Cousins pj photo session...help me!

For your viewing enjoyment...a window into my thanksgiving and now christmas adventure with the macfadyens.

gobble gobble...

Last Friday Quade had his little thanksgiving program. it was super cute..it was a combination performance from songs he learned in his music class and things he's learned from Bodyrhythmics.
There is a video clip that one of the mom's posted on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/debtex

wearing his Indian headdress

quade with his class and his teacher

myself and another mom were in charge of the thanksgiving party. She made these adorable little sandwiches that looked like turkey they had peas for eyes cheese for a beak and cut up pepperoni for a waddle then she had peppers and parsley for the feathers

A family tradition...a little early

Even before kids, the weekend after thanksgiving Bruce and I would crank the christmas music, warm up some wassel, and put up the christmas tree and decorations.
When Quade was born the tradition continued...as a baby he watched us from his swing, as a toddler he helped me put balls on the tree ("more ba") and last year he enjoyed helping out a little more.
This year i had two active helpers...AND we put up the tree before thanksgiving.
We were going to be away for awhile after thanksgiving b/c bruce's oldest sister is having a c-section and we wanted to stick around.
Then we head out of town early for christmas. So i realized that if i waited until the weekend after thanksgiving we'd only have the tree up for less than 2 weeks before we had to take it down.
Thus the early christmas tree decorating...it was a simpler and more fun process this year.

The traditional family pic in front of the tree

Quade decided that most of the ornaments should go in this lower quadrant.

proud of his work

nothing like a good cup of wassel!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Girls can be fun!

A month ago we had our sweet little niece, Makenna, come stay with us
for the night. We had a great time and it was nice to put bows in hair...but don't be fooled this girl can hold her own with those boys.

that's a lot of britax in one car!

ahhh...well said, well said...i feel the burden lifting

A friend just forwarded a clipping from a newspaper Q&A article.

The reason i'm posting this is b/c it made me feel better today. Days can be long, especially when you have the kids from the moment they wake-up until you put them to bed.

I'm not posting it to make my friends without kids feel bad or to make stay-at-home moms look like saints...i'm just hoping it will make someone else who is tired...feel a little better. =)

I don't know if anyone can read it but here is my favorite part:

"When you have young kids your typical day is:

constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest to be declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing nap times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired, or bored, any of which could produce check-out line screaming.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from your family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief to everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while constantly teaching virtually everything-language, manners, resourcefulness, safety, discipline, creativity, curiosity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes and a JOY!!

But if you spend all day, every day with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you or marvel at how much more productively she uses her time."

something about this article just made me feel so much better today!

gotta love democracy and dentistry

This morning we got the boys dressed and hopped in the car to get to our polling location as close to 7 am as possible (to beat the lines).
Unlike your stereotypical voting location at a school gymnasium, we vote at a nursing home. I love it b/c the residents enjoy seeing our boys and it is such a warm environment (this morning it was actually HOT in the voting room, but that's another story).

Quade is a definite "swing voter". He's been saying he is voting for Obama...then today he decided he was a "CuhCain" guy. He kept telling everyone in the voting area that that's who he was voting for...i'm sure that breaks some rule, somehow.

I'm the precinct chair for our precinct for Dan Branch's campaign. So when we left the building i noticed there were no Branch signs. So i ran home grabbed signs, came back to the polling location, and then stayed to hand out "push cards" (pamphlets about Rep Branch).

Then we headed to the dentist for Quade's first cleaning. Thanks Christy for an awesome recommendation!! it was FABULOUS!! quade didn't shed a single tear. they were perfect! AND....

They had a voting booth set up for kids so that they could vote for the president! it was completely enclosed, had pictures of the 2 presidential candidates, voting ballots and a box to put them in. Quade LOVED being able to vote (since he was disappointed this morning when he wasn't allowed to vote for CuhCain.
He was so excited to use the pen to mark his choice and put it in the box.
They said they would have the voting results on their website tomorrow...such a great idea!!

After the dentist we headed back to the polling location to pass out more push cards.
we came home for naps...when the boys wake up we'll try to go back and pass out more cards.
Then tonight bruce and i are going to a GOP watch party...should be interesting.

Go eat some free ice cream (ben & jerrys), free donuts (krispy kreme) and drink some free coffee (starbucks) to celebrate our freedoms!!