Thanksgiving Part 2

So we had our dinner...and oh my gosh, I am a great cook. I think I should write a cookbook. Every year I try a few new things, but I also have my staples that don't ever change. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, butternut squash, rolls, cranberries and gravy. Out of all that food the only thing I don't make from scratch is the gravy.

My cookbook picture

The Table and the Cook

Marshall and his Whitey leg

Caymus and his Whitey wing

Ned and Norma

Happy Thanksgiving

Here we are, cooking away. Turkey went in the oven at 9am....its name this year is Whitey....

Here are a few pictures of our day so far....Lucy took most of these.

Puerto Rican Cooking

Yesterday, Norma and I, (Marshall's Mom) made a Puerto Rican feast. We made Alcapurrias and Pastellios. The Alcapurrias are ground up green bananas and root vegetables with meat stuffing, fried in Olive oil. And the Pastellios are like a turn over, thin dough with meat or cheese in side, then fried in Olive Oil. So good. We made a ton and froze a bunch.

This has been a great bonding time for Norma and I, her sharing what she learned as a little girl living in Puerto Rico. It brought back memories of her mom and grandmother for her. This is a tradition that I want to carry on with my children, for them to remember the smells and togetherness of cooking with their grandmother and mother. And for them to learn how to cook great Puerto Rican food.

Thank you Norma for a great day!

Wrestling...Pictures!

OK enough about wrestling right? I know, but we are a wrestling family, that's what we do. We had practice last night and we got some pictures of all of us in action. Marshall and I were not planning on coaching this year, we just wanted to be parents....yeah right. So here we are, coaching. This time with no real responsibility of running the program. Thank goodness! So far the kids are doing great, they love it. Caymus has found kids his size to work with, this is a down side to being the youngest. And Lucy has a few girls to work with, they support woman's wrestling here at Cascade! Finally.

Nothing like being the center of attention! Thats me in the Red incase you cold not tell!

Chickens

On Saturday we added to our farm....we got chickens! (I know we are hardly a farm...but really we have lived in the city for the last 10 years so this feels like a farm!) We got 8 chicks, they are about 7 weeks old now. They are so cute and fun. They kids love them and in about 5 more months we should have eggs!

And here is an updated picture of our piggy! He is the big white and black one looking up a the camera! So messy and gross. Hope he tastes good!

Tree Farm Field Trip

Today Lucy's class went on a field trip to a Christmas tree farm. We are not talking little 2000 tree farm, (like ours) we are talking 250,000 tree farm.....oh my gosh! So cool. It was pouring down rain the entire time (it is November in Oregon after all), but we ended up being inside the work shop most of the time.

They showed us how they measure and mark the trees, how they shake them, bale them, stack and load onto trucks to be shipped all over. The farthest they go is to Guatemala! We then got to go out in the piles of cut trees and put little tags that the kids made on the trees. The tags have a little note saying that they were made by a kindergartner at *blank* school. And asking if the person who got the tree could send a note and or a picture of the tree. What a cool idea!

We also saw how they shear the trees, flock them and how they make wreaths. Then we all got hot chocolate and a candy cane. This was a super fun field trip and I can't wait to go next year!

Shaking the tree

Wrapping the tree in the bailer

So wet!The class

Wrestling

Today was our first wrestling practice of the year. Both Lucy and Caymus are doing it this year. They are so awesome! I think Caymus is the youngest on the team and Lucy is one of 2 girls. There were 45 kids there tonight. We will have practice Mondays and Wednesday for the next several months.
Our kids have been in the wrestling room and around wrestling since they were both babies, we never wanted to force wrestling on them and this year they both decided on their own that they wanted to wrestle.
Marshall and I are not coaching, just helping parents....we just cant help ourselves. This is a very well run program geared towards the little kids, it looks like it will be a perfect fit for us.

Last Game of the Season

Yesterday was the last home game of the season for the Ducks. It was a beautiful fall day. Cold and crisp, but clear. We made it to Eugene a few hours early and walked over to the Moshofsky center, loaded up on food and beer. Marshall is part of the Order of the O, (the association for athletic letter winners). They have a section of the hall partitioned off and have sandwiches, cookies and beer tickets. We filled up and headed out to the game. It was a great game against Arizona; we won 55-45.

Tree farm fun

Well as you may know, we now live on a tree farm. We have about 2000 trees on a little over 2 acres. We went out to take our Christmas card photo today (no you don't get a preview!). After taking our family pictures, the kids and I went out in the trees to take some more pictures and ended up playing a little game of chase mama through the trees. So much fun, ducking and weaving through them, all of us screaming and laughing. It is so fun to just act like a kid! We had a blast and got some cute pics out of it too.
Who knew Christmas trees could be so much fun!

