i've been blogging here at smithical for a little over 3 years - when i was still pregnant with sawyer! when i first started, i only read mommy blogs. all i cared about in this world was raising my kids, so that's all i wanted to read about - other mothers and their experiences, trials, and joys of raising kids.

not that that has changed much, because i still crave the presence of other mothers, love to glean advice and support from other mothers, and still read several blogs dedicated to blogging. the next year, my blog subscriptions changed a bit. i added friends and family blogs, as they started their own, or i finally discovered an old blog of theirs. i read blogs from cooks, blogs on reading, and blogs on hobby farming (specifically chicken-raising).  and now? my blogline feeds are about 75% crafting blogs. this may sound corny, but i specifically love the crafting blogs dedicated to family living. two of these that are GOOD stick out in my mind: i have to say... and soulemama. these two blogs have really influenced my desire to make and create, and mostly for the sake of my family and friends. "i have to say..." has another blog called me and my girl in which she reports and demonstrates sewing projects (and other crafting) that she does with her daughter. soulemama is in the process of writing her second book and has one to be published this spring. go to today's post: she has a great list of lovely winter books - some of which we own, some are already on our wishlist!

i learned a little from blogging every day this november: mainly that i like to put words out here in cyberspacae and sometimes i care if i get comments, other days i forget that i've blogged and when a few emails pop into my inbox telling me i've received some new comments, i'm pleasantly surprised.

thanks for reading along every day this month. i'll be back - but not as often - in december!

today was a gorgeous day. the forcast called for rain and snow, but there was no precipitation at all and loads of sunshine.

but do you remember me whining about how we haven't gotten any of our leaves picked up yet? we did a bit of the front, and a bit of the back so far, but going outside and walking around (especially if you're only 18 months old) is very difficult in long grass and heavy leaves. so it makes days like this hard to enjoy outside.

fortunately, we were able to spend an hour picking up the leaves around the boys' jungle gym, and we hope to finish the rest of the yard on saturday. because saturday night we are expected to get a snowstorm. and last year, once it snowed, the snow was on the ground for weeks and weeks. and weeks and weeks.

there are days when i wish a leaf blower was all we needed. but then, the boys wouldn't have all this room to roam....

this year, we're really going to observe advent. we talk about it every year and last year we got somewhere with some of our traditions, but this year, we're really going to observe advent, and celebrate christmas on the twelve days after christmas, culminating in a 12th night celebration.

i am noticing a lot more talk of "getting presents" between rowan and sawyer this year. they're getting more and more excited about christmas, and while i don't want to steal their excitement in the giddiness of receiving, i want them to also begin to get excited about giving. i know they have it in them. this year, i made a raggedy ann doll for my niece ramona, and the boys fell in love with her as she grew from fabric in a bag to torso with a face to doll with hair and clothes. they constantly asked to play with her and did everything they could to keep raggedy ann a secret from ramona until we opened gifts on thanksgiving night. i think it was sawyer who just couldn't wait any longer and told laura (ramona's mom) about the doll the day before thanksgiving. but when it was time to give the doll to ramona, as she opeend the present, sawyer stood over her dancing from one foot to another, totally giddy to see raggedy ann in her new owner's arms. when she opened the present sawyer scooped up the doll and held it up high for her parents to see and then finally gave it to ramona.

so in advent, we will prepare our hearts from the coming of the chirist child and His return. i am looking into some celebrations for the different days in advent (the four sundays, st. nicholas day, st. lucia day, etc..). i'll share what we find and what works and flops this year. i have a feeling it will take us a few advents to figure out what traditions are good for our family. but i can't wait to see what takes shape as we learn how to prepare our hearts for the coming of the King.

Thanks to Stephanie, a fellow blogger and lover of sewing, I was tagged for this meme. I'm going tag Sursumcorda (because I know how much she LOVES memes!), Kelly (Kelly, my link goes to your husband's blog and I can't find your's anywhere - do you still have a blog?), Bonnie, Reynie, and Serina.

