Lucy the Elf, wreaths, Lucy the Christmas cat

When we stopped at the house after school, the girls found their elf Lucy on the stairs.  She'd had fun with the toilet paper!

 We took them to Des' shop to make some candy cane wreaths.

When we were getting out the Christmas decorations, I threw one wreath on the floor.  Lucy thought it made a comfy bed.

Parker's shop

 Parker and Gabe got busy inside the shop this weekend.

Parker is happy with the progress.

Thanksgiving weekend

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Gabe, Des, Macee, Parker, Rielee and Granny Denice.  The kids

relaxed on the couch afterwards.  Des tried to get them to start a game but everyone was too full and tired.

Friday Ava and Harper came up and we got the Christmas decorations out.  Then Rielee came over and they made some little gingerbread houses.

The Woodruff kids came up and they played Whoonu.  Even though Tor coudn't understand the cards, he played right along and had fun.

Then they painted ornaments.

Ava felt like building this morning, so Papa brought in some small pieces of wood and they made furniture for their rock houses.  He found them some big boxes for their tallest rock houses yet.

Rielee basketball

Rielee made this shot and had 10 points total in a win over Monticello today.  

Out of the blue, a daughter

Steve was shocked and thrilled to discover through Ancestry DNA that he had a daughter, Nancy,  living in Vancouver.  Unbeknownst to Steve, she was given up for adoption in 1968 by her birth mother while he was in the Army.

They had an emotional meeting Saturday, exchanging hugs, pictures, sharing stories and family history.  They both look forward to getting to know each other and building a relationship.  After 50 years apart, it's so amazing.

Nancy has 13 year old twins, Katelyn and Colin.  More grandkids, yay!  Husband Brian was working Saturday so we didn't meet him, Colin was there but not when we took pictures.

 We are grateful, thankful, and blessed to have this wonderful family in our lives.   

Lego night, Rielee basketball, Parker's shop

Wednesday - Lego night, they love building, and it's good entertainment for these dark evenings.

Rielee did the opening tip for her game against Huntington Thursday.  They have a good team and won, they also beat Mt. Solo on Tuesday.  Rielee says she hates basketball but you'd never know it watching her, she's always smiling.  

Parker's shop is done on the outside, he was hanging lights Sunday.  Tuesday he came running over to bleed in my sink, having cut his finger on the band saw.   Mom forced  him to go to Kaiser for a couple of stitches and a tetanus shot.

                           Lumber was delivered today so they can start framing inside this weekend.

Big rock houses, Big Al's, Parker's shop

The girls have early release all week so we they stayed with us Monday night.  They asked for shoe boxes to make rock houses but we had none so Papa took them to town to check behind the pharmacy where they discard their boxes.  They were excited to find some really big boxes and worked on them all afternoon.

They even installed lights in these.

 Papa took them to school this morning, went to a meeting and then watched them after school.  They went to Big Al's again, where Ava, again, used up her card too quickly.  They're posing in front of a scary zombie game, Ava played it but it was too intense for Harper.

 Parker's shop is almost complete.

He put up some temporary lights and set the panel on Saturday, then pulled in the wire Sunday.

Sunday he was running pipe, trying to get everything done so the floor can be poured this week.

Halloween

Since Halloween was on early release day, we got them off the bus, they put on their costumes and we went to Big Al's to play some video games and have a snack.  They really loved their costumes this year - Ava got a kick out of being a zombie-pirate, wearing an eye patch and packing a sword and Harper felt special being Cleopatra and had more jewels to put on her face later.

When we got to Big Al's Ava worried that someone might think her sword was real so she left it in the car.  Somehow she blew through her card too quickly and was left watching Harper play games.  Harper was a good sister though, and paid for Ava to play some games with her.  From there we went to Menchie's where they filled up on frozen yogurt, then back home to meet Kelly.