Happy Birthday Nevan!

To celebrate this most awesome day, Nevan got a haircut. I know,that doesn't sound so amazing, but it was his first and he did really well. I finished up his and Knut's Thomas Christmas shirts so we could take some pictures of our really cute kids.

Scott's Birthday Party

Another one of Knut's friends had a birthday, they all seem to be coming up right now, so I finished up the last of their gifts by making scripture cases. I also got to take a lot of pictures since the other moms were busy organizing and helping and the kids had a blast. We went to an awesome park that had a car ramp and the kids got to race their cars and then they got to be cars.

Sunday Pictures

Keileigh got to match her baby yesterday and we just had to get pictures. I was also amazed that last years Christmas dress still fits. Since I was taking pictures of Keileigh, everyone had to get in the shot too. baby also helped Keileigh be very reverent during sacrament meeting. She very carefully set dolly in the corner and sat next to her and showed her how to fold arms during prayers and then when she would get antsy a little bit I asked if she was showing dolly about being reverent and she would settle right down and smile at dolly. Can you tell what Knut's lesson was on in Sunbeams?

Visiting Daddy's Office

Nolan had to go into the office on Saturday to back some stuff up and do a little paper work. Since we were headed to the duck pond anyway, we tagged along to the office and the kids got to do some coloring while we waited for daddy.

You want the bathroom where?



Check out those curls!


Surprise!

Thanksgiving Adventures

Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! We were very busy on Thursday, feeding 4 elders, one of Nolan's brothers family and some friends came over too. this was all for breakfast. Everyone had other plans for dinner though, so that was just us. But because of all the traffic in the kitchen, dinner wasn't started until 1 o'clock. Someone gave us a turkey with all the trimmings so I got to have an adventure cooking a turkey for my very first time. I asked everyone I could think of how to cook this turkey and checked online. Everyone had a different way to do it, and almost none of them were similar. Needless to say, after much consternation over losing the thermometer and having to move an oven rack from a hot oven, the turkey turned out pretty good, albeit at 8:30 pm.

Nolan asked if I needed to take a picture of my very first turkey, so I did.



This is the actual bird, and it really was quite good and moist.

Nevan's Walking

He's been walking for about a week now, but he's still working on standing up to start this process. I've been trying to get a good video of it, but the lighting here doesn't really lend itself well to videos.

Giveaways of the Day

I love to unwind by playing some very different games. Knut loves to watch mommy playing and will help sometimes with the hidden object games. I beta test for Oberon Media Games which is kind of cool. I also will play the Big Fish games on demo, but only getting 60 minutes worth of a game gets tiring if your really into the game your playing. I found this set of webpages a while back and I thoroughly enjoy checking up and seeing what they offer. The main thing is that every day they offer something new and you have to download and install it that day. We've seen music writing software, screensavers and lots of others and the games are pretty good too. Some have been released through Big Fish but were offered here for the whole game instead of a demo.
www.giveawayoftheday.com

Wordle

Ok, Desi, I blame you for this. I love this program and creating these things with it, but now I'm trying to figure out what I can do with them now that I've made them. Any one got any ideas? The first one is from something that I have in a book for Nolan and the next two are the same words, just arranged differently from the kids and myself of 20 words that describe daddy.

Nifty Thrifty Under Fifty

Can you do all of your Christmas presents for under $50? That's what this is about. I am so excited to have been chosen to participate in this challenge and I hope that I can definitely accomplish this. If you want to keep up with every one who is participating, check out the new link on the side.

Homeschool Freebie of the Day

I've told some people about this before, and it is something I enjoy, so I thought I would share it with you. This is an awesome webpage that everyday they give away a great resource that would help with teaching your children different things. This week they focused on Thanksgiving stories and activities and also since the page was hacked earlier this week, they have left the last two weeks worth of stuff available for the next week or so. Check them out, they are awesome!

Freeway Complex/Triangle Fire

For anyone who was concerned and didn't call, just to let you know, we are safe and sound after the scare of the fires this weekend. The one in Brea was the only one to affect us and then only with the smoke and the traffic it caused., as even after it had started it was headed away from us. Watching the maps of the burn areas was kind of scary as they weren't being updated very frequently and we couldn't really tell how accurate some of the information was. The wind was a concern because it brought with it the smoke and a layer of ash. The kids were worried that the sun was sick because it turned everything orange through the smoke. We did have church on Sunday and only a few members in our Stake were evacuated, but only as a precaution on Saturday. Some schools were closed on Monday, but only Brea High School was damaged and is still closed today. As of right now, 75% containment and we have a gorgeous blue sky to look at outside with just a slight taint of smoke in the air.

A different Park

We go to the park a lot. There's a lot of space for the kids to run around and make noise and play areas for them to discover. Nolan had a job interview the other day and we checked the map and noticed it was close to one of the bigger parks that had a pond/lake in the middle of it. We tagged along and he dropped us off before his interview. The kids had fun because the ducks and other birds were out en masse. We didn't have stuff to feed them, but we enjoyed walking and looking around. We saw some interesting birds that I didn't know the name of right away, but the kids loved trying to imitate what Mommy was saying. Almost all of the pictures were taken without zooming at all, the birds were so used to humans.


Knut saying "hi" to all the ducks.









These were some of the birds we saw, they were so peaceful and still, they barely moved when I approached to take these pictures.







At the play area there were a few other kids to play with.







Then Nolan showed up, he had gotten lost and had to reschedule his interview, but he stopped and got us some bread to feed to the ducks. The kids had a blast until the geese showed up and started demanding some. Nolan had to be the big meanie and chase them away as they kept eyeing Nevan's bread he was eating and then they started watching his toes.

Happy Friends

We visited with some friends and the kids had a blast playing.

Another Park Play Day

We tried out a new park the other day before Music and Movement. Nevan had a blast because he actually got do some playing.