Late on getting this out as I want to say Happy Thanksgiving but good grief, we're less than 3 weeks until Christmas! Where does the time go??? Seems to speed by quicker the older I get...go figure! We are doing well and had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we hosted it here and I think we had close to 30, including a few kiddos! I seem to enjoy this holiday the most, lots of good food, time to visit with family and no stress about buying the presents! ; ) I cooked a few dishes but my mom and dad brought a turkey as well as my cousin and her husband brought along the real star of the show for the day.....a deep-fried turkey...yum!

We have been busy as usual.....I helped with both older girls with Thanksgiving activities. Allison had a big "pow-wow" for their social studies unit this year at school and I went in and helped with it. They had a big traditional turkey dinner for lunch that the teacher prepared and then we made all kinds of Indian crafts, etc..in the afternoon. It was alot of fun, for both the kiddos and the moms that helped! Thursday night after our big dinner here, it's been a tradition over the past couple of years that my sister and her husband and her girls spend the night here and then Amy and I go out early early to start Christmas shopping on Friday morning. Jason stayed here with the kids to watch football and play games....always fun! Then on Saturday foll0wing Turkey day, we headed down to Louisville, KY to spend some time with Jason's family for their Thanksgiving get-together. Busy times but so much fun and wouldn't trade it for anything! Now we're ready for Christmas....well, not really ready for it yet but loving this time of the year. Allie has her school program this Thursday. She's excited as she has a speaking part...not huge but she's been really practicing her one line....Go Allie! Keeping busy here and celebrating each day as it comes.....can't complain one bit....life is good!

Halloween and celebrating Mama's birthday!

I've been lagging a bit in posting but trying to get back to things here! ; ) All three of our girls came thru the H1N1 virus lately, so we like to tease at the Massey house that we survived the "hini" sickness! : ) Actually, Lauren thought it was called "H1, 2 thumbs"...we have no idea where she came up with that one! In all seriousness, the girls did all three come down with this nasty thing all at once and of course, they picked the week that Daddy was out of town for business (in sunny Florida no less!) so Mama handled the fort here by myself and I was proud to say....I did it! And didn't get too many more gray hairs added to my head! I honestly had to thank God many times that week for giving me extra doses of patience with my sickly bunch and for keeping my girls ok during that time and getting them better so quickly. This virus can be pretty scary! Thankfully, by the time Halloween week rolled around, they were all better and we were able to enjoy the many fun festivities! We carved pumpkins one evening and enjoyed caramel apples for dessert. Then, the Friday before Halloween, Mommy was able to help out Lauren's preschool for her party as well as Allie's school for her afternoon party. Busy day was had but lots of fun! Then Friday night, we spent at our Harvest Bash at church (with of course Daddy and Mommy dressed up too.....Dad as a basketball jock (big stretch for him...haha!) and Mom as a cheerleader....reliving my high school days!!!). We also enjoyed taking the girls trick-or-treating around our neighborhood on Halloween night. Allie went as "Taylor Swift" the country singer, Lauren went at her school party as a kitty cat and then during trick-or-treating as a pom pom / cheerleader girl and Katelyn went as a leopard....all were of course very cute! And, to round out our fun weekend, we celebrated Mommy's birthday (woohoo....turned 29 again!) on Sunday after church with a nice lunch and family time at Grandma and Papa's lake house. Another fun weekend was had! Now on to preparing for some fun events counting down to Thanksgiving! Can't wait.....

Fall Break and a little time away!

