Casting Crumbs

Thanksgiving was a wonderfully fun day for all of us. I am so thankful that Tom’s side and my side all celebrate together. It makes it very easy for us not to have to split up the day and I am very blessed that they all like each other and get along so great.

In fact, part of our day besides gorging ourselves on all the food, was planning our big family vacation next year. All of us are heading to the mountains for a grand time.

Bud and Jaden – complete buddies for the day! Thanks Jonathan for entertaining my little rat pack for the entire day.

Notice Julian’s shirt. It was a beautifully warm 70 degrees. The boys played outside quite a bit until Daniel took a header over the rock wall and took out the scarecrow. (Wish I could have seen that one!)
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Here’s Mom and Dad on Thanksgiving. I put this in here because I wanted to give you all the latest update on Mom’s health. I must give a big shout out to God for the awesome report from the Dr.

When Mom went, he examined her from head to toe and asked how she thought she was doing. She said “I really think I am doing good.”. He said “No, you’re not. You are doing TREMENDOUS!” He said that they really didn’t know that she would be here this year to celebrate the holidays. What a precious gift that God has given her and all of us. I am glad to have my Mom around and feeling so well. I don’t know what I would do without her! Praise be to the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and power are His. He gives us such good gifts!!

Also, a couple days ago she got her blood work back. ALL of it was within normal ranges. The nurse told her that they never see that. He tumor marker was at 10 which went up a little bit. They don’t seem concerned with that.

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The day after the big turkey day, Uncle Mike came down for a visit. It was great to see him!! He brought quite the little bundle for the kids to play with – literally! His trunk was full of goodies and then he had a new Maltese named Alex that they loved.

Here’s everyone watching “A Christmas Story”.

Jaden and Alex

Evely and Alex. Isn’t he the cutest little dog?

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Monday evening we got the Christmas tree out. I baked a tea ring for Tom as his bribe and payment for hauling all the stuff down from the attic.

All the boys were up in the attic having fun. That was quite a new experience for them.

The three amigos!

Here’s our lowly little tree. The kids had a ball putting on the ornaments. I was shocked at how much Julian remembered and talked about stuff from years past. He has a mind like a steel trap.
I was wishing for a tree like Kenny and Barb’s the whole time. They have this awesome tree that comes out a box, you hit a button and the thing periscopes up and is fully lighted, fully decorated and really is pretty! I need that.

Here’s my favorite picture. Evely gazing at the tree.

Merry Christmas everyone! As you go about your fun festivities, don’t forget to stop and take time to worship Jesus, the reason for this celebration. What a gift He is to me! I couldn’t make it through the days without Him.

This morning Julian was brushing his teeth and out popped a very loose bottom tooth. He proudly showed everyone his gaping bloody hole with the new tooth poking through the gum. A very big event in the life of a six year old! He carefully gave it to me and spoke excitedly to Jaden and Evely of the goodies the tooth fairy would be bringing him tonight.

I carefully put it up on the bar and told myself to put it in a baggy when I got back from taking Julian to school. My morning was busy as my friend Jules was coming over with her kids. I went about making the beds, cleaning toilets and sinks, picking up all the scattered toys and cleaning the kitchen and wiping down all the counters. Later I thought, “Oh, I’ve gotta put Julian’s tooth in a baggy.” I went to the bar to get it . . .and it was GONE!! I then suddenly remembered picking up a piece of white something and tossing it into the trash. You know that sinking feeling of horror you get in the pit of your stomach. . .yeah. That was me.

So, I started going through the trash can. After pilfering through some poopy diapers, cereal, nasty food that cannot be identified. . .I quit. I had this wonderful idea that I could just go find one of his old teeth out of the hiding spot and put it in a baggy and he wouldn’t know the difference. So I did. However, the old teeth look . . .well. . .old! It was dingy and brown and looked different. It wasn’t the white shiny tooth that he held up that morning with glee – and you have to know Julian, he would KNOW! He just would and then it would be a big problem.

So all day this tooth problem is hanging over my head and the thoughts of “what will Julian do when he sees this crackly looking old brown tooth in the bag?”, “How could I have thrown that away and not thought a thing of it?”, “crap, crap and double dog doo CRAP!”.

Finally, I tell Jules that I gotta go through that gross trash bag. She was game as she is a regular dumpster diver herself. So we dug through the nasties and guess what. . .WE FOUND IT!!! There it was, gleaming and white, amidst the coffe grounds, pancake mess and smooshed cereal!

Relief at last!!!!

The Prize!

What we go through for the sake of our little children’s psyche. More like what I went through for mine! The great thing is he will never know what his little tooth went through today as he lays it under his pillow for mommy the tooth fairy to find.

Thanks, Jules, for helping me go through that mess!!!

Here are some pics of the Halloween fun we had with the kids.

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Punkin’ Carvin’!!

I’m not sure where Julian went. . .He was there but missed the pictures.

Tom and I had the job of carving. The kids tried their hand at scooping the gooey out of the center. Jaden really helped by piling all the seeds back in the pumpkin after we would scoop them out. He didn’t seem to get the fact that we didn’t want them in there.

Julian wanted the scariest face he could find. Jaden wanted the funniest, he called his “my funny cat”.

The final product! Pretty good for amateurs. I bought one of those pumpkin carving kids for $2.00 at Walmart – what a great purchase! If you don’t have one, it’s a MUST with carving!

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Trick or Treat!

Spiderman, Superman and the Pink Poodle take on the evening. Evely hated her curly costume at first but finally got used to it.

Trick or treating Uncle Kenny’s house. Grandma and Grandpa were there to greet the motley crew.

This year they had the experience of going door to door here in our little hometown too. They only lasted a few houses because it was FREEZING!

Then we ended the evening by stopping at Mamo and Boocoo’s (that’s what they call my parent’s).

Checking out the goodies! They had quite a pile and we still have lots of candy.