Can't resist a scarf

We visited my sister in Sweden two summers ago and the temperature change was shocking! Houston to Gothenberg and a 40F shift! I was pregant so the change was welcome but I did find myself shivering when we were out and about. I noticed that everyone in Sweden wears scarves. So somewhere along the way I bought one. I know everyone else already know this but scarves are magical! With the right scarf, you don't need a bulky jacket! Neck warm=body warm. You can wear a totally cute top (even short sleeved sometimes) and won't have to cover it up with a coat! My sister explained all of this to me but I didn't really believe her. I'm officially a believer and totally addicted to scarves now. I'm starting Lucy early- no need for her to wait until she's in her 30's. :)

We went to Missouri for Thanksgiving. It was awesome! The car ride was long but not that bad. We did the drive in about 13 hours and agreed that it's better to just do it in one day and be done with it! The hotel made mistake on our reservation and gave us two rooms to make up for it. That totally made a difference. Having enough beds and two bathrooms and two TV's... yep- that helps. The kids were great and it was so fun to see the fam in MO.

Everyone made us feel so welcome and it was fun to see the kids play.

Highlights: The Food- amazing. Pretty sure I gained several pounds from soup, bread, pesole, Brenda's awesome pizza, a fabulous Thanksgiving feast, Nate's pumpkin pie (pretty much the best I've ever had!)..., A trip to the Botanical Gardens- this is my dream job someday. Plants make me so happy, A trip to the zoo. I think the Goliath Spider was my favorite (it eats birds and frogs!), Playing games like Tetris, Blokus and Phase 10, singing Christmas carols around the piano (Dang- my family can sing! I loved Lullay Thou Tiny Child, Angels We Have Heard on High, and all the Primary Christmas songs, Listening to Curtis and John rock out in the music room, watching Rachel's movie, just talking and laughing.

As always we were glad to be in our own beds again but this was a great trip. So glad we could make these memories!

Halloween... I know- I take WAY too long to post!

Mom and Dad: didn't dress up. We haven't in several years and we're still riding the fame wave of our costumes of the past. I'll have to post those some time- great memories!

Jonah: Undercover agent Elmo. He and his friends always make fun of Elmo and he wanted to do something silly so he came up with that idea. The only problem- they don't make Elmo costumes bigger than size 4T and there was no way I was going to try to make it. So he squeezed into a toddler size and had a ball. He won "Best Costume" at our church Halloween party

Isaac: Ice Wolf Ninja. Do I need to say more?

Daniel: Knight in Shining Armor! I found his costume at Costco had to buy it. It's awesome and he loved it

Lucy: I didn't know if she would be walking or not and kept waiting to decide. I had this cute tutu I made with some friends from church but I only wanted her to wear it if she was walking. I was also waiting to see what the weather would be. Usually it's pretty hot here on Halloween but this year it was actually a bit cold. Anyway, the day before Halloween I still didn't have anything. Checked Old Navy and found a cat costume for $2!! I'm not really a cat fan so I alterred the costume a bit so she could be a bunny. Because who doesn't love bunnies? :)

Our neighbors all gathered in our driveway for pizza and snacks. Then we divided up and went around the neighborhood. It was a little chilly but the kids had a ball and of course came home with lots of booty! The next day Isaac and Daniel were literally bouncing off the walls so we took the rest of their candy and gave it to the school. The End!

Flag Football

Curtis and I aren't big football fans. There's sort of a thug mentality there that is a real turnoff. It's also huge in Texas. Buuuuut... our boys LOVE to play. They have a neighborhood gang that plays out in the cul-de-sac most days after school. So we searched around to find a league that didn't annoy us too much! We found I9sports. It's a nationwide franchise that does lots of sports and we LOVED it. Probably the biggest pro was that practices are right before games on Saturday mornings. Nothing during the week- perfect! While Jonah practiced we watched Isaac's game and then everyone watched Jonah play. The boys had a great time and we really appreciated all the emphasis on working hard and playing fair. We didn't do any of the coaching this time and there were no fundraisers or pointless meetings. About halfway through the season Curtis looked at me one day and said "Wow- this league has honestly been a pleasure." Flag football is great because it's not as agressive as tackle. The boys really enjoyed all the different plays and learning the rules. Both scored several touchdowns and it was fun to watch their confidence grow.

I have to brag for a moment because each team (10 players) gives out 3 special awards at the end of the season. Jonah and Isaac were both awarded "Best Sportsmanship." Their coaches said they worked hard, got along with everyone and were willing to play any position. So we will definitely do it again. Daniel is signed up for winter soccer- this will be his first sport ever and I think it will be so great for him to finally be the one on the field with the whole family cheering on the sidelines. :) We'll keep you posted!

Lucy Turns One!!

Daddy's girl? yep

Day Trip to Brazos Bend

We decided to head out to Brazos Bend one Saturday to see the alligators. No luck- turns out you have to come in the spring for all the action. We've been too scared in the past to go but decided that since thousands of visitors go each year and no one has died yet- that it's probably safe. Unfortunately it was too hot- so no gators and we melted. Thank goodness for the awesome visitors center. They had baby alligators, snakes and tons of cool fossils and rocks to look at. We had a great time. Until next spring...

Hangin with Tara and Rubin!

We got together with Tara and Rubin a few times at the end of summer and it was so fun to be with their cute family! Kasianna is a little charmer and baby Jonah is so adorable! We did some swimming and went to the children's museum. Love the pic by the cow. I think Lucy is saying "Not this kind!!!!"

