Thanksgiving

Well today is Cyber Monday which means we have completed the 2016 Thanksgiving festivities.  We celebrated at home this year with our family of 6 and our best friends family.  We call it our Friendsgiving dinner.  It has become sort of a tradition.  Neither of us have family in the area and love spending the holiday together and have done it for the past several years.  We have spent the holiday at their home, at our home, and at an extended stay hotel after our friend's heart transplant.  We have made many memories together and are hopefully able to continue to do so for years to come.  Who did you spend Thanksgiving dinner with this year?

In years past I have spent the holiday in Minnesota with my father's side of the family.  I love the traditions that form over years and years of family holiday gatherings: swedish meatballs in the white bowl with black polka-dots, the marble game while dinner is cooking,  coffee and pastries for breakfast at the lodge, and meeting the new members of our ever growing family.  I always feel like this gathering is one that goes off without a hitch, every time.  My aunts are pros at hosting a flawless family gathering.  Everyone visits, laughs and enjoys the day in a calm, warm, and inviting environment.  I aspire to host like these women some day.  I love that the lodge where we hold Thanksgiving now (no longer at Grandma's as our family is too large and overwhelming for her to host us all) sets right at the edge of Mille Lacs Lake.  The water will be partially frozen and snow most likely on the ground.  The air will smell crisply of bitter cold and lake water while the lodge smells of yummy treats, roasting turkey and 2 dozen different sides.  Children playing, cousins catching up and grandma watching over us all.  Cherished memories are made on days like these.

I have also spent the holiday in Arkansas with my mother's side of the family.  There are also southern traditions that have developed:  Uncle Rick's yummy yeast rolls, old movies playing in the living room, Grandpa yelling about... something.  The atmosphere here is different but equally enjoyable.  My southern family has a way of filling up an entire room, floor to ceiling and wall to wall.  12 people setting at a table will be having 14 different conversations with 10 people talking at once and no one knowing what anyone else is saying.  It is one of my favorite things to just set and listen without speaking and try to follow all of the strands of conversation and the criss-crossing of conversational lines as someone inevitably answers someone else who was not speaking to them and then the chaos ensues.

Now that I am a mother of 4 and live 400 miles from my parents I have begun to host Thanksgiving at home with friends and sometimes family that travel every year to two to join us.  I can only hope that my girls will experience traditions as they form, fond and funny family moments and cherished memories as I did at our Thanksgiving dinners over the years.  I will always have those memories and hope to build many more with my girls.  I am thankful for that.  I hope my girls will remember that we always have Grandma Suzie's stuffing, Nana's 7 layer bars and Daddy's stinky smoked oysters.  I hope they notice that I always use the square white serving platter for the Turkey.  I pray they remember setting out our Thanksgiving decor right after Halloween and all of the fun and crazy times we have together.

What are you thankful for?  What are your family traditions?  Where do you spend Thanksgiving?

I hope that you enjoy this holiday as much as I do and take the time to slow down and look around.  Make a mental note of the people, the dishes served, the games played and the stories told.  Be thankful for it all.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

BAKE SALE

My little Byerly #2 will be visiting Belize with a group of students from her school over spring break.  She has asked me several times if I can think of any ways that she can work to raise money for her trip.  She suggested mowing yards (it's nearly winter), walking dogs (we live in the country-dogs roam free), baby setting (she has no CPR/first aid training) or getting a part time job (she's 12).   She googled ways for teenagers to earn money: garage sales (again, we live in the middle of nowhere), selling items on eBay (Like what? My jewelry? No thanks.) and getting paid to take surveys (you must be 13) were google's top suggestions.  

I felt bad that she was having such a hard time finding a suitable fit and admired her drive so I  suggested that she do a bake sale instead.  I had to work at the store on Saturday and offered to help her bake and set-up in front of the store so that she could sell her yummy treats all day.  

First of all, I did ALL the baking!  How does that always manage to happen?  Every time!  I bought all the supplies and made all of the treats.  To be fair she was at school while I was in the kitchen.  Harlie was a big help though.  (I haven't yet mastered imposing sarcasm into text so to clarify- that was sarcasm, she was not helpful. haha)

Emma did make her own sign and tip jar though.  I printed off a couple of price sheets and she was in business.  

She sat up her table and started selling around 9am.  At around 11am it started to sprinkle and the temperature dropped.  She was a trooper though!  She stuck it out in the cold dreary rain until nearly 3pm and then we moved her inside the store into an empty booth.  She sold 3/4 of the items we had prepared and made over $120.  I posted her Bake Sale on my Facebook page and several friends of the family stopped by to support her cause and many passersby stopped and indulged in some yummy goodness.  She appreciates every purchase and plans on having another sale in the spring before her trip! I am proud that she took the initiative and is trying to help raise her own spending $ for the trip and I hope she enjoys Belize!

