Happy Brrrrrithday!

The big kids were invited to a birthday party yesterday, a rare occurance now that we are homeschooling. It was held at Evan's Orchard. There was a hayride, corn maze, giant slide, and toy tractor races. All of this was fun on a normal day...yesterday it was 32 degrees! While the kids usually can't be coaxed away from the place in under 2 hours, yesteday they were both shivering and ready to leave in 15 minutes. The three of us huddled together on the hayride, shivered through cake & ice cream...yep, ICE CREAM...then Reeves (who hates to bathe) said he wished he was home in the bathtub! We left early & had burritos on the way home to warm us up! It was certainly an adventure. Hope our friend had a great day!

Gratitude

With the holidays coming up we've been talking a lot about gratitude. Sometimes I don't think the kids understand that we are so very lucky to be able to go for cereal, milk, and a friend's birthday present a few days before payday. All they see is what others have and they don't. We talked about a family who had every penny invested in a mobile home that they were moving to a new site. The wheels fell off during transit and after nine hours of blocking the highway, the local sheriff simply had the trailer tipped over off of the road. It smashed to pieces...it was the only home for 4 adults and 6 or so kids. Now they have nowhere to live, have lost everything they couldn't get out before it was tipped, and they are responsible for removing the debris. It's hard to argue that we need new legos, ice cream, or magazines when there are people out there who have so much less...are so in need. I want to find a way to make them look beyond their Christmas lists and Thanksgiving gratitude for new video games to ways that we can help others this season. They're kids, I know...but I feel strongly that the way they are raised will change the way they look at the world when they are grown. While I don't want them to suffer, I want the "gimmes" of Christmas to become the "giveyous". That's my goal. Maybe it won't happen miraculously this year, but increments are good.

Don't Recycle the Baby!

Brice's new favorite...he asks to be put "in" the recyclng bin, where he sits & reads the old newspapers! Very cute!

Halloween

Biltmore

Updates...Finally!

Wow! It's been awhile since I posted. It's been really busy...but sorry to all of you who actually follow us. I'll try to keep up!
Our trip was fun. Our day at Biltmore was long, but quite fun. The kids were in awe of the house. Embree said she'd be sure to have three rooms to herself if we lived there! Reeves liked the bowling alley and pool in the basement. They both loved the farm...namely the barnyard where animals ran around and were available for petting. We could've stayed there for hours! See pictures!

We had a fun Halloween, though Daddy had to work. We spent the evening at a friends house and Trick-or-Treated in his neighborhood. We're still eating candy...I'm ready to begin the sneaky process of throwing out a handful every night after they go to bed. Embree was a flower queen, Brice was a bat, and Reeves was Reeves. At the party he won the contest for the costume most like the wearer's own personality. Ha! Pics of that are attached too!

Saturday we helped Embree's Girl Scout troop hand out Promise To Vote stickers at the Lexington farmer's market. Had a nice visit with Brice's Birthmother & Grandma, then Dad's brother & his family visited. We had eleven people sleeping here! Whew! It was great fun and everyone got along famously! We spent Sunday at Evan's Orchard - corn maze, apple pies, playland. The kids got filthy...but had a blast! Of course we also watched the Cowboy's game too. Todd was happy to have someone who was interested in watching it with him...'cause the rest of his family usually finds something else to do during the games!

All of us here are happy about the election. Todd & I are both moved beyond words that we were able to participate in electing the first African American president. It's an historic day. We are one step closer to Abraham Lincoln's "more perfect union." The kids are just fascinated that kids their own age will be moving into the White House. Embree's concerned that they won't get to take all their stuff, but happy they'll be taking their new puppy. Got to get your priorities straight. I think having these young girls live there will allow all of our children to find the presidency relevant!

More soon!