Monday
Monday for family night they brought out the Christmas tree and decorated it!  It was a nice evening activity for everyone.  They got to see the old family decorations and put them on as they liked.  Alice and Robert have some special decorations that are just theirs and Bobby has some from when he was little.  It makes a very pretty tree.

 

Alice thought the tree looked too bare at the bottom so she immediately got something to give to Robert and wrapped it and put it under the tree.  So Robert also found something to wrap and put there.  Now there are several presents already.

Sunday
Sunday was a good day too with nice weather.  We went at 9 and all the children were happily, quietly occupied during the whole sacrament meeting.  It was a nice day.  In the evening Susan took Matthew and me to an Advent evening at a friend's house.  It was really nice with singing and scripture reading and refreshments.  Alice went too to sing and see her friends.  

 Saturday
Saturday was a mild and pleasant day outside so the family decided that it was a good day to do some yard work.  Susan mulched the leaves front and back and Bobby cleaned out the rain barrel and the kids raked the leaves off the patio.  Susan got her chicken waterer working well with some heat tape wrapped around the outside so that when the weather is freezing the chickens will still have clean water.  She was having to fill the water jar every day and the chickens still got it dirty.  Now it will be self sustaining, pretty much.

 

Then their neighbor in the back came over with her grandson that is James' age and visited a little.  She is a good friend.

Then in the evening Alice and Robert decided it would be a good idea to make colorful lanterns to hang for the holidays.  They did a great job creating different kinds and colors.  Alice figured out a way to hang them.

Friday was a peaceful day.  We had breakfast and then they all went to the library to take back books and get some new ones.  They came home happy with a bunch of new books to read and enjoy.  Matthew and Erin and I stayed home.  Alice immediately began to read some books to Erin and James wanted to be read to too.  He loves to hear stories and read books.

After quiet time we did some mending and had a nice dinner of leftovers but with the addition of sweet potatoes and newly made rolls.  Mmm.  I think I ate too many, but they were wonderful.  It was all wonderful again.  Then we watched some movies they chose at the library.  Alice had chosen Fractured Fairy Tales and finally after the kids went to bed we adults watched Divergent.  An interesting movie. 

Tomorrow Erin leaves for home.  What a difference that will make!  She has been such a light and happy influence on the kids.  They will miss her so much.  We all will.   

We had such a nice Thanksgiving Day!  It started with the Turkey Trot, a local race put on by the park department, I think.  Alice and Robert wanted to run.  Bobby and Susan, Alice, Robert, James, and Erin went to the park where it was being held.  Matthew and I stayed home in the warm house.  It was a very cold day.  They all came home later with ribbons and rosy cheeks.  Bobby ran with the kids and carried Robert part of the way. 

We put the turkey in the oven and everyone had some quiet time.  Pretty soon the turkey was ready to come out and we had to get the rest of the dinner put together.  It was a delicious meal!  It's true that the brining made the turkey tender and delicious!  Even the white meat was great.  The pies were as good as always, and the pumpkin with the coconut milk was even good.  Susan says not quite as good a texture, but definitely better than no pie at all.

The race mascots were fascinating to James but he didn't want to get too close. 

  When they got home form the Turkey Trot Erin had one more surprise for the kids.  She had had sent a chocolate cookie house to build.  It came with everything to complete it except the bottom frame was broken!!  She fixed it with some icing and they went on to create a masterpiece. 

And right after dinner they dismantled it and ate every single piece of candy off of it.  It was left a broken shell, but made three happy children. 

Between dinner and dessert Erin and Alice and Robert presented a program of the first Thanksgiving. 

Massasoit gave a big speech and then they lived happily ever after. 

Then they showed the movie Enchanted.  We all enjoyed it.  It was a fun show.

During dinner I mentioned that my dad was in jail for allegedly burning some houses in Arkansas and Susan and Erin tried to look up any records of that trial.  The attorney for the defense was Percy Foreman who also later defended some pretty hard core people.  But they didn't find anything mentioning my dad. 

The last activity before bedtime was a car race down tubes!  A fun evening!  And Matthew got to sleep through it all.  What a sweet little baby.

Wednesday was a fun day.  Erin took Alice and James and me out for their special treat.  We went to McDonald's and had the classic chicken nuggets and all the trimmings.


The kids got a toy each.  After lunch I dropped Alice and Erin off at the Day Spa for Alice to have a manicure.  She loved the sweet smelling lotions and the attention and the bright sparkly nail polish.  When Erin called Susan went to get them and Alice was very happy.

Alice has been reading Shel Silverstein's book of poems, A Light in the Attic to Erin.  She is trying to reach a new record,  Here they are taking a break to watch James washing dishes. 

After quiet time Erin brought out some whistling lips so that everyone could have some.  Four different colors!  Here is Alice with her whistling lips and her McDonald's toy.

