Happy St. Nicholas Day!

It's so nice to take a break from Advent sacrifices to enjoy some stocking treats!

Happy 8th Birthday, Cecilia!

She was up early and eager to celebrate. We made her a birthday pie, as she requested, and she opened family gifts after patiently waiting for older siblings to wake up.

She built some legos and then went on outings with her older sisters. But she started to wilt while out and by the time she came back was obviously coming down with something. By mid afternoon she was running fever and napping on the couch. So sad!

She came down with something last year on her birthday. This is not a great birthday tradition!

Just for fun...the redheads all have a thing for Salt and Vinegar chips. This was them enjoying some together yesterday.

We sure hope our birthday girl feels better soon!

Sports Photos

 We finally received all the kids' fall photos back from school/sports. I sure love these faces!

Christ the King and Thanksgiving

Stephen served the Solemnity of Christ the King with Manus Dei. It was a beautiful mass.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Lita's with Auntie Carol and Auntie Laura and sqeuezed in a fun surprise birthday celebration for Auntie Laura while we were there.

Barn Dance and a Puppy

We had a great time at the Lil' Wranglers Barn Dance. I absolutely love seeing the kids dance, and it is always so fun to watch their new routines for the first time. They both did great, and we enjoyed the dance afterwards.

Earlier in the day, while they were at practice near Allia's place, the other kids and I stopped in for a visit. I received a mysterious phone call from Austin while we were there about some cute puppies somebody was giving away at Lowe's. The kids were in disbelief, as he has stated many times we will never get another dog. We went home later that day, anxious to see if he had decided to get one or not.

It turns out a girl puppy, whom we named Marcy, stole his heart. She is a great dane/bloodhound mix. So she is already huge for a puppy and will get much bigger. She is also a bit Bougie. He bought her a dog bed, and we decided to keep her on the back porch while she acclimates and we have more time to check the fences for holes, etc. Apparently it wasn't comfortable enough. Because when we returned from Barn Dance, we discovered she had gone to the other side of the porch, stolen the cat's bed off his perch, and pulled it over to hers!

HOCO

 And then the teens had Hoco this evening. What a day!

Fun visit

 After morning sports, we got to spend some time with sweet cousins at Manah's house. It was so sweet...Ryder really wanted the kids to be at his birthday party (His birthday is in a month or two). So we made a party for he and Ada at Manah's house.