A Pale Man

Jarem makes me smile with his thoughtful and observant nature. This morning as I was sitting at the table with him while he was eating his breakfast he said, "A few days ago I asked you if I looked pale and you said yes".

He continued, "Then last night all the girls kept saying that they didn't want to marry a pale man. That pretty much means that they wouldn't want to marry me."

I had 9 girls ages 14-15 over at my house last night for a church activity. One of the questions in the game we played was to describe your dream husband. Some of the girls mentioned that they wanted a man that was tan and that they would never marry a PALE man.

Jarem was there. Who knew he was paying so much attention. :)

I assured him that they are way too old for him anyway, and that he need not worry, he would find the perfect wife someday that would love him just like he is!

Our Christmas Tree

Tonight we just got our Christmas tree decorated.  It is amazing how our kids can pretty much do it on their own now.  Eric and I are the hook distributors and they decorated it 100%.  Even Alex wanted to help this year.  He was pretty proud that he could reach all the really high places and he even put the angel on!  All in all, it was a great night!!

Kyle and Jessica family pictures

I also took some pictures of Kyle and Jessica and Taegan. I love Taegan's many expessions in these. He wasn't really in the mood for pictures, but we managed to get some pretty cute ones.

I love Taegan's face in this one!

Finally got a smile out of him.  He was kind of sick and wasn't in the best of moods.

TJ and Sunny Family Pictures

While TJ and Sunny were here, I took some family pictures of them for their Christmas cards. I thought they turned out pretty good.

Jesikah and Taegan

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for, so it is always great to have a holiday like this to reflect on all our blessings. It is always more meaningful when you can share Thanksgiving with family, so we were happy that Eric's two brothers, Kyle and TJ, came and brought their families. My back was really hurting the day they arrived and the previous day, so I was a little worried about it being too much for me to handle, but they are all so helpful and great to pitch in and do anything that needs done. It turned out wonderful and not too stressful and the food was delicious.

Eric ordered a deep fried turkey from a friend's neighbor, and it turned out to be delicious!! It arrived around 10:30 in the morning, and we were afraid it would be cold before we finished preparing the rest of dinner, but it wasn't. We ate at 12:30, and it was still hot. I even snuck in a nap Thanksgiving afternoon. It helped keep me awake for late black Friday shopping that night, which I later regretted after waiting in line 2 hours at Target and getting home to swollen aching feet.  But, it was still fun to be with my sister-in-laws!!

 Ironically, all three of us sister-in-laws are all pregnant. Jessica is about 1 month behind me, and Sunny is almost done with her first trimester, so we had a lot of pregnancy and baby related discussions. :) We love having them come, and we enjoyed a great holiday with family!!

All of us except me and Taegan (who was napping)

Some of us including my belly but my face got cut off

Aw, there I am!

The food which we took a picture of midway through serving.  Mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, corn...did we miss anything?

Jessica made these delicious chocolate pies that were a hit!

Eric made this deep dish cherry pie with the "Y" on it.

Among the pies were also pumpkin and pumpkin cheesecake made by Sunny

Eric indicating he can been well-fed!! :)

We went out and got some pictures in the backyard of the families that evening.  I got this cute one of Jesikah and Sunny.

Hunting

Eric and his brothers got the chance to go hunting together last week.  Kyle and Jared came to our house and along with Eric they all headed to their dad's for a few days to hunt.  Jared came from Arizona, and we haven't seen him in awhile.  It was good to see him again.  They stayed here for a day before and a couple of days after.  Jessica and Taegan came and hung out with us here while Kyle was gone.  It was fun to have their company and they are very low maintenance.  TJ and Sunny met up with them here for the weekend so all 4 of the brothers could be together.  I think they had a great time.

Eric shot this buck.  The four of them (disregard bloody hands). They just finished cleaning it.

Dinner of fresh deer meat that they ate they following night at their Dad's.

Alex's Birthday

I asked Alex if he wanted to do anything special for his 17th birthday, and he said "no". He said 17 is really nothing special and so we could just do something small. We had a little family birthday party that was very low key that morning and he opened his presents. Since his birthday was on Sunday, he ended up giving a talk on his birthday (which was a nice little birthday present). After church we had dinner and DQ cookie dough ice cream cake for dessert.

