Bye Bye November....Hello December!!!!!

I CAN. NOT. believe how fast this month is flying by!!!!! We had a terrific Thanksgiving! 

Funny thing is, we had three different Thanksgiving meals and zero turkey! How does that happen? Beats the heck out of me. We had soup and sandwiches at my parent's house, super yummy. Then we ate smothered burritos at Kyle's family's house. And then we went to my brother's house and ate his wife's super delicious manicotti. Every single pound I gained was well worth it.

I can't believe Christmas is coming up so fast!! Thank the good Lord I was smart enough to start shopping for my gaggle of children back in the summer....seriously....all I have left to get is a layaway at Toys-R-Us and stocking stuffers. We still need to go see Santa at the mall and solidify Santa gifts...I already have two of the four and until they see Santa they can change their mind. This would not be good :( Once they have asked the big man, there's no going back....so I see a trip to the mall in the near future...

Speaking of Santa, I think my oldest, Bailee...

 may know....you know...KNOW, about Santa...I don't want to ask her and she is still going along with it...but she has never come out and asked us...so I don't know for sure. We haven't come to that bridge yet, but I think if she asks, my response will be, "Santa will continue to come as long as you believe"....what do you think? As for now, she still wants a Lalaloopsey...

We also celebrated several important birthdays this month. First was my big brother, Paul's, on the 18th, celebrating the big -3-0-

WOW!! My brother is thirty, which means....I'm next...dun dun duuuunnn!!! 

The next big milestone was on the 20th for my sweet bestie, Kara, celebrating her sweet sixteen...times two :)

 Love you, dear friend :)

And last, my one and only son, Braxton. We celebrated his fifth birthday on the 24th which just happened to be on Thanksgiving this year, bonus!!

 Love my little man...

Happy Birthday, Paul, Kara and Braxton!!! Love all of you!!

Okay, I have a confession to make....I am addicted to.......Pinterest!!! There!! I said it!!! Holy crap!!! Who comes up this stuff?! I am absolutely in love with this website. I have done so many things on it and have sooo many things I plan to do. I know it is just something else to consume my life, but it has truly been a blessing to us! Can I get an AMEN?! Warning: if you have not visited this website, only do so when you have LOTS of time....there....you have been warned.

Oh!! I have to tell you!!!! So a couple of weeks ago, my crazy daughter Kenzie,

 went to my husband and said she wanted to be vegetarian....Ok, she's eight...just let go in one ear and out the other like he does everything else. What does he do? He agrees with her and starts researching for recipes and tips....WHAT!? I can't even get him to put his dirty underwear in the hamper!!!! Now he is researching for recipes without meat in them?! Don't hear me wrong, I have nothing against vegetarians or food without meat....my only problem with this whole situation is that I just learned how to cook things other than Hamburger Helper and spaghetti. To take the meat out of the dish takes away everything I have learned!!! To make a longer story short, we have compromised on being vegetarian once a week. Last week was our first week...we had Vegetarian Chili.

I thought it was pretty good, the kids....not so much. I have our second vegetarian meal cooking in the crock pot as we speak. Pasta with Sun-dried Tomato Sauce....it does smell yummy. I will keep you posted on our vegetarianism....

I have to share this video just because it melts my heart...

Well, the Christmas tree is officially up and the lights on the house are lit. The count-down to Christmas has begun....Let the wrapping BEGIN!!!

The Traveling Zoo....?

I don't know where these animals come from or where they are going, but they come around this time every year. They set their tent up in random parking lots and hang out for a long weekend, letting people come check out their animals. They have all sorts of animals, like, the cool ones. I saw a tiger, a small kangaroo, llamas, a baby lion, lemurs, they even had a camel...it was pretty cool. Their cages were so close you could practically touch them and some of them you could. You could purchase food for the less cool animals, of course, but the kids didn't care. They got to feed animals they would never be able to in real life :) They were able to pet the cows, goats and the scarey looking llamas...

While we were there, the kids got to take turns riding the ponies, which they LOVED. I got a picture of each one...

Kenzie riding like a pro :)

Braxton...he was so excited :)

Madison loving the ride!

Bailee couldn't stop smiling :)

If we had come earlier during the weekend, we could have rode the camel. But, we went on the last day, so that old camel was all pooped out...poor old camel. What the crap is a camel doing in Amarillo. LOL!! 

He was HUGE!!

