** Happy Thanksgiving **

Welcome to the Kienow's Thanksgiving 2008! This year we toyed with the idea of going home to Coeurd'Alene, but with Sam's recent travels, it felt like too much of an effort. I think I was forgetting that staying home also takes quite the effort!

We invited my brother Kyle to come and we were so happy he decided to accept our invite, with five siblings to choose from in the area, he definitely has his pick of who's house to go to.... We got him this year! The kids love having him here and didn't give him any rest, no naps for Uncle Kyle!

We also invited our friends Marrya, Clark and their kids. Marrya recently had a baby and wasn't ready to expose her to the big world that would've been her extended family function, so they opted for the lesser crowd, and we were lucky to have them.

Here we all are, minus me..(behind camera, as usual) Ready to dig in!

Look at that adoring look! How would it be to be so admired?!






























This year, we had all the decorations that were so well loved and used by my Grandma Livingston. She passed away in June and I was lucky to get some of her things that have special meaning to me. I always loved having
Thanksgiving at her house.











Grandma's Tradition... tiny cornucopias with candy at each plate. Audrey decided to make little name tags and create a seating arrangement. Maybe we've got a wedding planner on our hands!

Ahhh Marrya... never boring being with her. We had a great time, they stayed until about 10:30 at night playing wii games and eating pies, many many pies... Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving too! On the right side of the blog is a list of 100 things for which I'm thankful, there's so much in this world to be thankful for it really is amazing!

She's a Big Girl Now!

I'm dedicating this song to Sam because of Elle, the guy can't get a kiss out of her lately without tricking her into it!


So we FINALLY got our act together and got Elle out of her crib. She was so excited and had been waiting all week for her bed to arrive.


Here's Sam starting the set up.

Making sure all the slats are perfectly spaced...

You know, no matter how big you think your kids are getting.....

They'll still find a way to make good use out of a big cardboard box.

Proud Elle in her "big girl bed."

Since she was now officially a big girl, she asked to use the cell phone. She proceeded to chat with her imaginary friend named "Settie", and told her all about how she had a bed like her sister. She also politely inquired about Settie's current sleeping arrangements...

Lights out! She was so happy, I can't believe we've put off getting her out of her crib this long. I went to pick up the mattress tonight and the store was closed, Elle was so excited though that Reese decided to be a good older brother and give up his mattress for her. He is sleeping in a sleeping bag tonight. He said we could just give him the new mattress later. Makes me smile when the kids come through for each other.

Beautiful day and Bargains

Wow! This is out our front door today, this fall has been strangely warm, but it is beautiful none the less!!

Sam and I have been looking (casually) at a house that's down the road a little. In light of all of this, it's really made me appreciate what we do have....

I really love having a laundry room to hang dry things and have a place to iron...

Audrey's room and "homework loft" are one of the more fun things about our house, Grandpa Ladd and Sam built it for Audrey. She's a lucky girl, and when grandpa builds things you can bet they're sturdy!

I know, Audrey's room is the last unpainted surface in our house, it's that doggone ultra high ceiling, seems like such a project. It's next on my list....

Now for the bargains! I went to Ross the other day and was delighted to find these boots for Elle. They actually have a removable liner and seem pretty decent. They were only $5.99! I love it I tell you... Elle loves them too. I'm not crazy about clothing with characters on it; so lucky for me they'll be worn with snow pants! Yay, then Elle can be happy too!

I think maybe her nickname should be "Belly"

This is one of my good Holiday dress finds... Hooray for Costco!

I was so glad to find Audrey some more dresses, shopping for her age can be really hard; the clothes start to get skimpy and expensive. I was thrilled to come home with three dresses from Ross each under $14!!

Elle the Disciplinarian and Home

Uh oh, somebody's in trouble. I came into the bathroom, and found Elle's animals in the corner....I asked her and she said, they were being so bad. They have to have time out! Then she said they were being nice again and happily posed with them.

Here are Audrey and Reese tonight, Audrey was already in her p.j.s, They are both looking so grown up to me!



So in the title, when I said home, this is what I meant. Last night Sam and I watched " A River Runs Through It " It's pretty much my favorite movie, not only because the fly fishing reminds me of my Grandpa, Dad and Brothers, but because the movie is filmed in Missoula Montana on the Blackfoot River. This movie almost always makes me cry a little, not just because of the sad ending but because seeing the area that's near my home tugs my heart strings.... These are pictures of the Clark Fork River, which we cross about 15 times heading home, and the Blackfoot River, that we also follow a bit along the way through Montana.

This is my Grandpa Livingston, he was a Forrest Ranger and avid fly fisher. He passed away when I was only three. I know him only through stories and other's memories....

This is an aerial shot of a smaller part of the Coeurd'Alene River. On the bigger parts, we love to go floating and fishing.

This is a shot from Tubs Hill, it's a hiking trail that juts out above Lake Coeurd'Alene. It's right downtown and we always loved to go and jump off the rocks in the summertime. Sometimes I'm not sure how I can last in (Utah) this dry place!

Guys night out, plus me

Last night, Sam was supposed to go to the Metalica concert with my Brothers, he got sick, so I went instead. I showed up wearing a Metalica T shirt and a mullet wig, just to poke fun at my brothers, I think they thought it was pretty funny.... it turned out to be a fun night! So these are some pictures I found online, they had a lot of lasers and fire... the base player, pictured below, was my favorite to watch, he kind of stays low and creeps around while he plays. It was pretty amazing to see their fingers working on the guitar, even though I'm not their biggest fan they were really talented. I thought in light of the concert and post, I'd punish ( or delight! ) everyone with a little Metalica, if you can't stand it, then switch the song on the playlist . This was by far the most mellow song I could find.

This is my brother Mark, he was the instigator of this whole plan. Here's the mullet and t-shirt.

So, only three of these guys are my brothers, can you guess which ones?

Elle for some weird reason has always thought skulls were cool. When she was really little she saw some guy wearing a skull shirt and said oh, that guy's cool! I really have no idea.... Anyway, she saw the shirt and said, ' if I were a boy I would wear that.' So I told her she could wear it just in the house. She said, ' I like your shirt mom, ' I said, yeah, it's kinda ugly, and she said,' It's actually cool now.' Pretty funny, she also said it doesn't match my other pretty shirts, but that it matches Reese's shirts.

The End of an Era and Sunday Boredom

The Kids were so excited and ready to go. Elle ended up being a witch at the school Halloween parties, a dog for the trick or treating at Sam's work, and then finally chose the bumble bee costume for the night-time trick or treating. She'll never have a shortage of costumes thanks to being the youngest.

They're all adorable, everyone loved Reese in his Indiana Jones costume, I think he felt pretty cool. Thanks to Daddy for getting the 8ft long whip on one of his trips to Mexico.

They had quite the stash, this was only installation #1, more came later!

This is is what I meant when I said the end of an era. Immediately upon arriving home, Audrey proceeded to categorize each and every piece of candy, numbered, listed and accounted for. Dang! no more stealing the good stuff, I guess at least there's still Reese and Elle to sneak from!

So we got a little bored this Sunday and decided to spice up the Girls' rooms with a little tissue paper decor', they loved it and hey, it's cheap!

Yes, Elle is still in a crib, we're on the look out for a bed as we speak....

This was before bed, Audrey and Elle were both in major-stall-mode, sometimes, you've just got to let them run their energy out!