Christmas Tree Time

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year in the Keehn Household. Grandma and Grandpa Keehn were able to come all the way up here for a visit (finally!! YAY!) and we spent T-day cooking and eating wonderful food. The star of the day was the pumpkin pie, which we made not only from scratch, but from ultimate scratch - all the canned pumpkin was gone at the grocery store, so we hauled the massive jack-o-lantern pumpkin off the porch and made a pie out of him! This is the pumpkin that was larger than Obie! I still have about 10 pounds of cooked pumpkin that I haven't decided what to do with, along with several bags of puree in the freezer! Along with the pie we had ham, a turkey breast that came from a local hunter Rob works with, mushroom stuffing, green bean casserole - also from scratch, no funions for us! - mashed potatoes, gravy, acorn squash, Brussels sprouts, and of course can-shaped cranberry sauce. It was an amazing meal and only slightly topped by the ribeye steaks that Rob and Roy grilled for us the next night.

We spent our holiday eating, relaxing, knitting (for some of us), and watching Dr. Who. What more could a person want? On Friday we took the family up to see the town of Red Wing, which actually gave me and Rob a greater appreciation for the place, too. We walked around to all of the little local shops, did some Christmas shopping, and found a great chocolate shop. Did you know that people eat chocolate covered potato chips? I tried one and wasn't impressed. Chocolate covered pretzels are much better. We did remember that evening to take a Friday Photo, but I didn't post it then, so here it is now:

The girls are holding the turkeys they made at the library. Beatrice has her trade mark attitude going on, but I really like Maggie's smile in this one. She has the fluffiest hair!!

Roy, Lynne, and Laura left early Saturday morning which disappointed us all, but we managed to squeeze a little more Holiday Cheer into the weekend by getting our Christmas Tree. We drove up to a little tree farm up past Red Wing and let the girls run around a little bit and we picked out a great tree.

There were two black sheep in this nativity, but they weren't interested in being photographed, let alone petted. I love Maggie's smile in this picture, too. Again, Beatrice: Attitude.

Then we took a ride on a crazy motorized sleigh. The front had "eight tiny reindeer" flying up to the sky. They wobbled perilously as we bumped along over the back roads, but it was still pretty idyllic, especially with a few little snowflakes tumbling down.

I hope you had a wonderful Thankgiving, too. Oh, and did I mention that I got up at 4:30 to go get a steeply discounted gift for the girls? But that was enough Black Friday for me. I was back home and making breakfast by 6:15! I have the rest of the month to do my other shopping.

Bee-isms

Shouted from the bathroom:

"Mom!!! Why can't we bring the TV in here??"

Well, Beatrice, it's a matter of hygiene, mostly...

Old

Beatrice (to Maggie): You can't make [a little snowflake] because you're not old like mom.

Maggie: How old are you, Mom? Are you twenty?

Me: No, I'm not twenty. I was twenty.

Maggie: How old are you?

Me: I'm thirty-two.

Maggie and Beatrice: Gasp!

Maggie: Thirty-two. Are you old?

Me: Not too old.

Beatrice: That means that you're almost old.

Maggie: Are you almost old?

Me: Yes, I'm almost old.

Friday Foto

Outnumbered

We had a get together last Sunday evening at our house. It was a little attempt to start getting some of the couples our age with children together on a regular basis. We met one new family and there was also our pastor and his family and a young couple expecting their first child. It was a very loud evening, 8 adults and 8 kids! After dinner I sat down with Obie, and Carrie, from the family I had just met, sat down with Mia who is 7 months. She mentioned that Bailey, her four year old daughter has started going to twice a week preschool and it's helping with her shyness. (Bailey was upstairs ripping and running with the other girls at this point, which delighted her mom!) I asked her about the school, how many kids were in the class, and if Bailey liked it. She said she did like it and that the ratio of teachers/aids to kids was one to four. I said, "Wow, that's a pretty good ratio. None of the adults should get too overwhelmed."

Then I realized that our previous topic had been that I've been going back and forth on when is a good time to have one more baby. And if I have one more baby, I'll also be at a one to four ratio. Good grief! I'm right on par with the local school system!

Ninja Halloween

For Halloween this year we went with an Asian theme: Hiiii-Yah!

Maggie as a Teal Ninja

Beatrice the Asian Princess

Obie should have been a Panda, I suppose, but I already had the Teddy Bear costume.

I have no idea who this guy is, but when Beatrice saw his costume she asked why he was dressed as a puffy, pink candle. I laughed so hard I snorted!

Here are the girls with their beloved cousin Beth (dressed as Coraline) a few moments before hitting the Trick or Treat trail!

Tired Ninjas!!

I hope you had a great Take Candy From Strangers Day, too!!

Southern Illinois, October '09

We spent last week back home in Southern Illinois. We especially wanted to go because all of the cousins would get to be together, but it is always wonderful to be down south in October. Here's a quick photo tour of our week:

All of the "trifecta of terror" love to play with Grandma's rock and fossil collection. And yet not one boy got his fingers or toes smashed!

Aunt Betsy brought over cookies to decorate. Unfortunately they tasted a little like chocolate cardboard, but the kids loved putting candy and icing on them.

Not that you can tell Beatrice's level of enjoyment by her expression. (I love this picture. Beatrice gives me this look waaay too often!)

Wiley took his candies off several times to reposition them. Or just as an excuse to eat them.

I told Evelyn where to put her candies to make the best Jack-O-Lantern face. She put them in her mouth, though, mostly.

Here's a picture of Stanley. He's always excited to see a camera out! He also really liked his Uncle Rob - I think it was the beard. And Rob likes to make funny faces and funny noises.

We saw this miraculous rainbow one evening as the sun was setting after a rainy, rainy day. This picture doesn't do it any justice, though; it was truly the most beautiful rainbow I've ever seen. We could see it go all the way across the sky from one side to the other. On the left side it was a double rainbow and on the right we could see several colors beyond the "roy g. biv". The extra bands of colors were narrower than the first set. It was amazing!

On Saturday we stopped by the Hope Church Fall Festival. The girls got their cheeks painted. We didn't get to stay much longer after that, though, because that red cup of water there in the picture was blown over by the wind... right into my lap, all over me and Obie. What a mess! I would have loved to spend the afternoon there with all our friends, but I just couldn't do it with wet pants!

Here are the girls with their faces painted back at Grandma's house. Maggie found a wooley caterpillar crawling around in the kitchen.

He was much coveted!

We had a great time in So Ill. The week was very restful, but it also blew by. In fact, it went so fast that I was already planning my next trip before this one was over! We'll see you back there in January!