I have so very many things to be thankful for. My top 3 blessings are pictured here with our fruit gobbler. It turned out really cute, I think. Ron did a nice job pulling it all together. I thought our turkey candleholders looked nice on the tables, too. 
We made the turkey votive holders from the recent issue of Family Fun.
Tonight we glued on the heads, feathers, and facial features.
A year or two ago when the kids went away with Grandma & Grandpa R, the kids chose battery operated tea lights as souvenirs. I need to get one more, but they work pretty good in these. 2 of the lights have red "flames", though, so they cast more of a red tint than I think is normal.
In another hour Danielle will be vomit-free for 24 hours! Since she's been throwing up since Thursday afternoon, this is quite an accomplishment. She was feeling pretty miserable by Saturday. After talking to the pediatrician on the phone several times, on Sunday she suggested we take Danielle to the urgent care to rule out appendicitis or a blockage in her intestines. I took her to the only close urgent care that was open that early, but they told me they couldn't help her and sent us to the emergency room. We spent 3 hours in the emergency room and left with "It's a virus. There's nothing we can do. She'll get better eventually." I was grateful nothing serious was wrong, but it's frustrating to hear nothing can be done. Danielle was extremely tired today, which probably resulted from no food and no sleep for nearly 4 days, but was more herself. Hopefully tomorrow she can eat something besides toast and rice.
instructed him to spend part of the money on something for Danielle and the rest on something for himself. I told him he had to get at least one book for each of them - not just toys! He was so excited about picking something out for Danielle. When he got home this afternoon, he couldn't wait to show us his treasures. He picked out a Fancy Nancy book for Danielle, which was a great pick. He picked out a Diego book for himself, which was too easy but ok. Then he pulled out his greatest purchase, which they are sharing: a big green finger pointer. It was so funny. He was so excited about this silly thing. (It looks like he's flipping someone off in the picture, but it's actually the index finger that's extended.) When it was Danielle's turn to play with it, she used it to point to each of the words as I read her Fancy Nancy book. When it was Tyler's turn, he used it to pick the ear wax in his ear.
A couple weeks ago we started painting our first floor. It looks so different after looking at the dirty white walls for 2 years! This weekend we rented scaffolding so we could paint the cathedral parts of our walls. Since Danielle was sick, we ended up cancelling our other plans and stayed home and painted all weekend. We got a lot done. Tyler manned the camera while Ron and I painted:
On Friday Tyler picked up his glasses. He only needs to wear them when he reads or works on the computer. The doctor thought he would probably out grow the need to wear them, too. Tyler made up his mind before we even went to his appointment that he wanted blue frames if he had to have glasses. He loves them and says they really do help.
The kids are thanking you for the Legos. I'm thanking you for the relatively quiet evening.
to put Tyler to bed, he thinks it's fun to challenge him with harder words. Tyler enjoys the challenge and thinks he's pretty hot stuff when he gets it right. (He spelled optimistic the other day.) Lately the two of them have been working on words that start with a silent letter, like knight and gnat. Apparently Ron taught Tyler a new word the other night. When I went to check on Tyler before going to bed last night, I found this:
Fall is such a beautiful time of year, but it's especially beautiful when the sky is a brilliant blue and the temperatures are in the 70s. This afternoon Danielle and I went to the park. She played for a little while and then we went for a walk to collect leaves. 
When we got home, she made a collage out of the leaves on contact paper. We hung it on the sliding glass doors so the light could shine through and illuminate the leaves. Her creation looked very nice and brought a bit of fall color indoors.
my mom's attic the other day. Tyler thought the Rubix Cube was pretty cool and has been playing with it some. I tried playing with it some today and discovered that this cube is unsolvable as it is. Ron, I think this is yours. It appears as though the stickers were rearranged at some point and maybe not put back on correctly? Ring any bells?
