Late Thanksgiving Thoughts

I know it has been a while now since Thanksgiving, but I have had sick kids this week.

We had a great time over Thanksgiving again this year. We stayed at Anne and Brad's and the kids were so happy to be together again. They made a great meal for us and the fellowship was well worth the trip.

My mom, My Grandmother and Grace (3 generations)

Friday, we just spent time together. It is really nice just to hang out with the people you love but cannot always spend time with. We have also made a tradition out of making lefse. Mom and Dad are trying to teach us the tricks. The dough Mom made on her own was great. The batches we helped with needed some work. ;-) Not to mention the fact that she did not make as many mistakes rolling as we did. Dad was giving grilling and eating advice (mistakes are good).

Anne, Kris and Carl making lefse.

Saturday we had an early Christmas with some of my Dad's siblings and their families. It was a good time with more food and cards. They are so great to my kids. It is fun to be with family.

Caroline and her Great-Aunt Tammy

Hope all of your blessings were as evident to you on Thanksgiving as mine were to me.

Conferences

We had our first Parent/Teacher conferences today. It was really fun.

I was so excited to hear what they had to say and to learn more about what she does when she is not with me. Plus we got to hear about how well she is doing.

I love how the things that we struggle with at home almost never are exhibited at school. She does not cry with she gets frustrated (all the time at home), she follows all the directions (mostly does this at home, and gets along well with everyone (could get along better with her sister).

They do a few things to check development. They draw a self-portrait. This is a picture of Caroline's (the dark black face is her). I was pretty impressed. Plus, she added a picture of Mom (the blob above Caroline) and Grace (she is small because Grace is small). Sorry, no Dad.

It was a good day. Mommy is proud.

Thanks Kris

I just had to write about how cool my husband is.

This weekend he is taking the kids to his mother's house and leaving me home alone. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I have not had this much time to myself since Caroline was born. I am not sure I know how to do it anymore.

So Kris, thanks for . . .

• being the kind of husband who would do this for me
• thinking I deserve it
• being excited to spend time alone with the girls
• trying to make it as easy as possible for me
• saying you will miss me while you are gone
• LOVING ME .

I love you too.

Proud

I am really proud of Caroline. She made this for us in preschool this week. It was so fun to watch her bring it to me. She was so proud of herself and she felt great that we were so excited to have it.

I love watching her accomplish things. It is really neat to see her take such stock in what she does. I look forward to more.

Early Christmas Spirit

I know it iw areally early. But, one of my friends was going to the Mall of America today to see Santa and we decided to go along. The original idea was to hang out while they went and we would not see Santa. But the girls really wanted to see him once they noticed him.

So we went. And I am so glad. The Santa at the Mall is really great. I watched the kids in front me and he got a great picture with everyone. He would get people giggling and comfortable. And the make waiting in line not so bad. The set up a room full of activities and decorations to keep people occupied. (Picture: it looks like they are fighting, but they are really playing.)

He spent most of his time with Caroline because she was into talking to him. It was fun to listen. Santa had to remind Mom to take some pictures of her own.

Grace was into the rocking reindeer and he just let her do her thing. When it was picture time, they just brought Grace rocking reindeer and all over by him. It was a great picture.

If you are in the area, it is worth the wait to get into see him. He may even be the "real" Santa.

Sometimes they do the coolest things

Caroline has started to take some pictures here and there. They generally are what you would expect from a 3 year old. But she took these the other day and they were really pretty interesting.

This is her new Snow White doll. And she is very proud of her sparkly dress.

She gets a little particular about her food. She likes to line up her cookies before she eats them (no comments please ;-). I really like this picture. She lined it up right and had some great light.

Halloween is Fun

We had such a great time on Halloween. The girls were very proud of their costumes. Grace knew how to put just the right face on when thought she was cute. And Caroline walked around like a real princess in her's.

We enjoyed time with friends. The girls and their friends were so happy that they even behaved well.

Caroline finally figured out what trick-or-treating is and got into it. Grace learned really quickly what happened when you hold out a bucket to an open door.

Then we went home and studied our loot.