Thanksgiving

We traveled to Indiana, of course, to spend Thanksgiving with our families there. We have so much to be thankful for; God has blessed us so much beyond what we need. It was wonderful to spend the weekend with family, celebrating.


Gram & Caeden building a garage for the Matchbox cars...


Great Grandma hosted the Crabill Thanksgiving gathering. She has been crocheting these little scarecrows for months, and let each grandchild and great grandchild choose one. She made 43 in all, I think. Caeden and Sylvia were so excited to get to choose the ones they wanted. They love them.


Sylvie and Great Grandma


Ada and Lucy found a fun place to play with their scarecrows!


We were able to spend a lot of time with Scott, Cathy, and Megan. The kids showed Megan all their favorite "secret places" outside at Gram & Krampa's. The girls were carrying little notebooks around with them all weekend, drawing and writing down things they saw.


I didn't take any photos at the McEowen gathering, as there were at least 6 other cameras flashing like crazy. Anyone who would like to e-mail some photos?

The kids and I missed out on the Lopshire gathering, and I am still feeling awful about it. Jeremy went for a little while, and we are really looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas time!!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

I saw this recipe in Wondertime Magazine (no idea how I got subscribed to it!), and thought I woudl try them. I made them for our Thanksgiving gatherings this year, and they are sooo yummy!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Makes 16 biscuits

Ingredients:
2 to 3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Heat oven to 400. Scrub sweet potatoes, prick them in several places with a fork, and microwave them until tender, at least 10 minutes. Carefully slice them in half, scoop the hot flesh from the skins, and add to a mixing bowl along with the butter. Using an electric mixer, whip together potatoes and butter until well combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in sugars, salt, and spices. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile stir together flour and baking powder in a medium bowl with a fork. Add flour mixture to potato mixture and use the fork to combine well. You may have to knead the dough by hand a bit at the end. On a floured surface, roll out or pat the dough into an 8-by-8-inch square about 3/4 inch thick. With a sharp knife or square biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out 2-inch square biscuits. (Making them square means you can use all the dough in one go, rather than rerolling it.)

Place the dough squares 2 inches apart on a baking sheet that has been greased or lined with parchment. Bake until they're golden brown on the bottom and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Random Conversation with Caeden

As Caeden is putting his Thomas puzzle together on the living room floor, we had this conversation just a minute ago:

C: I think it's really pretty cool that God made Grandma and Grandpas.
Me: Yeah, it is! They're pretty cool aren't they?
C: Yep!
Me: You know, your Grandpa & Grandma are my Mom & Dad!
C: Noooo way!! It's not possible!
Me: Yeah, it is! That's what makes them your Grandma & Grandpa!
C: Oh. Well, maybe Grandpa has G.I. Joes too, like Daddy.

Jeremy was given 5 free tickets to our local hockey team's game tonight! It was our first time seeing the Prairie Thunder, and the kids' first time at a hockey game! We had a great time!!

The team mascot--Chip the Buffalo.


The Thunderettes


the opening face-off


Our friend Noah, from church, was there with his family. He saw us sitting across the way and came over to give Jeremy a big kiss on the cheek. (I had to laugh, as some of Jeremy's colleagues from the Leadership McLean County program were sitting around us.)
Noah obliged us with a family photo...
Caeden is evidence that we were all about stuffing our faces full of hockey game junk food.


Okay, this cracked me up. Between 2 of the periods, a local car dealership drives a new car onto the ice. People buy foam hockey pucks (somehow labeled with their I.D. apparently) and try to throw them into the car's open sunroof as it drives slowly around the ice. If someone gets a puck in, they win the car. No one won it tonight, but it was fun to watch all the pucks cover the ice. After the allotted time was up, a swarm of kids rushed onto the ice and quickly picked up all the orange foam pucks and put them into huge trash cans. This is what's happening in the picture below. Notice the car just right of center, heading off the rink...


The Prairie Thuder didn't win, but we sure had fun watching them play!

And, it turned out to be Faith Night at the game. Afterwards, some Christian bands, including Sevenglory and decemberradio. They opened up the ice for people to go out on, and Jeremy took all the kids out to slip and slide around for a few minutes. (I was so bummed my camera battery had completely died earlier, because they looked so sweet out there slipping around!) We tried to listen to some of the bands, but it was very hard to hear in such a big echo-y place. It was very late for the kids by this time too, so we headed home smiling.

G.I. Joe

When Jeremy was a kid, he had quite a G.I. Joe collection. A couple years ago, he discovered his collection in some large Rubbermaid containers in his parents' basement and brought them home. Now that Caeden is a little older, Jeremy will occasionally get them out so they can play together.



Even the girls are impressed with all the stuff!








Jeremy took very good care of his toys. It makes the kids feel very special when Daddy allows them to play with them--especially since he plays along.





If only Sylvia could keep her Barbies as organized...


Another little "treasure" found in the bins with the G.I. Joes...
a Commodore VIC 20 game--Radar Ratrace.

A trip to the Principal's Office!

After Sylvia had been home from school for a while today, she said, "Mommy! I had to go to Mr. Jones' office today, {insert panic here!} and I didn't even get in trouble!" {Whew!} Not that I would suspect Sylvia could get into enough trouble to be sent to the principal's office, but just hearing that kind of made my ears perk a bit!
It turned out that she had made a little book in class, and was doing so well with her reading, that her teacher sent her and her friend Isabella down to Mr. Jones' office to read to him! They also read to Miss Watterson in Student Services, and both she and Mr. Jones gave them stickers on their books. It's so nice to have a fun trip to the principal's office!

Annah's Birthday Portraits -- Session 2

Just after I blogged Annah's portraits last night, I discovered I had actually deleted ALL of the original, full-size files off my memory card. I stayed up half the night trying out various file recovery programs that found the photos on my memory card, but I am too cheap to pay for any of the software to recover the files full-size and without watermarks. So, as much as it hurt, I decided to let those photos go. I took Annah outside again this morning and took 186 more photos. I think they turned out even better.

HSM 3

Today was the day the kids have been awaiting for nearly a year...
We went to see High School Musical 3 in the theater!
When it was announced that it would open at the end of October, the kids asked if we could see it in the theater (We don't see movies in the theater very often.), and I told them we would go see it for Annah's birthday.
Gram and Aunt Erin took us and treated us, and I think they enjoyed the movie too--even having never seen the first two.
The kids and I loved it just as much as the first two, and all agreed that our favorite part was the junkyard dance/song about "The Boys Are Back."

Annah's Birthday Portraits

I took Annah's portraits today outside at my parents' place. She didn't find my goofy jokes funny enough to make her smile a lot, but she did look beautiful!



Sitting in her special secret place under the willow tree at Krampa's & Gram's