Home Life

We hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving!  We sure did!  The day started off with Angela and Brittany running the 2009 Naperville Turkey Trot 5K.  They had a great time and although it was a little chilly, it could have been much colder!

We all then cleaned up the house, started cooking the turkey, got some relish trays together and waited for our guests to come celebrate with us.  We had 2 families come over so there were about 16 people here.  It was great to sit around and visit, play games, and have some WONDERFUL FOOD!  We ended up having 2 turkeys, 1 of which was cajun injected and deep fried which was fabulous!  We also had stuffing, potatoes, rolls, all kinds of appetizers, 7-layer Jell-o, and much more!

For dessert, we ended up having about 7 or 8 pies for the 16 of us!  We had double-layer pumpkin, apple, blueberry, regular pumpkin, french silk, pumpkin roll, and a couple of others!  Talk about full!

For an activity, we drew a featherless turkey and had everyone write what they were thankful for on paper feathers and tape them on the turkey.  Kirstyn was in charge of that and she had a great time collecting the feathers.  It was fun to read what everyone was thankful for!

At this time of year, we are very thankful for all the blessings we have.  We consider ourselves very lucky (and blessed) to be in the situation we are when there are so many out there who are out of work or otherwise struggling.  We are working hard as a family to always remember to be greatful for all our blessings!

Today, the Comcast cable installer came and hooked us up with new internet access (cable with up to 20 Mb download), new internet phone, and a huge cable package of over 300 channels (HD included), and an HD DVR!  We are very excited!  We were on Dish Network, AT&T DSL, and standard phone service and were paying about $30 more per month.  The only thing we’re missing is the BYU channel!  The phone is working wonderfully well, despite my concerns of being internet-based.  We’ll see how this goes!

Today we went to a memorial to veterans in downtown Naperville.  At the park by the carillon tower, they had over 2000 flags set up, honoring those who had fought for the freedoms of our country.  This was in conjunction with Veterans Day last week.  It was cool to see all the flags set up and to read some of the tags associated with the flags.  Benjamin loved it and was quite excited to see all that color!

After working on getting the house clean after a long week, Sarah got picked up for a babysitting job, Brittany babysat Kirstyn, Ben, and Zach, and Angela and I went to the Raketic family’s home for Eric’s 40th birthday party.  We had a good time.  It was a beautiful night and the actual party was outside around their fire pit.  They kept things nice and toasty warm and we ate lots of food and had some wonderful conversation!

We just picked up new portraits of our kids today.  We decided not to have the school pictures this year so we went to the studio to have them done.  That way, all the backgrounds looked the same.  Ben doesn’t have his yet but will soon.  The girls also got a shot of them as well.  When Ben goes, I think Zach and he will have a “brothers” picture done as well.

It’s really amazing to see how fast these kids are growing up!  In just 3 years, we will have a child in college, a child in high school, a child in middle school, a child in elementary, and a child in pre-school!  How’s that for freaky!  🙂

Well, fall is here and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any warmer!  It’s been cold and/or rainy for the past 2 weeks.  The leaves are starting to turn colors and it’s very beautiful.  The only problem with the leaves starting to turn is that we know winter will be here soon!  🙁  It has been an unusually cold year and we have had crazy weather.  So much for global warming!  This year has been one of the coolest in the record books!  🙂  I guess people will have to start thinking about global cooling maybe?

The picture to the left is of one of the many trees in our neighborhood turning colors.  A bunch of the trees are the same type, so it looks like our neighborhood’s trees are on fire!  🙂  There are many leaves to rake and bag and the boys really enjoy this!  They love getting out in the leaves, raking them into piles, jumping in them, and then throwing them around the yard at each other again.  I don’t think they ever get anything bagged, but it sure is fun to watch them!  🙂

Well, Zach’s first soccer season is over.  He played his last game today!  When we got up and got ready to go, it was raining a little outside and it was very cold.  Then it turned to SNOW!  Looks like global warming is alive and well!  🙂  We bundled him up and we went and played!  I was kind of hoping that it would stay snowing but it didn’t and the field was just wet.  That would have made for some GREAT pictures!

Of the 8 kids, only 4 showed up (probably because the other families thought the game would be canceled or the kids were cold and just didn’t want to come).  The other team had as many and they played with no goalies and smaller goals.  They lost, so their season record was 1 and 2.  At least the team won one game.  🙂  It was very cold and with the weather the way it’s been, I think that the kids and the parents are glad that there aren’t more games to be played!  😐

After the game, the team and individual pictures were handed out.  Unfortunately, 3 of our players were missing from the pictures…

Great season Zachary!  You are a GREAT little soccer player!

Sarah got her official Metea Valley High School Marching Mustangs band picture back today and we wanted to post it as soon as possible!  She had so much fun and really enjoyed it.  Sarah is on the top row on the right-hand side, next to the directors…

Even though the band was small this year, they really had a LOT of fun and she said it was WAY better than last year!  🙂