A few weeks have passed...

Deer hunting...
Thanksgiving...
December 1....
Monster Truck Rally...
Christmas Tree Decorating...
First time this year sledding....

I cannot keep up.  Give me one more day and it should hopefully get better.  My fall class, which I hated, Managerial Economics and Organizational Architecture is done tomorrow.  Yea!  One more hard, impossible to predict exam and I am done with school for almost 2 months.  While I tried to get into a J-term class, the one I wanted was booked and that is okay with me.  I have until the beginning of February to try and accomplish things on my "once I am done with school" list.

And now - to try and catch up.

We went deer hunting at my parents, which I already blogged about, and had a successful opening weekend in deer hunting.  After that came..

Thanksgiving!  One of my favorite holidays! The kids decorated with many homemade turkeys,

Emma's Turkey Dude

Evan's turkey dude. Evan decorated each feather with things he is thankful for.

Tim and I cooked a fabulous meal and we celebrated with Eric, Jordan, Gaebriel, Seth, and the four of us. It was a nice low-key holiday.  Gaeb and Seth came with their new little puppy Tucker, which kept the kids occupied (and who am I kidding, he kept me preoccupied as well - he was so cute!)  and we stuffed ourselves on turkey, ham, potatoes, homemade rolls, wild rice dressing, crockpot stuffing, baked spaghetti squash, bread pudding, and pecan pie.

My Martha Stewart Turkey which turned out awesome!

Because we did it last year, the kids (Emma and Evan) had to go outside and play football.  They obviously didn't remember that last year it was so warm for Thanksgiving and this year it was around single digits.  That didn't stop them, but it did stop some of the older ones!


 (here are two pics from breakfast.  While I normally make cinnamon rolls or monkey bread, the kids don't eat them that well. This year I made breakfast puffs ala the Pioneer Woman and the kids loved them!  They helped dip each puff into the melted butter and cinnamon sugar as well.)

Evan trying to act "cool" for the camera

As the afternoon wore on, the older 2 kids and their others went to the others family to celebrate and we headed over to Kristen's to celebrate the holiday with dessert and hot chocolate.  YUM!

Then, at the urging of Kristen, we headed out shopping.  So, off to Walmart at around 6pm on Thanksgiving night. Target, Michael's, and JC Penney followed afterwards.  We got some good things and didn't hit too many horrible crowds. The nice thing was that I was back home around 10pm so I could do some online shopping.  I am actually almost 3/4 of the way done shopping!

Then - back to the farm to do more deer hunting on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We didn't make out nearly as well this time.  Emma sat out with Tim and I on Friday night and walked along in the woods with us on Saturday.  She thought it was pretty cool to be carrying the BB gun and even got to shoot it.  One of the guys that works on the farm with Dad set up a pop can so she could shoot at that.  She had a good time!

(And --side note from opening weekend in deer hunting. Evan was talking to Theresa (daycare provider) about how he went deer hunting and even got to carry a BB gun!  He was acting all proud and was puffing out his chest a little bit.  "Yup - I went deer hunting with Mama and Daddy and carried my BB Gun.  I didn't see anything and... sigh.. didn't get a shot off."  I thought that was hilarious! Spoken like a true hunter.)

Here are the kids in the bedroom at Nana and Papa's.  The "new" farm as Evan still calls their new house for almost a year.  The sleeping arrangements were hard for them.  Tim and I took one of the double beds, yet Emma REFUSED to sleep with Evan in the other one. So, we made her a floor bed and talked and ooohed and aaahed about her floor bed to make her excited about it. She was, so it worked.  It came back to haunt us though as then Evan wanted a floor bed. So - for one of the nights, the other double bed was unoccupied and we had two floor sleepers.

Then - come back to the beginning of December which means... The Advent Calendar!  And - if you look closely, you will see our Elf on the Shelf Michaela!  The kids love having her there and finding her in the morning.  We have had a bit of a struggle with the "no touching the elf rule" but overall, they do okay.  Until we found the elf laying on the kitchen floor with the "I didn't do it!"  look.

That's about it for now!  We got our Christmas tree over the weekend and decorated the house.  The kids have been outside playing in the snow when it isn't subzero and are eagerly awaiting the holiday!  Me too :-)