Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! So peaceful, calm and enjoyable! And I owe it all to my GREAT hubby who basically cooked EVERYTHING! He is very organized and likes to cook... so this year I had asked for his help in telling me when I should start each item, he instead took upon the ENTIRE Thanksgiving dinner and prepared it without any chaos or stress. He had a plan the night before and everything was done at the right time and it was delightful.

I actually got to visit with people and take care of kiddos without stressing over the what was happening in the kitchen. Mike had it all under control and I am eternally grateful! :o)

We had on the menu:
Turkey w/Stuffing
Ham
Mashed Potatoes w/Gravy
my mom's "24 hour salad"
Home-made cranberry sauce
Canned cranberry sauce
Corn
Cheesy Green Bean w/Bacon Casserole
Sweet potato side dish w/mandarin oranges (from Uncle Stan)
my mom's CandiedYams
Rolls w/Jam

And for dessert:
Caramel Apple Nut Pie w/Cinnamon Swirl Ice Cream
Pumpkin Pie w/Cool Whip or French Vanilla Ice Cream
Fruits of the Forest Pie w/Strawberry Cool Whip or French Vanilla Ice Cream
Chocolate Pudding/Whip Cream Pie

YUMMY!

Forgot to tell you about my best shopping trip so far...

On the 14th of this month I went out to do my normal shopping, I spent $117.79 and saved $199.11! I got a FREE 18lb. turkey too!!! Woohoo! I will tally up this month after the 30th. I have at least 1 more shopping trip, probably 2, to go.

Here's a breakdown of my receipt:
Total paid: $117.79
Bonus Buy Savings $14.24
Preferred Savings $120.52
Mfg. Coupon Savings $22.60
Store Coupon Savings $41.75
Total Savings $199.11
Total Number of Items Sold - 122

~Alicia :o)

Baby names...

We haven't completely decided on names yet. We have some in the running and you can vote on them here: Baby Taylor 2005 Home Page. The girl names are still really iffy... Mike and I can't really agree on any, the 3 on the poll are just ones that haven't been shot down. We may end up going with something totally different for a girl, but the boys names are pretty well between the two mentioned.

We gave in...

Ok, so we gave in and bought a Crib Tent. Joshua just was not understanding that he had to stay in the crib... he was not getting enough sleep, not taking his naps AND he was waking up everyone too early. Everyone was miserable, including himself... so Mike went this morning and bought the tent. A little pricey, but I will now have peace of mind.

He was climbing up Jordan's ladder to the top bunk in the middle of the night (to bonk Jordan on the head so that he would wake up & play), he was getting into the bathroom (in the dark) and closing the door (locking himself in) and then climbing into the sink.

No more of that. And now, after just a few minutes of crying (once he realized he could NOT climb out anymore), he fell asleep and is quietly taking a nice nap!! Whew.

Since all is quiet with the little one, Jordan & Kaitlyn and I are going to go work on the basement for a while.

More later!

~Alicia

New tickers... just for fun...

It finally happened...

Joshua can now climb out of his crib. I thought for sure it would have happened sooner as he is such a great climber, but nope (thankfully). So we have now begun a new chapter in our lives... trying to get him to stay in bed when it is time to sleep. ;o)

~Alicia

The Incredibles

My son Jordan was browsing through the newspaper the other day when he came across a big ad for "The Indcredibles", here is his comment on the picture:

"Wow Mom... this guy can eat so much that his stomach is HUGE and yet he can STILL fly! I guess that is why they call him Incredible."

LOL! It's not incredible that he can FLY... but that he can fly with a HUGE tummy! ;o)

Curriculum for 2nd grade chosen!

Finally, after reviewing about 28 different complete curriculums we have decided to go with Lifepac by Alpha Omega. It is a package deal, which will be nice this year as we add baby #4 to our family. We will also be doing Spanish from PowerGlide. I prefer to make my own curriculum, but since I will be making Katie & Joshua's curriculum this year - I can plan away with theirs when/if I have time and Jordan's work won't suffer if I'm behind. ;o)

So we start 2nd grade/Kindergarten and Preschool in January... I think we will begin on the 4th as I think Mike's new days off in 2005 will be Sundays & Mondays. So our school week will be Tuesday-Saturday.

Off to get the next child into the bath.

~Alicia

Third Trimester!!!

Can you believe it? I'm 2 days shy of entering into the 3rd Trimester! I'm 7 months along now. Baby is doing great and kicking me on a regular basis. :o)

Only 20 days until Thanksgiving... and I still have no clue as to what exactly we are doing. Yikes!

1st grade & preschool here at our Meir Academy Homeschool officially ends November 17th, but we are in the home stretch and have slacked off a bit... still going, just not as strong. ;o) This month we will focus on Thanksgiving, what that means (the holiday and just being thankful). We will read a verse a day that has something to do with being thankful, also a book either on Thanksgiving or being thankful (daily). Today we will make a "Thankful Wreath", which we will add a paper leaf onto daily that says what we are each thankful for. We have some coloring pages, a mini-book the kids can put together that focuses on the letters of THANKSGIVING, a "Give Thanks" door hanging cross craft, and some other craft stuff that I still have to put together and figure out.

I have a few unit studies too, but many of them seem a bit much... so if I have time I may use their ideas to make up my own little Thanksgiving study for this month.

As for today, what I'm thankful for... 4 more years with President Bush!!!! :o)

Off to get dinner ready for the family, G'pa & G'ma are coming over too! Woohoo!

~Alicia