Thanksgiving 2012

 I meant to take lots more pictures when all our guests arrived for the Thanksgiving dinner, but I forgot to get the camera out then, so all I have are the "before" pictures of Thanksgiving with just our family and my mom and dad present.  Our lovely Thanksgiving table was set for 11 adults (the kids ate at the breakfast bar in the kitchen) and our guests included:  Uncle Mike and Aunt Genny and their girls Erin and Lauren (Kalen and her hubby live in North Dakota and couldn't come), my Mom and Dad, my Grandma Margaret and her friend Bill, David's brother Jon and of course David and myself.  You can see the lovely turkey napkin holders handed down to me by Aunt Genny as well.  

 Josiah never likes getting his picture taken, but I caught this one when he was not expecting it!  

 No Thanksgiving is complete without the cook sticking his tongue out at me!  I have one from last year too, but I didn't post it as it turned out.  

 Daniel and Caleb watching a show before all the festivities started.  

 

Grandpa looking at his phone and Naomi with her hair braided all pretty, courtesy of Grandma.  

 A picture of my parents with all the kiddos on the day that they left for home after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with all of us. 

Seimer's Farm 2012

 We went to Seimer's Farm again this year.   We actually went in October, but I am posting it later so that it won't get buried behind the other posts.  And if you look back at the post from last year, you can REALLY see how much these kiddos have grown!  Naomi is climbing up into the pirate ship here with her new kitty cat hat that I made for her.   It was a pretty cold day, but we still had a lot of fun.

 King Caleb is trying out his throne here in the castle there at the farm.  He is wearing his froggie hat that I made for him too.  

 Daniel is sitting in the swing at the little log cabin built for children to play in there on the farm.  They had a blast playing "house" and then also pretending that a monster was trying to get in the door.  Daniel and Caleb both enjoyed getting to be the monster!  

 I wanted Josiah to pose with the crew here on top of the castle too, but  no dice.  "Mr. No Pictures" was in a mood.  Later in the day though, he decided he was picture-worthy and he posed for quite a few for me! 

 As always, the kiddos got to ride "Little Toot" the train and Naomi rode in the front all by herself this year.  Last year, she was too little and sat with me and waited for the brothers to ride.  

 

The boys are waving to me as they set out on their "Little Toot" journey around the field where it goes.  It has a little route that winds around and eventually goes through a tunnel and then back to the station.  

 Daniel is going down the slide here on the pirate ship and is giving me a big smile! 

 This picture just cracks me up!  Caleb and the boys loved sliding down the pole in the pirate ship!  This is his look at he got to the bottom. 

 Josiah gave me a nice muscle man pose with his pumpkin here.  They all got to choose a free pumpkin at the end of our little adventure.  

Naomi is showing me her pumpkin too.  We brought our lunch to the farm and ended up eating it in the car because it was so cold outside.  There were lots of school buses there for field trips too, so there were lots of kids around, but we still managed to play and get to see most everything we wanted to.  They also followed the map to the treasure again (AKA golden, chocolate coins) and rode on the little bikes around the track also.  The twins got to ride this year as they were big enough now!  Overall, it was a fun time and the kids really enjoyed it! 

Snow Day

When we got our first really dumping of snow (on Nov. 12th), the kids went out and had some fun in it.  It was a good thing they did too as we really didn't get another round of it until closer to Christmas!  Josiah and Naomi are laying on the snowballs they made here.

 

Josiah is attempting to throw a big snowball at someone.  Thankfully he missed. 

Daniel is trying to stay warm and dry, but was rather unsuccessful.  He kept getting irritated that his mittens would come outside of his coat and allow snow to touch his skin near his wrists.  I was forever trying to fix his mittens to satisfy him, but finally told him he would have to deal with it or go back inside! 

Caleb was loving the snow and the outdoor play and had a great time!  

Naomi liked eating the snow and she also enjoyed playing as well.  They all wanted some hot chocolate upon their return to the house, so we took off all their wet things and did just that!

Josiah's 1st trophy!!

Josiah passed his test for red belt and this is the first belt where you also get a trophy along with your new belt.  It is the stepping stone belt to the next higher level of belts all the way to black belt.  He is also going to sparring class twice a month too now that he is a higher belt.  Here was an attempt to get a good picture of Daddy and sweet Josiah, but both are not fond of pictures.  However, both are very handsome I would like to point out!

Josiah wouldn't get up and talk to his fellow classmates at first because he "didn't know anybody," but when Cole and Reed came Josiah wanted to get up right away.  Daddy said, "But you don't know anybody, you need to stay here!"  He tried to hold him down, but Josiah then was very eager to get up and greet his friends, and so Daddy finally let him go.  Here we have Reed, Cole & Josiah trying to hide from the pictures I was taking.  As you can see, it was the camera for the win! 

Josiah is trying hard NOT to smile here with his trophy and his new red belt with Master Justin.  We are very proud of his progress.  He has come a long way from where he couldn't even do a jumping jack to all the intricate routines he does now!  It has been fun to see him get better and better and we look forward to him getting his black belt in probably about 2 years or so.