More Turkeys

Corbin's "thankful turkey" he made at school:

I am thankful for . . . food. So we can live and not be hungry and so we can give it to other people and do the food drive and so we are helthy and so animals and plants can eat.

I am thankful for . . .earth because it is preety and because people help it and because it gives us foo and water and because it gives its really pretty and fun.  I LLLove earth.

I am thankful for . . . miss nelson because she is nice and fun.  she is awesome and cool.  she helps us learn and read and write and she lets college students come to her class.

I am thankful for . . . my dad because healways does his workout with me, he sometimes drops me off at school and sometimes helps me with addition, subtraction and times.

I am thankful for . . . my mom because she cooks for me. she drops me off at school. she does the dishes. She cleans the house. She helps me with my homework.

I am thankful for . . . water. so we can live and be helthy and so plants and animals can live and so we can swim in it and we can drink it and so we can paint.  I love it!

Cody's "thankful turkey" from school:

Family, Friends
Turkey, Ham
Pizza, Chips
Mom and Dad
World
Leaves, feathers, birds and clouds

We are grateful for so many things!

A little bit of gluttony

is okay when its shared with family and done in the spirit of giving thanks, right?  Our day of food and family was perfect and since there's not much to say besides "yum", I will just share a few pics and a few recipes...

And here's what I made to contribute to the feast:

RASPBERRY JELLO YUMMY-NESS (this would be really good at Christmas too)

1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen raspberries
1 (6 oz.) pkg. raspberry Jello
1 c. boiling water
1 c. applesauce (used my homemade sauce!)
1 c. sour cream
2 c. miniature marshmallows
Dissolve Jello in water; stir in raspberries and applesauce. Pour into 8 x 8 pan. Let Jello set. Mix marshmallows and sour cream together. Spread marshmallow mixture over the Jello. Allow to set in refrigerator several hours. (I actually doubled it and use a 9x13).



SWISS VEGETABLE MEDLEY (this is seriously good.)
1 (16 oz) package frozen boccoli, carrots and cauliflower, thawed and drained
1 can condensedcream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (4 ounce) jar chopped pimientos,drained
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese,divided
1 (2.8 ounce) can French-fried onions, divided
In a bowl, combine vegetables, soup, sour cream, pepper, pimientos and 1/2 cup cheese. Stir in half of the onions; mix well. Pour into an ungreased 1-qt. casserole. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheese and onions. Return to the oven until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.  (I doubled this too and used a bigger baking dish)

I also made Pumpkin Fudge, which was really good, but I will wait to share the recipe, because if you live anywhere near me, you may be getting some for your neighborly Christmas gift. :)

Hope everyone else enjoyed a great day of giving thanks as well!

What We're Thankful For

We made our "Thankful Turkey" for family night on Monday.  Here's what the boys came up with:
Daddy
Snow
Earth
Family (Cousins, Bros, Daddy, Mommy)
Heavenly Father
Grandma
Jesus
Mom
Brothers
Food (Noodles, Fish, Garden)
God's Creations
School
Friends

I should preface this though with the fact that we did spend some time talking about having an "attitude of gratitude" and being grateful for the things that money cannot buy.  It was actually a great discussion and right during the middle of it, Cody wanted everyone to be quiet so he could pray and tell God thank you.  It was sweet.  And so far this week they have still remembered what we talked about and have been expressing great amounts of gratitude in their prayers.  Let's hope it sticks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Star Attraction

Corbin has been asking me for awhile now when I was going to write another post about him. He LOVES to read this blog, and informs me that he has read everything about himself.  Plus I think he wants to make sure his name stays at the top of the "labels" list over there on the side.  So I thought this would be the perfect time since Corbin was the "Star Attraction" in his school class last week.

I was so proud of the poster he made! I helped him arrange the pictures, but he picked them all himself and chose what he wanted to write.  He did most of the writing and did very well! 