Behind Alice is an art project of Robert's.  He made a picture of Noah's ark and then he had to make the water under it.  He painted four sheets but they weren't deep enough so he had to paint four more.  It's a very deep ocean.

For dinner Susan ordered Mediterranean food and Bobby brought it home.  It was delicious!  After dinner Erin gave the kids some candy watches and bracelets.  Erin tasted one and said they weren't nearly as good as she remembers.  Maybe they changed the candy and maybe she just remembers them differently.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  While Erin and Alice were having fun at the spa Susan and I were defrostng the turkey and making pies for tomorrow.  We made a chocolate pie with a macaroon crust, a lemon pie with the key lime recipe, and a pumpkin pie with coconut milk instead of canned milk since Susan can't use milk products while she is nursing.  She won't be able to eat the chocolate or the lemon but she can have some pumpkin.  We also brined the turkey since her favorite cook book says it makes it more moist and tender.  We will see what it does.

Tuesday, we had a wonderful gift.  All yesterday and the night before Matthew was really fussy and didn't want to sleep more than about an hour at a time.  Susan was exhausted and I had helped hold hm in the night so she could get some sleep so we both were tired and of course Matthew was too.  Well last night he slept 6 hours!!  We were all very grateful and felt much better except that Susan was uncomfortable because she was too full.  .  

Alice went to school and Robert and James stayed home.  Erin got up early and planned to take Robert out to lunch at McDonald's where they have free video games to play.  We were really happy that she hadn't had any recurrence of her kidney stone problem.

Robert spent the morning making snowflakes from the paper his mom folded.   Robert explaining how he made this awesome snowflake.

 At lunch time Susan took Robert and Erin to McDonald's and left them to eat and play.  He came home happy with all the things that he got to eat and to do.  And then took a rest.

When Alice got home Robert and Alice waited till Erin was ready to come out and show them some new presents.  She brought out some pirate finger puppets and some beautiful slap bracelets!  They loved them.

Then Alice and Erin played some duets on the piano!  Susan and I loved listening to our two children playing together.

 I liked seeing Alice's ankles crossed the whole time.  They had to keep switching places because sometimes they each had to play low and sometimes high, but the ankles were always crossed.  

I love all these beautiful smiles.  The one from James is very rare!  A great Robert smile and then he wanted to show how big he can open his mouth!

While the girls were playing the piano and Susan and James were swinging, Robert was playing with the pirate finger puppets.

While we were getting dinner ready we also filled the oatmeal box out of the big supply bin.  James needed to test it to see if it was good. 

In the evening Susan had a Relief Society meeting and took Matthew with her.  He came home fully awake.  And Susan was not well from a breast infection.  When Matthew went 6 hours without eating and gave us the sleep it caused Susan to become engorged and not do well.  Hopefully she will do better tomorrow.  It's never good when Mom gets sick! 

 

Monday Alice and Robert went to school.  James stayed home and got better acquainted with Aunt Erin.  He saw how much fun the other kids were having with her so she must be an okay person.  He let her read him some stories.

Matthew thought she was pretty cool too. 

The worst part of the day was that Erin got a kidney stone attack and had to take a break during the afternoon.  But everyone was really happy when she came out feeling better later and was willing to play some games.  Sunday evening they had played lots of games with her and had a wonderful time.  This evening they continued playing war with cards.  Then for family home evening activity they had a burping contest!  Bobby bought some soda to help them make really big burps.  Erin won loudest, Robert won most interesting since he could talk while burping, and Alice won most ladylike.  James won best fake burping.  He even pretended to burp Erin's name! 

James and Matthew had fun with Mom and Dad.  James got to touch the ceiling.

 

 And Matthew got to spend time with Mom.

Erin wanted to film the kids doing their special tricks.  They did all kinds of acrobatics and then enjoyed watching themselves on Erin's camera. 

Sunday when we got back from stake conference Aunt Erin was awake and ready to play.  She had sent two big boxes of surprises for the kids and now they were ready to see them opened!!  Erin opened the first one and took out some Hex Bugs!  They are little mechanical bugs that skitter across the floor on six legs!  The last time the kids saw Hex Bugs they were about a year younger and they were terrified of them.  This time they thought they were pretty cool and played with them all afternoon and into the evening.  You can tell how happy Alice is to see her Aunt Erin!  .

After the Hex Bugs were getting tired and wearing down Aunt Erin brought out some Fizzy Soda Candy.  Each child got two little containers of candy that fizzed in their mouths as they ate it.  Alice's was called Sprint and Robert's was Loca Cola and James' was Orange Crash.  The grape flavor was called Swish.  They fizzed because there was bicarbonate of soda in it and it didn't taste very good but it was fun.