Gobble Gobble Giggle!

We had a wonderful and fairly relaxing Thanksgiving. We went to my sisters house with my family that lives here in town. We had all the the fixings. Everyone ate way too much and then they all piled on Mac and took a nap. We really did have a nice day. It was very relaxing. The boys watched some football and I went to Michael's with my mom and sisters. After that we ate some pie and ice cream (way way too much pie and ice cream). And then we played some games before we went home. It was just a perfect example of all the things I have in my life to be thankful for. I have a great family, plenty to eat and a nice warm place to stay. I believe my family is truly blessed and I deeply give thanks for all that we have.
I taught the kids a song that they performed on Thanksgiving for the family. Here it is, wishing you a happy holiday straight from our hearts!

Fuzzy Dogs Don't Share

Bobby loves dogs. More than any of our other children, Bobby says these are my dogs. He likes to go outside and play with them. Bobby and Emma play fetch quite a bit. She is really good about bringing the ball back and dropping it at Bobby's feet because she wants to keep playing.

The other day Bobby was at my mom's house while I was at work. While we were driving home he told me "Mom, fuzzy dogs don't share." I honestly had no idea what he had said so I replied "oh really they do." He got mad and told me "no they don't share!" So I asked him again what he had said. He replied, "fuzzy dogs, like daisy" this is my mom's golden retriever, "don't share with me." Daisy is very stubborn and while she wants to play fetch with you she also doesn't want to give up her toy. So she will just follow you around with a stick or ball in her mouth whining but she will not drop it so you can throw it for her. I guess Bobby had tried to pick up a stick that she had dropped and Daisy snatched it back up nipping Bobby in the process. He then tried to pull it out her mouth. This is an almost impossible task. So he decided that Fuzzy Dogs don't share and he won't try and play ball with her . Despite Daisys selfish nature, Bobby loves to go outside and attempt to play with her.

A lot of Memories

My Grandma Turnbow passed away recently. Her funeral was the Friday before Halloween.  It was a very nice tribute to her life. All nine of her children were that with all of their children. Needless to say it was quite a full house. It was nice to get to see all of my cousins. I haven't seen some of them in ten years. My mom wanted a picture of her family since we were all together.  

My Grandmother was an amazing woman and a lot of people were there to pay their respects. I loved her very very much and I am proud to be her granddaughter. I have a lot of memories with my Grandma and I wanted to jot a few down. As a kid I remember going with her and Grandpa to Skippers. Sometimes we'd be over there and she'd pull out the sheet of coupons and say, "Okay decide what you are having now." That was always a special treat for us. I remember getting gifts for Christmas that she had sewn like a bathrobe and a nightgown. She always came to my choir concerts. She was always with us for birthdays and Christmas. More recently, I have a very clear memory of going over to help out in Grandma's flower beds. It was summer and we were planting petunias and it was hot outside. I had all the kids with me.  They were helping Grandma put weeds in the wagon. She told them they had worked hard and deserved a popsicle. I can still see her sitting on the back step with Taylor and Eliza on either side of her eating a posicle.

Too Much Fun and Candy

We had a busy Halloween. It started on Thursday when we went to the kids school carnival. They got to play a bunch of games. While Bobby was standing in line for the inflatable jumper he was standing behind a little boy dressed up like Batman. Bobby was dressed up like Spiderman. The two little boys kept waving at each other. I asked Bobby if that was his friend. He told me "yeah mom, he's a super hero just like me!" 
Then on Friday we went to a Halloween carnival at the technical college just up the road from our house. The kids went trunk or treating and then played some games in the cafeteria. All of them did the fishing pond and the cake walk. Taylor won a cupcake her second time around the walk. Bobby won a cupcake his fourth time around the cake walk. But poor Eliza, she went around the cake walk over 20 times before she finally won her cupcake.  After we got done at the carnival we went out to my parents house and carved pumpkins. Mac helped Bobby and Taylor and I helped Eliza and carved my own. Eliza picked out a picture of Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Bobby wanted a picture of Thomas, his was cute. Taylor picked out a rather difficult picture of three wolves. Can you guess who my pumpkin looked like?
Then, it was actually Halloween! We had a party at Mac's parents house. They had put together a spook alley. Taylor didn't even make it to the stair door before she started crying and said she wouldn't go through it. Eliza made it to the bottom of the stairs and then dashed back upstairs crying. Bobby thought it was fun, as long as the lights were on. Bobby has been asking me if we could get a pinata. So we made some for the party. We made a pumpkin and a ghost. We probably had ten pounds of candy in the ghost. After the party we went home a took a nap.  Later, we went trick or treating around my mom's house.  That night we watched a Halloween movie while we ate dinner. It was a busy three days and I know the kids got way too much candy!

Guess Who

This year for Halloween Bobby wanted to dress up like Spider man. Then we were in Michaels looking at the Halloween clearance and he saw a dog mask and told me he wanted to be a cowboy dog. So he was both; at some Halloween activities he dressed up like Spider man and at one he wore his dog mask. The girls wanted to be Susan and Lucy off of The Chronicles of Nrania.  So I sewed them dresses that looked like the coronations gowns those characters wore at the end of the movie. It  took a bit of time but it was worth it and they turned out great. Even Mac and I got to get into the costume spirit. We went to a murder mystery party. It was set at a castle in the 15th century. Mac was a woodcutter and I was a huntresses. We had a lot of fun.

Homework, then Homework, and a little more homework

I'm a little behind on my blogging. This is due to the fact that I am back in school. Between taking care of the kids and attempting (and mostly failing)  to keep the house clean my down time is spent doing homework.  The other day I was sitting on my bed doing some reading for history and Eliza came in and asked if she could take my picture doing my homework because that is what I am always doing anyway. So I let her. I think she just wanted to play with the camera. Here is her real life shot of mom doing what she "is always doing." It's a little blurry because she doesn't quite have the steadiest hands, but overall not bad at all.

Holy Gourdness!

I know I have posted a lot lately about our garden, but this is the last one.  My Grandma Turnbow had saved some seeds from a squash plant she had really enjoyed last year and gave us a couple to plant in our garden. We had no idea what kind of squash they were, but hey we like squash.  The plant came up really well and soon it had huge leaves on it. Then, it started growing round, green squash. They kept growing and Growing and GROWING! Turns out the squash plant was a buttercup squash. Buttercup squash are basically greenish gray pumpkins. They have a very mild pumpkin flavor. I roasted one and then pureed it and made buttercup cheesecake, that was really good, cookies, bread, and three types of soup. I'm still searching for the perfect soup recipe; luckily I have more than enough squash to keep trying! All our gourds produced very well. We have enough spaghetti squash to feed 80 people easily. I think I'm going to make puree out of all the buttercup squash and try to bottle it.