Since you probably can't read it all in this high quality photo I snapped after he brought it home from school and a couple things had already fallen off, here's what it says:

I like tubing.
I have two brothers.
I like riding bikes.
I like hiking and rock collecting.
I love my family.
I like kayaking.
I like horseback riding at my Grandma's house.
I like swiming.
I like playing video games.
I like zip-lining. (sorry that was one of the pictures that fell off)
I like camping.

He also had his "favorite foods", but I think they may have just been foods that he likes and were the only pictures he could find in the magazine.

He wanted to add more at the end, so we added:

He also cut out a picture of a bottle of shampoo and conditioner and wanted to put that he likes to take showers, but we didn't have enough room on the poster. ;)

I love this kid!

Say it ain't so

Corbin's clothes have been moved from the kid hangers to real adult hangers.

Tonight I looked down at his new shoes on the floor and my first thought was "who's HUGE shoes are those?"

When I hugged him today, I didn't even have to bend over.

I think my baby is growing up.  :(

tomatoes

So yesterday, I finally pulled up my garden and found a huge batch of perfectly ripe, protected-from-the-frost tomatoes.  Yay!  But unfortunately my kids also discovered them.  As I was pulling out the 8ft plants, green and red tomatoes were falling everywhere.  So what do little boys do with them?  Exactly.  Throw them, squish them, put them on sticks, bounce them on the trampoline.  So today, when I looked out and saw what a mess my patio was after I just cleaned the yard, I told Cody to figure out a way to clean up his mess (because of course he is the main culprit).  So I check back a few minutes later and he is out their scooping them up with the kids snow shovel and I thought, "wow, what a good kid."  But here's how it went down after that...

Cody - "Mom, I can't do this, it's going to make me throw up."
Mom - "Too bad, you shouldn't have made such a mess."

And since I promised myself I would never make my kids clean up their own vomit - I guess the joke's on me.  Maybe I should have just cleaned up the tomatoes.

HaLLoWeeN 2010

CoRbIn - The Mummy.  Costume hand-sewn by Dad with first aid gauze. Head wrap and face paint my Mom.  Butterfly bandage (yes, it's real) from getting hit by a door at school.

CoDy - The Ninja.  Black shirt and pants from DI, weapons $5 at Walmart.  The rest of the costume, including the mask, silver stripes and velcro chinese stars sewn by Dad. 

CoLtOn - The Frog.  Costume hand-me down from big brother.  He was a little cranky for pics because he had just woken from a nap, but he was the best little hopper ever.  When anyone asked him what he was going to be for Halloween, he would hop and say "ribbit, ribbit."

And the festivities included . . .

Corbin's party at school.  Colton helped me with the game station.  Then we got to watch all the kids parade through the school and around the black top.  That was fun.

Visiting Grandma Sharee at her school.  Corbin actually had Friday off, so we went to see Despicable Me at the dollar movie and then to see Grandma in her cute farm girl costume.

Fire Dept Halloween Party.  Chili cook-off, cake walk, pinatas, pumpkin bowling (by moi), trunk or treat and lots of fun.  And Corbin won 1st place for best costume.  It was a great night.

On Saturday, Main Street trick or treat while daddy & Colton took a nap.  It's fun to see the scarecrows and to see everyone's costumes in the daylight.  But it's getting more and more crowded every year, it was fun, but I don't think we'll be doing it again.

And of course, the traditional trick or treating on Halloween (which actually occurs on Saturday in Utah when Halloween falls on the Sabbath).  This picture was actually taken the night before.  Which was good.  I got NO pictures of the actual Halloween, because it was rainy and yucky and the first time Russ and the kids attempted to go out, they actually got hailed on.  Luckily they were still in our cul-de-sac, but they had to make a run for it and that was a bit frightening.  But after about an hour it cleared and then the whole neighborhood was out.  It turned out not too bad, although you couldn't really see anyone's costume's because they were all covered with coats, gloves and hats.  Oh well, the kids had fun, that's all that counts.  We ended the night with a scary Scooby Doo movie and popcorn.  It was a good night.