Thanksgiving Weekend

Our family traveled down to Memphis, Tennessee to visit with Joshua's brother Joseph and his family for Thanksgiving this year. It was about an 11 hour drive. We were hoping for warmer weather, but it turned out to be just as cold as Michigan ... oh well. But it was fun meeting our new nephew and cousin, little Adam. He's Joseph and Brittany's first child. Jessica was especially smitten by him! She and I scuffled over who would hold Adam all weekend.

Logan loved holding Adam

Alex and Adam

Jessica was a baby hog when it came to holding Adam! She sure did love him...

A kiss for Adam

Aunt Julie holding sweet baby Adam

We went to the Memphis Zoo

We saw this lion up close!

We saw polar bears swimming in the pool at feeding time

Logan grabbed this tree after seeing the panda bears and said, "I'm a Panda Bear!"

On Saturday, we went to a Memphis science museum called the Pink Palace. Jessica brought her "flat" person for a school project.

Brittany, Joseph and Adam

Fall Pictures

I took some really great individual Fall pictures of the kids this year. I haven't taken a group one yet -- I'm waiting for a certain tree on our cul-de-sac to change color a little more before taking the group photo, which will probably be in about a week. Anyway, here are my cute kids:

Carter's Pirate Party

Our family went to Columbus last weekend for Carter's 6th birthday party. Kim put together a really fun "pirate" party. Everyone received a pirate costume as they arrived at the party, which got the kids into a very 'piratey' mood. Kim did a good job decorating her house in a pirate theme, had some fun games and made a really cute pirate boat cake. Alex and Logan especially had a good time, but their favorite thing was the costume that they were able to take home. They wore it all day Sunday, and Logan wore it half of the day today. Spencer and Jessica's favorite part of the party was the "treasure hunt" at the end of the party. Spencer led the pack many times in search of clues around their house. Anyway, it was a fun day. Thanks for inviting us, Kim and Carter! We had a good time.

I've been trying to talk Kim into starting her own blog, and hopefully she will soon. Maybe then she'll be able to add more pictures of Carter's party to complete my collection. I only took a few ---

Aarrrgggg, Matey!
Pirates Carter and Alex

Pirate Logan

The whole pirate crew

The Pirate Ship cake

Blowing out the candles

Frosted Pumpkin Cranberry Bars

I made these dessert bars for Halloween this year. They were so good! I thought I would share this delicious recipe ---

FROSTED PUMPKIN CRANBERRY BARS

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3 eggs
1 (15-oz) can solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries

Brown-Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 to 6 Tbsp. milk

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin and butter; stir into dry ingredients until well combined. Stir in cranberries. Spread into a greased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For frosting, heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat; cool for 5 minutes. Stir in confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread over bars before cutting. Yield: about 4 dozen.

Halloween 2007

The kids got dressed up in their Halloween costumes more this year than ever before! We had party after party. It all started with the Halloween "Fall Family Fun Night" party at school the Friday night before Halloween. After Joshua got home from work, we dressed the kids in their costumes and took off for Jessica and Alex's elementary school to play games, dance, eat food, participate in raffle contests, take a family picture, and go to a book fair. Jessica sat at the cider and doughnuts booth most of the evening to help with her 4th grade fundraising event (a fieldtrip to Lansing in February). Since Spencer is in middle school now, he thought it would be too juvenile to attend, so he stayed home alone -- But I think he enjoyed having the house to himself.

Saturday night was our ward "Trunk-or-Treat" party. The kids got heaps and heaps of candy, and then there were carnival games for the kids. We also enjoyed doughnuts and cider.

On Monday night, I took the kids to our local library's Halloween party, which was totally cute. To begin the party, the library staff read the kids a couple of ghost stories, then provided lots of fun party foods, had some cute games and Halloween crafts. I was very impressed. We had to register to attend, so there were only a limited number of kids, and it was free. Spencer, once again, decided to skip the party and read books in another part of the library while he waited for us to get done. With the big gaps in my kid's ages, it gets harder to have family activities that everyone will like. Oh well. I knew it was bound to happen someday...

On Tuesday, while Spencer and Jessica were at piano lessons, I took Alex and Logan to our commmunity center's "Trick or Treat Parade". Each room on the trick or treat path was decorated in a different theme and included some popular characters for the kids to meet. A few of the themes I can remember were: Disney princesses, Super-Heros, Transformers, "Go Diego, Go", High School Musical, "Hooray for Hollywood" (with a red carpet), "At the Movies", a haunted house, etc. As the kids went from room to room, they filled their bags with surprises and goodies. It was so cute! We'll have to go again next year, but we'll make a point of arriving much earlier so we won't have to wait in a huge line again.

