More Thanksgiving weekend....

Yes, we put Claire to work as soon as the tree was set up. No more fun....get vacuuming!!

We also like to cage our children and let the puppy have the run of the house....she did this herself and needed assistance to get out. :) I think Louie was starting to think something was seriously wrong!

We celebrated Christmas with Joel's mom and dad and sister and brother-in-law that weekend too. We had a great Christmas dinner here at our house and had lots of fun opening gifts. Claire was so excited for this "real" microphone....we were not quite as excited.

Ethan has turned from being a huge Nascar fan to a huge NFL fan. This kid has to be talked into taking this jersey off!! He likes to get all dressed up in his gear to watch a game.

Better post some fall pictures before Christmas!!

For a few weeks this fall we were lucky enough to have my grandparents in GR. We had them over for dinner and here is my 90 year old grandpa with all the great-grandkids plus great-grandpuppy.

Here is Claire just before being dropped off at preschool modeling a cute hat I got for her at a craft sale. She will not wear it again so here is your only look... :(

This year, we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at Susan and Scott's house!! It was so great because Susan wanted to learn how to make an entire Thanksgiving meal and wanted Donna to teach her....you can guess what that meant for me....NO COOKING!!!!! I only brought the stuffing....it was so great not having to make tons of things and Susan and Donna did a wonderful cooking job!
Those of you who know this family know what a miraculous picture this is.....no one is smiling wierd...they all look great!!

Since we are trying a white Christmas this year (i.e. not going to Florida as usual) we decided to cut our own tree instead of using the lovely pre-cut trees at Fruitbasket. This our tree and it is so beautiful. The kids thought it was very fun to walk around and decide which one we wanted. We even got it before the big snow came!!