Before we left, we HAD to get our picture made with the baby lion. They were so cute and of course you couldn't take their picture unless you purchased one...ok, we were suckers and did it. I was a little nervous about the kids trying to touch her at once, which was highly frowned upon considering their aggressive behavior and crazy sharp claws :) We were put into position and told, Do. Not. Move.....you don't have to tell me twice. He quickly put the baby into position, laying her in Braxton's lap, and snapped the picture. I can not believe every single one of my stubborn children smiled on the first shot. After he took the picture, he quickly grabbed the baby and held her face away from us long enough for us to pet her.  She was so cute!! 

Awww!! They did so good....

Here are a few other pics of our trip to this random zoo...

The little kangaroo was so cute :)

Big tiger...

Braxton petting a goat

kinda curious to see how he will get his head back in :)

Madison feeding a cow :)

Bailee feeding her too...she was hungry :)

Tina! Eat! LOL!!!

Love their expressions looking at the black llama...

Me and Miss Madison having fun :)

Madison petting a goat

Move it! Move it!!!

So if you ever see a random tent set up in the middle of a parking lot, you should go check it out. You might be surprised at what you find :)

Yayyy for Family Night!!

We have done four family nights now and are absolutely LOVING it! We are having to tweak it here and there. There was a night that Kyle had to work over and missed the whole thing. Then the next one, Madison ended up being sick and then this last week, Bailee was at "Megan's" house. We really hadn't put into consideration the nights Bailee will miss out...that was a bummer, for us and for her. Anyway, I just wanted to take a quick sec to share a little of each night we have had so far...

Our first night was Oct. 14th when we went to the Discovery Center for the hot air balloon lift...

Madison and Daddy

Me and the kids, minus Bailee :(

One of the balloons that lifted that night...

We had a lot of fun that night, but planned poorly so we did not start our Bible Story lessons until the following week...

Our next family night was Oct. 21. We did our first lesson this week and it was over Creation. Our story came out of the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. This is for kids, so it obviously was not the entire chapters, but rather a condensed version for small kids. 

Our verse was,"Through his power all things were made-things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen." -Colossians 1:16

I am LOVING this book and highly recommend it! The name of it is Our Together-Time Bible by: Gwen Ellis. We found it, with the help of my friend Krystole, at Mardell's for five bucks. AWESOME DEAL!!!! Ok, moving on....there is also a section at the end of each lesson where you Talk About It...the kids love this. It has questions that get discussions started about what they learned and how they can apply it to their lives....and then after that, there is an activity that everyone can participate in that goes along with the lesson. 

God Made Them All

They had a blast making these! They got their magazines, glue and scissors and just went to town. Loving the memories we are making with them....

Our third family night was Oct. 28th...our lesson was over patience, YES!!!! So happy to do this one :) We all could use a little patience. I tell them to patient all of the time and of course their response is basically, "whatever". So it was nice to be able to show them that it was also biblical. Our story came from Genesis 7:12 and 8:1-19...Noah's Arc. It talked about how patient Noah must have been waiting on a boat for so long. Great story with a little different perspective that what they usually learn from that story in bible class.

Our verse, "We show that we are servants of God by living a pure life, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness." -2 Corinthians 6:6

Our activity was to come up with activities that we could do while we were waiting for someone or something. They said things like play a game or read a book. It was a great lesson! And then...we made cupcakes!!!!!

Their Halloween cupcake creations!!

Poor Madison was sick and watched from the couch :(

Our last family night was Nov. 4th...our lesson was over kindness. Another great topic for my gaggle of children :)  Our story was from Genesis 24:15-20, a story about Rebekah fetching water cheerfully for Abraham and his ten camels. 

Or verse: "Do not forget to do good to others. And share with them what you have. These are the sacrifices that please God." -Hebrews 13:16
Definitely another great lesson for my greedy little children. LOL!!  Our activity was to see how many toys they could put away in five minutes. Needless to say, they did not believe me and I had to let them read it for themselves. LOL!! But they did it anyway and thought it was fun. After that, we just decided to play games...this was also a night that Bailee had to miss :(  Hopefully her last, but that is a whole other post...

Can't go wrong with Operation...

And Sorry is an all time favorite too!

Next week our lesson will be about anger and I have a feeling I will learn more than the kids :) If you haven't already started a family night, but have been thinking about doing one, JUST DO IT! We have already been so blessed by this.
Hope you all have a terrific week!!