 5 facts about me, some random and some odd:

 1. I used to live two blocks away from Princess Diana. For six whole months.
 2. I had better seats than Prince Charles at a play in Stratford Upon Avon. I "discovered" him at the end of intermission, couldn't watch the rest of the play because I was star-struck, royally pissed off the little old lady behind me (she called me a damn yankee! Really!) because I was distracting her by staring too much at the Prince.
 3. I cannot eat meat with gristle or fat. Once I bite into a piece of fat or gristle, I'm done with meat for a good long time.
 4. I have a soft spot for cheesy music. Like Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Sheena Easton, and Styx.
 5. I think it's all the rain we've been having, but I'm just not anywhere near being in the Christmas spirt this year. Normally I can't wait for the Christmas seaons, but this year, I could probably do without it. I'll just have my Advent and move on, thank you.

Here are the meme rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Don’t break the chain!

i can't speak highly enough of a particular book series that has been in our home now for two months. i recently read somewhere that when your child can recognize their name written down, they are ready to begin reading. rowan has recognized his name for several months now, so i jumped at the chance to begin teaching him to read.

i scoured web sites and blogs for recommendations on "how to teach your child to read" books but none of them grabbed my attention as much as the bob books. these books are not teaching books so much as fun little books that make it fun for your child to read by themselves. i bought the first in the series two months ago. the books are full of short words and characters with short names like Mat and Mac. they have pets like a dog and a cat. filler words like "mad" and "sat" complete the story.

both rowan and sawyer sat down with me on our couch and we opened the first book: rowan began sounding out the first word: MMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT. MMAATT. MAT! MAT! all i was doing was pointing at the letter and he made the letter's sound as my finger went across the word. he immediately learned how to sound out letters in a word. that first day, he completeled reading one whole "bob book" on his own - without my prompting him in his sounding-out.

sawyer is so eager to read them just as he hears his big brother reading it. he knows the sounds of letters, but is still learning the lower case letters - he doesn't quite recognize them as quickly as rowan does. adam loves the books because they're just his size. they're a little bigger than the larger-type index cards and only 10-15 pages long. he sits with one of the books in his lap turning a few pages at once making the same sounds he hears rowan saying: "MMM," "CCCC" or "TTTT."

i'm loving watching the excitement rowan has when we tell him how proud we are of him. i love the enthusiasm of learning he's displaying. can i wrap this up and save it for everything he and his brothers need to learn? will they always be so enthusiastic about learning new things? i'm excited for the day that all three of them are sitting in their favorite spots devouring a favorite book on their own.

tonight, i carry on the cleaning frenzy. i hadn't one moment to straighten up over the past few days. fortunately, i had a lot of help from guests cleaning up in the kitchen, but the rest of the house was neglected by me, and now it's getting a clean sweep through. i'm only straightening...the cleaning will come once we bring up the christmas decorations. and since we only put them away just a few months ago (hey - at least they were in a box in the corner of the living room, and not still displayed!), i'm not in any hurry to bring them back up. but for the sake of the kids, a christmas tree will happen, and so will the twinkle lights.

tomorrow is laundry day, play-time, and down-time. perhaps a batch of cookies will be made.

next sunday begins advent...my favorite time of year. we have a busy week in preparation for advent...lists and gifts; traditions to begin and to carry on. i will probably blog a little less (especially after another post-a-day-november), but hopefully get to spend some solid time preparing and waiting; as is advent.

it's late-ish night, and i'm about to have a late night bowl of cereal. is anyone else a cereal-at-night snacker? i actually prefer it to morning...

today's entry is is short. it'd be sweet if i didn't choose raisin bran for my bowl-o-cereal choice for the night...so it's just short. we still have a housefull of guests, and we're all in zombie-mode. :)

g'night.

Thanksgiving Chickens Adventure
After getting to the 400-mile place, Uncle Kenny and Aunt Lizzy's house, we begged and begged. Finally he let us go see his CHICKENS! When we go thtere, all 15 chickens were asleep. When we went back, mom said it was time for bed. We couldn't sleep so we got lucky...mom let us stay up for a couple more minutes!

