George is thankful for...

...loosing two teeth. He lost his first one on Wednesday and his second on Thursday. He has fun spooking Lucy with his smile.

Thanksgiving

Here is Lucy in the car, off to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving.
We were surprised to see Garrick there. He's Uncle Tony's youngest. He will be graduating from high school this year. He didn't stay long because he was on his way to spend the holiday with his girlfriends family in Portland. The kids were excited to see him though.

Here is a new friend. Grandma and Grandpa's new dog Schatzie(sweetheart in German). The girls loved her. Grandma's sister, Barbara, was there along with her husband Bruce. It was nice to see them again, since our trip to Washington.

Look at all those leftovers. We have been enjoying them these past few days. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for having us over. We have so much to be grateful for.

George

A few months ago George came to me and was upset because he hasn't lost a tooth yet and all his friends have. He'll be 8 in January. He said to me, "I will never get married because I will have these little baby teeth and a big body and no one will want to marry me." Poor guy.

Well, George ran off the bus last Wednesday to tell me he has a loose tooth.(bottom left tooth when I look at him) And yesterday we discovered he has two more loose teeth.(his top front teeth) He is nervous of the pain now but is excited to tell kids at school on Monday.

The Tooth Fairy has had a two year break. Its time to break the piggy bank.

Our trip to Washington

We drove up to Aberdeen, WA for Grandma Jenkins funeral service. Aberdeen is where David was born so we were excited to go see old places and visit family that we haven't seen for awhile.

We left Friday morning and after 2 hours of driving we stopped at David's parents bakery for a little breakfast snack. We all love to go to Grandma and Grandpa's bakery. Grandpa let Ginger and George play with some left over dough which we took with us when we left. They had lots of fun with it. We "lost" it somewhere a long the way though.

We all loved our little treats. We soon departed for Washington with David's parents ahead of us.

Lucy below. Carson above.

We continued from there up to Portland and stopped at the temple to get out and walk around. As you are on the I-5 you can see the Portland temple pop out of the trees just like the Washington DC temple. The kids got so excited. I love to see the temple!

The pictures above are ones that we took on our walk around the grounds. In the last one, Dad was shaking his booty while I was trying to take a picture. At least we know how to get everyone to laugh all at once. In the picture below a sister we met there was needing a picture of a family and we agreed to help. I don't think the pictures are going to turn out very well. She took this one with our camera. As we were leaving I saw a family that was dressed up that she was cornering.

We made it to Aberdeen, WA and went out for Chinese food. Something other than snacky road food. After that we went to the hotel to crash. Lucy was ready for that. Actually this is in the morning when she didn't want to get out of bed until I mentioned breakfast.

What to do in a hotel room? Try to look through the peep hole!

The fountain in the lobby. Water is always fascinating to children, even the bigger ones.

This is the house that David's parents were renting in town when they brought little David home from the hospital. Its for sale!

It was a very nice service and we learned a lot about Grandma Jenkins. She was pitcher on a state winning softball team as a teenager. She also was practicing her pitching with a rock with her sister and knocked her sister's two front teeth out. Her sister Effie had to get gold caps on her missing teeth. Grandma Jenkins called her sister "Goldie". Grandma Jenkins loved to cook and serve others. She loved ice cream. Grandma Jenkins said ice cream makes everyone happy. Before she passed, Grandma Jenkins requested that ice cream be served at her funeral. We all enjoyed one of her last wishes. Here is George stylin' in Uncle Tony's(David's brother) leather jacket. That is David's dad and brother, Tony, in the back ground.

Here is Uncle Tony's new bride, Aunt Nicole, with Ginger and Lucy looking at pictures on a cell phone.

The lady in the hat is David's cousin who recently started chemotherapy for cancer. The quilt was made by her mom, David's aunt, who has had her own struggles with breast cancer. The day that Grandma Jenkins died, David's Aunt Eva had a double mastectomy.

George is pretty proud of himself giving David rabbit ears.

Here are the siblings. There's Barbara, Eva, Susan(David's mom), and Bill. Barbara is also a survivor of breast cancer.

Here are some candid shots. I don't know every one's name.

The picture above is Aunt Eva's husband, in the black jacket, and his two son's, David's cousins, in the blue shirts. The man with the goatee and sunglasses is Aunt Barbara's husband, Bruce I think. I don't know who the couple are.

The picture below is Uncle Bill with Nicole and Tony.

More shots of cousins.

