We had a great Thanksgiving weekend down in Winfield. We were lucky enough to get to celebrate with both sides of Jason’s family…The Miller’s on Thursday and The McArtor’s on Saturday. We ate a lot, watched football a lot, napped a lot (mostly me and the kids ) and ate a lot more! We are definitely thankful for so much this year, including the time we get to spend with our family!

Here are a few pictures of our Thanksgiving fun.

We hope everyone had as great of a Thanksgiving as we did! Now, onto Christmas….yikes!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!, originally uploaded by farmboymac.

May your holiday be filled with the things you are most thankful for….

How do you like the new look of McArtor.net?

This weekend Jared so graciously helped me update my blog (which had been the same for almost 6 years now….wow I can’t believe I have been blogging that long…). Anyways, he helped me update my blog to the newest version of wordpress so now I can do all sorts of fun things with it…like the new fall theme I currently have. Pretty nifty I think!

Anyways, the comment section that was previously not working correctly has also been fixed….another huge headache for me resolved.

Thank you Jared for saving my blog!!

This year our family is participating in “Operation Christmas Child”, a program supported by Samaritan’s Purse International Relief. The mission of OCC is “to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.” The basic jist of the program is to fill a shoebox with toys, school supplies and other goodies, include a note from your family and wrap it all up to send to a child who won’t have a Christmas and may have never even heard of Jesus. For every box you send, Samaritan’s Purse will give a copy of the New Testament with the box…pretty cool huh?! We decided to do two boxes…one for a girl and one for a boy. So, last week the kids and I went shopping for our shoebox goodies, wrapped up the boxes and now they are all ready to be dropped off to head for destination unknown. Anya was especially excited about doing this and it was fun to see her be so enthusiastic about giving to others–especially those who have so little. We can only hope our boxes help two children have a very Merry Christmas and learn about the love of Jesus.

If you are interested in participating in Operation Christmas Child, there is still time. National collection week for the shoe boxes goes until 11/23! Happy shoebox packing

This weekend the kids & I headed north to spend some time in Ringsted and to help Great G’ma Martha celebrate her 88th birthday! She had a nice party on Saturday and enjoyed her day visiting with friends and eating cake & ice cream. While we were home we also got to visit with Great G’ma Ruth & Great Papa Arnold and see Papa Jim working in the field. Thanks to the nice weather we have had the last couple of weeks, they have been able to go like gangbusters in the field and are getting closer everyday to have the crops out. What a relief it will be when that happens!

While we were in Ringsted, Jason was in Columbus, OH (with my brother Jason) trying to cheer the Hawks on to a victory against Ohio State. What a close game it was and the boys said it was an awesome atmosphere–they are already talking about a repeat trip on 2 years! Although our hopes of a January trip to California won’t be happening this year, I am very proud of the Hawkeyes and how well they recooped after losing Stanzi. Let’s hope for a big win against Minnesota this weekend and end the season on a good note!

Since Jason had the camera in Columbus for the game, I didn’t get any pictures this weekend. I’ll try to post some this week so you don’t forgot what the kids look like

…..to be outside. Not to be a Hawkeye fan!

This last week we were lucky enough to have Aunt Joni stay with us. I enjoyed having an extra pair of hands to help me out and the kids enjoyed having someone extra to play with. The week went too fast and we are already looking forward to having her back next year!

Over the weekend we went to Winfield so G’ma Jeryl, Papa Ronnie & Joni could watch the kids while Jason & I went to the Iowa game. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside & I was in heaven being able to wear shorts in November! Unfortunately the game wasn’t as enjoyable as the weather, so now we are hoping the Hawks can regroup for the big game this weekend against Ohio State!!

In other news, Josiah had his 18 month checkup last week checked in at 25 lbs and 33 inches. He jumped up a little on the height chart to the 50-75 percentile, so that was a nice surprise. I am still not holding out much hope for having a 6 footer in the house, but you never know We saw a different pediatrician for this appointment b/c our regular ped is on maternity leave and the new pediatrician couldn’t get over how talkative and interactive Josiah was with her. In fact, when she walked into the room Josiah let out a loud “HI” and ran right over to her & she said she thought she had the wrong room b/c most 18 month old kids run & hide at the sight of someone unfamiliar, yet alone a doctor. Yep that’s my child…..willing to run right into the arms of a stranger

Happy Halloween! Although the weather was a little less than desirable on Friday night for Beggars night, we still had a great time. Anya went as The Little Mermaid Ariel & Josiah was a train engineer. We headed to the new Bass Pro Shop in Altoona for some indoor treating and costume party and then we came back home and hit the neighborhood houses for some more loot! After trick-or-treating we waited for the Miller clan to arrive so the boys could all head to the Hawk game Saturday morning. What a game that was….I think I have aged 10 years from this season alone!

Saturday after the game, the boys picked up Aunt Joni to come spend the week with us. When they all made it back to Pleasant Hill, we dressed the kids up in the costumes again and headed to The Incredible Pizza Company for another Halloween party, food and games. After finding a great deal online and getting some extra “money” during the Halloween party, we had $99 to use on games alone….so needless to say we were there along time and the kids (and adults too) had a great time. We finally got home just before 11pm and even though we were all super tired, the adults had to sit up and rehash the football game and of course talk about our plans for a trip to Pasadena in January (fingers crossed )

Today we are recooping from all our weekend fun and enjoying having Aunt Joni here all week (she & Anya are folding my laundry as we speak ).

Here are our Halloween weekend pictures. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween and is enjoying this great fall weather!