Thanks Grandma Pat

Today the kids and I got a great package in the mail from Grandma Pat...always very exciting :) I got so many wonderful new Christmas themed pot holders and dish towels...oh how well she knows me still. I always love having as much Christmas stuff as possible.

Blake got a great United State Floor puzzle. It has all 50 states on it with their Capitals and major things the state is known for. It took us about 30 minutes to put it together but it is a very fun puzzle. Some day we might just glue it together and hang it in the school room!

 

Ayden was given a giant Hello Kitty floor puzzle. It took her about 45 minutes to put it together, but once it was finished she was so happy. She didn't want me to take it apart. Might be another one that we end up gluing together to put up in her room.

 

Thank You so much Grandma Pat...you are truly such a blessing to our family. We all love you and miss you bunches!!! Can't wait for the time we get to have you spend some time here at the house again. You are always welcome to stay with us as long as you like and any time you like.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and GOD BLESS!!

Santa 2011

Kids got to spend the night with Nana going into Seattle and visiting Santa. This will be good for Blake maybe. We have always had the approach of explaining who Santa came from (St. Nicholas) and up until this year Blake has been ok with it. Something about this year though he is searching for something more. He's been very curious as to weather Santa is real or not. We don't want to push the children to believe either way. We don't think that forcing will help in any way inlife. So this year he seems to need to have the proof of if Santa is real or not. He feels that since he hasn't seen him that he can't be real but at the same time he wants proof. So at first he wanted to set a trape to catch him, but I convinced him that wasn't a good idea. So then he came up with the idea that he wants to set out cookies and milk and see if in the morning they are gone. If they are gone he says he will believe that there must be a santa but if not then he knows he's not real. I am at a real dilema on if I need to help him believe or not. We want him to learn that seeing isn't believing and that there is a greater purpose for Christmas than Santa and the presents, but at the same time he seems to want to believe. Not sure what to do...but on a side note...kids look so cute with Santa this year and wanted to share with you their picture.

Cookie Baking Day 2011

This was another great year of gathering together and baking all day…literally all day.  I think this year we put in about 10.5 hours of cookie baking/shaping/baking/decorating! This was our first year of having the wonderful Pastor Family join us as well. :) Great to have another woman to help with all the major baking portion, anther Dad to do he guy time, and more kids to keep my kiddos entertained.

For those of you who don’t know what this is allow me to explain. Every year, for 40 years, Cindy and Tami have gotten together to make a whole bunch of cookies and share in some good family memories. It all started after Cindy got married and then felt like she needed to pitch in to the family potluck that happened every year around Christmas. Well, she convinced her 17 year old sister that is would be a great idea to come over for a day and spend it baking a bunch of great treats to bring. Well, through the year the cookie baking day became a tradition. Through all their years of cookie baking Cindy and Tami have found what works and what doesn’t work. Every year it seems like they get smoother and smoother at their baking routine. Still always have its bumps, but that is what makes every year build different and new memories. I am so thankful to have been added into this tradition and have my kids grow up with this tradition as well. I also strongly hope that we continue to have the company of the Pastor Family with us each year.

Yes, I know what you are thinking…do the men help out at all? Well, actually I am glad to say that YES THEY DO! Granted they don’t spend as much time as the ladies, but they do spend a good amount of time for men helping us out. They make excellent peanut butter ball rollers and dippers, perfect sugar cookie dough rollers and cutter outers, fantastic fudge makers, and radiant sugar cookie decorators! We gladly welcome their help in the kitchen, or at least for a little bit. :)

Please take a look at the rest of the great photos from our fun day and Merry Christmas to all!

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Annual Gingerbread Ornaments

Josh and Sharon Pastors House

We were lucky enough as a family 

to be able to join in on the Pastor 

Annual Gingerbread Ornament 

Making Night!!

This is a fun night of gathering together

 eating dinner, stringing fruit loops, 

making and decorating gingerbread 

ornaments. This year we were also 

lucky enough to the Bales family with 

us again! With four out of six of their 

kids there, our two children, and the 

Pastors two children they 

definitely had a full house.

