Thanksgiving!

Gil came home for R&R (two weeks of leave) right before Thanksgiving. It was so nice to see him. He had been in Afghanistan for almost 9 months. The kids were so excited and we had so much fun while he was home. We hosted Thanksgiving. Three of my friends (who's husbands are also deployed) and their kids joined us. We had 5 adults and 14 kids, 9 years old and younger. It was a great Thanksgiving. It is always nice to share the cooking. The food was really good and we had fun playing games as well. I am very grateful for such a great Thanksgiving.

Class Hamster!

Walter has a class hamster and it was our turn to bring it home for the weekend in The middle of November. The kids loved Ramona. She was very friendly and loved going all over the house in her ball. She is eating her treat in the picture.

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween. The week before Halloween we went to a friends Halloween party. I brought my camera but the memory card wasn't in it so I took some pictures when we got home. Walter and Jem were punk rockers, Rilla was a fairy princess, and Shirley was Tigger.





The Saturday before Halloween we had a ward Halloween party and trunk or treat. The kids had a great time. It is always fun to get together with lots of people. Shirley was a punk rocker like walter and Jem and Annie was a Ballerina.

Fall Break!

A couple of weeks ago we had Fall Break. It is just like Spring Break. The boys had a week off of school. Last year we were all sick during Fall Break. Luckily, not this time. We had so much fun. We even had great weather. Saturday we had a Stake Church Activit. It was out at a Farm. There were inflatable and lots of great food. The weather was perfect in the shade. It was a little hot in the sun. The kids loved it. They got to run around and have a great time.







On Monday we went to the Nashville Adventure Science Center. It is such a fun place. It is all hands on and great for kids. The only drawback is it is easy to lose your kids if they run off so I brought my neighbor girls, Nan and Di, who are eleven to help me out. We went with other friends as well.










Tuesday we went to the library and had a picnic with friends at a nearby playground. Wednesday was a recooperation/relaxing day. Thursday we had Rilla's birthday party. Friday we went to the Nashville Zoo. It was our first time there. Nan came with us. It is a great zoo. It is one of my favorite zoos so far. It is a great environment with lots of trees and hilly landscape. It also has an AWESOME playground. Again we went with friends.





Anytime there is an available seat in the stroller Jem hops in. The zoo was no exception.

Here is the coolest playground I have ever seen.


I try to be a fun and cool mom. I put up our family tent (it is a 3 room tent) in our living room and kept it up for 2 1/2 days. They got to camp out for 2 nights.

Rilla's Birthday!

Rilla turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited the whole week before. She loves parties. We had a Princess/Knight part. There are only a couple of girls her age here so most of her friends are boys. It was a lot of fun. Gil and I bought her a lot of the small My Little Pony toys. I bought it on Campbell yard sales for $40. I didn't want to wrap it all so I set it out in the living room so she saw it when she woke up. I must admit I love buying girl toys. I also like playing with them with her.

She wanted a My Little Pony. I had fun making it. She loved it.

When it came time for her party she didn't want to wear one of her Princess dresses. She wanted to be a Ballerina Princess.

Rilla is such a blessing in our lives. I love my little girl, not to mention that she is Daddy's little girl as well. Here is a picture of her when she was 2 months old.