The next morning, we got dressed. Uncle Kenny said that we could go out, feed the chickens and see if there are any eggs. They layed three eggs and I got to feed the chickens two times! Uncle Kenny told us we could feed the chickens scraps later on, when the rain cleared. I was having a great day!

I also got to make a turkey. I also payed the piano. I also made a craft. I also made a friend named Miss Pretty Pretty (a brown araucana).

The End.

I can tell you for sure that there were a few more visits out to see/feed the chickens (those chickens had their very own thanksgiving meal scrap plate), and much more talk about how they were doing.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

if rowan is this excited about thanksgiving, i can't wait to see his anticipation of christmas. we are busy and bustling around today...the kitchen hasn't had a moment of peace.  we have some baby backs in the smoker for dinner tonight to go along with a mexican lasagna, steak fries and steamed broccoli.

thanksgiving checklist:
 - turkey has been picked up and chilling in the fridge
 - two pumpkin pies baked and cooling, one apple pie cooking
 - stuffing assembled in the garbage bag
 - beer and wine chilling in the fridge
 - one visiting family here, one on the way
 - presents made and wrapped

and looky at what i get to snuggle with anytime i want (and give back to the proud mama and papa when she starts to fuss)...this is baby astrid millay, 3 1/2 weeks old.

every night, we are asked the same question by rowan: "how many sleeps until ramona gets here, and then how many sleeps until sadie and gabe get here?"

today, ramona and astrid and their parents (my brother andrew and his wife, laura) arrived safely here in our little neck of the woods. we enjoyed a big dinner at mom and dad's house across the street while sawyer found his wrestling match in ramona. the girl can body-slam like hulk hogan. they wrestled and played, giggled and ran around. tomorrow, the rest of the cousins arrive. sadie and gabe have a little baby brother, charlie...but last time rowan and sawyer saw him he was merely a baby blob. they probably won't remember him until he's old enough to wrestle either.

as i type, our three boys are snuggled up sleeping soundly ready for the big day before thanksgiving: when everyone is here, we get our turkey, and the house fills with smells of apple and pumpkin pies.

this evening, my mom and i shopped for all the ingredients for our thanksgiving meal (except for the turkey...we pick up the bird tomorrow or wednesday).

earlier in the day, i watched a segment on some news program about how to cut back the calories in your thanksgiving meal...something that i'm not too concerned about with the thanksgiving meal since it's only once a year that we get to eat it.  any way, from this segment i learned that the typical caloric intake in one thanksgiving meal is around 2100 calories. per plate. including dessert. then they gave some pointers on how to cut the calories. for instance:

• eat only white meat. if you insist on eating dark meat, don't eat the skin (i can't stand dark meat)
• give yourself only 1-2 tablespoons of gravy on your potatoes (i normally skip the gravy, but i'm going to try it this year, since it'll be made from a fresh bird)

there were others, but i got distracted and was gloating in my ability to only eat a 1400 calorie thanksgiving-day plate already instead of a 2100 calorie plate.

now, i'm off to make some butter and shortening crusts for the pumpkin and apple pies. and i'll leave you with the simplest recipe ever for something our family calls, "stained glass window cookies" (although it's a candy, and not a cookie!), my brother andrew's favorite (so it's always included in holiday get-togethers). The original recipe calls for sprinkles of coconut on top, but we're not coconut fans.

Stained Glass Window Cookies
1 12 oz. bag semi sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of colored marshmallows
1 stick of butter

Melt butter and chocolate chips together over low heat (or double boiler) until melted and blended. Remove from heat and let stand five minutes. Add entire bag of marshmallows and stir until completely covered.

