thanksgiving triple threat...

2013 Roskamp Thanksgiving was a triple threat (which means this will be a long post =)!  Thanksgiving at Aunt Rochelle's with Grandma and a lot of the Kole relatives, photo shoot for Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary, and new nephew Liam's baptism.  Steve was able to get special permission to take off an extra day for the baptism (otherwise Costco does not allow any vacation days to be taken between Thanksgiving and Christmas), so the plan was to leave Wednesday afternoon and be at the farm until Sunday.  Woot!  We were ready for a roadtrip!

...aaaaaaand then Grace got sick on Tuesday.  And continued to be sick through Wednesday afternoon.  So obviously since we didn't want to bring that sick to anyone, we decided to stay home from Thanksgiving, and when Grace was feeling better, if no one else was sick, we could still go for Liam's baptism.

Thursday morning no one else was sick yet (yay!!!), so we planned to lay low in the morning and make sure no one else got sick, eat lunch and then pack up and drive to the farm.  (Steve was quick thinking enough too to grab a rotisserie chicken Wednesday before he came home from work otherwise we wouldn't have had anything for a Thanksgiving meal ourselves since we didn't have much food left in the fridge.)  The trip was uneventful and quiet (no one else was on the roads!), and we go to the farm in time for bed.

 Friday was a day filled with meeting and snuggling baby Liam (what an adorable sweet little guy!), and lots of farm fun.  And we were so happy my cousins Grace, Marshall, Sarah and Norah drove out to the farm to visit too since we missed them the day before!  Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures with them though.  Amy has a good one of all the kid cousins and more on her blog post about the trip. 

Wait!  I did find one on my phone.  Sara was selling beads for Bead for Life (click on the link, they do good stuff!), and brought them along for an impromptu bead party in the livingroom.  So much fun and such a great cause.

After they left, Liam fell asleep on Steve (my family proclaims him the "baby whisperer"), and I went out with Dad and the kids...

girl cousins in the corn pile!

boys helped Boppa get the extra corn out of the combine to go put on the pile my dad has to feed the pheasants all winter

kids also got to help put out the Christmas lights, which is a Friday after Thanksgiving tradition

beautiful SW Minnesota sunset

when the boys found out that their new cousin was a boy, they were most excited to wear matching shirts with him - Grace and Evie love to match clothes, so they insisted on getting in on the fun.  we quick got a shot of them before everyone got in jammies for the night.  

Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary was this year, and Mom wanted to take family photos while we were home for thanksgiving and baptism.  She asked a photographer friend to come out to the farm on Saturday, and we all dolled up the best we could.  (All the boys will roll their eyes remembering the countless calls, messages and photos being sent back and forth to coordinate clothes, but we thought we did pretty good!)

I love my family.

Thank you Mom and Dad for being such a loving and faithful example to all of us kids.  We love you!

Saturday night we Grandma Kole came to stay overnight since Liam's baptism was the next day, and we had our own family Lasagna Thanksgiving, since we couldn't be with them on Thursday.  Followed by dominoes.

Henry just couldn't get enough of Liam!

I couldn't blame him because I couldn't get enough either.  =)

 Sunday was such a special day - Liam's baptism!  And Lucas and Jessica involved all of us siblings.  Marcus baptized Liam, Steve and I sang, and Amy accompanied us.  It was a beautiful service celebrating Liam as a child of God.

 (yeah, this was seriously the best cousin photo I got.)

After church we had lunch for friends and family in the fellowship hall.  Lucas made the sloppy joes and Jessica made the cake - so yummy!

 

then we had time for one last matchie cousin twirl...

...and one last Liam snuggle before we headed for home.

What a wonderful weekend full of family blessings!

applesauce, 2013 version...

Every year, I think, "no, we are not going to mess with all the work of making applesauce this year."  And every year when apple time comes around I change my mind!!!  (And really, once you have homemade applesace, it is impossible to go back to the jar stuff.)  This year we did scale it back quite a bit because the 3+ bushels that we did last year was a bit much, not only for processing, but we still had quarts in the freezer from that batch!  And every year, bless her dear heart, Steve's mom calls and asks if she can come and help us with applesauce.  We love the extra help and company in the kitchen (always so much better to do work with others!), and she loves helping and the time with the kids as the kids all love to help too.  So here we go...

(With Grace and Willem at school, these two are the main helpers!)

(but Grace and Willem made sure we promised to save some work for them after school)

1 day, 2 bushels of apples into 24 quarts of applesauce to eat and share for the year.  Maybe next year we will skip it...but you know we won't.  =)

in which we take Papa and Aahma to the zoo...

it was cold out, so a number of the animals were inside in their "winter homes"...

...while other animals were the most active and playful that we have ever seen them!  seriously, those bison were running laps - one of the craziest things we have ever seen

Grace was in the midst of a study on Native Americans at school and just finished a section on the importance of the buffalo - so she was super excited to see these at the zoo and take back the video of them running laps to the classroom.

the conservatory was a great place to warm up and enjoy the beautiful plants and flowers

(I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids...=)

happy november birthdays...

Steve and Henry get the privilege of both celebrating their birthdays in November, right away, within 5 days of each other.  So lots of birthday celebrating for us right away in November!  Henry gets to steal the show being that he showed up before his dadda's birthday.

(and also because he turned 2, and when you are 2 you pretty much steal the show anywhere!)

 For Henry's 2nd birthday, all of Steve's side of the family came over for pizza and cupcakes.  Auntie Christy and the girls came over early in the afternoon to play and help out, so I asked if Christy would make the cupcakes with the birthday boy while I finished up a few other things.  H thought he was such big stuff, especially when I shoo-d away siblings and cousins who wanted to take over.  They turned out great, and the rest of the clan joined us for a pizza supper.  Lots of fun and laughter and eating, and we carried it right into opening some gifts.

 We always do the "want, need. wear and read" gifts with our kids, trying to keep things simpler.  So for Henry's gifts from us (cute tags colored by Grace and Greta), he got Daniel Tiger plush toys (want, HUGE Daniel Tiger fan right now!), socks (need), a fleece that matched his brothers' (wear), and Gladys Goes Out to Lunch (read).

He got some great books and a new game from his grandparents, and we could start to sense a theme as they were all monkey-related!

 Boxes are still the best when you are two...

and because he was jumping and wiggling in almost every photo we took while he was opening gifts, we thought we would take a video instead!

Happy Birthday big boy!!!  We love the joy and laughter you bring to our lives!

(and the sugar from the cupcakes must have been a bit much, because at 10pm he was still wide awake.  since it was his birthday, some extra snuggles and books from auntie Melanie and Aahma B were just the thing to settle him back down)

Now for Steve's birthday!!!!  Of which there was going to be not much celebrating on the day since he had to work the late shift which meant not getting home until almost bedtime.  We planned on supper and gifts the next night, but the kids and I hoped to squeeze in a little fun in the morning (which is hard before school!).

But Henry was up at 6am (WAY too early for my kids), so I was able to make cinnamon roll coffee cake, and when the kids got up at 7am, I had them make cards, so we were able to have cards and birthday "cake" for breakfast!

Happy Birthday Steve/Dadda!  We love you so very much!!!  

Thanks for being the best. =)