On Wednesday, Jessica and Alex had Halloween parties at school. Every year, their elementary school has a "Halloween Parade" after lunch so the kids at school can show off their costumes to family and staff. It was a nice day outside so the parade spilled out onto the school grounds. Jessica took Logan with her on the parade and I heard him receive lots of compliments on his police motorcycle costume. After the parade, since I am the "room mom" for Jessica's class, I helped out with her classroom Halloween party. I arranged for party food donations and came up with games and crafts for the kids to do. Logan also stayed for the party and Jessica was happy to show him off to her friends.

That night, we ate an early dinner before going trick-or-treating -- Frito pie, apples and caramel dip, and hot apple cider. For dessert, frosted pumpkin cranberry bars and pumpkin ice-cream. Yum! I went out with the kids while Josh stayed behind to hand out candy. After about an hour and a half, Jessica's feet were hurting because of her "ruby slippers" (a new pair of shoes she really hadn't broken into yet) and the little boys were getting tired, so I brought them home. Spencer wanted to keep going, so Joshua took him back out for almost a whole hour more while I put the younger kids into their PJ's and we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" while sitting next to a fire in the fireplace and drinking hot apple cider. It was a nice relaxing evening.

Jessica's Trip Back in Time

On October 30, Jessica's 4th grade class went on a fieldtrip to a one-room schoolhouse. They spent the day there learning as if they lived in the 1800's. Her teacher asked the kids to dress-up in period costume, optional, and bring a lunch that children would bring to school in those days, in a bucket or basket. Jessica's lunch consisted of homemade bread, chicken, cheese, boiled egg, pickle, an apple and homemade cookies. We borrowed Jessica's clothes from some church friends whose daughter went on the hand-cart trek with the youth in our stake a few years ago. The dress was a little big for her, but it worked. Doesn't she look cute? Most of the kids in her class didn't dress up so she really stood out. Her teacher looked really cute too. She let me come in and take pictures. See below:

Jessica --- an 1800's girl

Jessica's teacher -- Ms. Brohl

Ms. Brohl is teaching the class

Jessica seated at her wooden desk

Jessica wasn't alone - A few other girls had aprons and bonnets (on the left in the back). Jessica's lunch is in a bucket next to her feet. (Enlarge picture by clicking on it, to see better)

As her teacher took role, the kids were asked to stand next to their desk and say, "Here, Ms. Brohl".

Logan at the Museum

This is Logan's last year at home with me before he starts full-day kindergarten next year!! I'm extremely sad to think about it so I don't dwell on it very much, but I have decided that every Friday during this school year will be our special "Friday Fun Day", where he and I do something fun together all day long. We've done many things so far this year and sometimes we invite friends to come along with us. Because we have an annual Hands-On Museum pass, we've gone and done several of those together. Here's some fun pictures of one of our adventures to the museum:

Spaceship Head

This is where my Loger-boy got soaking wet!

Cute smile!

Logan sat in this "play hospital" Admitting Desk typing away on the computer for at least 20 minutes. I asked him if he wanted to be a doctor someday and he said "Yes!"

Happy as can be!

Playing with K'Nex

Climbing a rope in the children's play area

Capturing a Beautiful Sunset

About a week before Halloween, we were eating dinner one evening and I got up to get a drink from the fridge. In the corner of my eye I noticed out the front window a glowing, bright red light shining into our living room. I ran to the window and noticed everything outside was glowing red. The sun was setting and the whole sky lit-up in blazing red, purple, pink, orange and yellow tones -- I couldn't believe how stunning it looked! The sunset reflected onto everything in our cul-de-sac tinting it different shades of pink and red. But the sky is what was totally breathtaking. It was absolutely beautiful! I told the kids to stop eating and run outside to look at it; I took pictures but they don't do the sunset justice. One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen!

Stevenson Saints Junior Varsity Soccer Team

It's almost been a month since Spencer's soccer season ended but I wanted to post a few pictures of him in action. First of all, it was quite an accomplishment to get on the 6th grade soccer team since the coach cut more than half the boys who tried out for the team. Spencer was thrilled but I wasn't too surprised. He is super quick on the field and a very determined and aggressive player. Even one of his teammates, named Charlie, told me that Spencer was "one of the best players on the team."

The only time I worried about him being on the soccer team was after I took him in for a "sports physical" at the doctor's office. They told me for being an 11 year old, he was in the 35th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. I knew he had always been smaller than average for his age, but suddenly the mother in me kicked in and I imagined all the other boys mowing him over during the practices and games. But, of course, I was wrong. He totally held his own!

I went to almost every game; Joshua went to the ones I missed. Of course, I never had my camera ready for some of his best plays, but I took a few pictures of him in action. He was definitely one of the best players on the team. The coach stuck him on defense and he was always right there blocking the ball every time he was needed. The ball hardly ever made it to the opponent's goal when Spencer was on the field. Anyway, I'm proud to say that the junior varsity "Stevenson Saints" soccer team was undefeated this year!! Good job, Spencer!!

Spencer's orange and blue uniform

Spencer is the third soccer player from the right; He's going after the ball

Run Spencer, run!

The entire team talking to the coach during half time. Spencer is to the left of the coach.