Happy Thanksgiving One and All

We hope that you all had a very wonderful, happy and delicious Thanksgiving day.
This year we had Ben and Stacey here for Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nice to have them here. Even though we had guests, it was still pretty low key and relaxed.
We started out the day with a batch of Rhaevyn's pancakes. Yummy!
Then we got busy cooking.
Myles made most of the pumpkin pie filling, minus the eggs. Making pumpkin pie just wouldn't seem right if we all didn't have a swig of pumpkin juice (as we call it) before adding the eggs.
Unfortunately, I totally forgot the eggs and put the pie into cook. Luckily it had only been in the oven seven minutes before I realized that I hadn't added eggs at all. Chris and Ben quickly emptied out the pumpkin filling into a bowl and added the eggs for me.
Here is Baker Myles........

Once the pie was made, and the turkey was in the oven, we set up the Christmas tree.

Everyone got in on the action.

Time to eat :)

Aeva wanted to eat by candlelight only. We turned on the light above the sink and turned off all the rest. I had carved out little pumpkins and put candles in them. It was a nice effect.

We enjoyed all the fixings. Stacey made a most scrumptious Pumpkin Roll.

We are so thankful for our family, our health, food on the table and a roof over our heads.

Saturday

Yesterday we took the kids down to the church bookstore and to the Portland, Oregon Temple.

This is such a treat for them, and us, as we all love to walk the temple grounds.

What a truly peaceful place it is.

"Temple" is one of Myles's most used words. He is constantly asking to go see the temple, he builds temples with his blocks and he likes to look at pictures of the temples.

So, needless to say he was quite excited yesterday to actually be at the temple.

It was an exciting day for Aeva because she got to pick out her very own set of scriptures and a ctr ring since she is turning eight and she will be getting baptized in January.

Here are some pictures from our wonderful outing yesterday.

Where's the Beef?

Rhaevyn helped me make hamburgers for dinner on Monday night. Everyone was getting their plates and hamburger buns ready. Myles had his all ready to go......

I had to uncover it layer by layer to see exactly what he had on the plate.
First comes pickles,

Then comes onions (which he highly dislikes),

And last but not least is the lettuce. Who needs the beef??

He wanted all this and the bun, but refused to eat the meat.

Just one of the many joys of homeschooling......

is watching the kids spend time playing, bonding and teaching each other.

I had the math manipulative cubes out as well for Myles to play with. I had to laugh because the girls constructed these people and Myles constructed himself a gun. I am sorry that I didn't get a picture of it.

Some interesting things from my talkative little boy.....
"Hold on". Gee I wonder how often he hears that from me?
When asked to share food "of course."
Right now with all the Christmas music on the radio he asks several times a day "Christmas time?", and then he proceeds to ask "present time?" He asked me that last Saturday as I watched him hover over the presents in the closet. I keep telling him that, no, it is not present time yet. The girls and I caught him several weeks ago in my room sitting with several presents in a circle around him with a frenzy of wrapping paper strewn across the room.
And when I ask him where my handsome guy is he turns to me with the most gigantic smile and sparkle in his eyes.
I finally made him is own cape with the letter M sewn on it for Super Myles. Although, he still prefers the girls' Tinkerbell outfit.

Myles gives Aeva a ride around the kitchen.

Yesterday, my wonderful husband brought me home my favorite color roses.
It was such a sweet surprise, not because he isn't thoughtful like that, but my actions/mood the day prior didn't make me very deserving of them.

All I can say is, I am one very loved and blessed wife :)

Rhaevyn is nearing the end of her Lemony Snicket series. Today something very exciting arrived in the mail for her. It was a telegram from Lemony Snicket, mailed from Canada. It was all in code.

School work is done for the day, and we are about to make sugar cookies and listen to Christmas music.

Fun, fun!

Fieldtrip On a Rainy Day

Today Myles, the girls and I went on a school field trip to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and Cathlapotle Plankhouse. We learned about the Cathlapotle people....how they lived, what they ate. We got to handle some artifacts. The plankhouse was pretty interesting. FYI, Cullen, this would work out well for the commune idea :)

After listening to the speaker and trying to contain Myles, we were off on a hike to look at wildlife. There really weren't too many animals to see, as it was a pretty stormy day. We did get to see an otter. The nature hike was very cold and wet, but beautiful.

Here are some pictures to enjoy.

We had to walk up and over a footbridge. Myles did not like this at all.

However, it was over railroad tracks, so that distracted him somewhat since he loves trains.

This is the outside of the plankhouse. I wish I had pictures of the inside, but it was pretty dark.

It was pretty rustic inside, but very interesting.

And we are off on our nature hike.

Looking back at the plankhouse.

Myles was trying to get in on nature bingo.

Pretty lichen and fungi.

The picture below is of an anthill.

I thought these berries were pretty.

They are snowberries....poisonous to humans.

We saw some amazingly humongous maple leaves.

This was about the size of two of my hands.

Rhaevyn at the entrance of the Cathlapotle Plankhouse.

When we reached the van to go back home Myles had to strip from the waist down, as he had had a run in with the mud twice on the hike. Everybody else had muddy pant legs and shoes. After everyone got sanitized and removed muddy shoes we enjoyed a nice warm ride home with gingersnap cookies. Mmmmm. Home we went to a nice warm shower, nice warm towels, hot chocolate and spaghetti. Makes one appreciate all the modern conveniences of our time.