Pour everything onto a large sheet of waxed paper. Using sides of the waxed paper, shape into a log. Tape waxed paper over top to hold shape and refrigerate until hardened (several hours).

blogging on a daily basis has become such a lesson in priorities. there are some days when i can get a post off by 10:00 a.m., and here i am on a sunday night at 9:14 and it's one of the first times i've been at the computer today. weekends have become busy around here!

i recently acquired my library copy of Bend the Rules Sewing. and i'm sorry to report that the library is not getting it back. unless i decide to just drop the $15 and buy it for myself. but $15 can get a lot of fabric, you know. and library books are free (until it's overdue, i know!).

speaking of fabric...i'm completely addicted to online tutorials. i want to make everything i find directions for...but i'm finding the practicality of my favorite tutorials to be null. like these adorable elf shoes....but who could wear them? however, i'm loving the soft-soled shoes and apron tutorials i'm finding!

this blog is doing a series on celebrating advent...my favorite time of year! looking at the advent wreath pictrues and reading about advent gets me so excited. kenny's favorite parts of advent are the hymns we get to sing. hymns that give you goosebumps and shivers...kind of like those gems we get to sing in easter.

and geez...how 'bout them steelers this week? i should offer my good friend mike tomlin some good heart-felt support after today's game.

i love the kinds of saturday mornings we had today. all three boys were happy to do whatever they wanted for OVER AN HOUR! kenny worked on the computer while i sewed away. i made major progress on the gifts and i'm SO EXCITED to give them away! the boys ran around, played together, danced together and made a huge mess. have i mentioned how much the daily housework is suffering just so i can support my sewing habit?

today, i leave you with rowan's latest potty line:

as he sat on a public restroom toilet the other day, i asked him if he was done and he paused before he answered and then said, "hmmm...i think i need a book."

to which i naturally replied, "a what?"

and he answered in a little pretentious, annoyed voice, "you don't know what a book is? you know, like when you're on the potty!"

i guess boys can learn pretty early.

sawyer is very attached to his beanie baby ghost that he received as a gift from a babysitter (hi, juli!) just last month. rowan has a beanie baby bat and the two of them act out many stories (a lot of the same ones over and over) with these two friends as the main characters.

yesterday, sawyer decided to tell an audience of me and a few other stuffed animals the story of "jesus and the ghost." this is pretty much word-for-word and in parentheses are my clarifications.

you can tell me what elements of the christian faith and what bible stories he's mashed all into this 25-second story:

Jesus and the Ghost
One day, Jesus went to his house [later i had to clarify whether or not "his" was referring to the ghost or to Jesus' house. it was Jesus' house he was talking about].

The ghost ate him up [apparently, the ghost was waiting for him in his house - this is why i had to clarify what house jesus was going into - the ghost had snuck in and waited for Jesus to come home].

Then Jesus tickled him in his belly [while in the ghost's belly, Jesus tickled him from the inside].

Jesus lived inside the ghost's second ponytail forever [it took me a long time to clarify, and you'll have to refer to the picture of sawyer holding his little ghost (yes, that's dirt or jelly or something on the ghost. i tell you - he plays with it constantly! it's like a security blanket!) below. the point on the top of the ghost's head is his ponytail, and naturally, the point at the bottom of the ghost - or is "tail" - is his second ponytail].

i have such a love-hate relationship with flu shots. the boys haven't consistently had one until this year. they all got their first in september...they all get a booster today (rowan has been counting down the days until his booster shot: "mommy, how many more sleeps until our second flu shot?" he hates them so much).

a few days after their flu shot in september, rowan and adam had the worst virus - high fevers, lethargy, snot/coughs. rowan's turned into his mild case of pneumonia. i'm crossing my fingers they don't pick up even the slightest low-grade fever from these "dead" vaccines. i don't know enough to knock them too hard. i just don't like getting shots for my boys.

isn't there a cherry-flavored pill they can get instead of shots for vaccines? it would make life so much easier on parents (and the nurses who give the shots!).

after reading my post a few days ago, kenny informed me that he's heard the two boys refer to him as "the big guy." so, we are liz and kenny: "big mama" and "the big guy." just to clear up any confusion.

i keep seeing countdowns-to-christmas on blogs everywhere (especially the handmade gifts and crafting blogs) and this morning i think we're down to 41 days. the majority of our gifts this year are handmade - the ones going to the littles, at least, and the majority of the little ones will be coming to our house in t-minus 7 days. which means i have that many days to figure out the menus for the days people are here, figure out the thanksgiving day menu, shop for all these menus, and...finish all the gifts we're making!

