REMINDER

Silent Auction starts tomorrow Dec. 1-5. My two entries are listed below and there are a lot more on Sally's site. There are already some listings on her site and she's adding more tonight so go see what's there!

Remember, this is to benefit a family who has just lost their Husband and Father to cancer. This is a great chance to help a family.

Silent Auction-Scrapbook

Here is my other auction item. This is an 8x8 inch scrapbook. There are nine 2-page layouts and two 1-page layouts. The cover is chocolate brown with hot pink highlights and detail stitching. I've used paper designed by AMY BUTLER for all of the pages. To see all pages click HERE.

Silent Auction-Handmade Cards

Two of each design, all say Thank You. Includes white envelopes.

The inside of the card has a white piece of paper mounted on it to write your message.

They will come in a handy case that is very suitable for giving as a gift.

This silent auction is to raise money for a family at our church. They just recently lost their beloved Father/Husband to cancer. There are seven children in the family. To see complete list of auction items, please visit Sally's blog. The silent auction will run December 1-3.

I Shouldn't Have Even Thought It!

While cleaning and packing before our Thanksgiving trip I just thought to myself, "I'm sure glad no one is sick right now for Thanksgiving". It seems like the stomach bug hits us a lot around this time of year. Well, after school today I was outside enjoying the beautiful day (Temp-71)with Jonah and Bekah comes out looking pale, "I just threw up". Better pack a bucket!

Coming Soon-Silent Auction

In our church here, there is a special family that I barely know since we are so new to the area. They have seven kids and just lost their beloved Husband and Father to cancer. You can read their story on their blog. I have been so touched by this story and all the efforts here to help this wonderful family through this difficult time. There will be a silent auction to help them out. This will be December 1-3, and all the items will be listed on Sally's blog. I will have two items to be auctioned and they will be listed here on my blog starting Saturday. Please spread the word and come check out all the cool stuff being auctioned off!

Jonah's Drawings

Jonah has been interested in skeletons and what is inside the body. We have a book that shows what's inside our bodies and he has been drawing skeletons ever since. The bottom one is about the first one he did. The blue one is more advanced showing the person doing the x-ray. I think they are really impressive for a 5 year old kid! But maybe that's just because I'm his Mom!

A Funny

This morning. Sam eating applesause at the counter. Me making a salad for later. Sam looks up from his applesauce and asks me,

"Can I crash my trains in this?"

Me: "In your applesauce?"

Sam: "Yah"

Me pretending to think hard: "Um, No, but thanks for asking!"

Grandpa Paul

My Grandpa (Grandpa Paul as Sophie calls him) passed away in October this year. He was 98. He was ready to go and it was much more of a celebration than a funeral. My Grandma passed away about 10 years ago and he really missed her. This is my dad's dad and the only grandparents I knew growing up since my mom's mom died way before I was born and her dad died when I was 6 months old. I do have a step grandma who we were close to as well, but my dad's parents lived in the same town and we were with them a lot. Here are a few memories I have of my Grandparents, Paul and Alice;

• We would go over to their house for sleepovers and play in the basement. My Grandpa had set up a play store for us with a cash register and empty cereal boxes and cans so we could "shop" in the basement. He made forts and a stage for us to play on. I remember dressing up and putting on my Grandma's old jewelry for a fashion show. He was forever changing things around in the basement so we would always be excited to see how it would be the next time we visited.
• My Grandpa would pretend to be a cab driver when we went somewhere and we would all sit in the back (including Grandma) and tell "James" where we would like to go.
• Both of my grandparents are of Swedish decent and spoke Swedish in their homes. So when they didn't want us to know what they were saying, they spoke Swedish. My Grandma spoke Swedish better than my Grandpa and sometimes had to help him on certain words.
• They took us to the zoo quite a lot. The best part was riding the train and when we went throught the tunnel, my Grandma would scream like a little kid!
• We were always excited to see their big yellow car come up our street, it meant fun was on the way!
  

Pics of the Patch

Evan (my brother), Stephanie and Sophie choosing a pumpkin.

Sam and Grandma, sorry about the messy face!

On the hay bale, the boy's favorite part!

Sophie and Sam playing in the bus. Sam is one year older than Sophie and they didn't always get along, in fact they fought quite a bit over the weekend. But they love each other and had a lot of fun at the patch together.

This was our fall break from school and we had planned to go home to visit family. We didn't expect that my Grandpa would die that week and we would be there for a funeral. The great thing was that we got to see my brother and his family and have a good time at the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, playing games and just hanging out together. I'm sure my Grandpa was happy for that!

Carving Pumpkins

Here are the boys carving pumkins at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They got the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch the day before. Sam just had fun drawing on his, by the time I carved it he was long gone!

Here is Jonah's creation. He did actually carve his (or tried his best!). The paper clip necklace was made by Bekah and Jonah was very attached to it all weekend long. Bekah made one for everyone.

I Voted Today!

Well, Friday actually. I voted by absentee ballot and it was great! I've never done that before, but decided to this time since last time I voted for the presidential election I had to stand in line with a squirmy Jonah (that feels like soooo long ago!). I didn't want to repeat that with Sam and I think the lines may be long. It feels so good to have had it out of the way! The only thing I didn't like about voting this way is that I don't get a sticker!

At the Zoo

We went to the zoo on Saturday, we had beautiful weather this weekend!

On the train, Sam's favorite thing!

On the carousel. Jonah chose the giraffe, even though it doesn't go up and down.

Here is Sam on the zebra, he loved it. He hasn't wanted to go on a carousel, he seemed afraid of them before now. He had fun this time though!

Here is the entrance to the zoo, still decorated for Halloween. Jonah loved going through the Giant Pumpkin!

We went through the rainforest at the zoo and inside they had a "hut" with benches and a table inside of it. I went in with Jonah and asked him if he thought he would like to live in a "hut" like this. He said he wouldn't because it was a pizza "hut". "It's a pizza hut?", I said. And he said yeah, "there's a table for the pizza!". I guess his only association with the word "hut" is from Pizza Hut!

Halloween '08

All ready to go out Trick 0r Treating. Our neighborhood was FULL of kids out having fun, it was great. I stayed home and handed out candy on our front porch, it was really beautiful weather! Our church had a Trunk of Treating/haunted house/carnival activities event on Wednesday and they had fun at that too! Oh yeah, Bekah is Cleopatra if you couldn't tell and Alan is Gandolf from The Lord of the Rings. I think Sam and Jonah are pretty much obvious!

Look at those muscles! Jonah was kind of hidden in the other picture so I thought I'd add this one too.