my kids are weirdos

This is what I find after leaving my phone on the coffee table....

Yay yarn!

I had a great idea after Christmas last year. I was going to MAKE Christmas stockings for the kids. I found a pattern that I liked and thought I could do, printed it out, and bought all the yarn.
The best part being that I had an entire year to make them.

Ah mmm. Yeah.

Okay, so I started them a couple of weeks back...
It's one of the reasons I haven't been blogging (in fact, I am trying to do this one from my phone)
There has also been a ton of kids things going on ~

I think it took us a week to get the tree and decorations up.

So I have been working on stockings. And I am still not done...

Thanksgiving, as seen by my iPhone

We had a very fun and relaxing Thanksgiving ~ The kids and I went t the zoo the day before
with Stella and her kids, plus Kelly's friend Bailey.
We watched the lemurs eat their Feast for the Beast and checked out the reindeer

and when we came home, with Paige's help, I made the Pumpkin Pies, Poppyseed Cake, the Sweet Potato Pie and helped watched Mike make fresh Cranberry Sauce.

On Thanksgiving Day, Mike made two 20 lb Turkeys that he had brined -- BBQed one, stuffed them both with his mom's Stuffing and did the Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Spinach Souffle.

I did remember to take a few pictures with my 'real' camera (I'll post later), but since there were 4 of us with new iPhones, we were all taking pictures with them and sharing them with each other --

The 'big girls' helped the little ones make Thankful Cards and Hand Turkeys ~

The BBQed bird came out really pretty!

and then there was Football

Robyn Anne Aissa

As we mark the 5th anniversary of her death, we are reminded of the joy she had for life.
We miss her laughter daily and are filled with happiness when we see her face in her grandchildren.
She is loved and missed by all of us who knew her.

3 vampires and one in training

So, yeah, they all begged to be Vampires...

I wanted them to be the
3 Little Pigs
and then have the baby be the
Big Bad Wolf.

Hmmmff

entering in The Paper Mama challenge

Kelly wanted to be scary AND sparkly ~

DJ wanted to "look dead"

(both of them ended up taking off their capes 

about half way through Trick-or-Treating)

Paige was a modern Vampire, with red bands in her braces!

and Mikey was a Vampire BAT!

The Trick-orTreat Crew

I bet you are over Halloween

My intentions were to share all the fun Halloween things we were doing, as we were doing them.

That didn't happen.

I for one, am glad to have gotten through October... Everyone in our little family is still SUPER tired and trying to regroup.
That having been said, I still want to share all the  pictures and projects that we did -- and I will be attempting to get them all posted and up (and done with) so we can move on to Thanksgiving!

So, here is how our Gallon Ghosts came out!

 I saw this online at the end of September and just knew 

we had to do it! 

We saved our milk gallons for about three weeks 

(we go through a bit of milk...)

The kids and I made ghost faces on them with a big Sharpie 

and Dad cut a hole 

(well, a square) 

in the back --

and then we just bunched a bunch of Christmas lights into the back and lined them all up ~

DJ wants to save them, but I think 

we will just make new ones every year!

daddy got a crockpot

We have been super busy these last couple of weeks!
Baby Mikey turned 2 on the 5th and Daddy Mikey turned 40 on the 12th.
Just yesterday Paige turned 14!
.......14
Wow.
It seems like we have been baking cakes and singing Happy Birthday ever other day ~

Since Big Mikey's birthday was on a Wednesday (school night) and he didn't want to celebrate on one of the busy weekends on either end, it was a pretty
low key 40.

But the kids did get to make his cake

and I had a few decorations for him that I picked up

the kids "made his wrapping paper

and yeah, we really got him a crock pot!