Random Things We've Done . . .

I am so behind on blogging these days.  It seems like when December hit, the world got really busy.  At least that's how I feel these days anyway.  I really can't even explain what exactly it is, just a lot of things planned with the holidays upon us. 

Froese Thanksgiving

So I posted last time my Thanksgiving Top Ten List for 2011.  Really we did some other things, but I took minimal pictures.  I guess I had more fun experiencing life as it was happening instead of snapping some much needed photos.  One of the things that we did that I really enjoyed is going to grandma's house.  That is my grandma Froese.  My grandparents live on a farm in a small town about an hour away from us.  This place has held a lot of memories for me.  When my family first moved to Kansas, we lived with my grandparents for a couple of months.  At that time the house seemed a pretty good size for many gatherings, but when we went back there for our Froese Thanksgiving, it seemed quite small.  Maybe it's that fact that our family is really growing.  There were 3 new babies since the last time we were together.  All of them were born in September.  These are my cousin's kids.  So they would be second cousins to Jaycee.  It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun and food.  Also we were able to just hang out, talk, and relax (my favorite).

My mom (aka grandma Walker) with Jaycee and her cousin Ethan.

My brother Brandon and his son Ethan.

More Ethan.  He's so cute!!!

Jaycee.  Loving the outdoors on the farm.

Jumping and rolling around in the leaves.

Pumpkin Dessert
I made this from a recipe that I got from another teacher at school.

Peanut Butter Brownies
These were a big hit and super easy to make.


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Halloween Overshadowed

Now before I talk about Halloween, I must preface it by saying that Halloween was the last day that I felt Caden moving before he was stillborn.  It's kind of a bittersweet day for me now, but still I try to find ways to enjoy and make new memories with my family. 

We went to a pumpkin patch this year and were able to get three cute pumpkins before Halloween.  So I went on pinterest (my new favorite site) and found some pumpkin face templates



Jaycee liked lining them up on our porch.

We have noticed that since the fall sports are on TV a lot lately, that Jaycee loves them as much as we do. So Tom dug out this basketball goal from the basement and dusted it off and put it in Jaycee's playroom/ living room for a new toy for her to play with. This is orginally supposed to be hung on the back of a door or sitting on a table or something, but it works great on the floor b/c it is just her size.


She knew exactly what to do which made us both so proud.  Maybe we have a ball player on our hands???

For Halloween, we wanted to keep things pretty simple.  I am not a super huge fan of the holiday anyways.  So when we were trying to think of things that Jaycee could be, we rummaged through some stuff and found this outfit that grandma and grandpa Walker gave.  I'm not really sure when, but it still fit her, it is just a little short since she has had many growth spurts over the months.  We decided that this would be a great, cheap, and fun costume for her this year.   Since most of the stuff for girls is all princess and fairy stuff, I thought it might be nice to do something a little different.  I guess I don't want to force the whole princess stuff on her unless that is what she wants.  She can decide that for herself when she gets older.

Our little football player.



She loved this pool of shredded paper.
We almost couldn't get her to leave.

Twilight

Why I'm putting this in with the rest of the stuff, I don't know except that I don't want to write a seperate post about it.

Well, I'm sure that most of you know or have at least heard of the Twilight series. It started out with books, and then they made several movies about those books. I will have to admit that I was so not wanting to get into these books/movies at all. Maybe it is my nature to not go with the crowd, who knows.

Last year, my friend Stephanie while we were visiting her in Kansas City asked me if I had read any good books lately. I said that I really hadn't had any time these days to do much reading. She told me that she got into this series that totally blew her away. I was anticipating her to tell me about some new series by a christian author that I love, but no she told me about the Twilight books. I just rolled my eyes. As she kept talking about it, she said that she had 2 of the movies and asked me if I wanted to watch them. Since our husbands took our kids for a while, I thought oh well, I could at least see what all the craziness was about. Well, I saw the first movie Twilight, and immediately became hooked. It wasn't at all what I expected. I thought that it would be all about vampires and wolves and gory stuff that they do, but instead it was about a love story. I can never get enough of a love story. Once we were finished with the first movie, we watched the 2nd one called New Moon. After we were done watching that, we talked our husbands into staying homw with the kids and we went to the latest showing of the 3rd movie Eclipse. That was the most action packed one yet.

Well a couple of weekend ago, I went to see the 4th movie, New Dawn with my friend Meagan and some other girls that she works with. It was awesome!!!! I can't believe that I have to wait another year for the final movie to come out. But I guess it gives me time to dive into the books again and hopefully see that movie again when it comes to the Palace theaters which are a little cheaper. There was so much I missed the first time. Anyway, just a little confession of mine for you to know about me. I am officially a Twilight fan!!!

Well, there's a little snapshot of what we've been up to. It's too bad that it takes me so long to get caught up with what I want to say. I am challenging myself to do a better job of staying updated at least once a week if not more. So much happens sometimes that I can't get it all down in one sitting, but then again there are some weeks that we just don't do anything. Well, if you have suggestions for how I can get more organized about this, I would love to hear about it. Most of my time is spent hanging out with Jaycee and teaching and learning new things with her. One of the only times that I have to really blog is in the evenings, but I like to save my evenings for my husband. Well, someday I will get it all figured out at least for me that is.

Until next time,