Thanksgiving 2011

So much to be thankful for...

Our lovely friends (the Stenhoff's) invited us over for Thanksgiving brunch, complete with turkey sausage, cranberry muffins and crepes of course. It was wonderful. We have spent every Thanksgiving together since they moved here. It is a fun little tradition. After a yummy meal we went home to pack boxes. Later that day, we dined on a take out Turkey meal from Flancers that was just okay. It was a nice relaxing day and we did get a few things done for the big move.

Thank you dear Lord for life, love, friendships and laughter.

We rounded out the Thanksgiving weekend with a little reunion with some good friends that were in town for the holiday.

Northern Exposure

We spent a lovely two days with Nana, Papa, the Jarvise family and Lauren's Nana up North.

We began with dinner, crafts, visits with elves...

and of course Mrs. Clause...

before boarding the Polar Express bound for the North Pole

We read the Polar Express story, sang Christmas carols, drank hot cocoa and ate cookies, saw the North Pole and Santa's village... and the best part was meeting Santa on the train when he gave everyone aboard a bell. (more photos from Papa's camera to follow)

We ended the evening with a horse drawn carriage ride around downtown Williams, AZ. Our drivers name was Bubba and the Clydesdale's name was RAZ.

We woke up the next morning and enjoyed a yummy breakfast.

Emma, Caitlyn, and Lauren in front of the fireplace in the lobby of the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.

After breakfast we jumped in with the Jarvise fam and went on an adventure through Bearizona !! We had to laugh when we told Papa what our plan was, he kindly said, "oh I think we will head back." I guess when you have grown up with Yellowstone, WY in your backyard (or state) you don't have the desire to drive through Bearizona and see animals in large fenced in areas. But, until we make it to Yellowstone, this is a good place to start.

After seeing bears, bison, wolves and big horn sheep; Caitlyn thought this gray squirrel was the best.

My little Caitlyn bear and my Hubby bear.

and we have cabinets

and the beginning of a stair rail

a little conversation

Nana and Papa were babysitting...

Papa's version of this little conversation

Caitlyn: "Papa, I need my foot medicine" (tylenol)

Papa: "I don't know where Mom keeps it"

Caitlyn: "It is right there", pointing to my rubbermaid container high on the shelf in my closet

Papa: "I will have to talk to Mom when she gets home and ask her which one to give you"

Caitlyn: "Let's Skype her"

Papa: smiling, "I don't have my laptop here"

Caitlyn: "Well, we can talk to Mom on the iPad"

Papa: had to grin with pride over the technological abilities of his youngest granddaughter

house as of lately

first book report

Em and Daddy worked hard on her very first book report on a chapter book. They had a great time reading, writing and creating the cheeseburger report. Thanks Bryan for being head chef on this project. He he. Love you both.

a little peak

I had the opportunity to observe Caitlyn in her Montessori classroom yesterday. I always love getting to see what school is like for my girls. When I first arrived, she did not notice me. She was hard at work on a punch out work, focusing on fine motor skills, she was so cute with her little apron on. Each child is encouraged to do their math and reading lesson each day. For Caitlyn, her current math lesson is the number rods. They are wooden rods that represent numbers 1-10. She has mastered one to one correspondence for numbers 0-6 and is getting there on 7-10. Her reading lesson are sound lessons/sand paper sounds and she is 3 sounds away from getting to work with the movable alphabet to begin to make words. She was also asked by Miss Reggie to help a younger student with the red rods, so she got to demonstrate how to grade by length. I could not be more proud of you sister Bear.