Thanksgiving Day Part 2

We ate our big Thanksgiving dinner around 2:30, just in time for my brother Jake to arrive from Boise! Everything was so yummy and as always, we all ate way too much! Infact, we didn't realize until afterwards that we had left a few of the cold food items in the fridge... we completely forgot about them! Apparently, we had lots of other food to notice what was missing!

Casey bbq'd our turkey this year and did a great job! Dad H bbq's their turkey every year so, it looks like we'll be carrying on the tradition from now on too!!

While mom was getting the turkey clean and stuffed, Katie watched her. After a few minutes Katie said it looked just like a frog! I hadn't thought of turkeys like that before but, she's right. Mr Turkey did look like an oversized frog! Throughout the day Katie kept asking if "the frog was ready yet"?

Trent loved his first Thanksgiving...We were amazed at how much food he ate!

Katie, showing off her "frog meat"!

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We spent ours at home during the day then, went over to our friend's house, the Cox's, that evening for dessert. As always, it was a wonderful time spent visiting with friends and famliy! During the day, while mom and I cooked, the guys and kids were outside riding the 4-wheelers and go-cart. Our friend's, the Thomas', also came over with their 5 kids and had lots of fun riding too!

Tys, doing "work" on the wood pile

Katie and her friend, Asher, on the jeep

My awesome hubby and wonderful father!

Trent kept mom and I company inside

Trent 11 mos

Trent is 11 months old today and, I can't believe there's only one month left till he's a year old! This past month Trent has been crawling at faster speeds and has figured out that he can pull himself up on his knees. I have also found him standing up in his crib! Another thing Trent has recently learned is how to eat with his baby fork. This he figured out all on his own and gets upset with me when I try to help :) So when he's having a hard time getting food "stabbed" on his fork, then he just reverts back to using his fingers. He finds enjoyment in playing with Katie and Tys and, is always so happy! As Katie would say "We love you 'lil buddy"!!

Trent's first haircut

I took Trent to my cousin, Amber, yesterday for a much needed haircut! He was pre-occupied with his snacks the whole time and did great! Tys also got a trim but, he screamed the whole time so I didn't take any pictures of him :)

I just went in to get Trent from his morning nap and found him standing up in his crib!! He was pretty proud of himself!

Party weekend

Yesterday was lots of fun as we had two birthday parties to go to. First, in the afternoon Katie and I went to her friend's, Hannah and Sarah's party. Then, that evening we partied it up with our Filipino friends and, celebrated Melody's birthday. There was LOTS and LOTS of yummy Filipino food, singing, dancing and laughing with friends! The birthday girl, Melody (center) with Corkie and, someone that I don't know!

Tys spent his evening sneaking apples from one of the many food tables....

Precious and Edna

Roxanne and Trent... he was spoiled and held the whole evening by his many Filipino aunts! He came home with balloons tied to his overalls and lip stick kisses all over his cheeks!!

Katie and Precious having fun on the dance floor!

I love Jera's pose in the background!

Then, after church this morning we went with a bunch of friends from church to the pizza parlor, where we celebrated Rodney, Precious and Jeff's birthdays!! It's been the weekend of birthdays!

Babies

Yesterday Katie arranged all of her babys around her baby brother... he was enjoying it!

Corker Tys

Tys is convinced he's NOT a "corker"!!

It's been a while since I've posted anything but, I've been out of town so I have a good excuse :) Mom, Trent and I went Christmas shopping in Boise from Saturday - Tuesday and, had a great time! This is my yearly event where I take all my saved money and go shopping for days... no kids! Last year I was pregnant with Trent and, this year he was able to go with me again. He did so good! He was charming everyone in the stores, catching cat-naps wherever he could (poor baby didn't have time for his regular naps!) and just went with the flow of things. I was also able to go to the movies with my friends, Marie, Meredith and Stacy... it had been 3 years since I'd been to a movie! And, mom and I took my little brother out to sushi, Texas Roadhouse and coffee for his birthday (I guess we celebrated his birthday all weekend) I got lots of shopping done and, was ready to come home Tuesday so I could see my awesome husband and wonderful kids!!
Here are a few pictures of Trent... he is always entertaining us with his many facial expressions. While in Idaho Trent began saying more words: mama, dada, baba, papa and "top" for stop If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

I'm a little shy sometimes....

