HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I'll miss you all while we're gone. Have a great Holiday weekend!!

"Maxine is....."

So I "succumbed" to Facebook. One of those things..."everyone else was doing". Well, that's not really the reason, I'm not terribly into doing things just because everyone else is doing it, but when that's the only way to see pictures that your friends post, and you want to keep tabs on what your kids are posting, then what's a person to do? I enjoy seeing a line or two from my "friends" and it's nice being able to keep up with people a bit that way since not everyone blogs, or posts comments there either. I have to admit, I've "ignored" a few "friends" requests; kids that go to school with my kids, kids that know my kids, people that I don't know, people whom I know, but really never even visit with if I do see them. Quite frankly I don't get the point of having a "billion" people on there that I don't even care about talking to. I don't play games on there either (except for "lil green patch") Nothing against the others, but I decided one was enough, and I don't need to spend the time. I don't spend very much time on facebook in the first place, generally only if I get a message, or want to post something. I much prefer blogging.
That brings me to the point of todays title. If you're familiar with facebook, that's the first thing you see when you go visit someone's profile. Hmmm! Often gives me a chuckle. Maybe sympathy. Today my list for "Maxine is..." is quite long.
We are leaving Tues. after school is out to go up to ND to Dalayna & Wade's for Thanksgiving.
Relyssa is going with Mark out to his parents where Lynisha & Jim will also be.
Last night I took 5 kids shopping for winter clothes & shoes. Everyone's grown out of everything all at once, and the school clothes they started out the year with are summer! Pretty soon I'm going to get a call from the teachers complaining about how their dressed if I don't get some warmer ones for them (of course, I have to put away the summer ones, or they'll continue to wear them anyway. I'm not sure they really care!)
SO...

• I'm baking the pumpkins that were our halloween decorations. Meshayla wants to bake pie, and they all want me to roast pumpkin seeds.
• I've got about 6 loads of laundry to do before I can finish packing clothes
• I have to take 5 kids shopping again tonight, because although Walmart & Target have a good selection for 7 & 9 yr. old girls, & shirts for boys, we didn't find anything for 14 & 17 yr girls, or jeans & shoes for 12 yr. boy.
• 17 yr. old has to have fabric for school clothing class project.
• I need ingredients for granola to make for SIL, because my kids ate the other, and I have to send it out to him with Mark & Relyssa when they go.
• I need to make said granola
• I have 3 tubs of sewing things/material that have to be gone thru & re-packed up & stored because they can't stay in my living room.
• I have to pay bills so we have some untilitles on when we get back home!!
• I have to pack 4 kids clothes plus 2 adults, because my kids do not have a clue (and yes, I've tried. It's more stress than it's worth. Someday they'll figure it out)
• Sleeping bags & pillows
• Turkey & corn from the freezer to take along
  
• Water my plants so they don't die before we get home
• Remember all the other "left behind" items I need to send with Relyssa to Lynisha
• Hmmm, Try to remember all the other 99 things that need done, that I haven't wrote down yet.
• YIPEE....Gas is down to $1.62 here. Hopefully we'll have similar prices along the way. It will make the trip much more affordable! I can take Jessi shopping :*)
  

So, Thank goodness it's only Monday :*) You all have a great day!

Happy Birthday Jana Beth!!

The last birthday of the year for our family.
Happy Birthday dear Jana, Happy Birthday to you!!
Hope you had a great party time last night! Wish we could have been there to join you!
The years have gone so quickly by, and it's hard to believe that you are 29!
Can that really be right?? Not only that, but next year it will be 10 years ago that you went in the work!
Enjoy your day, hope its a wonderful one, and a great year.
Enjoy the walk down memory lane :*)
Lots of love from us all....
Here's one of my favorites!! (from Lynisha)
http://jelly3.blogspot.com/2008/11/happy-birthday-bethy.html (From Laura)

Morgen's birthday party

So we had another birthday party here! Yes, that's all we do is party......! LOL
Morgen wanted to forgo our traditional big extended family bash that we generally do for birthdays, so he had his 3 cousins & friend Nathan K here only. Leon took them out for lunch, then to bowling alley play center, then they spent several hours at the park with their scateboards, then came home for cake & ice-cream bars. Wow, no stress party for this mom!
Except the cake of course, which was fun, but kind of flopped. I need more practice, but don't really like to eat cake too much....It was good, but mostly because of the yummy vanilla cheesecake filling that I put in it!!
Happy Birthday Morgen, have a great year being 12!!
By the way, thank you in advance for NOT asking what the cake is!! LOL! Morgen knew right away, even tho I hadn't told him what I was doing, & he was happy with it & it was yummy, so that's all that matters, right?!



Nathan L, Weston K, Morgen, Nathan K & Landon K

Do you know?

Here you go! Auntie Gay was the only one right on all of them, but she had the advantage of a "cheat sheet"!

#1. Laura 1st birthday

#2 Jana Jan. 1980 1 1/2 mo.

