We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. We had our first "us only" Thanksgiving, it was not planned that way, but my brother called early on Thursday to inform us that he was sick so they wouldn't be coming over. We were a little disapointed but we had a good day anyway.

Can someone just cut the turkey please?

Sam just keeps eating and eating and......

We ate dinner and then had the traditional after dinner football game, though this time it was the traditional after dinner football game with snow and ice on the ground. I'm not sure but I think the snow was probably thrown more than the football.



Hike one! two! three!

Football Heroes???


Mary lookin' cute!

Go!

James. Captain..

We ended the day with dessert, I cooked the dinner but Ron and the kids are in charge of pies. This year they made pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cheesecake and brownies. Anybody want to guess what the kids decided would be a good breakfast today???

Snow covered house

James clearing the driveway- he's getting pretty good!

the treehouse with a dusting of snow

First, thank you to those who leave comments. It's nice to know that you are "dropping by" for a visit!

John walking in the forest

This week we are seeing more snow and some of it is actually sticking around for a while. The little kids are hoping for a 'blizzard' so they can go out and use the sleds but I think that may take awhile. It is kind of neat to look outside and see the grass covered with snow.

Faithy looking in through the back door

I know that it will get old and the words "it's snowing" will at some point bring a groan but for now it's exciting!

Thomas turned 16 on Sunday so between running around outside and playing in the snow we celebrated with dinner, cake and brrr..... ice cream. Thomas also got to enjoy his "breakfast of choice" the burrito- eggs, potatoes, sausage, cheese and salsa. We also made chocolate chip cookies for the youth service, I don't know if the cookies were any good, but they were gone!

Happy 16th Birthday Thomas!

The kids are making a few friends here, the pastor's son also a David is a fun kid and is frequently found with David, John and Sam. Sunday it was snowing outside during church, we have to be there for both services so it was pure torture to just watch it come down. After service they all headed out to pelt each other with snowballs.

Aaron in the forest

They can usually be found out in the field by the church playing football or running after each other. David was here tonight and the house was rattling with the lasar-sword fighting (Pryer's always swordfight) wrestling, and nerf guns. The kids were confined to the downstairs bedrooms. Bedlam!

I've been keeping an eye on California weather and the fires. Praying that God brings you cooler weather and some humidity. Those smokey days are no fun.

Snow!

Today as we got ready to leave for our Junior Bible quiz meet in Muskegon it began to snow. Huge snowflakes that looked more like the soap bubbles at the Terra Bella mall in Huntington Beach than the snow I imagined I would see. Last year, OCMA played at Terra Bella and we were treated to a snowfall that looked a whole lot like what we saw this morning.

The kids were so excited and all ran out to play in it. It didn't last, only about 15 minutes and of course it was followed by a drenching rain so there is nothing to see of it now. It is supposed to snow again tomorrow.

Aaron getting soaked before the meet! Frozen Sam!

Frank was unimpressed!

The mornings are very cool as you can imagine and cold cereal just doesn't cut it so I take advantage of our oven a lot. Today I made Baked Oatmeal. It is heavy enough to stick but tastes a million times better than hot cereal. Could be all the sugar hmmm......

Thomas looks a lot like James in this picture!

Baked Oatmeal

1 stick of butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups oats

1 and 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup milk (I use buttermilk- the kids won't drink it so it is safe in the fridge!)

Mix the butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Add the dry ingredients and follow with the milk

pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 35-40 minutes
That's the basic recipe, I usually double it and add 2 chopped apples. Today I increased the flour to 3 cups and instead of apple added a large can of pumpkin, a tsp of ginger and a tsp of nutmeg. I also added a tsp of baking soda.

It turned out well and instead of bringing our usual granola bars to quiz for snacks the kids opted to bring the leftover squares of baked oatmeal. Needless to say we will be using this variation again. I may add raisins and nuts next time.

The best part is that house gets warmed up and it's cheaper than packaged cereal. I am looking for a good source of oats around here. I may check out Costco while the kids are at band on Wednesday.

David, Faith and Aaron did well at the quiz meet winning all of their games in the round robin. I quiz mastered in the Novice division which was fun. We have our teen quiz and our JBQ on different Saturdays so now Ron and I can both help at the meets. The big kids are helping with our novice team and they also official at the meets. Mary and James were at Youth Convention for this meet and they just got home. Mary hasn't stopped talking about it yet, I think it was a success!

Keep praying for our country and President - elect Obama, it wasn't the outcome I hoped for but God is in control.

Tuesday!

The tree house now that the leaves are gone. That's Sam!

Studying Hard at the Home School Building where the kids take band.

Okay guys, did you get out and vote? Ron, James, and I all went down this morning and cast our ballots. For James this was his first opportunity to vote and if pictures were allowed I probably would have taken one!

Not that it was without problems. Ron and James were on the list, but my name was not there. We had to wait for the town clerk to come to the polling place and straighten it all out. I did have my voter registration card and my new Michigan drivers license and I was added by hand to the list. Hopefully by the time we vote again I'll be on the list.

Our polling place is the township's new fire station and we were surprised to see a line to vote at 8 am. We met some of our neighbors for the first time and checked in with a lady from our church. Much different than our experiences in California where there is almost silence as you enter the room, the fire station was full of smiling happy people greeting each other and celebrating their right to vote.

Mary got a new sticker for her scripture portion, a tradition from each election as she grabs my "I voted" sticker. This year's sticker is pretty cool and as you can see, Mary's scripture portion is filling up.

Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Pray, then vote, then pray some more. I don't know what God is going to do with this election. I do know that regardless of who is elected that God is still on the throne.

there are still a few trees still holding onto their leaves.

The young evergreens are getting some much needed sunshine.