i hate to be so vague, and i'll be more specific with pictures eventually...but the parents of these kids read my blog, and i'd still like the gifts to be a surprise. but let's just say...we're running a bit behind. :)

last night, we lugged the other sewing machine up from the basement since my beloved sewing machine has been working overtime lately, and the newer (1970s) machine has some bells and whistles that my lovely green one doesn't have. like extra presser feet for specialty sewing. and wow! a much sharper sewing needle! i read recently that you should change your machine needle after every project. i can't even tell you how long my needle has been in my green machine. and what a difference it makes! it's like butter sewing through three layers of material with the sharp needle!

the boys even helped me with one of the gifts during adam's nap time yesterday. they're in love with this particular gift and ask to "play" with "it" after every new thing i add to it. i'm beginning to think this is their subtle way of asking for one of their own for christmas.

but, oh! i have a great idea for them. and i'll have all of advent to slowly and patiently (isn't that what Advent is about? waiting and patience?) work on their gifts. but i'll be able to blog about those gifts since they don't read my blog! :)

rowan has been saying the sweetest things to both kenny and i lately. we know how much he loves us because he tells us so several times a day.

a few months ago, when kenny was building our deck, the boys used to tell him that he was a great deck builder. they also told him they he was a great chicken coop builder. one day, rowan asked me if daddy built our house. he thinks very highly of his father's talents.

the other morning, rowan looked at me over his bowl of cereal and said, "mommy, even though you don't build decks, you're still the best!"

where does he come up with these one-liners?

we've got ourselves some new neighbors in these neck of the woods. today, two large moving vans and four movers walked furniture and boxes into the newly built, freshly painted home across the street. fortunately, we know that these neighbors will not be raising a loud ruckous on a nightly basis. these new neighbors are my parents.

a few hours ago, as we were putting the boys through their nightly bedtime ritual, my dad called and wanted to know how much we could see from our house into theirs. they have no curtains yet. i looked out our window and told him i could see him standing in their living room window. the house is still fairly far away, and there are several rows of trees that separate us, but since all the leaves are down, the trees don't cover much.  so he and i played the "can you see me now?" game as he darted from room to room. i advised that they get at least sheers up sometime if they want to use their bedroom as a dressing room eventually.

pictures to come, but we're a soggy, muddy mess here in these parts. and they've got boxes and stuff all over. but the house is lovely...furniture that filled a room in their old house looks so tiny in their new house. i think my mom is here to stay...leaving my dad to commute back and forth to work and stay in their semi-empty house down in the big city. and i think they'll be moving up here fulltime sooner than they had originally planned.

but don't tell them i said that. ;)

as i sit here staring at a blank , i know i have nothing of interest to type. but i'm blogging every day for the month...so....more random thoughts and links.

how 'bout them steelers???

i really feel for the teachers and all, but the students haven't been in school for at least a month!

today i sewed, researched free patterns and knitted, all preparations for gift exchanges. i'm being very vague here as some of the (parents of the) recipients of these gifts read the blog. and you know...presents are supposed to be a surprise.

rain tonight and into tomorrow. we've been soggy for a week now. and our lawn is COVERED in leaves. we've only been on the tractor/leaf vac once this season - a few hours last sunday. fortunately, most of the leaves are down, so it'll really only be a once-over. but a very long and slow one at that. we've got dozens of maples, walnuts and oak trees.

