Christmas decorating

 Grandma and Grandpa stayed for a couple days after the Liptaks left.  Here, Grandpa and Caden are inspecting Grandpa's smashed phone.  The boys helped find the pieces up along our road where it had fallen off the roof of his car. :(

 It was nice to have them present for our decorating!

 

Thanksgiving: the meal

It was so great to have family here!!  My Dad and Seth....and Shann

Gwen is mid-asparagas helping!

Lynne brought placecards with famous Thanksgivingish quotes we took turns reading.

Thanksgiving: 3rd attempt

For some reason, my Thanksgiving pictures have not wanted to load!  Here are a few from Duke Gardens and the scavenger hunt! 

 We divided into 3 teams, each with 7 things to find.  Here are a few pictures of the Caleb, Grandma, Madelyn, Alyssa group.  Obviously, Caleb was the photographer.  All sitting on a branch:

 All laying on a bridge:

 Doing Kung Fu moves in a bamboo grove:

Oh, and us...Lynne took our Christmas picture!

First Christmas Gift

Its OFF!

Using a little saw with a vacuum attached. He is pretty calm and happy!

 
Two of the pins - curved so they stay put. 

The other one isn't curved, so they had the little green ball screwed onto the end to keep it in place.

The removal of pins wasn't as great.  He could really feel it! 

We're so glad to see that arm again!  Next week, we're heading in for Physical Therapy!

13th Anniversary Song

Shann appears to be kneeling without cause in the background...he is working on putting up the coat rack leaning against the door.  Happy anniversary to me! :)

Halloween

Caden is Boba Fett, a star wars guy.  In order to fit him with his cast into this costume, I had to slit the whole back of the right sleeve. This pained him, and he declared that he'd just wear it next year. Hmm, I said, I don't think this costume will fit you in two months, let alone next year! 

Alyssa is a Halloween Minnie Mouse.  We found this dress (that I had to take in alot) that she loved, and made some minnie ears! Also, I found some little heels, (minnie always wears heels), that ended up being about 3 sizes too big for her. However, being that they're her first heels, she was really excited and insisted on clomping all over the neighborhood in them for trick or treating, not complaining once!

Earlier in the day, Alyssa had banged her front tooth on something, and it was literally hanging by a thread, so after trick or treating, Shann got some dental floss, lassoed it, and pulled it out while distracting her.

 She looks really different!