Look what came in the mail

I opened my front door this morning to let the dog out and there were these strange round things sitting on my front stoop. They are coconuts! From Hawaii! My parents are there on vacation right now and sent the kids Cocograms! So cool.

Wet Ducks

Aw to be a sports fan, you do just about anything to enjoy the excitement of watching your favorite team play. We were not alone in that joy yesterday, there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 other die hard duck fans watching as the Ducks won the game against Stanford. We all had on our best rain gear. Some have better rain gear than others, some go all out in full water proof rain gear. Others are more in to the fashion side of it and were just in jeans and sweatshirts. But you know what I don't judge, that may have been the best water proof clothing they had......

It was a wet one, I would say one of the best rain storms of the season so far. We were completely soaked by the time we walked from our car to the game, so sitting on wet bleacher really made no difference. We stayed out in the pouring down rain until halftime, then we followed the rest of the heard to the Mo Center, the teams indoor practice field that they make into an HUGE indoor beer garden and food court for the games. It has live music and TVs all around the room. We watched the Duck dance team perform, Caymus made friends and played some ball, we tried to dry out but that was not happening, so we ended up heading back to our car at the end of the 3rd QTR. It was an experience for sure. I think we all had fun though.

Just A Little Wet!

Oh my gosh, he can walk on water!

Piggy

We got a pig......well actually our friends have 5 pigs and one of them is ours. They are raising it for us and then we will, well you know....

We helped them build a pig pen a few months ago and they just got the little piggies about 2 weeks ago. They grow so fast and are super messy. They will be ready for butcher in January. They will be about 250-300 lbs by then! Crazy! All they do is eat, eat and eat. Pumpkins are a favorite and since Halloween is over the grocery stores have loads left over so our friends got loaded up with them and are feeding them to the pigs. Aw what fun.

My Office!

My office is finally complete! I hung stuff on the walls last night and took some pictures. It turned out so good. And we did it all ourselves.

I think we learned a lot during this project, insulation, drywall, mudding, texture, painting, putting up trim and base boards, laying carpet.....It was fun and now we can really be proud of what we have done.

Technically its my office....but I am so kind to let Marshall have his desk and stuff in it. No, it is really our office I just take up more space than he does. We did manage to fit both our desks, a bookshelf, file cabinet, organizer and my sewing table all in this small space.

I painted the walls blue because I have heard that the color blue is supposed to stimulate your mind and helps you think more clearly.....we will see if that is true or not. Any way I do like the color blue.

Locks of Love

I am writing this entry with great pride in my loving and giving daughter. She has faithfully been growing her beautiful red hair out for 2 years, 3 months, and 5 days. All for this reason. She is donating her hair to Locks of Love. A non-profit organization that makes wigs for children who need them. http://www.locksoflove.org/

This was her idea and we have supported her throughout. She set her goal as to where she was wanting to grow it out to and she made it there a few weeks ago. She then decided that sinse she was going to be Ariel the little mermaid for Halloween, she would wait until after Halloween to cut it. Well Sunday morning, when it came time to brush out her hair, and it was full of tangles and some sticky stuff (I am assuming it is candy? Left over from Halloween?) she said "OK, lets cut it!" and I said "well don't you want to wait until I can take you in to a beauty salon to have it cut?" "Nope, I want you to do it, TODAY!!!" So we washed it and brushed it out and there you have it!

She ended up with a 13 inch ponytail!

We are so proud of this girl, with her big heart and unbelievable dedication!

Happy Halloween!

The much anticipated Halloween pictures!

We had a really nice day, Marshall was home and we got a lot done around the house. Lucy had a party at her school in the afternoon that Caymus and I went to. Lucky boy, got to go party with the big kids! I was a helper mom for her party. I love helping in her class. She has really sweet kids and they are all getting to know me and vice versa. I am known as "Lucy's Mom" I love that title! Anyway, we had loads of fun and loads of candy. Then it was home and off to a nap.

Oscar the Monkey, Kaden the Reaper, Caymus-Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Karson the Devil, Lucy the little Mermaid

We had a disgusting dinner at our friends, the Ward's house, mummy dogs, witches brew, and slime with bugs and dirt for dessert. So fun. They have 3 boys around our kids ages. It was really fun having a pre-trick or treat party and all the kids got to get ready together. We then went out to a nice Halloween friendly neighborhood to trick or treat. Neither of us live in "neighborhoods" so we had to find one that looked like it would be good. We were success full. The kids had a blast. And were very good.

Here is a glimpse of our fun.....

Caymus on our way to Trick or Treat, he was so ready!My little MermaidThe boys, Papa Smerf and Power RangerMeowwwwww, pussy cat and her kittens.

I made them stay together as a team, they did really good. At one point they were holding hands, but I was to slow with the camera.