Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa

 Grandma and Grandpa came to eat turkey with us this year! We always love having family visit, especially for a holiday.

The only pictures I got of the feast. I think my turkey this year was the best turkey I have ever had...seriously. It must have been the brown sugar brine! More importantly, we have so much to be thankful for. Family, health, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, good friends and neighbors, a busy but good job. We are truly blessed!

 The rest of the weekend can be summed up with Food. Football. Shopping. Fun. Unfortunately we didn't see much of Aaron he worked the entire time (poor guy).

Neiderman Family Farm Christmas Walk

(a favorite Christmas tradition)

 They have a whole lit up walk depicting events from the Bible starting with the creation and ending with the Resurrection.

 Mary and Joseph

 the Shepherds

 Jesus' birth

 Wise men

 messing around

 inside the barn for live music,  hot cocoa and cookies.

Neiderman Family Farm is one of my favorite places. I have said it many times.  It represents hometown family fun and we have grown to love it. The Neiderman family is a gracious family who gives so much back to the community. It was fun to share it with Mom and Dad.

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy hit New England about 2 weeks ago. New York and New Jersey were particularly hit hard. Aaron was put on alert with DMAT a few days after the storm. He was so excited! Last Friday night (Nov 2) he got an e-mail saying his team was being activated and to be prepared to leave the following morning. He hurried and repacked his already packed DMAT bag. I was up giving him a hair cut at midnight...you know, doing my part to help him get ready. The orders came in at 3am Saturday with his flight leaving at 6am from Dayton. He left at 4:30am for the airport and flew into Newark, NJ.

Further plans were not ready yet, thus having the team sit in the airport for 10 hours waiting! He missed both the boys big Superbowls (more on that later) which really upset him. However, things worked out and a plan was put into place.

He is on Long Beach Island (aka: LBI) in a make shift field hospital, very similar to the old TV show Mash. The island was completely destroyed and the community hospital that serviced that area was evacuated and has so much damage that it is not functioning. DMAT came in and has set up big tents on a soccer field and they have a functioning ER! Aaron and the other workers are sleeping in insulated tents on the premises and working in shifts. He said they are seeing about 75 patients a day. What they can't take care of, FEMA uses their ambulances and takes them into the city, or in major cases they can land a helicopter on the field.

This is Heaven for my disaster loving man. He loves being able to use his skills to relieve the stress of these hurricane victims.

Halloween 2012

 It was a freezing, rainy, night. and this baby wouldn't put on her gloves!

(she does have 4 layers under her "zippies")

The baby

 The Grandpa

 The Robber

 We trick-o-treated with the neighbors. what started out as 2 families turned into 4 families. We had quite the crew. 4 parents and 11 kids walking around.

Halle doing the happy-I-got-candy skip.

I'm still not a fan of Halloween, but I do like the way they do it here. Trick-o-treating only from 6-8. most people sit on their driveways or porches and hand out candy. But, this year it was so cold and rainy that we usually had to go to the door.

What you don't see in these pictures is an invisible ninja named Isaac. He took off with a group of friends and was gone the entire 2 hours. We never saw him. They hit 3 neighborhood running. He came home with 12.3 pounds of candy!!! no joke!



Pumpkin Carving

 

This post is a little late, but at least I can document we had Halloween.

 They dove right in and started gutting those pumpkins.

 The final result was a monster, a vampire, a witch

 and a vomiting pumpkin. I should have taking it in the light or with a flash...all the guts are coming out of his mouth.

Hayden and Harrison

If they aren't on field,

they're in the back yard playing.

If it's raining outside

they play it on the Xbox.

If it's Saturday, they find it on TV.

They can't get enough FOOTBALL!

 

Love these two boys!

 

on a not so side, side note: Both Hayden and Isaac won their play off games. Which means they are both going to the Superbowl for their age division. Hayden (QB) lead his team to a 18-6 victory, scoring all 3 touch downs. Isaac (halfback) played fabulous getting all of their first downs and scoring a touchdown with a final score of 19-6. It's a great day to be a Gardner boy! 

Finally a real Saturday

Tomorrow will be the first Saturday since the beginning of August that we get an entire Saturday off! Both boys have byes this week before they go into the playoffs.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE, Love, love watching my boys play football, but after 2 1/2 months of having my Saturdays completely tied up... I'm excited for the break. And to top it off Aaron has this weekend off.

OH HAPPY DAY!!

 

I have a nice list of things to get done.

Yard work: pulling up the almost dead flowers, cutting back the perennials, mowing

Deep clean the house

Reorganizing the storage room
BYU football game

Grocery shopping
Piece Isaac's quilt top...I've had it cut out since April.

2 birthday parties for the boys to go to.

 

Busy, yes, but at least WE will be home to get it all done. So in preparation, today I am doing 7 loads of laundry...trying to make some headway before tomorrow.



The Activity Day Girls planned a "Daddy and Me" Halloween party. One of their Faith in God projects was to plan an activity, make invites, plan the entertainment, food, decor, etc. Then they had to divide up the work and carry it out. Caite's job was to make ghost cupcakes all by herself.

She did a good job. They turned out cute. She was so proud.

Aaron and Caite had a good time and we were all grateful Aaron was able to make it to the party.

I love my, party-planning-cupcake-making girl! 



First Day of "Real" School

She's ready to go and SO excited!

She had to pick out the perfect "fashionable" outfit...socks and glitter shoes included.

She was up and ready with hair braided by 7:30.

She doesn't leave until 11:30.

"How much longer?"

(we are both asking that question)

Oh this girl KILLS me...

...but I LOVE her to pieces! life would be very dull without her.

Neiderman Farm with the Family

In my mind Neiderman Farm is the symbol of Fall. Not only do the boys play football on their fields, but they open it up to the public with a corn maze, hayride, pumpkin patch, pipe swings, train rides, inflatable jumping pillow, playgrounds, fire pits, and petting farm.  Good old fashion family fun. They also have the worlds GREATEST homemade donuts. We had to take Nana, Papa, and Travis.

Hayride

(They brought BYU sweatshirt for all the kids)

 Pumpkin Patch

Everyone found their perfect pumpkin

 Corn Maze...in the dark

 flashlights were a must if we didn't want to get lost.

This farm really does have a special place in my heart.

Thanks for joining us Travis, Nana, and Papa! we had a wonderful time.

Football Visitors

We got a call from Papa saying they were coming for a quick weekend trip to see the boys play football. AND they were bringing Travis!

The boys (especially Hayden) were elated!

 I think it's safe to say he played his best and made our special visitors proud.

 Leaving everyone in the dust...no one can catch him!

 He had 2 great touchdowns that day and brought his team to victory.

 Then on to Isaac's game

Although the 6th graders didn't win that day, Isaac had a great game and also scored a touchdown.

(I'm going to cheat and put in pictures from a different game)