handsful

Three years?  Since this frightened boy was told that we were his Mama and Baba…since his nanny told him to give me a kiss on my cheek, and he obeyed….since our world was changed for the better, forever.

If you want to read about his Gotcha Day, go here

As is our Gotcha Day custom with both Lainey and Dylan, we let them choose where to go out to eat.  Dylan’s been telling us for a long time that he wanted to go back to the same place he had his first gotcha day, so that’s where we headed!

He enjoyed his meal of shrimp, fried clams, fish, hushpuppies, and fries.  And, raw oysters (yuck).

After dinner, we gave him his gotcha day present.  Each year, we give a book that fits for that year…maybe it’s about adoption, maybe it’s just something he/she is really into that year.

Last year, his book was a pop-up book about all the DC characters.  This year, he’s become a HUGE Batman fan (I give credit to his big bro, Payton, for that), so I found an early reader with 5 short stories, all about the Dark Knight.

I expect Payton will be reading some of these to Dylan :)

We lost him for the rest of the night.

In fact, he didn’t even notice we were leaving…

On the way to the van, he told me “Mom, I love, love, love, love my new book”…and, then he proceeded to kiss the front cover, over and over.

I think we nailed it on the book.

Happy 3 Year Forever Family Day, sweet boy!  We love you to the moon…

Gathered around our table, with more food than we truly need, enjoying a day together.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The bird, before…

And, during.

My girls.  I would have a “my boys” pic too, but one of them was extremely uncooperative.  I gave up.  I’ll keep the identity of the trouble maker a secret.  (Ethan)

After lunch, we rolled ourselves away from the table and headed downtown for what is becoming a tradition (as of last year, when we did it for the first time)…family pictures!

My parents with their grands…

“Squeeze in tight, kids, act like ya like each other!”

Photo credit, Daniel Kepple

Abbey and Daniel :)

Oh, Dylan…

Pretty girls

hoodlum boys

the parents

Remind you of a certain album cover?

Randy and I are thankful for many things in our lives….like those guys and gals above.

But, wasn’t it JUST October?

I mean, seriously, I’m not sure what’s going on lately.  My days, weeks, months are flying by at warp speed.  I need time to slllooowww down.  Not speed up, for crying out loud.

I’ll stop complaining now.

This month has been good…a few highlights.

As we’ve done every year since…well, forever…we have a Thankful Tree.  I tried to cut corners and I posted a “What I’m Thankful For” poster for everyone to write on.  I got SO much grief about that!  “MOM, where’s the TREE?!?!”  “We can’t just have a poster!!”

A tree it is.  Marley cut out the trunk, and we just used the leaves to make the top shape.  I like it much better than the poster.  There, I said it.

This is a picture of Abbey driving down the driveway.  WITHOUT me or Randy in the passenger seat.  Yes, she now has her license.  The other three are busy fighting over who’s going to drive every time we go anywhere.  They each have to log 60 hours (and turn 16) before they’re eligible to apply for their licenses.  And, we’re now also logging Abbey’s hours, so she can eventually get her “after 9” license.

Some of the kids went to see the premiere of Catching Fire last Thursday night.  Abbey went all out (are we surprised?) and decided to dress up as Katniss.  I took her to the thrift store and she found 2 dresses and a shirt.  Once home, she went right up to her room and started sewing.  She managed to use pieces of all three things to create her Mockingjay dress.  I was impressed!

While they were at the movie, I took Payton, Lainey, and Dylan to a Thanksgiving dinner and presentations, put on by the littles Classical Conversations group.  Payton graciously skipped the movie so he could be a teen helper with the kids games.  Sweet kid.

Lainey’s class presented a song about the planets.  She was Uranus, and told the crowd “Uranus is a pretty blue planet that spins funny”.

Dylan’s class sang their Timeline song, complete with all the hand motions.  Each child chose someone in the timeline to dress up as.  Dylan is Julius Caesar.

This is the end…”Jesus the Messiah!”

