Tall houses are not fun

 We have been painting.  Just the trim.  Thank you Jesus we only have to do the trim because the trim is enough to do.  This house does not seem very big when you look at the large Victorian houses across the street, but when you start climbing around on it, it sure feels enormously tall.  

 Today while the local handyman we hired did the front, Jim, Colin and Cameron climbed up and painted the back.  This completely made me want to cry, and although I took a few photos, I tried to not watch or think about what would happen if they fell.  The good news is that we are very close to done with the parts that we told the painter we would do ourselves.  The bad news is that the painting is not done and since tomorrow is December, I am fearful that we may run out of good days.  We are going to try to work tomorrow and hope for the best.

I did get the whole back porch finished and am happy at how clean it looks since the cedar is all covered now.  The next house we buy will not be this tall I can promise you that much!  :)

Thankful

 We had a nice Thanksgiving.  Thank you to our niece Sarah for classing up our table this year.  :)

It was good to have a day to relax with family.  I am thankful for the health and well being of my family, and thankful for the memories of those who are no longer with us.

Langsgiving

 Yesterday we had Langsgiving.  We had a good time, despite it being in an unheated building.  The kids had fun looking around the old school, playing school with their cousins, and basketball in the old gym!  It was a good location, even though it was a bit on the chilly side!

I am thankful for the chance to get to see my cousins and their kids, and hang out for a while with my aunts and uncles.  It may have been cold, but I can't help but think warm thoughts about how proud grandma would be of the enormous number of great grandchildren she has!  I think I counted 32 great grandchildren.....with 2 more on the way.  I was thinking this is a lot....and then had the sudden thought that with the number of children Jim and I have, this could easily be us someday!  :)

Someone had a birthday

 Cake?  For MEEEEEE?

 Jim may be just a tad bit older now.

We were supposed to go to the Pepper Patch which is a new Mexican restaurant in Carbondale (which was recently re-opened by the same people who had it when I was a kid, making me drool and lust after tamales).  The problem was that it got really cold and started to rain.  We had a moment that we lost power and I had flashbacks to the last ice storm - the one where the girls who had just finished reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series thought it would be awesome to be pioneers.  After 3 days with no power, they proclaimed that Laura Ingalls Wilder and family were saints and kissed the TV when it came back on.  Luckily, we did not have to relive our pioneer days (which weren't all that rough since the whole time we still had indoor plumbing).  

Wait, I was talking about Jim and his birthday.  Well, this one was pretty non-eventful.

His youngest daughter was not amused that the cake was not for her.  Luckily, her daddy is an awesome man who let her blow out his candles.  Jim is a treasure.  We love you Jim.

Birthday Girl's party in a weekend of fun

 We had one of those running weekends again.  Like every weekend.  Cameron wrestled in a tournament in Silver Lake.  He pinned his first 2 opponents which put him into the championship round.  Which I though was awesome.  Any other day, he would have thought so too.  On this day however, he had a ticket to the Kansas State football game with kickoff being at 2:30.  Had he lost earlier, he would have seen the kickoff.  As it was, I got him there before half time.  I have to admit I was more than a little amused with watching him pace around and wait.  They finally announced they would do the championship matches, only after they decided to take a break!  He was not a happy kid!  He did wrestle well, and I am proud of him for not ditching his wrestling team when something he would have liked to do more came along.  He ended up with 2nd place.

The game was made more fun by Uncle Jay coming in from Indiana.  We are always very happy to see him!  He has a tendency to get the kids all riled up and teach them (more) inappropriate stuff.  It was an awesome, short visit.  Jay is one of a few people who voluntarily spends the night in our chaos!

 Sunday we had a birthday party for Saige.  She has figured out this birthday gig - cake and gifts - what more can a girl ask for!

 We had Mexican food, so it seemed like a good idea to have a pinata as well.  Saige seemed a little worried about them beating on her friend...

 Until she discovered there were treasures hidden in that monkey - then she could have cared less about him!

 It did not take her long to jump in with the big guys and get her share!

I think she had a good time.  As I was rocking her to sleep last night I told her this week is daddy's birthday.  She sat right up and said "no - MINE"  yes, we have figured out what being 2 is all about already!

Happy Birthday "baby" Saige!

 My happy Saige Grace turned 2 years old today!  I love this little girl.  She is such a sweet blessing!  

 I asked her if I could take birthday pictures and she said YES!  :)  Of course, she did not sit still for even half a second of it!

 She had a great day I think!  She spent part of the day with grandma because I had to do the last of our fall inspections.  Grandma got her a new Barbie bike for her big day, and she had a  lot of fun playing with it (when Harper would give her a turn)!  She also got some other stuff which Harper quickly latched onto!  Luckily, she is so easy going, she didn't seem to mind sharing!  She really is a mellow, sweet kid.  She gets drug to so many events, games, to work with me....and she hardly ever complains at all.  She just takes it all in stride.  I think she just knows her life is an adventure all the time!

 I did kind of laugh because for 2 days we asked her if she wanted a cake and she would say yes!  Then we would ask her what kind of cake and she would consistently respond with "blue" and so a blue cake is exactly what she got!

Both the cake and the frosting were blue!  Tomorrow, people may think she is very cold, because that blue frosting did not wash off her lips very well!  :)

We are very lucky that we have this little girl to brighten our days!   Happy Birthday Saige!  We love you!

Thank you Dodie!

 My friend Dodie (who is always my friend - I never unfriend her) took these photos of Cameron wrestling yesterday.  Cam is the one in blue.  Cameron did not win his matches yesterday, however I was pretty impressed at how he avoided being pinned, and thought that he had gotten a pin at one point.  He is doing pretty well for a newbie!  He seems like he is having fun too, which is the important part.

Thank you Dodie, for the awesome photos!  :)

so long football season

 On Sunday, Preston's team played their last flag football game for this season.  I really like flag football, I think it is fun for the kids, low stress since there is no score keeping (unless you are a child of ours), and Sunday afternoons in the fall are generally pretty nice to sit outside for a while.

 The coach was one of Preston's best friends dad.  He is really good with the kids, likes them to learn something, and is patient and kind to them.  I like having him for a coach.  He was also Preston's baseball coach this summer.  I hope that he will continue to coach these boys because he does a good job.

 In flag football, everyone gets a medal at the end.  Preston was excited about this, but somehow there was a very long discussion over whether his football medal was worth more money than Quincy's soccer medal from a couple weeks ago.  Quincy is absolutely convinced her medal is pure silver, and thus worth about $1000.  She is also convinced that Preston's is not worth nearly that amount!  My trying to convince her that anyone can buy these medals for around $4 each did not go over very well!  Again, I am convinced that we should stop watching Pawn Stars on TV!

 We went out for dinner with Jim's folks after the final game.  The kids love Golden Corral....I am going on record here to say that I believe they love it because of the desert bar.  Saige was pretty pleased with her brothers!  We were all having a nice meal, and then it happened.  Colin said to Cam "you cannot eat an entire bowl of caramel."  Cameron responded with "challenge accepted."  

Colin was wrong, Cameron can indeed eat an entire bowl of caramel.  And I made Cameron  ride home in Jim's car....because I have heard enough stories from my husband to know where Cameron inherited his ability to eat an entire bowl of caramel.

The moral of the story - I cannot take my children into public places, and I am excessively happy that it is now time for indoor sports - no more freezing outside watching games!