Thanksgiving Weekend

I have decided that by far the hardest thing about being over here is (no, not having Braums is not the answer) missing out on holidays with my family. I was truly not looking forward to the holiday season this year as I normally do, but thankfully I am blessed with wonderful friends and family on this side of the pond and ended up having a wonderful time. We had 13 people total at our house for Thanksgiving. My house is not at all large crowd friendly, but with a little creativity we managed to configure the tables so that we could all eat together. My sister-in-law and her husband Adam came in from Germany, as did John and Brianne (or friends from college). We were also joined by Brian, Tina and Hannah Davis; who we met in the hotel when we got here and Hannah babysits the boys (she is one of their very favorite people!!) We also had the pleasure of hosting Jeremy's boss Daniel and his fiance Charlotte. They are from Germany and were very excited to see what our holiday was all about. Of course we had way more food than we could possibly eat, but it was a truly blessed day.
As a side note, when Aunt Jenny and Uncle Adam came they brought Zane his birthday present.....a new set of golf clubs (because he has gotten to tall for his original clubs). He was only slightly thrilled and loved them even more because they are black and orange. Gotta love that kid!!!
At the end of the weekend, as always, we started putting up our Christmas tree. I was pleasantly surprised that Logan did not take the ornaments off faster then I could put them on and really enjoyed the quality time of decorating with them....even though we got interrupted and it took up over a week to get it finished!!

Zane's Birthday

I know it has been a long time since I've posted, but believe me it is not because there was nothing to post (but, maybe because there was too much to post) So, I'm going to try to get back on track this weekend.
Here are some pics from Zane's birthday in November. Sadly his party had to be put off because he and Logan took turns being sick for over 2 weeks, but I think he enjoyed himself anyway. He started off the morning scarfing down chocolate chip pancakes shaped into 8s and managed to blow all of the candles out on the first try. He and Logan both enjoyed them immensely!!! Feeling guilty about the lack of a party I offered to make anything or take him anywhere for his birthday dinner (I was assuming the answer would be Steak on a Rock, but I was wrong). After deliberating over this for a few minutes he decided he wanted his favorite meal of pot roast, carrots, and potatoes. And opted for chocolate chip cookies in lieu of a cake, so I spent most of the day in the kitchen, but he's worth it. He loved opening his presents and even let Logs help. After that we spent the rest of the day building Lego sets, watching movies and he got his very large birthday cookie. I just cannot believe he is 8!! (and I do now realize that the last pic is sideways, but am unsure how to fix it, so just turn your head sideways!!!)=)