School Starts

We booked it back from Utah (return trip is too painful to recount- just a blur of eating lots of Twizzlers, Twix, pop, chips, fast food, hearing Lucy cry and the boys fight... yep, let's not talk about it anymore.

Anyway, all the boys are in school this year!! I can't believe it. They don't have half day Kinder here, which really stresses me out. But the good news is that the teachers are great and they let the kids rest and have snacks and it seems to be going pretty well. On the first day of school all the other kids at Daniel's table were crying. :( He actually held it together pretty well.

All the boys like their teachers so far, which is great. Jonah actually has 4 different teachers- he's only in 4th grade. This kind of drives me crazy. I know it's less work for the teachers but it's a lot for the kids to juggle. Jonah's also in challenge this year, which means he has to catch up on one day of schoolwork each week. So far it seems to be working and he loves the "thinking outside the box" aspect of challenge. Isaac LOVES his teacher this year. She is terrific. I'm so impressed with Isaac. He works so hard and it really pays off. His reading is totally taking off- he's almost to the point of being able to read an A to Z mystery by himself! Yea!!

I have been volunteering for various activities in the boys' classrooms but it is so hard to be everwhere at once. Especially since there is a strict no sibling policy. Arghh! I'm reading "The Boxcar Children" to Jonah's class and painting a ceramic piece for Daniel's. I get to read to Isaac's class in a couple of weeks, which will be fun. I've forgotten a few impt things this year and they all have happened with Isaac's teacher- I know she thinks I'm a total flake. Arghh!

Kuddos to me, I haven't let the kids buy lunch once this year. Partly because I can't be bothered to set up their lunch account and partly b/c I'm trying to make up for last year. They bought a LOT! I found some awesome water bottles for them here. I'm trying not to use so many bags that get thrown away and have found some good tupperware pieces that are working pretty well. Okay, that's all.

NF's in Utah

Church in Utah

Cute cousins all ready for church. Me and Steph

Stop in Moab on the way to visit Rich and Steph

So we are crazy. We decided on a Wednesday to go to Utah and left Friday morning. We have never really traveled more than 8 or 9 hours- not with kids anyway. Crazy. I can now officially say New Mexico is my least favorite state. ugh! I love DVD's in cars. Somehow I talked Curtis into listening to "Twilight" on CD. How was I supposed to know that the narrator had the most irritating voice on the planet and her interpretation of Edward's "velevet voice" was almost enough to make me not love him. To Curt's credit, we listened to the whole thing and he agreed that it wasn't the worst book he ever listened to. Score 1 for Cathy!

We ate really well on the way there. I had a huge tupperware of cut of watermelon and canteloup and another of fresh veggies. Lots of crackers, cheese and yogurt and water bottles for everyone. The kids were actually pretty good- minus some wrestling matches in the backseat. The main problem is that Curtis and I aren't great travelers. I get a serious headache when I drive for more than a couple of hours and Curt's back cannot take too much time sitting up. waaahhh. I know- we're old.

We had fun driving through Cortez- which of course always makes me think of my old BFF Naom. She called us a millino times to give us tips and tell us interesting facts about CO and that area. Love ya Naom!

Anyway we stopped in Moab for a couple of hours on the second day and it was so beautiful and amazing to just sit in the grass without fire ants attacking! The best part was that Lucy randomly started crawling for the first time. i think it was an automatic response to being locked in a carseat for 20 hours!

Working on this

I discovered an awesome tutorial for making a cathedral quilt here. I decided to give it a go. Here is what I have so far. I can't decide how to finish off the edges. Should I put a border around it? Just white, maybe a cute brown and white polka dot? Can't decide...

Lucy Eats Dirt

Minnesota & Ontario

So we went back to Minnesota and Canada this summer for a visit. It was so great to see our family and old friends there. In many ways Minnetonka feels like home to me. We lived there for almost 9 years, had our first three children there and LOVED our friends, neighbors, church, school, co-op... Guess I still miss it a bit. We decided to fly into Minneapolis and then rented a car to drive the 8 hours to Dryden. The car ride wasn't bad. We forgot how beautiful Minnesota is. We stopped in Orr at our favorite little hotel there. It's an AmericInn with a pool and really fun water slide. We all went swimming and had a great time! No trouble at the border this time and no moose or deer sightings on that crazy last 2 hour stretch. :)














We had a great time at Granny Turners. She set up Granny's boot camp in the basement for our boys and their cousins, Clint and Tyler. They had a ball. The weather was pretty awful and Jonah's allergies to the cats were pretty bad but we still enjoyed long walks, good talks, a few games of Quiddler, great food including Granny's blueberry cheesecake and Great Gran Brisson's rhubarb pie. Yum! The wedding the beautiful and Sara and Jonathon looked so happy. It was really great to see so many memebers of the Brisson clan- we even got a picture with a LOT of us there! Later that week, we took a freezing dip into lake Wabegoon (so cold I couldn't form words), enjoyed some kayaking and a great meal by Suzie and Rod. One of my favorite moments was when all the kids were rocking out to "Eye of the Tiger" on Noah and Olexa's Rock Band game. They were singing like they meant it.














We drove back to Minneapolis and stayed there for 3 days, catching up with old friends. Jonah was reunited with his 4 Kinder/1st grade buddies from Groveland. It was so fun to see how big all the kids have gotten. I LOVED seeing the hydrangeas on Vine Hill Road- absolutely amazing! We hung out at Wekota beach for an afternoon and spent a day at the Thomas' where of course we were fed well and had lots of laughs. It was good to get back to our own beds and out of a suitcase but dang- we miss our friends/family in the North.