#3 Jeanne and Jana--before and after Dad took you over to spend the day with Auntie Gay while I went to the weekend of Perry Conv. with Gma Cilla

#4 Meshayla...Yes, I messed with her hair a bit, it was pretty reveling!


#5 Jeanne and Jana :*) !!! Nov 1979--Jana 1 week.

#6 Derek And the hair really throws it off. It was actually dark, but I guess because he didn't have very much of it, the light caught it with the flash. Also the first one was taken right after he was born & dressed, so very newborn. The 2nd is 3 days old.


Here you go, you can guess away! We'll see how well my kids know their siblings.....I have a hard time thinking it's going to be too difficult.....I had a terrible time when I looked at them trying to find something they might have a hard time figuring out. There are very few pictures that I can't tell. To me my kids all have very distinctive features, but maybe it's just because I know them all so well!
For the rest of you, well enjoy the oldies :*)
(P.S. The third one was taken by someone else when I left my kids in the "care" of my husband....!!!!)

That was fun!

Graduation pictures....Leon 1975, Ryan 2006

Hmmm....all sorts of fun things to add here when "nothing exciting" is happening around here!
Yes, for those of you who don't "know" us, that was father & son. Approx. the same ages Late teens, early 20's. The first one of Leon was taken before we were married, but after he graduated, so he must have been about 18. The first one of Ryan was one of his graduation pictures. He was the same age. The next one of Leon was taken when we had 2 little ones...(I'll add the picture below that I cropped it out of)... he must have been around 23? just a little older than the second one of Ryan, but I was trying to find ones that they had similar hair/expressions to match up. Leon's hair is a bit curly, or used to be when he still had some!! & Ryan's isn't. Well, he did have some cute little ones (curls) before I gave him his first hair cut!

This was taken in the summer of 1980. Jeanne was 2 1/2 and Jana would have been around 6 mo.

They don't look so much alike right now (this was taken on Leon's 50th birthday, 2006) but Watch out Ryan, here's a glimpse of you in the future!!

What do you think?

Happy Veterans day!

The kids got to "dress-up" for school today...camo or red/white/blue.
Of course the camo was more fun.

For Morgen

Happy 12th Birthday Morgen!
We love you!

Happy Birthday to Morgen!

Today is Morgen's 12th birthday, but I didn't get his pictures posted. Friday morning I left to take Kyrie back to Sidney, taking Morgen & Meshayla with me for the weekend.
Friday night and Saturday Lynisha and I and Jeanne went to a scrapbooking get-together.
Morgen hung out with Jim & Meshayla ended up watching Kyrie & Trey, as their other grammy couldn't come and get them for the weekend due to bad weather/roads. We had a great time scrapbooking, eating and gabbing. Today we went out to lunch for Jim & Morgen's birthday, and then left to come home late afternoon. It's always nice heading out west, "gaining" an hour, but a downer getting home and "losing" an hour.
Tomorrow I hope to get Morgen's birthday post up, & we'll probably have a party later in the week.

Kyrie's week at Grammie's

What Kyrie spends most of her time doing....
(My dress-up box is a total disaster!!)

Since we still have kids at home, Kyrie's time here is generally pretty focused around playing with her two aunties, only 3 and 5 years older than her. However during the school day it's pretty quiet around here, so it's our time to spend together. My sister has a grandson just a month younger than Kyrie, so we try and make sure we get together so the cousins can spend some time with each other. We went out to lunch one day.... Kyrie kind of started out looking like she wasn't really to sure about what crashed into her day, but soon she got warmed up, and by the time we were done eating, they were having a great time playing under our booth......
.
After we were at home, the play went a different direction tho, You know, these guys & girls...can't separate them when they're dating, then they get married & have kids & the guy takes off in his snazzy car to "do his thing" and leaves the wife home to take care of the kids!


The kids played twister one night, Kyrie didn't quite know what to think of all the craziness going on, she was a little more interested in the "baby" that the neighbor left for Meshayla to babysit (school project). After the baby left, she did decide to join in, but it's a little confusing to a 4 yr. old, especially playing with older kids!


Thursday I baked bread and had a great little helper! Of course the best part was eating it.


It was a great week Kyrie, come again soon!!

Pictures on pages

So if you're a regular reader of my blog, you will remember THIS.
Sorry there's so many pictures here, Maybe I got a little carried away on the scrapbooking thing? Also for those of you wondering why it took me SO LONG to post these, (besides scrapbooking them first!) It took a while to steal the additional *dumb* pictures off of other people! lol! (Thanks you all....Megan, Ryan & Mark!)
The first page is of Miss Jessi....She wasn't here of course, but I couldn't resist doing another page with her & posting it. She's just so cute!! Obviously if you want to see the pictures, you'll have to click on each one, as I had so many that I needed to post them small.
Anyway, we had a great time. A very loud, fun, & crazy evening and a great weekend. Sorry the rest of you all missed it :*)