Happy Thanksgiving

Last Thursday, Jade had her first choir concert. She was in the front row so we had a great view of her. If you look very closely to her hair, you might see that she has two braids in her hair. She informed me that when she is excited she braids her hair. She did wonderful. They did 5 songs.
The girls have been off for the last two weeks and Dave has been home with them most of the time. They were having fun piling up blankets onto him. They then started using it as a pillow and padding and jumping. We were really lucky that no one got hurt.
Wednesday Dave was downstairs and the girls were on the top floor in the play area, he heard them coming down the stairs and could hear them whispering to each other to be quiet. They came in the room to scare him. These costumes are from my mom's high school. They are marching band uniform.
Today for Thanksgiving we had 25 people at our house. We have both sides of the family here. After a wonderful big meal, it was time for Amazing Race game. This year we decided not to be very physical and more thinking. We had 12 kids playing so the 3 oldest made the teams. The other kids had to draw numbers. There was 4 stations that they had to complete and then go to one of the grandmas to finish.
Team one: Cassie, Katie, Jenny, Bridget and Coco (no we don't have a dog...he was visiting)

Team 2 was Koudai, Jacob, Trisha and Monika

Team 3 was Jade, Steven, Tommy and Molly


This Station they had to use Chop sticks to get M & M's and Candy corn out of the bowls. They had to make a turkey cookie (make it exactly the way the sample one was) Of course Koudai being part Japanese and Jade were old pros at using them. Some of the other kids manged well. After the game was done they got to eat them.Hand Turkey station. They had to do a turkey and color it the way the sample one was. there also was a faint "x" symbol that they need to put on their paper
In soon to be Erin's room, there was a station. Each team had questions they had to answer and then they had to do a word or sentence for each letter in Happy ThanksgivingIn the girls room they had to throw bean bags and super balls in to the bowls (that is my brother on the bed taking pictures)
Jade's team won and each of them got a gift certificate from Walmart.
I am so thankful for my life. Sometimes you take life for grant until something unexpected happens or you don't realize how lucky you are. I am thankful for Jesus, as I go thru each journey of my life, he is beside me, even when I am not always sure of it, he is there. I am thankful for my family, friends, and everyone else that has come in contact with my life. Both good and bad. I have learned so much and know I have so much more to learn. Sitting at the table while eating looking around, I felt some sadness that Erin wasn't here. With all of our kids, we always had referrals after the first of the year and they were always home by Thanksgiving. I wondered what Erin was doing (at the time we were eating, hopefully she was in bed sleeping.)
We got our paperwork for Crossroads (local agency doing the homestudy). We are still waiting to hear from Madison (Where Erin's file is)to see what the next step is with them.
Right before I started to blog, I was on facebook and discover one of my co-workers passed away. She was diagnosis on Monday with Stage 4 Cancer. Some people were with her on Tuesday and she was awake and talking and so forth, so this cancer moved very fast. She was an excellent cook, very giving, tenderhearted, and caring. She gave Monika a teadybear and yellow duck shortly after she came home 6 years ago, Monika still has them and sleeps with them. I am thankful that I knew her. I am thankful for my niece that quitting her dependencies is doing so well and she is strong. She is now calm and not so edge, thanks for the prayers given to her.
Now it is time for me to go to bed, count my blessing and say prayers to the Lord for all the wonderful things. Sleep well and get ready to go shopping at 6 in the morning....Good night