family night ~ Christmas

The beginning.....

Paige giving Adam a boost!

Paige pondering what to hang where???

chaos among the boxes...

Friday's family night theme was "Christmas". I know it's a little early but it's my favorite time of the year and I couldn't wait much longer to get the tree up! We thought it would be fun to invite another family to join us for "family night", so the Henderson's joined in on the fun:) We had enchiladas and tacos for dinner (not sure how that tied into Christmas, but it sounded good at the time!), hot chocolate (which I forgot about on the stove... sorry, Ash:) and gingerbread cookies. We also put together shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and put up the tree.The kids had so much fun decorating it. Paul and Ashley's oldest, Adam, had such a great time hanging ornaments, that even after the last one was put on the tree, he began looking for anything else he could hang on the branches! It was so cute! My favorite part of putting up the tree is looking at all the sweet crafts my children have done over the years. They've grown so much, it seems like it all happened in the blink of an eye.... and I know in another blink, they'll be off on their own. I pray they remember these special times with their family. One of the most amazing gifts my mother-in-law has ever given me was a box containing all of Rusty's childhood Christmas ornaments. So last night, I had the privilege of hanging ornaments that Rusty made when he was 7, right next to ones Carter made last year. Ashley and I had a great time going through all of the boxes containing the Christmas goodies.... We found an Advent calendar Rusty's mom made for him when he was little. She gave it to me two years ago. I was so excited and couldn't wait to use it with our kids. But, in all our moves the past two years, somehow I forgot and it got shoved in a box. I found it last night and was even more surprised to find a few slips of paper left in a few of the pockets. As we read them last night, I thought to myself how thankful I was to have a mother-in-law who instilled in me a passion to love my children as she loved hers! What a blessing she has been in my life... I love ya Mom B:) This year Rusty is in charge of passing on the tradition of the Advent calendar... what an awesome blessing! Here are some pictures of last night. There's not too many~I think everyone was having too much fun and we forgot to take more!

family night ~ kung fu

Carter and his broken boards:)

Last night our theme was "Kung Fu". We had Chinese cuisine (orange chicken & sweet and sour chicken) for dinner, ate with chop sticks, gobbled up fortune cookies for dessert and earned our black belts in board breakin'! We ended our evening with the movie "Kung Fu Panda".

Abby showing off the muscles!

Rusty found a few 2x4's hiding in the garage, cut them down to about 18 inches long and then cut them almost through in the middle with the circular saw.... to make it easier to break when the kids tried out their karate moves:) Everyone wore a white T-Shirt and I bought some wide black ribbon for our "black belts". The whole night cost less then 30 bucks and it was so much fun!

Here's Rusty showing us how it's done!

Carter's first try!
(Note his request to delete the first take~ yeah, he'll have my head some day!)

*Disclaimer:
There are no pictures of my almost -13 year old... she thought she was too cool for pics!*

looking for something different this year?

Cut out aluminum foil in desired shapes. Arrange the turkey in the roasting pan. Position the foil carefully. Roast according to your own recipe Serve. Watch your guests' faces!

I found this online while helping Abby work on a project for school!
Thought it would bring you a chuckle or two:)

love this place....

This past week, the fall colors have been so amazing. Lately, every drive in the car, echos of "oohhs" and "aahhhs" can be heard from the 5 of us. Rusty is secretly head over heels for this season, but refuses to admit it for fear of sounding too much like a girl ~ but his sighs are usually the loudest of them all:) I didn't take any pictures last week (when it was "peak" foilage) but here are some pictures from our afternoon at the park.

Money Laundering???

Usually each load of laundry unveils something new. Sometimes it's a Lego man, other times, lip gloss or candy wrappers..... but today, I opened up the washing machine and found this treasure trove..... I guess it's better than losing socks!

What's the most unusual thing you've found in your laundry??

Family Night ~ Halloween

the crew

the Target employee (Rusty) and the Kitty Cat (yours truly!)

Darth Vader and Anakin

Fat Man... aka Greyson

Lucy-Lu

Me and Marky-Mark the Monkey

the Brown 3

Cheetah (Abby) Pochahontas (Paige) and Anakin Skywalker (Carter)

This year, Chris and Angie hosted the annual Ridge Halloween Bash... We had an amazing time! 50 people people crammed into one house, a seemingly endless supply of great food and conversation, made for some wonderful memories:) After eating some yummy "finger" sandwiches, "mummy" hot dogs and "witches brew" punch, all 50 (yes, I said 50!) of us ventured into the neighborhood for some trick or treating fun! The kids were real troopers and had a great time running from house to house snatching up all those cavity-inducing sweets:) The funniest moments were the kid's reaction to the house that was giving out Cheez-Its..... who gives out Cheez-Its??? Really??? lol ... There was also a house giving a choice between money and candy.... Abby thought this was the coolest thing ever! When I asked her what she chose, she said, "Money, of course!!" like she couldn't believe I'd even asked! Here some of the pictures from last night... enjoy:-)