This year we had pizza, which was a 

lot of pizza at the table to be able to 

feed 14 people! 

Sharon got a great deal of good 

ornaments for her tree this year, 

all of which had their own special 

character to them. I love being able

to look at all the uniqueness of each 

ornament and try to guess which 

persons personality comes out in it. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS

and

MERRY CHRISTMAS

TO EVERYONE!!

Thanksgiving 2011

So this year we decided to spend Thanksgiving down at my folks house! It was a wonderful fun year full of many memories for sure! We started our wonderful weekend out by adopting a sweet little puppy, who we now call Padawon. She sure is a cutie and a perfect addition to the family.


We were blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Andrews with us this year for the holiday and are so thankful for the time we get to spend with them. We got to play lots of board games, card games, wii games, and xbox 360 games (for Blake).

The day before Thanksgiving the kids got to help Grandma (Mom) with her bread baking for the day. They always find it the best time when they get to get her with the flour. Ayden learned how to properly roll up rolls to make the perfect ball. The funniest party is she always seems to be in her jammies when she is helping out. Guess I need to remember to be packing more jammies for this reason.

 All day Thanksgiving we all spend the day searching the adds and figuring out what our game plan was for the Black Friday Shopping Day of Fun!!! Thanksgiving Macy's parade was a hit and spending time with family and the ones we are all thankful was truly a blessing. We truly are blessed with the family we have. We can all be in the same room for days and still walk away loving each other and miss hanging out. God is truly and Amazing God and knows what he is doing.

Black Friday was a crazy fun day! Jamie ended up not feeling good, but we had her covered :) So this year it was Dad, Mom, Steph and I all our there shopping away. We hit up several store and had a blast doing it. Our last stop of the day was at Kohl's where Mom ended up buying a shelf that just barley fit into the car with all of us and all the bags we already had. Made for a very fun and interesting ride back home.

Dad having to squish along the window and duck down. Steph and I in the back on either side of it.
Mom driving comfortably! HMMM :)

Over all this was an amazing year for Thanksgiving and a great way to kick off the holiday season.

Newest Addition to our Family

Well on the way down to Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving we made a quick stop off in Lacey, WA and met up with a lady from K9 Northwest to check out a little 10 week old puppy she had up for adoption. =)
She is a pug/schnauzer mix. She was one of eleven sister born to Mommy. WOW!!!!! I KNOW! She is Black (the only one) and doesn't look much like a pug but more like her Daddy the mini schnauzer.


We couldn't wait to meet her and see if we wanted to adopt her into our family. There wasn't much that would make me say no honestly. =D
Well I took one look at her and could resist I loved her more in person that I did through her ad. Haha...go figure. So we filled out the paper work and brought little scruffy home with us for Thanksgiving.
Everyone had a blast getting to know this little fire ball! She has such a personality on her it cracks me up. She would bite and lunge at you as if you were food, which she LOVES more than anything. We fattened her up real fast this weekend.

Well after 4 days at Mom and Dads it was time to take her to her real home. Once she got her she went nuts! Loves playing with Maddy and running around the backyard. Which is great for me. It only took her a few hours to be ok with the house and her new surroundings. She is now comfortable enough around here that she lays down in either her bed or Maddy's (all depends on her mood and how mean she feels like being to big sister Maddy). She is turning into quite the sleeper insead of her always going puppy self. =)




We all love her to death and Maddy is gettng use to her but still having some adjustment to her being here.

Kitsap Humane Society Field Trip

On November 9th our homeschool group went on a very fun and educational field trip to the Kitsap Humane Society. We had a wonderful tour guide who showed up so much more than what we had anticipated. We started off get a tour of the feline room. We learned that this room is different compaired to all the others because it has its own filtration system. So each kennel is filtered its own air, which help keeps the smell completely gone so it doesn't smell like a bunch of cats and whatnot. :) It is the only room so far in their facility and she then prompted us that all the other rooms will not smell so fresh. :) We even got to see what all the different color chars me and that each kennel as the ability to open up a play hole, so those who can get along nicely can play together.

