Nephew Ben gets Hitched

With Thanksgiving over, we all headed to Iron Mountain to see the first of Rob's nephews get married. It was a lovely service, even though there happened to be two VERY ANTSY little boys near the front, who kept whipering loudly "IS IT OVER YET????"

Day After Thanksgiving Bird Feeder

To make up for eating lots and lots and LOTS of bird yesterday, the boys decided to make a birdfeeder today. Maybe the whole aviary world will forgive us now.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are truly blessed with health, love, and happiness. God is good.

Our day was spent with the Aho clan - 16 in all. Aunt Dorothy ended up getting sick, so wasn't able to join us from the nursing home, unfortunately. Dinner ended up happening in shifts when little Becky had something fall on her head during hide-and-seek, requiring an impromtu trip home with her mom and dad to call a doctor. There was HUGE, GUSHING amounts of blood, causing general panic, but in the end it turned out to be not so bad a laceration, so we are grateful for that. Usually it's one of OUR boys causing an emergency, so we could definitely relate. The bloody head episode caused us to reminisce about Thanksgivings past - the one when Quinn was a toddler and stuck his finger in the boiling hot gravy, causing 2nd degree burns.... last year when Colby fell out of his bunk bed, split his lip open, and spent Thanksgiving in the Emergency room getting stitches.... AHHHHHH, happy memories.

Anyways, despite the drama, we had a wonderful day! There's enough leftovers to feed us for WEEKS.

Thanksgiving Prep

Prepared today, for the big feast tomorrow:

Chocolate mousse cups
Sausage-stuffed mushrooms
Mini-quiches
Mashed potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole
Pomegranate for the fruit salad
Spiced Apples
Dinner Rolls

Tomorrow's last minute menu items:

Green salad
Fruit salad
green-been casserole
cranberry sauce


If that's not enough to feed 17 people, I don't know what is. Now to tackle the house, which is a PIT. Thanksgiving's a lot of work, you know that???

A Thanksgiving Feast, Chassell-Style

I send them to school as little boys, and they come back as a Pilgrim and Native American. Evidently, a feast was had at school today. It must've worn them out, though, because they can't seem to peel themselves off the bed to tell me about it.

A Saturday in Fall

I have to say, our fall has been far nicer this year than our summer ever hoped to be. Beautiful weather of late. The kids and I took advantage by hiking along a nature trail with good friends. Discovered a public "chalet" that I had no idea existed - right next to a sledding hill. It will be perfect this winter for warming up after a day of sledding or cross country skiing. We also visted the Humane Society - the Copper Country's closest thing to a zoo. Got to walk an awfully cute little poodle. I'm not normally a big poodle fan, but this one.... very cute. Didn't make a wimper when Reagan pulled on her head :). Reagan giggled and giggled and giggled the entire time we were around the animals. Apparently, cats are hilarious to babies! Oh, and most of my pictures are of Quinn, only because Colby was running way ahead of me with the bigger boys, and Quinn lagged behind. I learned once we got home that he had a fever of 101. That explains that. Sure makes it easier to catch him on film, though!!!

Update on the Aho's -at long last

I have not been very good about updating lately. Nothing all that exciting has happened of late - we are all suffering from head colds, life has been busy with the daily grind of school, work, meetings, blah blah blah. We had a conferece with the boys' kindergarten teacher, who suggested we spend extra time at home working on fine motor skills, so I made a "craft cart" the other day. It appears to be a big hit, as both boys were up at 5:45 am this morning "writing a letter to our teacher". UGH. They have used it spontaneously several times, so hopefully things will progress in the fine motor arena.

In other news, I made a gigantic kite today for a local indoor park that's being built. It looks kite-like, doesn't it? Just needs the tail and bows! Luckily, the retail Christmas season is upon us, and there should be no shortage of ribbon from which to choose...

A Happy Birthday Party!

Some pics of the littlest Aho's first birthday party! Frogs were the theme, and there was PLENTY of jumping around, I can assure you ;). It was fun!

Reagan At One