Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Potter house.  This year was the Potter year for Thanksgiving so we had the entire Potter family over.  I think we counted about 28 total people in our itty bitty house.  It was hilarious & fun all at the same time.

Even Grandma Kinsfather was able to travel up from Redondo Beach.  My kids always love spending time with Grandma K.

Trek enjoys time with his brothers & his sisters, but whenever the Potter "BOYS" are in the house, there's always some sort of a wrestling match at some point.  Talon & Trek especially like to challenge one another as to who is actually stronger.  Usually there is a definate winner, but this year, they both just gave up once they got tired.  I guess we're officially getting old now.  ha ha ha.

I love how my sweet niece Ella, thought that Daddy & Uncle Trek were "snuggling" so she joined them. . . even though Talon had Trek in a full choke hold.

The best part of every night was gathering together as a family & telling stories about the past.  It's my favorite thing to do with Trek's family.  I love their stories & the stories I've been able to be a part of over the years.

And of course Opa got to tell ALL his grandbabies stories before bedtime as they snuggled with Oma. 

Thanksgiving Day was wonderful.  This was my first year brining a turkey, & wow.  It really turned out amazing.  It was moist & seasoned & just plain delicious.

We had a wonderful appetizer spread to snack on as we waited for the main dishes to finish cooking.

The 3 Aunties had a blast playing with all the nieces & nephews.  They really are wonderful Aunties.

The kids' table had a coloring tablecloth with coloring placemats to keep the kiddos busy while we ate & talked.  It worked like a charm.  They were busy for hours.

And the adult table looked nice too.

Dinner was delicious.

After dinner, we all went into the living room to enter our "turkey comas."  Almost everyone took a nap while the kids, who never seem to sleep, watched a movie.

Except Canyon, who fell asleep on his Oma.

Everyone got to stay a few days after Thanksgiving which was fun.  We went to the mall with all the kids & took them to some parks in our area.

We also went to see the Trolls movie which the kids LOVED.  And since we are all excited about the new Fantastic Beasts movie, we had to take a picture.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving with WONDERFUL people.

November Fun

Thanksgiving was the big event of November, but we had some fun family moments as well.

Craiger went to his very first birthday party for a friend at school.  He was SO excited & had a blast.

Cadence out of the blue decided she wanted to learn how to conquor the Rubik's Cube.  It took her a month, but she got it & can now solve any rubik's cube in less than a minute.

And Canyon & I had some pretty fun shopping dates gearing up for Thanksgiving & Christmas.  We love going to the mall to get cheesy fries & play at the Disney Store on Mickey's Birthday.

ER visits are NOT fun

It's now the tail end of January & I haven't updated my blog since Halloween.  How sad is that?  I've just been SO busy, but I'm going to try to get things caught up over the next 2 weeks.

November was a sick month at the Potter house.  Craiger had an awful double ear infection at the beginning of the month, & then 3 weeks later, he & Taya both got strep throat.  Cadence, Lorien, & I had colds.  Trek was gone TDY & of course that week was awful.  First the van broke down & with Trek being gone I didn't have a 2nd vehicle, then Craiger & Taya got strep throat & wound up in the ER.  Poor babies. . . 

And then 5 minutes after we walked through the front door from the ER, Canyon walked up to me & pointed to his nose saying "It's Up There!"  "What's up there?"  "It's up there!  It hurts!"  I peeked & sure enough, he had stuffed something orange up his nose just out of reach.

I cried & cried.  It had been such a horrible week & now I was facing going BACK to the ER after spending several hours there already that morning.  I looked on youtube & there was a video of a doctor showing how to dislodge an object from a child's nose.  I decided to give it a shot.  It totally worked.  SO MUCH RELIEF.  I was SO scared & SO dreading another trip to the hospital.  I simply plugged the nostril that didn't have anything in it, put my mouth over his entire mouth & blew really hard.  It shot the bead straight out of his nose.  Thank heavens.

It was one of Taya's pony beads.  He told me he'd never put anything up his nose again.  Oh man.  Six kids & of course it's the 6th that shoves something up his nose first.  Boy was I glad when Trek got home the next day.

It just goes to show that life is a constant adventure.  There are fun times & there are hard times, but we always seem to make it through.  

Adventure Awaits . . .