Let the Gluttony Begin!!

Thanksgiving 2011 was spent at Grandma Charlotte's

Always fun to be with loved ones

One Year with Dustin & Ayden

Nov 22 marked one year of having Dustin and Ayden with us! They have added many fun times and memories and we celebrated with a dinner out at City Slickers!

Upload

Ok - I finally figured out a new (at least to me) way to upload or link my YouTube videos to my blog...


Here's one I made for Derek earlier in the year for our 5 year wedding anniversary -- let's see if I can get this to work:


http://youtu.be/zFKNJjQF-24

11 in 2011

To celebrate Joseph's 11th birthday, Derek & I decided to "tough it out" by taking the boys to Chuck E. Cheese's -- it was fun, but oh the bells and whistles!!

Joseph's aunt and uncle (Peter & Araceli) came too and it was wonderful to see them - they are such wonderful people and have given Joseph so much love!

Here are the boys playing their various games!!!

...mmmmm cake time

...and to top off the afternoon, a Monster drink - a special birthday treat -- thank heavens, we were on our way to Joseph's football game where he got to run off all of the caffeine!!!

Who Wants to Go Next?

Having some family fun!!!

"Shoebox" Time

Here the boys are, putting together shoeboxes of goodies for Operation Christmas Child -- we're very curious in which country the boxes will end up!

A Boy & His Dog

Birthday time came early for Joseph!!!

Derek & I have been working on adopting another dog (yes, yes...we're massochists!!!) - but not only did we think it would be cool for Joseph, but we thought it might be good for Monkey too!! (poor guy has been fairly lonely since separated from Shasta)

So here's our new little Aussie girl - she's an Australian shepherd/Queensland Heeler mix and we adopted her from Marley's Mutts, a very cool local rescue

They were calling her Chase, but Joseph has renamed her "Angel" - and a little fiesty cherub she is!!! She's about 4-5 months old, all soft puppy fur and razor sharp puppy teeth!!!

She has a very good temperament so far and has got along very well with Monkey and all the kids...she's very curious, very playful, and a cuddler -- Monkey and she already wrestle up a storm but don't be fooled by her cuteness, she has already been biting on his tail and grabbing his cheeks to give as good as she gets :) Monkey has been very patient and wonderful...even letting her eat most of his food if we don't hold her back....

...and now on to house-training!!!

Pumpkin Time

Let the carving begin...

The end result!!!

Here's my contribution! The etching takes a lot of time, but so cool in the end :)

Dustin decided to make the creepy hand coming out of the ground...and he even painted a version of it on canvas the next day...really good job, I'll have to get a pic of that!!!

...and here's Joseph's, the ghost and tombstone.....bwahaaaaaaaaaa

the next day, Ayden carved his spooky face pumpkin...

... and some mummy dogs for dinner tonight!!!

Donkey Town 2011

We decided to go visit Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue for some Saturday fun...

Here's the Donkey Whisperer...aka the "Burro Man"

This is one of the donkey rescue's newcomers - a Kona "Nightingale" - some feral donkeys brought over from Kona/Waikoloa Hawaii -- cool, because I've been there!!!!

Derek's Competition

Derek better watch out!!!
...I've been proposed to by another guy....the other day, Ayden was giggling and offered me a ring he earned in his class for "Fun Friday" and wanted me to marry him
...it's all just so Freudian!!!