Happy Post-Thanksgiving!!

Happy belated Thanksgiving!!
We had a wonderful vegan Thanksgiving with lots of family. Did I mention...vegan? Yes, it has been great to have sooo many vegetarians and vegans in my family. I am the oldest of 8 kids and pretty much all of us now are either vegetarian or vegan, except for my brother Vince (the priest/monk), who basically just eats whatever he is served in the monastary. However during Lent he also is vegan. Our parents are also vegetarian, although my dad is only that way because there is no meat in the house anymore :)

Even though many people can not imagine a Thanksgiving without turkey...it has been wonderful and there are plenty of delicious recipes. We had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potato souffle, beans and other greens, tofurkey (a wheat gluten/soy dish), gravy, baked brussel sprouts and lots of pies and desserts!! Yum!

Anyways, we had a great day, and drove to Columbus, which is where we have been having Thanksgivings for the past few years. My sister, Christy and husband Luke are the Thanksgiving hosts, and with their new house, the settings were just lovely.


The cousins had a wonderful time playing together.


The BIG news of the day was that my brother, John, and his wife, Stacy, announced some WONDERFUL news!! Yes...my kids are getting another cousin!
John and Stacy are ADOPTING a baby from Haiti! This is the program they are going through for their Haiti Adoption.
They are hoping to have the baby home by next Christmas. They are requesting a baby girl, because Haiti, like China, tends to devalue its girls. Haiti is the 2nd poorest country in the world, and an orphan girl would have no future there at all. So, we say, "Get her outta there and bring her to the USA!!"
John and Stacy...we are soooooo excited for you!!


Isaiah got to sit at the "Adult Table" this year...what a big boy!!


The other kids all sat together at the "kids table" with lovely "hand"-made name-cards made my cousins, Emma and Eliza. Very cute!


Elliot, with his Nurse/Nanny, Fatsy. We brought 2 of our dogs, Fatsy and Morgan, with us to Columbus. The other 4 dogs stayed with a dog-sitter and at the Barkley Hotel.


The girls were all so cute, playing dress-up.

Updates....

Since my last posting, Elliot has been calling my name all the time. I hear "Mama, mama, mama!" quite often now. It is his newest and best trick. He now knows when he calls me I come running to hold him. He's a lover. We tried feeding Elliot some rice cereal this past week, as well as some carrots, and both times it did not go too well. I thought he would love eating solids, but he seemed not ready for it, and would not swallow the food...and pretty much spit everything out. I am going to take a break and maybe try again in a couple weeks. He is still being fed by me...100% nursing and loving it! Look at those thighs...he is not missing any meals.

Isaiah and Oliver are doing basketball this winter. Jeremy decided to take a break from sports, since Football really wore him out this past Fall. My Dad (their grandpa) will be coaching both boys' teams. Ken will be assisting. Today, they had basketball skills and team picking. Here's hoping to a good season!

Isaiah has also been taking a Pre-Algebra class from my Dad, a former high school math teacher. My dad has been teaching both pre-algebra and algebra to homeschoolers in the area. We are so proud of Isaiah, since this Pre-Algebra class is quite challenging. Isaiah is only in 6th grade, and this is an 8th grade class that he is taking. He has been very good about doing all his homework on his own, without us having to ask.

Kateri is still busy with Gymnastics and she recently moved up again to a higher division. It will be weird when she actually is in competitions, which is her goal in the next couple years.

Luanna is loving her dance class with Ms. Noreen. This is her 2nd year in dance and she is doing great in her class, and it is good to see her developing some independence from her sister.




Next week is our last week of Homeschool Co-op for this year. We will start up again in January. We homeschoolers like to finish the co-op before Thanksgiving, as the holidays are always busy for families. The kids have all enjoyed their classes, mainly taking a lot of art and phys ed classes this year. I can't believe Thanksgiving is coming up so soon! Christmas will be here before you know it.


...And yes we are still fostering Albert the beagle/hound. He loves to lazily lounge on on sofas, and he has great flappy lips. We've had him for 4 1/2 months now. Oooh oh!

"Mama, Mama, Mama!!"

Last night, Elliot said his first word! Can you guess what it was?

He was soooo cute! I put him on my bed to play with some toys, as I was getting ready for bed. I went into the bathroom and I could hear, as clear as anything..."Mama! Mama! Mama!". I rushed into the bedroom, very excited to see him as he uttered his 1st word, and met Ken, who was running upstairs, also very excited to see little Elliot talking! We were met with smiles and excitement from Elliot, who was quite proud of himself. Since then, he has been calling to me "Mama!" all day long today...at the car service station, on the way home in his carseat, and pretty much all day today at home. All the other kids have been so excited to hear his little vioce talking. And, he is so proud of his words too. I am so excited that he chose "Mama" as his first word. He is sooooo smart! I think he is my youngest talker. At only 6 months old, he is a real genius!

Elliot is 6 months old!

Lots is going on.....here are cute photos and fun captions:

Elliot was 6 months old on November 1st. Here he is in all his glory. I love his chunky legs and big smile! He is sitting up great on his own, and he is a very strong guy. I bet he'd be moving alot if he was not so heavy...so he stays grounded...the way I like it! He is pretty much always smiling when he is with me...he's a very jovial baby!


We had lots of fun on Halloween! Ken and the kids always have fun making the pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern, which they always do the night before Halloween. On Halloween, Isaiah and Jeremy were Alien brothers, Oliver was Iron Man, Kateri was a Victorian Princess, Luanna was an Angel and Elliot was a frog. The weather was perfect and warm that night, as we all went trick or treating, and later visited both sets of Grandparents.



Setting off on Halloween night...to start getting all that candy!


Ha! I bet you all thought that Isaiah was the taller one under that alien mask...and it was Jeremy!

Dad and Elliot, trick-or-treating on a warm October night.


Isaiah getting attacked by a spider!


Last night, was our first meeting night with our Daisy Girl Scout troop! We had a lot of fun, as we all met the girls for the 1st time. We have a great group of very nice girls. We are very excited to keep this troop going and have a lot of fun things planned for them. My co-leader, Lori, brought in some pots, soil and seed and the girls planted an indoor garden with marigolds and basil. We had about 13 girls last night, and a few could not make it. So, we will have a pretty large troop, with about 16-18 girls. I also recruited some of my sisters to help out. Kateri and Luanna were soooo excited for their 1st Daisy Girl Scout meeting.



Here are Kateri & Luanna making goofy, excited faces before their Daisy meeting.