That pretty much wraps up November, with the exception of our yummy Thanksgiving dinner coming up next week.  I’ve got lots of cooking to do, and I’m so looking forward to it.  Not to mention having 4 whole days of zero school.  Woot, Woot!

Hey, teachers need breaks too.  :)

Cut shapes into pumpkins.

Eat too much candy.

And, this year…have a party.

That’s pretty much what halloween boiled down to for us.

First, we’ve got pumpkins to carve.

Her own design.

Dylan is a huge Avatar fan, so this is Aang the pumpkin.

As usual, Randy and the boys have their own creation.

Yes, that’s licorice hair.  And ghourd eyes…

Marley decided to paint her pumpkin, to match her black/white theme.

I wasn’t home when Abbey and Randy carved hers…surprise, surprise, it’s a Catching Fire theme.

Dress up time begins…

ladies and gentlemen, we present to you…Iron Man and Cat Woman.

I dropped them off at their friend, Paetyn’s house, for crafts and dinner.

Drove back to our house to take pics of the big kids and their friends, dropped them off at a neighborhood for trick or treating, and then headed back to where the littles were to walk that neighborhood with them.

Whew.

Marley, Payton, Ethan, Kailee, and Kylie…

Payton resurrected an old costume from years ago…

Payton, age 9

Marley cut this design in her black tee …very cool, I think.

Abbey, as an un-dead bride.  Her creation, made from thrift store purchases.  Plus, her talent as a special effects make-up artist.

Ethan and Kailee…she was a gothic barbie doll, and he was just gothic.  Another excuse to wear all black clothing for him.  Just another day, except for the makeup done by Kailee!  (thankfully)

Tradition is, the kids come home, spread out their loot, and trade away!

The next night?  Well, we threw a party for the kids and their friends, of course.

We decorated the Shop, and played games…we wrapped kids into toilet paper mummies, had a pumpkin carving contest, and a “who can hold 4 hot balls in their mouth the longest” game.

And, a costume contest.  Marley won.  :)

They played manhunt out in the woods, too.  Afterwards, Randy played a scary movie in the Shop, and a not-as-scary movie down in our basement.

Lots of memories made, lots of fun had.

By the way, WHERE did October go??

In order…probably.

A few weeks ago, Lainey had braces put on.  At age 7.  Which, by the way, means I now have 4 kids IN braces right now.  Sheesh.

Lainey, because she was born with a cleft palate, will need lots of dental and orthodontic work.  LOTS.  And, it starts now.  She’s had 4 surgeries in her lifetime, 3 with us.  Her next one, to correct her gumline cleft, will be her biggest, and I’m told her hardest.  They will take bone from her hip and use it to fill in the bone that’s missing in her gumline.  Before that can happen, her palate needs to have an expander put in (weird, huh?  She had two surgeries to CLOSE her palate, now we’re trying to make it wider??).  And, before she can have the expander put in, she has one tooth that needs straightening (the expander needs that tooth to attach to), hence the braces.

Are you lost yet?  She’s done great with her braces, hardly any complaining at all.  I’m amazed, really.  But, I shouldn’t be.  She’s always handled medical stuff with ease.

Then, it was time for the NC State Fair.

Dylan’s footlong is becoming a fair tradition…

happy girl!

For the first time ever, I think, we left our nice camera at home, so all of these are off our phones.  I just decided I didn’t want to have to lug it around the whole time…I kinda wish I had better pics, but I did enjoy the freedom of less to carry that day.

October FLEW by for us.  I mean, I don’t have a clue where it went!  I guess that happens when you’re calendar days are all full.

We did finally find time to go pick out pumpkins as a family.  With the big kids getting older and busier themselves, it’s harder to find those stretches of time where we can ALL do things as a family without either missing some or having extras.

We’ve gotta do better at making that a priority.

taken before we saw the “don’t climb the tree” sign…oops

A few short days later, it was time for Trick or Treating.

Next post will be pics of all that fun…