Happy Thanksgiving!

Since Daddy was working this Thanksgiving, we spent our Turkey day at the fire house with our fire family.  We did spent an hour or so after naps at Grammy's house before we headed to Fullerton, so we got to tell everyone how thankful we are for them!

Michael "volunteered" to make some of the turkey's, so as any good chef knows, the key to a successful bird is definitely the brine.  Here's Wes getting a little lesson.

Cora and her Daddy.  Look at those curls, those are definitely from him!

Wes and his good buddies Damien and Dylan, doing what they do best.  Climbing on and exploring the fire engines.

Yum!  Everything (and there was a ton of food) was of course delicious!  

I love Thanksgiving...the food, the family, the pumpkin pie...but I especially love remembering all the things God has blessed us with.  

1 Chronicles 16:34

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Goodbye Hostess

It's old news now, but when Hostess decided to close it's doors, we had a fitting send off for them.  A Hostess outlet is (was) in Fullerton and while Daddy was at work, his crew stopped by to see if they could pick up a few last treats.  He said it was like the Apocalypse had happened...the shelves were ransacked and the customers were all in a frenzy!  But he managed to grab a box of donettes and Dunkin' Stix for us and a few other things for the Fire Station.  

 Wes has had donettes (in the small sleeve from the 7/11) one other time and he was really excited when Dad came home from work with this whole box!

Cora's first and probably last time having a Hostess donette.

And these little babies bring back some serious high school memories for me!  I don't remember buying anything from the school lunch line other than chocolate chip cookies and Dunkin' Stix (this post is making me sound terrible!  We are really a whole wheat bread/brown rice/spinach kind of family, I promise!)  

But here's a little peek at the real reason Hostess went out of business...not very good for you.  I think too many people have realized you just can't eat this way.  Though I did today, and I really enjoyed it too!  Goodbye Hostess, thanks for the Twinkie, Ding Dong, Snow Ball, and of course Dunkin' Stix memories.

Happy Birthday Cash!

We celebrated Cash's 3rd birthday with a trip to Knott's Berry Farm!  Grammy got us season passes for Christmas (we were going through theme park withdrawals since our Disneyland passes had expired, and since Knott's passes were $69 for the year versus $250+ at Disney, we figured we'd give it a shot!)  We had a great day and of course spent most of it in Camp Snoopy.  The kids had a blast and we adults had fun reminiscing since, though Knott's has changed a lot, some things will always be the same...like the train robbers below!!

 Cash and Wes spinning their brains out.

Looking forward to a fun year here...and a couple of meals at The Chicken Dinner Restaurant!!

Dirt

When I was pregnant with Cora and I found out she was a girl, I think one of the things I was most excited about was getting a break from digging in the dirt...I assumed she wouldn't be interested and that Wes would have grown out of it.  Boy was I wrong!!  Wes loves digging and playing in the dirt as much as ever and Cora might love it as much has him.  At least now they dig together, so in a way I'm getting my break.  I guess I should have know that boys never grow out of getting dirty and with a personality like Cora's, she couldn't be held back from doing exactly what her big brother was doing!

Funny Face!

Cora loves bath time and I love all that hair, it makes for some crazy 'do's!

Friend's Thanksgiving!

On November 10th, we had our 10th Friend's Thanksgiving!  I can't believe we have been doing this tradition for a whole decade, it's just wouldn't be November without it.  

It was so nice to not be 9 months pregnant this time around...Emily filled that role this year, though she was just 8 months along :)

We are definitely outnumbered by children now, though as they get older I think it's getting a little easier.  Just a little though!

And again second child syndrome hit me as I realized this was Cora's first Friend's Thanksgiving after she had finished her meal.  Though I'm not sure my camera is as fast as her little hands, because everything gets shoveled into her mouth at lightning speed.  I think she's going to love this tradition as much as I do!

And since it wasn't raining this year, the kids enjoyed being outside and bouncing to their hearts content.  Happy (early and late) Thanksgiving!

Candy Swap and a Crazy Climber

I had read somewhere in the blogosphere about how one family lets their kids enjoy their Halloween candy but also how they get rid of it in a timely manner.  Whoever wrote the post said they let their kids pick one piece of candy a day for a week after Halloween and then they tell them the "switch witch" is coming to swap all their leftover candy for something new and non-edible!  I loved the idea (minus the "witch" part) so I just told Wes we were doing a candy swap and after a week, he left this bag of candy on the porch and went off to school. (with no complaints by the way) And when he returned home from school there was a wrapped surprise waiting for him!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the swap, but since Wes has been talking about the game Trouble recently, I figured that would be a good exchange.  We have enjoyed the game and he hasn't asked about the candy...hoping it will be this easy next year!

I can't remember if I mentioned that Cora is one crazy little climber!  I always thought Wes was a climber until this one started scaling anything and everything within an inch or two off the ground.  She climbed this ladder all by herself, with one nervous Daddy following behind.  I did a similar post of Wes climbing this ladder when he was little (wish I had time to find it...labeling my posts is sounding more and more appealing) but I think Cora was much quicker!    

Last Day at Disneyland

On November 2nd our Disneyland passes expired, so me got in one last trip on our last day.

I didn't take very many pictures...

...but you can tell we had fun!

Goodbye Disneyland...we will miss you!

Loot!

The morning after Halloween was spent examining the loot Wes brought home!

Spreading it all out to get a closer look...

...and deciding on Reese's Pieces for his treat.  Love that look of pure happiness on his face...free candy does that to me too.

Happy Halloween!

We chose to attend our church's Halloween alternative again this year and had a ton of fun! 

My little fireman...I'm sure you're not surprised that he asked for this costume the first time I asked him what he wanted to be and never changed his mind!

And of course Snow White

We found a Snow White at church too!  (much better -and more natural- hair than the last one :)

This year's even was much bigger and more elaborate than last year's.  They did a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot and all the cars were decked out with different themes.  This one was a obstacle course/maze and the candy was buried under fall leaves and there was a pirate ship, an angel on a cloud, and lots more!

Daddy, Wes, Cora and a full pumpkin!

After trunk-or-treat, we had dinner - chili dogs, chips and drinks.  This whole evening was free, which made is so awesome!  No pics, but Wes spent some time in those bounce house behind him too.

Cora girl will eat anything and everything in site, she seemed especially fond of the hot dog.  (who isn't though really?!?)

Then after dinner we headed to the activity room (which was new this year).  They had flubber to touch here...

...and marble paintings here plus a few more crafts and activities.    

And we spent some time in the family room just playing as well.  Love this pic of Wes giving this baby some love, sweet boy!  We had a great Halloween with our church family, hope everyone enjoyed their's too!