearly 20 minutes to suit them all up, so at least the ground was covered by the time they made it out to the field!):

The first snowman (named Olaf, of course), featuring a bright green polka dot pattern courtesy of a “snow marker”:

Jimmy surveying the scene:

Danny figuring that a carrot was too good to waste on a snowman:

Freshly toothless Becky rolling a giant snowball:

The kids atop their collection of snowballs (a.k.a. a fort, although we ended up too wet and cold to finish the job properly):

Ever-tender Becky making sure her little brother made it up the hill:

Jim deciding anything fun was worth doing with the added bonus of a motor and tow rope:

Jim and I both grew up taking piano lessons, and it’s something we’ve looked forward to having our kids do as well.  However, we were missing a “key” component: the piano!  So when our friends Donald and Barbara generously offered to donate their piano to us, we were thrilled!  Donald and Jim proved they are indeed superheros by loading it into the back of a trailer by themselves, and we hauled our precious cargo back home (with my husband driving as carefully as I’ve ever see him drive – maybe he needs to haul pianos all the time!).  It fit in our living room perfectly, and the kids and I all happily took turns tickling the ivory (my playing wasn’t that much better than theirs – I’m pretty rusty!).  Now I need to start looking for local instructors– maybe I can squeeze in a lesson or two myself!

We can’t thank Don and Barb enough for their kindness in blessing us with this piano!  We love it! 

Barb, here’s a video of us enjoying the piano.  You can be sure we’ll put it to thorough, if not “good,” use! 😉

They only stayed like this for a split second, but it was cute while it lasted!

These rods and connectors may have been marketed as building blocks for forts and structures, but they’re also building blocks of the imagination for these kids!  Check out their creations:

A campfire:

Crutches and a snowflake:

Ski poles:

A fishing rod:

And a kayak (he’s rowing with the oar):