Thanksgiving in 60 seconds

Here we go...

My family came to visit. Aunt Tamra set the table.

Call me Martha... actually I am a Rachel Ray fan, but dinner was not ready in 30 minutes!

Dinner was wonderful. Even added two new recipes this year!

Tried to take our family photo outside, but it was too windy.

Decorated for Christmas. (Yes, Ella is in her Tinkerbell costume. That's not odd is it?)

Danced with a star (Grandpa...)

And each other.

Shopped for Christmas dresses.

Got new glasses. (More on that in another post.)

Hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours!

I'm Thankful For...

I'm thankful for this...



and this...



This...


and this!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fever Free... for now

My whole household has been fever free for 22 hours as of 7:00. I haven't been able to say that since Friday, November 7. Isn't that sad???

I'll leave you with two of my favorite fall pictures of Ella. Happy (fever free) fall!


My parents have a picture of me doing exactly the same thing when I was little!

What a Difference a Week Makes

**This was a post I wrote yesterday. I was just waiting to get my pictures organized, so I didn't post it. I spoke too soon....

After 6 days of running a fever, Ella is back to normal. See below...

The one good thing about this illness is that she has learned to use a thermometer. It took four and a half years, but she no longer screams when I take it out of the drawer!



On a side note, Steve has the flu, but is doing amazingly well. He even took Madison to a party today! Go figure!

** So that's what I wrote yesterday. I wasn't singing this morning, so Steve went on to church while the girls and I slept in. I got up and was starting to get ready when Madison came down and said that she didn't feel well. That's right- you guessed it-, she's running a fever! She's actually doing ok this afternoon, but around here, you never know!

On the plus side, I have a new appetizer for Thanksgiving from the Barefoot Contessa. I also have a ton of Thanksgiving leftover ideas from the Food Network!

Santa- We're Working on it...

When Ella first met Santa, she loved him...

It was downhill from there. (I love Santa's face in this picture!)

Here is last year's picture. Who's missing?

So we're working on it. It's a good thing that Ella has such a wonderful (and bossy) big sister to help her with her fear!

So, being the bossy- I mean wonderful- mother I am, I made Ella take an oath promising to sit with Santa. Come on- I want a good picture! :)

Down For the Count

We're not quite knocked out, but we definitely are down! About 30 minutes after e-mailing a friend that no one else was showing symptoms of strep throat, Ella started projectile vomiting... all over our bedroom and bathroom. On the plus side, Steve and I now have clean sheets, a freshly washed comforter, blankets, towels, a spotless bathroom and freshly steam cleaned carpets. On the down side, we did most of this from 9:30-2:00 in the morning. It was a lovely night! So we've taken two different kids to two doctors visits in two days and they have two different viruses. Parenting can be sooo fun!

This is how we looked for most of the day. Fortunately, there were new iCarly episodes and a brand-new iCarly movie on tonight!

We're saving for medical school!

Madison went to the doctor today, and when he asked what was going on with her she said, "I have strep throat. My three friends that I play with have had strep throat, and I have it too." I then tried to explain that she complained last night that her throat hurt, she started running a fever yesterday, etc. Twenty minutes later, the doctor came in and said, "She has strep throat."


She's just happy that she's free to eat all the ice cream she wants for a couple of days!

Happy Election Day!

As Promised...

See.. I told you I'd be back!

The girls had a really good Halloween. It was a year in the making (literally.) Last year, Madison was Sharpay from High School Musical. She and her friends planned to be all of the characters from the movie and they planned to go to our Creekside fall festival together. This year, since Halloween was on a Friday night, our church decided not to compete with football, and not have the festival. The kids were so upset because they had worked on this plan for a year! So, we decided to invite everyone over to our house to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. It was so much fun and the kids had a great time. I love Halloween because it's the one night out of the year where your entire neighborhood gets out! As it turns out, I was actually glad our festival was cancelled, because the evening turned out to be so much fun!

OK- here we go. WARNING! Lot's of pictures below. Grandparents will want to keep reading, but I'm not sure anyone else will!

This was our group. Notice the two themes!

The Peter Pan themed group. Yep, he's in tights! :)

The High School Musical group.

Ryan and Sharpay

Gabriella and Sharpay

The blondes!

Even Allie got in on the fun. (She pooped on someone's sidewalk, so Steve had to leave the festivities to clean it up!)

Our kids don't do things in the traditional way. Instead of walking up to the door and saying "Trick-or-treat," our kids walked to the door and sang "We're All in this Together." A few people knew what that song was, but most didn't! It was really funny!

This was towards the end, so they were petering out a little!

Peter Pan was a gentleman!

Ella spent most of the night in this position. The rest of the kids would run to the door, turn and start yelling, "Come on Ella, Hurry up, Let's go Ella," etc. If you know Ella, that method does not work with her. That only made her go slower. It was funny!


This was about an hour into trick-or-treating. Notice the wings, headband and jack-o-lantern are gone!

Finally, the loot. This was a small portion of what the kids got. It will disappear, and it won't all be eaten (if you know what I mean!)

I'm going to try to do a better job of posting, so come back soon!

I'm Baaack...

Changing schools AND grades is hard! Don't get me wrong- this has been the BEST move I've ever made, but it hasn't left much free time for things like... say... blogging! So, let's get started.


Madison was the star of her latest PTA program (if I do say so myself.) Here is a sample of her break-through performance as "Kid #9."



This was a fun performance because this was my class as well!

By, the way, the little boy at the beginning is the son of my suite mate my freshman year at Harding. We didn't know each other before we went to Harding, and she left after our freshman year to marry the guy from Red Oak, TX, that she had been dating. We ran into each other 11 years later at our kids' Kindergarten carnival. Isn't that amazing? It's a small world, so you should always be on your best behavior! :)

See you tomorrow for a Halloween post... really... I'm not lying... tomorrow!