Give Thanks to the Lord!

Sulli is waiting for us to finish carving the big bird and join her at the table. Everyone is starving!


Zane surprised us all when he came down to dinner in this fancy suit!


Poor Levi woke up with a cold today and felt yucky for dinner. :(






We have SO much to be thankful for! Most of all, we are thankful for Jesus and our salvation through Him. Then, we are so grateful for our precious family (we miss all of you who could not be here for Thanksgiving, especially if we won't see you this Christmas!) and amazing friends. We love you all!

Thanksgiving Day

Sullivan is the only child of ours in these pictures because I hardly saw the boys until dinner! They were having so much fun playing all day while Sulli was keeping us company in the kitchen.

These are for my friends...

... who always say, "I can't believe you're always so put together with high heels every time you have people over for dinner!" and I'm always thinking, "You should have been here 10 minutes ago." :)

Family Time

It has been so fun to have this Thanksgiving week off to spend with Mom and Dad! Aside from lots of cooking, I haven't done much work around the house, and we've done a lot of nothing, which has been wonderful. Here are a few random shots.

18 MONTHS!!!

Here's our girl getting bigger... and braver! Sullivan actually stands and lets go of furniture now. She's still not walking on her own yet. This is just fine with Will and me, as we want to keep our last baby a baby as long as we can. :)

"Nogstache"

The kids LOVE eggnog. We got some the other night, as is our tradition when we decorate the Christmas tree. We had a little left over, so they enjoyed a bit after lunch today. Zane was the only one with a clean mouth!

Green Belt!

Zane in action! Unfortunately, this was the best shot I got; it was hard holding Sullivan and taking pictures while Will was taking video.




Zane's biggest fans!




Zane is defending himself from those mean instructors! And he is sparring with a classmate.



After the testing, we all watched each child receive their next belt: green for Zane! He is so excited because now he gets to start training with weapons! (yikes)

Number 1

At the end of the night, when Zane received his green belt, his instructor put this "1" sticker on him and told Zane that, out of all the green belts testing that night, he did the best. That was pretty cool.

"Ways to Help Parents"

Zane wrote this paragraph the other day in school. The assignment was to write a 3-point expository paragraph about anything, and this is what he chose. It cracks me up! What's funny is that he has many daily chores, including taking the trash out, feeding his dog, making his bed, setting and clearing the table at breakfast, and vacuuming. He rarely dusts or "rakes the poop," but he obviously thinks these are important tasks! So cute!

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

Will turned 38 on November 13th! We celebrated a few days later after he returned from the men's retreat for our church. The kids and I had so much fun getting ready for the big party. Zane made this crown for our "king for a day," and I made him one of his favorite all-time meals: Filet of Beef au Poivre, steamed artichokes with lemon mayonnaise and baked potatoes. We had such a wonderful evening celebrating the best husband/daddy in the world!!!


The boys LOVED this card we found that plays "Wipeout" when you open it. :)





Big Daddy got lavished with lots of love on his special day. Each of the boys made a wonderful birthday card; I couldn't help but smile as Levi dictated to me what to write on his... too cute!


Will requested that I bake this cake that made the cover of the most recent Bon Appetit Restaurant Issue: Chocolate Cake With Fleur De Sel Caramel Filling from the Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. Its layers consist of the most delicious cake topped with bittersweet chocolate ganache, decadent caramel with sea salt and toasted almonds... four times! This is a little piece of heaven and definitely a recipe I will keep and make again and again. Though I would consider this to be a dark chocolate adult cake, the kids absolutely loved it, especially my little gourmets: Levi and Titus. As for the birthday boy, he said this very well may be his new favorite.

Eleven Nuts at the Farm

This weekend we all met the Alix family at Bates Nut Farm for their "Christmas on the Farm" event. It was mostly a huge arts and crafts display (which none of us really like at all), but we thought it would be fun to have an excuse to meet, let the kids play and see the animals, and browse the huge candy and nut store. The kids had the most fun in a tiny wooden house they found. We adults, as always, enjoyed catching up, talking about homeschooling, and encouraging each other in these crazy times. God is so gracious in giving us such wonderful like-minded friends who always refresh and uplift us.