Grandpa & Grandma

My parents came over for a day last weekend to spend with the kids. Not everyone knows my family situation, but in a nutshell, my parents have custody of 3 of the grandkids. That makes it hard for them to be available as "just" grandpa & grandma. The opportunity arouse for them to come over and spend time with just our kids. Grandma spent a good portion of the day baking with the kids (remember all that zuchinni I shredded....it's all gone out of my freezer). The kids loved the one on one time. Jim & I slipped out of the house for a bit on a "date". We came home & found them all playing games. My dad is so not a game person, but there he sat entertaining the kids with marbles. It meant so much to me to see them spend the day & their time with my kids.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great & wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We had more than one get together/celebration spread out over the week.

It started the week before when we went home to Muscatine to celebrate with the rest of the Luna clan. Not everyone was there, but a good portion of us was. My brother in law deep fried the turkey....mmmmmmmm! After we stuffed ourselves with good food we got a good game of Phase 10 rolling. We had fun sitting around and being Luna's. It was a very nice visit home.

The evening before Thanksgiving we had our friends the Baileys and Lujans over to play games. The kids played around the house while the adults sat around the dining room table. In addition to some good game playing we had plenty of yummy food to snack on. We had so many good laughs and a great time enjoying each other's company. We are so blessed with friends!

On Thanksgiving day we went over to another friend's house, the Potter's. We joined them with some of their family and another set of friends the Aplands. We did not have the traditional food fare of turkey. That doesn't mean there was any lacking of good food though. We stuffed ourselves plenty and enjoyed a more relaxed day. Again, the kids were off and about playing while the adults sat around the living room by the fire. It was a great day.

Thanksgiving Turkey

John was in a little class play at school. He had the leading role & did a wonderful job. Part of his role included dressing up as the thanksgiving turkey. His costume was cute, but I found this even better. He had to carry it to show during the play (while dresssed in the turkey costume). We got to keep the poster too!

Mom, look....I'm a pirate

I've got the cutest picture of Andrew. I've gone back & forth between posting it or not. So I'll just describe it to you.

To set up the scene I hear Andrew playing in my room. He's jumping on my bed and yelling "aaaaargh, I'm a pirate". So I go to look and there he is buck naked standing on my headboard. I ask him....what are you doing? That when he says "mom, look....I'm a pirate" and he jumps down in all his naked glory. Normally I don't condone jumping on my bed, especially from the headboard. But I told him to do it again while I ran to get my camera to snap a shot. So maybe I'm not gonna post it on the internet for all to see (this is a public blog afterall) but I'm sure it might surface when it comes time for his highschool graduation or his future wife to see. : )

Kuk Sool Won karate tournament

Brianna & John participated in an intraschool karate tournament. They both did very well and placed in each of their events of Korean wrestling and sparing. My kids can really kick some butt!

14 years

Today is our anniversary. We didn't know it at the time, but we picked the worst time of the year for this special occasion. We just had Andrew's birthday, then thanksgiving, Carmen's birthday is right on our heels with christmas a week later, then another 3 weeks is Brianna's birthday, then John's as well. Not to mention that with Jim's job there is no mercy to this time of the year. So amongst all of that our anniversary always takes a back seat. It's ok though I'm used to it. I'd woo and wow you with one of my infamous slideshows, but honestly I'm not up to all of that work and I don't have an hour to spend doing it. So I'll leave you with this wonderful present that Mandy gave us. It came with a german chocolate cake. She devised this plan all by herself, then recruited one of my friends who also has a daughter that is Mandy's friend, to help out. And now without further ado......

Annaversary Song (there is no editing on my part)

Chours:
They're my special folks
They gave me life----
Now these 2 special people
are celebrating they're marriage

Verse 1:
You thought you were the only
people around when you met
didn't see didn't hear anything
around It was just you two

Repeat Chours

Verse 2:
ou're getting married you
say those special words "I do"
Your on honeymoon----You're loving
it.

Repeat Chours

Verse 3:
It's been 14 years You have 6
kids you're extraordiary people

Repeat Chours 2

Oops, I did it again!

I've gone M.I.A! I've been beyond busy. Seriously I have another 10 posts or so to enter. I didn't even stop to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I am very grateful for each and every one of you! God put you into my/our life for one reason or another and I'm glad He did!

It's probably be another few days before I can really sit here and get it all out. Right now I've an hour before the kids get out of school and I need to finish up some cleaning & organizing.....oh and have I mentioned that I've been up since 4:30 a.m.!!!! I can't sit here now, I need to go. I'll be back soon!

*hugs*