The Red Caboose

One of our family's traditions is to pick our tree out at the Red Caboose every year the day after Thanksgiving. They have tons of trees that you can cut down - but we typically go straight towards the pre-cut frasier furs shipped in directly from North Carolina. This year they lost 1,000 trees to a fungus - yikes! I'm sure that accounted for the increase in prices. We'll continue to go - it's just more festive than going to the local garden center.

There's nothing better than picking out a tree in 65 degree weather! Next year we might need to take two vehicles to the farm... James' truck can only seat 3 kiddos!

For a second we thought it might be fun to try and lose the kids in the maze of trees. Maybe we could have done that 20 years ago, but times have changed.

Emily found this special tree that she liked... any tree you can cut with scissors is probably not a good choice.

The Red Caboose has a small barn full of animals - rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, llamas, parrots, doves, random tropical birds, peacocks...

"Mommy, this one feels like Saffron. But she's more stinky." These days, I'd call it a tie.

"You take the one in the blue shirt, I'll get the little ones..."


Strike a pose.

"That's it, I'm throwing you in."

Usually Santa is there every year, but he must still have a few things to wrap up at the North Pole. I think we will probably see him a few times this season. For some reason, he likes to visit the gym every year (maybe to partake in some needed exercising) and we plan on going to the North Pole via the Polar Express train ride in December. Fun times ahead!

What I'm Thankful For

I have so many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Here are a few.

Him

and her

and him

and her

and it

Coming in late May, 2010.

Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Do you think she likes ice cream?

My new sink

Isn't it pretty?

Finally we are able to cook. Abby is especially thrilled since she has become addicted to the food network and cooking shows. She has actually changed her future occupation from a rainbow guy to a cooking guy now. Well sometimes she adds in that she wants to be a Chick-fil-A cooking guy so she can make me some good food. I love that girl. The second she turns 16, I might have to hold her to that deal.

We made a roasted chicken tonight that we saw on one of the shows last week. It really turned out well, and the girls loved helping rub down the chicken.


Have a great weekend!

Hello!

It's been awhile! Where have I been? Nowhere exciting that's for sure.

James was on his death bed for one day, and then low and behold the next day I catch his dreaded illness. Only I get mine for 2 weeks. I am really not sure what I had, but I did get some antibiotics last week which seemed to help a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the flu. Thankfully the kids avoided the whole thing. I'm really not sure how.

So what's been going on in our house the last few weeks?

Austin's football season ended and he got trophy #7. It's a cute little bobble-head trophy that broke on the way home from the football party. That is the 2nd trophy he has gotten that has broken immediately. I think the $15 they want for those things is a scam.

Austin is doing well in 1st grade. He got his first report card and had perfect marks. Although I am really not sure what he is learning. He does bring homework home, but he flies through it. The kid is very bright. The only thing he tells me he learns are these strange claps. I think they learn a few claps a day in his class... and use them when a student does something good. He has tons of them. Hmmm.

For example:

Let's see... what else.... I haven't been able to cook because of this:

Although it's really not the worst travesty in the world that I cannot cook.

I can't wash any pots/dishes in the bathroom sink and I refuse to go outside and wash them as my dear husband suggested. (In all fairness, I think he said "we" can wash them outside.) If you remember, we've had issues with the faucet ever since James squashed a fly tearing the whole darn thing off. $100 later we got a replacement faucet head. Then a few weeks ago, the darn hose that connects the faucet head to something else underneath the sink broke. Excuse me for my home maintenence vocabulary - I am NO handyman. And neither is my husband.

So we ordered a replacement hose and after hours of being under that kitchen sink - we (I) figured out it wasn't going to work. So instead of replacing the whole faucet (since it wouldn't match the sink) we decided to get a new sink and new faucet. Lowes is coming tomorrow morning to install it. Thank goodness. It stinks not having a kitchen sink.

The girls, well same old stuff there. So cute and best friends MOST of the time.

Halloween Preparations

We have been pretty much "preparing" for Halloween all month - ever since the girls got their costumes in late September. They have asked to wear them almost daily. This is the first day we got them:

I think most people think they are angels, but they're really supposed to be fairies.

The weekend before Halloween, we went to a fundraiser at Austin's school. The kids had a lot of fun, and Austin won a cake from the cake-walk. I think he actually won the first walk and had the first selection on the table with over 30 cakes. He took the biggest one he could find. Needless to say, he was ecstatic that we could bring some more sugar home. (mental note: check calendar for the next dentist appointment.)

Austin wanted to be a Houston Texans football player for Halloween, but I totally missed the boat on that one.... I ran out of time to order it online. So James took him to Target that morning and found this Transformer costume. He's never actually seen the movie. He would have been just as good off going as James Dean, the Swamp Thing or King Kong. I guess he just liked the way it looked.


We all made this scarecrow - by the way, it's a lot of work to make a scarecrow. When you stand him up he sort of looks like Pat from SNL.

By the way, the scarecrow is the one seated. :)

When we came home, Austin decided to draw his face, and then write words on him like "scary" and "I love pumpkins." Currently he's sitting outside in one of the chairs, and every time I pass by the window he scares the bejeebers out of me - it almost looks like a real person. Maybe crows aren't as dumb as we think. I think he's ready to be put up for the season.

Of course we had to carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds. Yum! This is how they turned out this year.



Then the kids went out trick-or-treating Saturday night. They got a whole bunch of candy, of which all the Reese's got confiscated and put into my secret hideout. Then half of it got thrown away, and still we are left with way too much sugar in this house and 3 kiddos asking for a treat every 3.312 minutes.

I'm not sure if the kids had more fun trick or treating, or handing out candy when they got home. They loved when someone showed up at the door. They'd look out the window and say, "here comes another customer." Abby was super friendly and told everybody "see you waiter" and "Happy Halloween!" You could tell the teens just loved her.

All that sugar should make for a pretty exciting November.