Presents

Jesikah and Jarem attached bags of candy to their gifts since they know he loves sweets!

He got some new Aeropostale t-shirts and polos

Here he is opening the case of Sprite that Jesikah gave him.  He loves Sprite (as you can tell)!

Reading the card from Jarem.  It was really cute!

Holding another Aeropostale shirt

Black-out curtains for his room at  his request so he can sleep-in on the weekends. :)

A new sweatshirt

New headphones from Tessa with the outside sound barrier

Yummy ice cream cake

I told him to make a birthday list so I would know what he wanted.  On his list were: new shirts, sweatshirts, headphones, blackout curtains, cash, and lastly, a girl!  I thought that was funny!  He obviously didn't get the girl, but got a little of everything else.

I was very proud of Alex as he gave his talk on his birthday.  He is way beyond his years when it comes to scriptural and gospel knowledge.  The talk was amazing and written 100% by him.  He is a deep thinker and really looks deep for meaning and understanding.  He has always been a good example to his siblings and those around him by keeping high morals and standards and sticking to the values he has set for himself.  Even if I wasn't his mother, I would admire him.  He truly is an example to all those around him.  He went through a few rough teenage years of being hard to get along with at home, but he has emerged with a greater respect for his parents and an appreciation for his siblings and a broader perspective on life.  He wants to give back what he has been given by being an influence for good on the younger youth like the older ones have been to him when he was struggling to find his identity.  He has a good sense of humor.  He is always setting goals working toward improving himself.  He has set high goals for his grades and has maintained almost straight A's for all of high school.  He doesn't need or expect much to be satisfied.  As he turns 17, I am a little saddened to realize that I don't have much time left with him at home.  I hope I have taught him all that I should have.  I love you Alex and I am proud to call you my son.

No More Braces

As of two days ago, Jesikah got her braces off!! She is very excited and so are her parents! That makes us free of that payment for at least a year until Tessa gets them on. Alex got his off in September.

Here's a picture of her in the orthodontist's office just after she got them off.

Halloween

The kids went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with their friends last night. They had a great time. At first, Jesikah seemed unsure about going with her siblings this year since it seemed more popular to be with just friends trick-or-tricking, but she made the decision that she would and didn't give me any trouble. 

Alex had play practice late since the play starts tonight and we didn't know where he was, but I guess he had texted my phone which I had let Jesikah take with them trick-or-treating, so we had no clue where he was and we starting calling around. Eric said maybe he had ended up running over some innocent trick-or-treater, and then I really started thinking about things that could have happened.  He has been driving the blue Honda Civic since Eric got a new truck, so he has a bit more freedom.  Anyway, he ended up going with a couple of friends and taking one of their younger brothers trick-or-treating around a different neighborhood.  Once we figured it all out, I was happy that he was able to spend time with friends since he hasn't had much time lately to do anything.  He has been too busy.

The group

Our kids: I had Tessa put her face up so that her hat wouldn't shade the light.  You really can't see Tessa's cloak very well in any of the pictures, but I was very proud of the cloak because I had transformed a long skirt into the cloak and it looked really awesome.  It was flowy just like a cloak should be and it had a double layer of a silky fabric and a black tulle on top.  I had to cut a section off and finish the edges as well as add some ties to hold it on at the neck.

Eric's contribution to her costume: the large wart made from hot glue and permanent markers. :)

Jarem ended up wearing the silver robe that I made him (story in previous post).  After it ripped on the side, I guess it was looser and with the cape over, it couldn't be seen.  I was happy it got at least one use.  People kept asking if he was Gandolf the Grey.  I liked that idea.

Jesikah wore her Greek goddess costume again from last year.

All the kids having hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls at our house after trick-or-treating.  It was a pretty cold night.

We had our traditional chili for dinner and I decided to add cinnamon rolls too this year.  It was a good after trick-or-treating snack.

Eric with his hot cocoa and his new best friend, IPad! :)  We enjoyed handing out candy together this year.  Just the two of us were home for a little while.  That was different and nice.  I enjoyed having the time with just him.