Thanks for checking in on my 4 little Byerlys.  Have a great day! 

Playing in the Leaves

What else should a group of kids do on a lazy Sunday afternoon in late October but play in the leaves?!  My handsome hubby had just swept the lawn and dumped the leaves into a pile at the end of our garden when little Byerly #3 noticed this awesome play opportunity.  She begged her 2 older sisters to join in her in the fall time fun.  They ran and jumped into the pile and spread it out in a matter of minutes ... Daddy to the rescue!  My handsome hubby fired up the John Deere and began reforming the leaf pile after every few jumps.  Pretty soon the kids were jumping into the pile while he was still dumping buckets of leaves and so the leaves were dumped onto them.  This became part of the fun.  The kiddos dove into the center of the pile and daddy dumps a bucket of leaves on top of them.

Before long Paige was yelling, "Dump me. Dump me!"  So, he did.  She climbed into the bucket and he raised it up over the center of the leaf pile and dumped her into it.  All 3 "big" girls took turns being dumped while Harlie watched from the safety of the yard.  

I didn't notice until I started uploading the pictures here but Emma appears to be plugging her nose in every picture where she is being dumped.  Haha!  That girl kills me.  Anyway, they all took a few turns being dumped and everyone had a great time!  I explained to them when we were finished that they are very lucky little girls.  When I played with leaves as a child I had 3 things: a sister, a rake and trash bags that were expected to be filled and thrown in the dumpster by the time we were finished playing! 

Thanks for stopping by to check in on my 4 little Byerlys.  Have a great day!

BIRTHDAYS!

It has been a busy week at our house!  My cute sassy spunky little PaigiePoo turned 5 and the sweetest littlest Byerly Harlie has turned 1.  The time flies by so fast!  

Last weekend I had all of the girls get dressed up and I took some birthday pictures of Harlie in her cute "One" outfit, tried to get a few of Paige (which did not work!) and tried to get some of all 4 girls (which also did not work!).  Not everyone was cooperative and the sun was in everyones' eyes.  Bummer.  I did however get some cute ones of little Miss Harlie.  She wasn't a fan of the grass on her bare feet but loved crinkling the fallen leaves.  The next day I took a few more of Paige in her too small dress turned shirt and messy ponytail but she's still a cutie so I love them.  

Monday was sweet Paige's birthday.  She opened her presents at the house and got to pick where we had dinner.  McDonald's was of course her choice.  Little Harlie's birthday was on Friday but just being 1 she wasn't really into opening presents.  Paige was happy to help her though. 

We celebrated both girls birthdays at their party on Saturday night with friends and family.  My baby brother and a friend of his as well as my sister, brother-in-law and niece drove down from Casper for the event.  A few local friends and neighbors also came.  Harlie's party decor was all light pink and gold to match her cute birthday outfit.  Paige's party was Day of the Dead themed.  Sugar skulls everywhere!  The kiddos painted wooden sugar skull halloween masks with Chalky paint, beat a sugar skull piñata until it was ripped off of it's string and the candy was crushed but the piñata was not.  So they dropped it off the second story balcony onto the back porch.  This still did not crush the thing but it "magically" burst open when I picked it up to hand it back to them. ;-) They also played football in the yard and gorged on candy, cupcakes and s'mores fixin's (which they never got around to cooking).  The birthday girls enjoyed everyones company and loved the gifts that they received.  Paige especially loved the colored hair chalk pens that she got.  She colored her hair, the other girls hair, daddy's hair, and uncle Mitchell's beard!  It was fun for all and we appreciate everyone coming! 

 

Before the party we had a little free time with the visiting family so we went down the road to the Pumpkin Ranch.  The kids got to play in 2 different hay bale mazes, a slide into a corn kernel pit, horse drawn carriage ride and pumpkin picking.  The place is free to visit and you only pay $3, $5 or $7 per pumpkin depending on size.  So fun! My eldest little Byerly decided however to become a professional stunt woman and tried to do a front flip off the large hay bales into the corn pit rather than going down the slide like the other girls.  She landed it!... on her face, neck, and shoulder.  Ouch!  She may be sore for a few days.  It was over-all a fun little trip.

Then to top off our very busy week/weekend we carved our pumpkins! We did a bit of shopping at the mall with the family before they left town and then had lunch.  Afterwards, we drove back to the house and watched scary movies.  It is Halloween weekend! Then we carved our pumpkins.  Paige was not a fan of the pumpkin slime on her hands during the gutting process.  She went in the house and washed them several times.  She did however love the craving part.  This made the mommy a bit nervous but the smallest "knife" in the pumpkin carving kit surely couldn't do much damage... right?! Ugh- stress.  We made it through the night without incident though and everyones pumpkins turned out so cute.  Daddy even did one!

It was a fun week and I want to thank everyone who wished the girls happy birthday, came to the party and/or sent gifts.  We love and thank you all.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!