random thoughts

• my friend emily had her baby this week...a boy named wilder (no middle name as of yet). i love that name and it goes so well with their daughter's name, wren.
• thanksgiving is fast approaching, and i'm doing some heavy-duty scrubbing of corners that i haven't seen in ages. like behind the washing machine which i know nobody will see, but it makes me feel good that it's clean. anyone else like that?
• i'm dying to see a movie in a theatre. i think the last movie i saw in a theatre was "Passion" when rowan, my four-year-old was 8 months old. that was a long, long time ago. i haven't seen the last two Harry Potter movies, or the last of the LOTR trilogy. but really, i still think i'm not ready for a 3 hour epic of battle. can someone tell me if they ever get...um...the ring? just what is it their hiking all that way for again? i'm ready to know now. no wait...i'll just read the book. so nevermind.
• does anyone have good adivce on treating dry, cracked, burning hands? this is the second winter that my hands have gotten so dry and sore when the weather turns cold. i'm tired of the greasy aquafor and i need to wash my hands a lot. especially when i cook with chicken.
• speaking of chicken...our chickens have not slowed down in their egg production yet. we still get about 8-10 a day. a DAY. we've been giving them away, hard boiling them and eating them for breakfast lately. i'm tired of eating leftover quiche. i'll save it for spring or summer.
• charlie and lola? brilliant. especially the music and the illustration. go to the website and just TRY to keep from dancing. it's truly impossible.
  

when the boys are off in another room playing, occassionally they come to ask me a question. they run back out and the one that didn't come in to ask me the question usually says, "what did she say?"

but yesterday, after rowan asked me a question, he ran back into the living room and proclaimed, "sawyer, i asked BIG MAMA and she said...."

i just don't know how to interpret that...

back in june of this year, kenny and i were all set to order a few (four, tops) turkey chicks and have them sent to us to raise for the 10-12 short weeks that they have before taking them to a local slaughterer for a fresh turkey thanksgiving dinner. free-range, mostly naturally-fed turkeys for a grand total of $6-8. plus shipping and handling.

when we went to make the order, the nice people at the hatchery told us that we had to order a minimun of 15 for shipment.

so, we decided against it as we had no room to house 15 turkeys. and we were trying to live a normal life of a family with three kids, 15 chickens newly released into their outdoor coop, and a huge garden with huge groundhog problems. we didn't need 15 more little headaches. (oh, that made it sound like the three kids are headaches. if i have to be honest, sometimes they are. but that's my fault, not theirs!)

so today, kenny called a local turkey farm. we ordered a fresh 18-20 pound local turkey for our family thanksgiving meal this year. we had a hard enough time finding a local turkey farm, let alone finding an organically raised, free-range one. the one we found keeps their turkeys in open-aired coops and are fed natural food and do not use growth hormones on their fowl. that's enough for me. especially since the USDA definition for free range does not mean pasture-ranged.

we are set to pick up our fresh bird the week of thanksgiving.

it's 7:56 a.m. and the house is full of the smells of a smoker at full-force.

on sunday, kenny assembled his charcoal smoker. for the past two evenings, he's studied the owner's manual and this morning, he was dressed by 6:30, gathering equipment to get the smoker started. for the past two days, an 11 lb. turkey has been thawing in our refrigerator, and last night i cleaned it out, patted it dry, pulled out the pop-up thermometer and put it back in the fridge for the night.

my side of the family will exchange christmas gifts at thanksgiving this year. so i'm busy thinking up crafting goodness for gifts for the littles - the nieces and the nephews. i don't know if any of them will be successes, but pictures will be taken once the projects have been gifted (or finished and decided not to gift...).

so today's thanksgiving preparations are fabric and yarn purchases!  i am looking forward to an excursion out to joann's and michael's this evening with my mom to look for yarns and fabrics. we don't have good yarn/knitting and fabric stores here. there is a quilt store nearby, but it closes at 5:00 and we won't get out much earlier than 5:30 or 6:00 (depending on when we're done with dinner).

yesterday's breadmaking was disasterous. as it was rising, i was going to blog about how wonderful it smelled (even raw bread smells yeasty-delicious!). but i think it needed a few more hours to rise - either the yeast or the flour was old. it called for bread flour and i'm not used to baking with anything other than whole wheat and all-purpose flours. so it was dense and raw in the middle when pulled out of the oven. it smelled great, but the chickens enjoyed both loaves this morning as no sane person enjoys raw bread with dinner. if the recipe turned out, i was going to use it for the stuffing and thanksgiving. we'll try again another time. on a day when it feels like a bread-making day again.