I'm so happy to be crawling now and getting into everything my mommy says is a "no-no"

"grrrrrrr"

SNOW

We woke up this morning to see snow falling! It didn't last very long but was enough to get the kids all excited! Katie and Tys went through the big process of getting their snow gear on and going outside... Tys didn't make it past the front steps before crying to come inside! And, Katie lasted about 15 minutes before coming inside cold and muddy!! Oh well, they have all winter ahead of them to play in the snow. Trent is happy for many reasons: 1. Everyone else is excited about the snow, why shouldn't he be too 2. He got to stand up against the window sill and hit the window 3. He loves to play with the blind cord (which is usually out of his reach)

Tys is explaining to Trent that it's snowing outside and that it's "cold"!!

Trent, checking out the outside world!!
This week has been rough for me as I've been fighting a bad headache. It began Monday night with a migraine and has lasted until today. Motrin and Tylenol haven't done much to help it so I finally took a heavier drug last night... that worked and I'm feeling better today. At least I'm functioning and, getting things done around the house and with the kids. Mom, Trent and I leave Saturday for our 4 day trip to Boise... I'm hoping it'll be completely gone by then!

Chinese dinner

On Saturday night, our friend, Jona, came over to MY house and cooked us some of her famous Chinese food. We also invited Joe, Edna and Precious over to share in our fun evening... her dinner was SO yummy and I had a great time watching her cook :) She cooked the entire meal in just 1.5 hours! The dinner menu included: scallion cake, egg drop soup, beef & broccoli, chicken stir fry, egg fried rice and steamed cabbage, wine and mudslides.
Jona cooking the fried rice

I had never had or, seen, a scallion cake before (I had originally pictured it being a REAL cake with scallions... interesting??) But it was actually a flour and scallion sort of bread and, was served as an appetizer... not dessert!

The chicken stir fry... before the veggies were added

Jona and my mom

Edna, patiently awaiting dinner!

Everyone was enjoying their meal so much that we couldn't take a moment to look at the camera or, even say "cheese"!! Thanks Jone for a wonderful dinner and fun evening!

Now that Trent is crawling, my life has added on a whole new dimension to the word "busy". He is constantly into things and, always such a happy little guy doing it :) His new favorite thing is pulling the movie drawer out and taking out all of the movies!

Working with Papa

While I school Wesley on Thursdays, Tys gets to hang out with his Papa and go "work". Tys has become his Papa's little helper; all I have to do is tell him that it's time for him to go work with Papa and he runs to get his beloved tool box and shoes! Then, he and Papa head outside for the morning where they work on the 4-wheelers, in the shed or around the yard. He usually comes in covered from head to toe in dirt and, wearing a great big smile!!

Another Haveman Driver

The weather has been so awesome lately, we've been trying to get outside and enjoy it as much as possible. Trent has a new love for driving (he's a Haveman... it's in his blood!) This was keeping him busy while my mom was giving Tys and Katie rides in the go-cart. He even knows how to steer it and was making his own version of "vroooming" noises!! Katie got to invite 3 of her girlfriends (Jesse, Marisa and Eliese) over this afternoon and have a Tinkerbell party. They got to watch the new Tinkerbell movie, eat popcorn & M&M's and, play "house" afterwards. They had a fun afternoon.. too bad I didn't get any pictures of it... I was too busy watching the movie myself :)

Trip to the park

Yesterday morning Casey and I were feeling brave and took 5 kids to the park! Tys, Katie, Jolena, Jakob and Taylor all had a great time playing and, Casey & I survived the adventure :) It was 74 degrees here yesterday and it felt so good to be outside! Jolena flying like "superwoman"

Taylor

Tys and Jakob racing down the slide.. I'm pretty sure Jakob won... Tys was too busy watching Jakob!

Jakob

Katie and Jolena waiting patiently for their turn on the slide

And, having fun going down....

On Friday night Marie and our friend, Colleen and her three boys, arrived from Boise. They stayed with us for the weekend and it was SO wonderful having them here! On Friday night we started the weekend off right by having chocolate/oatmeal bars and mudslides ~ too bad Mere wasn't there to have mudslides with us (for old times sake!) On Saturday I took them out to see Casey at work and, he took them up to the top of the prell tower. The view from up there is amazing and Colleen gained a greater appreciation for our desert country :) Michael, ready for the elevator ride to the top of the tower

My wonderful sister-in-law and friend, Marie

And, my awesome friend Colleen

Colleen with Ryan and Tyler at the top of the tower ~ I just love Tyler's crooked hard hat!