Thanksgiving Day

by Sarah

On Thursday we hosted Kaiser Thanksgiving at our place. Before church Dad and the boys did some work with the cattle.

Thursday before church.

I think Dad was getting ready to test the potatoes.

Brooke putting out pies.

I think this is supposed to be of the food, but Lance evidently decided they needed a picture of him instead.

There we go.

We had three tables set up in the basement. This table is the older kids.

Here's the younger boys. Brandon wanted Kaitlyn to sit at his table, so she did.

And here’s the younger girls.

Aunt Joyce and several other people scrounged up 35 bucks between them and then paid Jacob to jump into the lake. Here's Aunt Joyce handing over her money.

Jenna, Amy, Lily, Ruby, Samuel, Kinsey, Jewel, Josh, Brandon, Brandi, and I played Capture the Flag for awhile.

After I played for a bit I took Kiowa, and we looked at the animals and played in the backyard.

We played a couple of songs due to a few requests.

Kaitlyn and Jenna also did a violin duet.

Kiowa could hardly wait for supper. She had to have a little snack of apples.

A little Dutch Blitz was going on while we were waiting for supper.

After supper, we had a little recital. It was mostly guitars and pianos, although we did have a kazoo and a comb kazoo. There was a fair amount of laughter during some of the songs. Let’s just say that some of the participants had some funny songs, which they played/sang in a very funny way.

Jacob’s comb kazoo.

Over all it was a great day of hanging out with cousins,talking, playing outside, playing inside, and for one person swimming in a frigid lake. Glad a lot of people could come. After all, the more the merrier.

Oh, and Jacob also said that he actually enjoyed his swim in the lake. ha ha ha. He probably enjoyed the 35 dollars more than the actual swim.

CatchUp

So Thanksgiving is here and gone again, and what a blessed day it was. We hosted a crowd of Kaisers here, and, with all the preparations plus normal life, this ol’ blog just hasn’t had much attention. Throw a bum laptop into the mix, with a couple of extra trips to Pekin to get it *fixed* (which it’s not), and Christmas card picture decisions and projects (more on that later), and a few days with extra littles here, and a few miscellaneous projects, and a funeral for a faithful brother plus some sweet fellowship with his visiting family…  well, let’s just say time flies. So it goes. Here’s a few peeks at life lately.

First up – a new look for Josh’s room. I guess it’s called Farmhouse Chic.  Appropriate, kind of. We’re a farmhouse, but not really the old two-story-white-siding type of farmhouse.

At any rate, I like it. And Josh likes it too. He especially likes his bb gun up on his genuine barn wood shelf where he can see it but no one (littles) can reach it except him.

Way back when on a gray rainy day, Kate watched two sweet Dills here. Very fun. T’was the Friday before Thanksgiving Day, I think…

Cold didn’t keep kids inside, especially Kiowa who never seems to tire of the barn and kittens.

*I think* this was that Friday night. Other kids were gone *somewhere* (who can keep track, anyway???)(Madrigals for some and babysitting for others maybe??), and Ben was so sweet to help Jewel and Josh put this together. An old toy that never grows old. If that makes sense.

Another good old water toy. Any guesses as to who won the race?

Last Saturday. (Before Thanksgiving). Leaky roof = attempt to repair = oops. Guess my closet needed a deep cleaning anyway, but I wasn’t planning on it that day. That white stuff is insulation from a trapdoor that accidentally got opened. Since laughter is the best medicine, we all got a good dose that day!

Same day!

Brandi’s getting really big but she doesn’t know it. Still likes laps.

Jump to Wednesday before Thanksgiving – another Sauder boy day. Sweet little guys, love these days.

Cason got to help with our Thanksgiving Day supper soup – he and Josh unwrapped bouillon cubes.

Thankful Echo came to help with lots and lots of potatoes. And of course Kiowa upped the cuteness factor of the day.

Oh yes. This was the morning I took kitten Kinch to the vet to get a fish hook removed from her paw. We don’t normally (have never) doctor our barn cats, because honestly they usually sneak off to heal or die, but this one couldn’t hide because she jingled. So, since Tori heard the jingling and caught her, and since she is one of the prettiest and friendliest and healthiest we have (uhhh – not the smartest though) and we like pretty, healthy, friendly female kittens because they grow up into pretty, healthy, friendly queens who raise cute, healthy, friendly litters, well, so I took her in. Well anyway, that’s my justification for the vet visit. The bill wasn’t even too bad. And Dad told me to do it anyway. So we had a kitten in the laundry room for most of the day until she woke up enough to go back to the barn. Where she is happily thriving. And where garbage cans will (hopefully) never have unprotected fish hooks again .

And one more picture of that Wednesday.

Which catches us up to Thanksgiving Day. Which is another post on another day. Hopefully soon but we’ll see . . .