Happy Thanksgiving 2011

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Moscow.  Most nights that we stay in Moscow, cousins Emma and Sarah come to Ammie's house for a sleepover...Maylee's favorite!  The girls entertain Maylee really well.  Great-Grandma Linda gave Maylee a dinosaur puzzle that she liked doing with her cousins on Thanksgiving morning.  Maylee also like watching the dancing and the big balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Big Ammie (my grandma), Aunt Karen, Uncle Sam, Cousin Jay and his wife Kelley and their kids joined us at Ammie & Papa's.  Maylee loved having Lilly there!

 Trying pumpkin pie...Maylee loved it!  When Uncle Sam sat in the recliner to eat his pumpkin pie with Cool Whip, both Maylee and Lilly were sticking their fingers in his pie and eating more!

Maylee and Lilly

Great Grandma Doris (Big Ammie) with great-grandchildren Maylee, Lilly, and Cole

Interesting Eating Days in November

There have been a few times that I just have to take a picture of Maylee while she is eating. 

Seriously? Where do you even start cleaning?

We took her straight to the shower!



Yummy "Dirt" Pudding

Trying to use chopsticks like Mama...

She is not a huge fan of peas and corn, but we still keep offering them to her. 

On this night, she decided to sort the peas and corn, and line the peas up on the edge of her plate.

Ty's Birthday

Maylee went to her first birthday party for a friend.  She has been to many parties for cousins, but this was the first for one of her own little friends.  It is a good feeling as a parent to know that other kids like your kid and invite your child to play.  The party had a firefighting theme.

These are some of her friends from Carol's house (Ty on the left and Owen on the right)

The kids liked this fun game where they had to use squirt guns to put out the "fire."

 Maylee loves hanging out with Ty's older sisters too. 

Hailey was in my kindergarten class two years ago and Madison is in my class this year.

 Yee-haw...ride 'em Firefighter Girl!



First Snow Fall

Maylee was super excited for our first accumulating snow fall!

She has her scarf from Kathy on...ready for winter!

Maylee's Fall Crafts

Carol does some really cute crafts with the kids she watches.  On craft days, we can usually pick out Maylee's without reading the names because hers almost always has the most yellow on it (paper, paint, feathers, etc.)  Here are some of Maylee's fall crafts...

Carol cut the bones but Maylee did the face and green paint.

She still talks about how Carol painted her feet and it tickled.

 

Yellow feather and feet for this owl.

Mr. Turkey had yellow paint and lots of yellow feathers.  Her octopus also has yellow legs.

I took Maylee to the local library for pumpkin decorating.  We decorated a little pumpkin and then Maylee painted paper pumpkins for our house, Ammie's house, and Nana Jo's house.

Halloween 2011

Pumpkin Carving

Maylee is still not a fan of pumpkin guts and prefers someone else to touch them.  On the other hand, Cinder continues to be a pumpkin gut fan.  It is a challenge to carve a pumpkin without her head being in the way trying to eat more pumpkin.

Halloween Day 

On Halloween, I made Mummy Pizzas for Maylee to take to Carol's house for their lunch.  Unfortunately, Maylee wasn't feeling well and Carol contacted us at school that she became worse during the day.

We called her pediatric office and set up an appointment that day. 

 Driving over to the doctor office...going over the pass was miserable so we were guessing she had an ear infection.  She cried so hard and then fell asleep on the drive.  The doctor confirmed our guess so she got some medicine.  We texted our neighbors that we would need to reschedule Halloween.  Maylee is the only little kid in our neighborhood so thankfully the neighbors didn't mind.

"Rescheduled Halloween"

(2 days later)

A much happier and feeling better little chicken!

 Trick or treating the neighbor's horse...

 and new kitties...

 Walking home from an evening of trick or treating...

Play Structure Project

Maylee loves "swings and slides," but the closest playground with those features would be in a neighboring town.  We decided to get Maylee a play structure for the backyard.  We wanted to build it in our upper yard, which the ground is really wet until August due to natural springs in the wooded area behind our house.  My parents came up to help us with this project the first weekend we started in on it because Dad has a Skid-steer which we used to level the upper yard and dig a trench.  We thought the weekend would be only devoted to our first mission of leveling the ground and attacking the water issue with drain tile.  However, we completed that mission in one day so the next day we put Dad's handy-dandy building skills to work on framing up the playstructure. 

When we brought all the materials from the garage up to the upper yard, Maylee studied the picture on the box showing kids playing on the play structure.  She looked at Papa and said "Just do it!"  Papa still laughs about that.

 She had a great time using the slide against the hillside between the upper and lower backyards.

Good idea Papa!  It kept her busy while we were building.

 

Pictures of our Progress

Climbing wall and picnic table installed...

 Swings, slide, steering wheel, and drums are installed...

 Planting and rock path installed...

 Rocks around plant installed and working on wood chips...

Until spring comes and the snow melts, we have completed what we can.

Maylee is showing off her "Swing and Slide" to Ammie and Papa.



Hunting Camp 2011

Once again, Maylee had a great time camping with family and friends.  Unfortunately, only one hunter in our hunting party filled his elk tag.  On the bright side, we all had fun and ate great food!

 4-Wheeler Ride with Dada

 Loving Smores! (Like Mother, Like Daughter)

 Smiles Around the Campfire

 Loves for Jackie on Cindy's Lap

Imagination Time

Maylee picked up a Y shaped stick and used it like a stethescope on Cinder. 

It surprised us because 1) it had been awhile since she had seen a doctor use one on her, 2) she found a thin, flexible stick that reminded her of a stethescope, and 3) she knew how to use a stethescope.  Her memory is very sharp!  She then proceed to check other things and people.  At one point, she put it on her bottom and said, "I check my bum!"  She had us all laughing and Papa surprised her a few weeks later with her own toy stethescope.

Cutie Pie on a Rainy Day

Side Note: Four months later, we were driving and Maylee asked, "Mom, I go camping?"  It was a cold winter day, so I told her that the snow means it is too cold to go camping.  She said, "I go camping with Ammie, Papa, Emma, and Sarah in Ammie's camper."  I said, "Oh really, who else is going camping?" "She said, "Wes and Cindy and Jackie."  I was amazed that she remembered who was at hunting camp, especially Cindy and Jackie since we have not seen them since October.

Trampoline Time

Maylee's new babysitter, Carol, has a trampoline and Carol has taught the kids how to stay away from the edges.  When we stopped by Kathy's house on the way to hunting camp, Maylee saw Donata and Adam's old trampoline and had to jump.