Thanksgiving Songs and Poems

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Here it is 4:45 pm and we're smelling the delicious smells of a turkey roasting in the oven. We plan to eat around 6. Nathan is working nights, so he's sleeping right now. We're letting him get about 6 hours of sleep before we wake him up to eat and then he'll leave for work at 7:30pm. It's been a relaxing day. We've sang songs, recited poems, decorated cookies, made a lot of food, and just hung out. During naptime I got to lay on the couch and read the December Ensign, which was the most relaxing part of my day. I also took Thomas for a walk and played with the kids outside. Although, we miss sharing the holiday with family, I've been grateful for time to think about my wondrous blessings.
Here are the videos of the songs and poems.






All of the kids and myself memorized a Thanksgiving poem, but Spencer and Kylie weren't ready to recite theirs.

It's Fall, That's All!

I know this is a little late because fall is almost over, but last week the kids were putting on a circus and listening to our favorite fall music so I had to get a video.


Actually, I had to take 3 short videos because Blogger sometimes has trouble uploading larger videos. They may be a little boring, but I decided to post them anyway.

Cliffs of the Neuse State Park

One of the benefits I love about homeschooling is that when we want to take a field trip, we can pick the day with the best weather. We've had a cold fall, so when I saw the forecast for a beautiful 78 degree day, I jumped at the chance for a fall outing. This was the first week in November while Nathan was in Philadelphia for a nephrology conference, so it was perfect. I really wanted to see the fall foilage and decided on one of North Carolina's beautiful state parks about an hour away. We were about the only ones there (it was a weekday) and enjoyed the museum as well as several gorgeous hikes and a picnic lunch. I love being out in nature and away from life. It was so peaceful and relaxing.


They're listening to how the Neuse River came to be.

Ultrasound News

Today was a very exciting day! I had an 8 am appointment for an ultrasound because that's what time Nathan was getting off his night shift. With homeschooling we are very spoiled to not have to be out of the house early in the morning, so it was exciting and different to be up and out the door at such an early hour. The kids laid out their clothes last night and made up bags of cereal to take. We got up and dressed quickly and met Nathan at the doctor's office at 8:00. The kids could NOT wait to find out if it was a boy or a girl. Kylie in particular has wanted to know because she's anxiously wanting to buy baby girl clothes in every store we're in, especially Once Upon A Child. :) She keeps saying, "If it's a girl we're going to have to spoil her." On the other hand, we thought a boy would be nice to have it even at 3 and 3 so that we could have a boys room and a girls room.

So the result is......... IT'S A GIRL!!!!

We are very excited. The official due date is April 27, although she'll probably be a week late like the others. :)

After the ultrasound we went out to eat at Denny's, which we haven't done since we went with our friends in Texas. The kids kept talking about that time and what they had all gotten. Good memories. :) We went today to build more memories because it was such a fun family morning with us all going to see what the baby is and then getting to eat out afterward. In the afternoon we had the excitement of the first snow flurries of the season. Snow is very rare here, so that was a treat.





Too bad it's a little blurry. The kids were so excited to be eating at a restaurant, a rare occurance. They all got grand slams and ate every bite.

Trick-or-Treat!

At some of our neighbor's houses Nathan made us do the Five Little Monkey rhyme, acting it out a bit. I was embarassed; they loved it. It was hard to get around the neighborhood doing that every few houses and talking. Our neighbors are very friendly and wanted to catch up on all the news. I love that about North Carolina. We still managed to get a lot of candy and had a great evening.

Madalyn with the bag she helped make.

Halloween Night

The picture isn't great, but here's our traditional (since we've had an oven--2 years now) dinner in a pumpkin Halloween dinner. It turned out great!

Now we're ready to go out trick or treating. It's hard to see us, but the kids wanted the little pumpkins on the railing to be in the picture. There are almost 20 on the front porch railing, 15 on the back deck, and 20 more still growing on the vine. As for our costumes, the kids are the 5 little monkeys, I'm the Mama monkey who calls the doctor, and Nathan is the doctor, of course! From back here it looks like we're bears, but up close you could tell we were monkeys, especially with the bananas on Thomas' and Spencer's costumes.

Uh-Oh Again!!

When the girls and I came back into the living room after we finished cleaning up the broken bowl and grapes, this was how we found Thomas. Normally I wouldn't have cared if he dumped out the bag of crayons, it was just funny after he had already made a mess in the kitchen. He normally doesn't get into much, so this was a record for him! He was certainly enjoying this mess more than the first one. :)

Uh-Oh!

We were doing schoolwork on the couch and only heard the crash. It didn't even sound like anything broke. We looked over and saw Thomas just standing there with a sober look on his face. He stayed rooted for a long time, starring at his mess. He didn't talk, point, or hardly blink. It was so odd of him to be so still and silent, and the look so cute, that I had to grab the camera to make a great "guilty" page for the scrapbook.

We figure he was either carrying this bowl of grapes and dropped it, or he could have possibly thrown it on purpose, since he likes to pick up the pumpkins and chuck them as hard as he can (2 feet). He's stronger than he looks!

Our Five Little Punkins

Kids With Their Masterpieces

The title says it all. Here are pictures of the kids with their finished product. (Thomas is holding the pumpkin we'll use for dinner. He pretended to carve it with the little poker all night, imitating the kids. He was so cute!)

Pumpkin Carving Time!

Gotta love GI rotation!! Wednesday Nathan came home at 4:30pm. The kids were playing happily outside so we talked and made dinner together. I've loved having him around this month! We ate just before 5:30 and by 6:00 we were ready to start carving pumpkins. I ended up saving mine for dinner in a pumpkin, but the kids all carved theirs and Nathan helped Alexis. The evening went smoothly and I was even a little bored standing around watching everyone. I think this was the first year nobody needed my help. So I ended up working on a fleece blanket I was making for Thomas and got it all finished just in time for a chilly 28 degree night. :)