The First Week of December

What a week it has been!! Which I should have expected, as the weekend before was quite wild....but I didn't.
Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful! We got to be with my family (even got to stay overnight!) on Thursday and Joel's family on Friday and Saturday. Since Joel's family celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday, we got to have 2 Thanksgivings!! I loved it. I think we all did. There is so much to be thankful for!

The kids had such a wonderful time. They love animals so much, but with mine and DD's allergies, we rarely get to be around them.
YS got brave enough to pet the dogs, but he was initially very scared of Grandpa's new puppy. He tried valiantly to run away from her, and managed to fall down right on top of her!! I wish we'd had a camera in hand for that one!



DD had her very first riding lesson; and loved every second of it! She can hardly wait to go back for another. ES had a short one too, but I think he had more fun rolling around in the dirt with the new puppy while DD was on the horse. :-)

I was so busy on Friday and Saturday, I completely forgot to take any pictures. Which was lame b/c Cousin Owen was there, and I didn't get any photos. I'll have to ask Uncle B for some copies....

So last week, the kids and I got back into schoolwork (which was harder than I expected for some reason...) and swim lessons, and PE Co-0p. With the kids being completely worn out from the trip, and myself not far behind them, it was a busy week. YS finally got caught up on his sleep yesterday-- his first nap in 2 weeks! Ya know, my first 2 didn't prepare me for a child that would be done with naps immediately after his second birthday. *sigh* I wish I had their energy and rubber-quality body capabilities sometimes!!! *wink*

I was hopeful that yesterday would be calm and relaxing and quiet. We actually intended to go to the Portland Children's Museum, as we finally got a pass from Multnomah County Library (you can actually put them on hold, and get them when available!!), but- this is what we did instead:

My brand-new-used washing machine.


And this is why:

This is the motor of my old washing machine. See the 2 little white things in the foreground? They are supposed to be one little white piece.

This is where those pieces came from.

So Happy Birthday to me-9 days early!

I have to go to church now. I'll tell you about the knitting another day. ;-)