Happy Birthday Kenzie Girl!

It has been 2 years...

and we finally have some snow at our house!

We love it!!!!

We want some more of it.

Building snowmen used to be a pretty intense event.

We didn't go so much for looks as we did height.

Snowman building involved a ladder at our house.

The taller the better.

Here, we are just glad to have enough snow to make a snowman.

This one wasn't even as tall as Cayleb.

Put we were so glad to finally use our snowman kit again.

Notice the green grass in the back of the pic.

It took most of our front yard snow to make him come to "life".

Note - the whole community pretty much shut down.

No school for 2 days. Weird. Still seems crazy to us.

Catching snow.

The magic of the seasons.

Randy pulling the kids down the road on their sled.
The 4-wheelers won't start again.

Why do we store those things again?

Cayleb with his friend that moved away to Idaho and came back for a visit.

Serious sledding going on here!

Thanksgiving

Randy's cousin Bryan invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner.

We shared this holiday with them last year too!

They also invited the Hertogh family over for their first Thanksgiving dinner.

They are from the Netherlands like my dad.

It was so fun to talk with them however, I wish my dad would have taught us more Dutch growing up!

Table setting was beautiful!

Makenzy making new friends.
Ava. Twins??? Sally or Jane? I just don't have the eye to tell them apart! Makenzy.

Appetizers!

The pie goddess lives down the street from me.

She also goes by the name of Christine.

This year I implored her to help teach me the fine art of pie making.

Homemade pies sing out Thanksgiving feat almost as loudly as the turkey.

But of course more sweetly.

However, the weather intervened.

Snow. School cancelled for 2 days.

All 8 kids home.

And, by necessity, in the kitchen some of that time.

Not the best recipe for trying to have girl time chatting and making pies.

So it was postponed.

I slumped back into my old pie habits and bought some Marie Callender pies that I

was deceptively thinking about passing off as my own.

Then husband to Mrs. Pie Goddess and daughter knocked on my door and pulled from their sled, yes an actual sled pulled down our snow packed street,

3 beautiful red boxes containing pie goddess "loveness" and "yumminess".

Smooth, velvety, chocolate cream.

Lickety, clean, lemon cream.

And an extra dash of genuine thoughtfulness,

Pecan pie.

My favorite.

Mrs. Pie Goddess figured she was already making several pies, what was a few more.

Thank you Pie Goddess Friend!!!

You are amazing.

Can't wait for our next cooking class!

Witches Night Out

A little WNO

Witches Night Out

Food and Gabbing

Some of the "witches" flew in a little later, so another group photo.

The writing on the mirror

Randy wakes up earlier than the rest of us.

According to him, way earlier.

5 a.m.

I used to wake up with him.

That ended a long time ago.

So our mornings together rarely start with a kiss goodbye.

I love him.

But I love my sleep too (Kenzie still doesn't sleep through the night!)

Instead I get notes.

Placed on the kitchen table.

Left on the island.

Written on a bathroom mirror.

Sometimes they are just for me.

Sometimes they are for all of us.

Today the kid's bathroom mirror reads,

"Always be a first rate version of yourself

instead of a second rate version of someone else."

Judy Garland

As always, makes me think.

Thanks Hun!