Our Family Thanksgiving Dinner.

For each holiday I like to have our own little family dinner, partly because I want the leftovers and partly because I like the kids to make memories of helping prepare for the dinner and then being able to enjoy it as a family. So this year with Troy's work schedule we did our Thanksgiving dinner on Monday since he is working nights the rest of this week. So here the kids are watching TV while we wait for the turkey to finish cooking.

My sister Karen was able to join us this year, since BYUI had a whole week off from school. Troy pulled the turkey out, we all our fingers crossed that it was done as we were all starving.

The turkey looked pretty good after we got it out. But now the carving had to be done.

Here the kids sat watching it get carved. And yes it was done. The turkey turned out great. Isaac just kept eating all night. All the food turned out good. And the leftovers have been great.

So all it all this year we had a great Thanksgiving dinner. We will spend Thursday at a dinner with Troy's father's side. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Canning finally finished!!!!

So a couple of weeks ago I finally finished canning for the season. I canned peaches, pears and raspberry jam. All of it turned out great, but it took a lot of effort and my feet were very tired by the time I was done. But I am glad to have it all in our food storage.

Troy and I have been working hard to acquire a food storage this year, he worked extra shifts to help pay for it all, and I spent many hours researching and printing coupons and shopping all the sales. So we now feel like we are fully stocked.

We didn't have much success this year hunting. So we butchered another half of a cow this month to add to our freezer. But we still have some of the deer and elk and small amount of the cow from last left. Its great when you can go to the store and not have to worry about puchasing meat. It can make the bill so much lower.

Baby #3

Well for those who have not heard we are expecting our 3rd child towards the end of April next year. Here is a photo of what HE/SHE ???? looked like last month. We will find out what we are having sometime in December. We are all really excited for the addition to the our family. Isaac understands it more than James, and he has already decided that we need to have a little girl. I guess one brother is enough competition for him.

Halloween Night!

Isaac our Hunter!

James as Superman.

Trunk Or Treating at the church.

Troy was in charge of handing out the candy. We had to hold on to James after a while since he didn't want to stop getting candy.

Aunt Karen with our Superman and Hunter.

Pumpkin Carving

We were a little slow getting the pumpkins carved this year. But Troy helped the kids get them done and they had a lot of fun doing it.

Our row of pumpkins.

Cheesy James showing off his pumpkin.

Even cheesier Isaac showing off his pumpkin.

Halloween Cake

For enrichment we had a cake decorating class, I took advantage and the night and made an Orange Cake with orange flavored frosting. I added the black frosting at the class. But I didn't use a lot of creativity with it....

Since as soon as I got home the kids were ready to eat the cake as fast as they could.

Family Home Evening Fire Night!

We took a night a little while ago and went to a local park and had a little fire with the kids.

James of course found the one and only puddle around. He ended up very wet.

James really wanted to help build the fire with his daddy.

James sitting take a break getting warm after we took his wet pants and boots off.

James and Isaac love to roast marshmellows. So they ate a ton that night.

Feeding the Cows!!

We got to help Grandpa Hanson clear out his corn stalks this fall and feed the cows with it. The kids thought it was great.

We tried hard to get the cows to come and eat out of our hands. But every time they would get close the kids would get to excited and start talking to loud.

Isaac and James had a lot of fun throwing all the stalks to the cows.

Fall BBQ

We did a BBQ the last night mom was in town. Karen was heading back to her apartment that night so we decided to have a fire and enjoy the evening after spending the 2 days getting Karen's apartment ready for her.

Troy our master BBQ'er.

Troy and Karen enjoying the fire.

James our forever dirty little boy enjoying the playing outside with our fire.

Isaac's BMX Bike Racing

Isaac was so excited to finally get to race his bike with his cousins. He got to race his first time in September while his Grandma Jasper and Aunt Karen were visiting.

Isaac in his final stretch of the track. He had 3 heats to do, which they broke up so that they wouldn't get to tired.

Our proud FIRST place winner. He was so excited to win. He was able to get one more race in before the season was over and he had some bike troubles and ended up with the 3rd place trophy. So next year he has some high expectations. But with a little practice we think he will do great.