Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with Jerry & JoAnn. We all worked together to make a nice presentable dinner and as always it was delicious and we were stuffed.

We were going to be gone for Christmas so Santa dropped off one of the presents early. Aleena got a new bike since her knees were hitting her chin on her old one. It's a little big but she will grow into it.
Also Grandma & Grandpa gave us an early present also. It is a Corn hole game. Grandpa made the boards and Grandma made the bean bags. This was a popular game on their mission in West Virginia. We also played it on the cruise. It is a bean bag toss game. You get points for getting a bag in the hole and on the board, but watch out your opponent can cancel out your points by doing the same thing.
We all had a fun time playing it, It was a big hit.
Just because I don't have many pictures of Shem, here he is with his favorite toy. He hopes Santa will bring him a 5x5 rubics cube for Christmas.

My Baby is turning 6

Isabelle wanted a party for her birthday. So we had a small family party on her big day, and a friend party on the weekend. We got a little cake to share.

She wanted an animal theme with snakes, monkeys, and lots of other animals. We tried to make the room look like a jungle. She was so excited when she saw her decorations. She loved having all her friends there to.

Here is her animal cake, the little animals are candles too.

Snake Pizza was a hit.

We played pin the tail on the lion.

The best game of all was the one her sisters set up and led.

They went on a jungle treasure hunt. The girls led the guests from clue to clue which was about the next animal they were to find. The last one led to their goodie bags. They all loved this game. Isabelle had a great birthday.

It is always good to be home.

When we got back from the cruise, this is what we walked into. Are kids are great!

We brought back a chess set for Dan,

Jamaican outfits & jewlery for the girls

ARRGG! a pirate shirt for Shem.

I think we are done traveling for a while!

On another note, at the beginning of October the impression came to me to homeschool. The thought would not leave my mind. So I began discussing it with Shaun and then the kids. After a lot of prayer and discussion we said we would make a final decision after the cruise. We were all still in agreement after we got back, so we made the decision to do it. The next day I filed the paperwork and made it official, Shaun asked me how I felt I told him it felt like I just jumped of a cliff. We start Nov. 30th, right after Thanksgiving break. The girls wanted to start the day I filed. I will just be teaching the girls for now. I don't know why exactly we need to do this, But I know it is important to follow the impressions we are given even if it seems impossible. So now we embark on a new adventure in our lives.