From there we went in to the main office ladies and got to hear all about the wonderful VOLUNTEERS that help run the main information desk. It was really hard to listen to the teacher at this point because there was only little kitten who was chewing on his tag through the cage... hilarious :)

As you can see he is a pretty funny
little guy and very distracting








The kids managed to still pay attention

Except for Ayden :)

After this we were able to go into the check in room...an area the common public doesn't get to often go unless you are dropping off an animal. We lucked out and got to see a baby pig that was just dropped off in their care after being stepped on by the owners horse. :( So sad...he was cute. 

While we were in the check in room we got to see how the workers check to see if the animal has a chip in them and get all the information they can if the animal has come in a stray. Our nice tour guide tested it on one of the little girls but said she didn't find anything ;) All us Moms got  laugh out of that one. Then we got to open the door and peek in at the animals that were waiting to be checked in. There were a lot! We were not allowed to go into this room for safety because they don't know any medical or behavioral issues with these animals yet. Apparently most of the strays that come in have some a major sicknesses that shouldn't be spread to others.
How sad is that :( quaratine for animals.

Animals waiting to be checked in

Obvisously not a good smell here

Chip Detector

 Now we were getting to the good part going and seeing all the sweet dogs...but first we had to have a quick review of where to keep our hands and fingers...don't want any accidents

Always keep your fingers and hands down by your side not in the cages because they might be mistaken for a treat :) haha...made me laugh.

While I was listening I couldn't help but notice this cute little guy. He was all white except for his random Black spots. He looks like a cat version of a Dalmatian. I couldn't help but get a couple snap shots of his sweet little face.
 Now prepare yourself for seeing some really cute little pups! :D

 This little guys was one of my FAVS

He was just begging for someone to love him

From there we got to move on to a place that no one gets to go see. The surgery/recovery room. We got to meet face to face with one of the Vet techs and she told us all about the sterile room and why we couldn't go in there and then what to usually have to do surgeries on. After we got to walk through the hall and see all the little guys recovering and slowly waking up. :) Funny to see animals coming off of their sleepiness! As we walked down the VERY cramped hall we got to the wash room. We learned that the washer and dryer are going 24/7 and same with the dish/toy washer. All of which is ran by volunteers!!! :)

         

Now we were moving on into the big dog area...it was so loud and we had to keep real good eyes on all the kids in this area that I didn't get any pictures at all. :( So many beautiful big doggies just needing some love and attention.

Now it was time for a little Q&A while we do a potty break outside of the Volunteer room. :)

 

 We have some REALLY GREAT kids in our group this year!

 

Now that our little break was over it was time to head outside and see the rest of their facilities. First stop is the doggies play field. A nice grassy place where they let the dogs run and play with their toys. Also there way to check to see how well certain dogs get along with other dogs. Then right next to it is a covered meet and greet area. A sweet little spot to be able to meet the animal you are interested in.

Now it was time to move on to the part the kids were most excited about the farm live stock. At any given time the Kitsap Human Society can have a numerous amount of farm animals that have been dropped off or taken and need a good place to call home. Currently they have a horse we are going to see and some chickens and rosters. They use to have a goat (but he has been adopted). But before we could make it to the farm animals we passed by the COOL vehicles that they Rescue Services use on a daily basis. I couldn't help but take some pictures. They are very sweet looking vehicles.

Daily Vehicle used when you call Animal Control

Used for large animals or multiple animal rescue

Sweet Logo

Who do you call when you are in need?

Finally onto the Farm animals...we lucked out and the horse decided to great up with his presence :) He is becoming healthy again and almost ready to be put up for adoption!!!

 

Chickens were far away and we were not allowed to go look to close but they sure did make themselves known!

Well we hit the end of our wonderful tour. The kids got their take home books and played around the yard for a bit while we Moms continued to talk.

 


 

What an ADVENTURE today was!!!!!

THANK YOU to our tour guide and

KITSAP HUMANE SOCIETY

for allowing us homeschooling Moms to bring our kids

in for an educational fun day.