kenny has been very busy over the past few months preparing for something that began last night, and that we hope continues and grows on into the future.

with the help of friends and other church members, we started a saturday evening service for church members and anyone outside the church who wants to check it out to worship. the service is based on "an order of worship for the evening" so communion is not included. however, the service concludes with a free meal for everyone, so communion happens, just not Holy Communion.

we honestly had no idea if anyone would come, but we were pleasantly surprised to see the faithful worshipers from a typical sunday morning service come, and a few others.

i can't describe the service any better than kenny already has at the service's web site. please check it out. and if you're local, come visit! and if you think of it, keep this service in your prayers.

i leave you with an image of my favorite poster we've hung up in stores in the area.

it's been a long day, and we are turning the clocks back tonight (don't forget!!!). when you have small children, they don't know to stay in bed for an extra hour, so we're off to bed to get our extra hour tonight.

i know this post isn't much....but it'll have to do.

kenny and i are hosting thanksgiving this year. i am very excited about this as i've only hosted the big turkey meal a few times in my short life, so i'm not jaded about how much work it involves. yet.

the majority of my remaining november daily blogs will be about preparations for the big day. this means that if you are coming (and you know who you are) there should be no surprises when you get here. you'll know the meals you'll be eating, the rooms you'll be staying in, the projects i have planned for our kids.  those of you who aren't coming (and that makes the majority of you, my blog readers) can join in on the fun online. i might even get to post "during" and "after" pictures..

so...be prepared for lists and menus, shopping excursion stories, craft-project-trials, and pictures of preparations in the coming days. i might even share a family recipe or two!

by the way, this week, my brother andrew and his wife and one of my InRealLife friends both had babies. andrew and laura had a second daughter, named astrid millay and serina and jason had their third, a son (they have two daughters), named asher jase. a lovely fall week to birth a baby! and i never did announce the birth just over a month ago, of our new niece, jada. she lives all the way in seattle and i'm going to bug her parents (ahem...wayne!) for more pictures since she's all of 5 weeks old now and we've only seen birth pictures! i'm so impatient.

to add to the baby excitement, two of our friends have announced new pregnancies to us this week! it's an exciting time to be birthing and growing babies. except for me...this post is not a foreshadowing nor does it in any way mean that we are pregnant. i'm just really excited for my family and friends!!!

i leave you with one more halloween picture of the only one that would smile for the camera! after looking at this photo, i am not surprised that he is mistaken for a girl more often than not. must.cut.his.hair. :)

today is All Saint's Day, the day after Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve. We have a strong pull towards anything liturgical, so we acknowledge these days as well as have fun with some of the other, mostly commercial, holidays.

i'm happy to say that we spent $0.00 on the boys' costumes this year - and all of them dressed up! so we didn't fall for the commercial aspect of the day. except for the hording and hiding of candy from the boys. we were able to walk faster this year, which means we hit more houses, which means we have more candy than we've ever had. i pulled the bowl out of the cupboard from last year and noticed one lone piece of bubble gum from last year's stash. we got bad candy last year - lots of dum dums and bubble gum and hugs drinks. this year, we got chocolate - peanut butter cups, M&Ms, and snickers.

i will be so sad the day when the boys trade in their adorable and cuddly costumes for the death and grisly ax-murder ones that we saw all over last night. that biggest head-scratcher for me was seeing a barely-13-year-old girl in an extremely provocative costume all the while smoking a cigarette. i'm such a mom. if she came to my door, i'd give her nothing but a lecture!

after returning from our trick or treating walk through the local (three miles away) neighborhood, we had a quick bute of dinner (chicken sandwiches this year), and it was past everyone's bedtime. but the boys needed to wind down. normally this means snuggling up with books and a soothing voice to read them. but last night, we snuggled in the guest room and watched the Peanuts Halloween special. something i always looked forward to as a kid. and now my kids laugh at all the silly snoopy parts. and kenny and i snicker at them giggling away.

this year's quicky costumes...a tiger! a bear! a bob-the-builder! (one is blurry, one isn't...)