Years ago, Rich, David's dad worked at this pizzeria. Its still around and we enjoyed that for dinner Saturday night in the hotel breakfast area. I had some pictures of everyone there but they had their mouths full or their teeth out so I thought I would pass on showing them.

Here is a picture of the kids though with Aunt Nicole.

I knew we were going to a hotel and that there was a pool but I didn't get the swimming suits. I was going to tell Callie and it would have been taken care of quickly but I didn't want her to do it to soon. Well I guess it wasn't soon enough. Anyway, we went to Walmart and bought some boys boxers for all of them. They felt pretty cool. It took a while to convince Callie that she looked okay.

Dad got in but mom didn't have anything to wear. I sat by the stairs where Lucy was playing. At one point I did have to go in after her. She kept pushing her limits and Dad was in the hot tub. I was in jeans and went in the water up to my bum to get her.

Go Callie!

This is Grandma Jenkins house that she lived in till after she had a stroke, about 10 years ago. This was Grandma's house to David. He remembers the wind chimes on the back porch. Tony has it now. It has a huge kitchen that served its purpose many times. Grandma Jenkins loved the Schwanns truck. She was also known as the plate lady. Before her stroke she would shop on QVC for sets of wall plates and other nick-knacks.

On our ride home, the kids saw a dragon in the clouds. Can you find it?

It was a quick trip but well worth it. We are glad to be home.

Wood for the Winter

For the past month our family has been working on getting ready for the winter months ahead. This being our second winter here we know a bit more than last winter.
Carson, Callie, and George have helped a lot in splitting and stacking the wood. We bought the wood in rounds then borrowed a splitter to get it all split. That was a HUGE help!

This after it was all split. We brought some in the garage to keep it dry. There is still a lot outside that needs to be stacked. We have had some wet weather lately so we will finish that probably the week of Thanksgiving since the kids have the whole week off. We are supposed to have sunny weather till then so it can all dry out and we can get it covered.

Name that movie

Mother: Good heavens! What did you do to this dress?

Daughter 1: Oh, Mother, it was practically an antique!

Daughter 2: We just shortened it a little.

Mother: A little? I look like a teeny-bopper!

Daughter 2: What's wrong with that?

Mother: I can't go out like this!

Daughter 1: Why not? Your legs are better than mine.

Name that movie

Boy: Tell me you love me.

Girl: I love you.

Boy: Simon.

Girl: I love you Simon.

Boy: Miracle three.

Name that movie

Boy: Now that I got that fifty dollars, you name the date.

Girl: August 15th.

Boy: Why August 15th?

Girl: Because that was the first day I'se kissed!

Boy: Oh was it? I didn't remember that!

Girl: You wasn't there.

Callie's knitting project #2

For my birthday last week Callie knitted me a cell phone case. I think she did a marvelous job. The loop is to strap it to the my purse. I am so glad she is learning this new talent.

Name that movie

Gentleman #1: You know, I have an idea. Whoever wrote that letter must have read about us in the newspaper.

Gentleman #2: What is it?

Gentleman #1: What's what?

Gentleman #2: The idea you have?

Gentleman #1: I just told you!

Gentleman #2: What was it?

Gentleman #1: Whoever wrote that letter must have read about us in the newspaper.

Gentleman #2: Right! Now that letter was signed 'XXXXX'. So he must have read about us in the newspaper and called us in to solve his murder.

Gentleman #1: How could XXXXX write us after he was already dead?

Gentleman #2: Right! You know what? Maybe whoever killed XXXXX wrote that letter.

Gentleman #1: If you killed XXXXX would you write to someone and ask them to find the killer?

Gentleman #2: Are you saying *I* killed XXXXX?

Gentleman #1: (aggravated) No! I'm saying you kill me!

Halloween '08

I didn't get any pictures of the other kids but I did get one of this little witch sleeping on the job. We had quite a day. Lucy and I ran some errands early and then came home to have the power off for about 3 hours. The time I had set aside to make a pot of chili for a trick-or-treat get together later in the evening. Not getting that done, I went to pick up the kids to get Ginger to dance class while the others attended a party at the nursing home. After that I had one hour to come up with some chili. David saved the day by getting a pizza and taking the children without me and letting me stay home and rest.

Carson and Callie were both pirates, George was a teenage mutant ninja turtle that we borrowed from a neighbor, Ginger was Cinderella, Lucy was a witch, and David was a referee.