Thanksgiving

This year we took a road trip to be home with the Oregon Fam for Thanksgiving. We used to switch off every year, but now that we are paying for 4 airline tickets and airports being crazy busy we have not gone to Oregon for Thanksgiving for a few years. We decided to drive up for Thanksgiving this year and it was a nice trip. The girls were troopers on the drive, and we had a nice visit with family and friends. It sure is not the same without Grandma Rosie on Thanksgiving Day, but it was nice to be with all of the family. Grandma Rosie was watching over us. She sure would love to see all of the kiddos running around.

All of the "Rise" Cousins....and there are a few missing....it is so fun when we are all together.....

These big boys used to be the "babies" of the bunch...now they are all grown up (well almost).....

The little batch of cousins......and 2 more babies will join the crew in 2015! Coley and Mike's baby boy in February, and Jos and Rach's baby boy in May......so exciting!

Never a dull moment at Grandma and Pa's.....Pa took the kids out to catch a frog in the pool......

We had a nice visit with second cousins...these are my cousin Kristen's girls....her other two were at home....so fun to hang and play with Apple Pie play dough that Geoff and the girls made, while my mom and I were out shopping!

On our way out of town, we stopped by Salem and had a nice lunch visit with the Greer Family.

Our visits to Oregon are never long enough. We try to cram in as much as we can, see as many people as we can, but it is still never long enough to see everyone.....Until next time!

The best treat of all was when we got home and our Elves, Bo and Holly were waiting for us up on the picture shelves. The girls were not sure when they would arrive since we were in Oregon for Thanksgiving. But sure enough the girls were waiting for us when we got home! You know Christmas is right around the corner when Bo and Holly are back in town!

Catching Up.....

As you can see I am behind on a few posts :o) I will be catching up later today I hope! Stay tuned!!!

November Fun

We had a day off of school and called Cousin Ry at the last minute to go bowling. He was happy to come along and the girls were on cloud 9. So fun to hang with the big cousins. We had a fun time bowling and then a yummy pizza lunch.

Paige never gets tired of bouncing around on Howdie Cowie. She bounced around in her PJ's all day one day when she did not have school. 

Workin' Girls! The girls have been bugging to rake leaves, so one day we found the rakes and they were happy as clams. They got hot and sweaty, and realized it was hard work to rake leaves! They have fun and had a little method to make a few piles! I will bring these pictures back out when they are teens :o) 

Early Santa Visit

We were in Davis a few weeks ago, and Allison saw a flyer posted for a visit with Santa. I kinda forgot about it, but of course she remembered. It was a fun little set up at The Davis Marketplace. Santa was there. They had fairies that did face painting and balloons. They also had Thanksgiving crafts and cute pillow for the kids to make. It was all free and it was a great little event. We will watch for it next year for sure!

Funny little side note. We have Santa pictures that we put up every year, and a few years ago Allison informed us that all the Santa's were not the same....hmmm....smart little cookie :o) So of course we told her that it would be way too much work for the REAL Santa to be at all of the places, so he has helpers that report to him. She thought that totally made sense and that was the end of it. So while we were on our way to dinner last night she said, "Mom I know the Santa today was a helper Santa" I said "Oh really how?" She said, "Wellllll...he had a black earring and his arms were hairy". I guess I can't argue....Oh I wish I could be in her brain for one day! Paige agreed and thought the REAL Santa does not wear black earrings!

Thirty-One

I have been selling Thirty-One products for a while and had a little Open House with some friends the other night The girls loved seeing all of the bags set up. They don't go to shows with me, so I don't know if they have ever seen all of it displayed! As I was busy setting up the tables, Allison was busy making a book for my party. She is so creative.  She did a great job with the descriptions and illustration of the bags! If you are ever interested in buying products, or hosting a party give me a call or email me. If you have no idea what 31 is,  here is a link to my Thirty-One Site.

Here is the set up........

Here is Allie's book with descriptions of the bags......