We celebrated a couple of days off from school for the girlies with a short trip to Chicago this week. It was our fall break and our "normal" tradition of heading to Gatlinburg, TN got changed up a bit this year. Jason had a meeting for work in Chicago on Friday morning so we decided to head there with him and turn his business trip for the day into an overnight trip for the family. We were able to enjoy a very nice hotel with a great indoor heated pool (AHHHH!!!!) and of course had to sneak in a trip to the American Girl store downtown too! Allie and Mommy have been there before but this was Lauren and Katelyn's first time to go and oh my, they were overwhelmed at just the sight of all of the girl dolls and baby dolls to see! I wish we could have captured a photo of their eyes when we walked into the store.....Lauren's eyes were huge with excitement and she told me it was unbelieveable! ; ) Kate loved the Bitty Baby area and did not want to leave the stroller that she was having so much fun with while we were there. I have a feeling that we've started something.....it appears she's also already crazy about these dolls! Since we have friends from our college days at Ball State that live just outside of Chicago, we were also able to spend a bit of time catching up with them and their two little boys as well. We had a great time together and returned home with some fond memories and tired little ones!

Fall fun at the pumpkin patch and apple orchard....

We had a great weekend here at the Massey house, full of fun fall activities and lots of just spending time together! We started the weekend out on Friday night with pizza and a movie....just can't go wrong with spending a rainy night hibernating in the basement w/ pizza, a Disney flick and popcorn afterwards! ; ) Saturday the rain ended (thank you God...we weren't prepared to build an ark!) and we headed out for an afternoon trip to Appleworks, a local apple orchard and pumpkin patch. The girls always love going there as they not only have delicious apples, huge pumpkins and a play area but also a great petting zoo and a couple of fun trails to walk along. We headed on down to Grandma and Papa's lake house after that to spend some time with them and enjoy dinner together. The girls love going to their Grandma and Papa's house and never want to go home when it's time to leave! Sunday we spend heading to church and then Allie had a birthday party to go to at the roller skating rink. We spent the afternoon doing some yard work, enjoying that fall sunshine! Then we grilled out steaks (even though it was a bit chilly!) and enjoyed another Colts victory!!! Woohoo...what a great weekend and another reminder to me to praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!!!

Catching up and a great weekend getaway to Cincy!!

It has been waaaaayy too long since I've been on here but hey, I'm a busy working mama of three and a wifey to my hubby so cut me some slack! heehee! ; ) We have been busy enjoying family time, cranking away at school work and putting in some good hours at our jobs as well. Allie has been loving 4th grade and has already completed a wonderful project on an Indiana native animal, the fox squirrel, as well as qualifying for a "wogger" (what her p.e. teacher calls walking/jogging) award for these first few weeks of school! Lauren is still also enjoying her pre-K class at school, learning lots of new spanish words and singing all sorts of new tunes for us! Katie is hanging in there, getting over a cold, but doing great! She loves to spend time running around the house (and outside!) w/ her sisters and seems to be going a good job of getting caught up w/ them on being a "Dennis the Menace"! ; ) Jason has been really busy at his job but given that his job is sales, that is a really good thing!!!!! He is getting ready to travel for a trade show to Florida but unfortunately we can't tag along on this trip...oh well, maybe next time! I've been busy w/ the start of a new MOPS year at church as well as lots of bookkeeping business for my work. Jason and I got to go this past weekend away (by ourselves!!!) to King's Island and had a ball! Thank God for family that takes care of our little ones and for good friends to go away for a good time with!!! Not alot of pics of the kiddos lately...have to get back to work on that! All in all, a wonderful fall season is being enjoyed here at the Massey house!

A night with our older girls!

Allie and Lauren completed the reading program this summer at our local library and part of their rewards were free tickets to an Indiana Fever WNBA basketball game! FUN! They were both very excited to go. We decided that Katelyn probably wouldn't find it as fun as they would so we had family babysit her while Jason and I took the two older girls out for a night of fun! Allie knew what to expect as she has watched plenty of professional basketball games on tv with her dad but Lauren wasn't too sure....she kept asking when we were going to see baseball at the park???!! Anyway, we treated them to dinner at the game, their pick of what they wanted....we ended up with chicken & fries and an order of supreme nachos! YUM-O! They both loved cheering the team on and getting into the music and fun all around. Lauren wasn't crazy about the mascot but luckily he didn't get too near our seats! What a great night out and Dad finally got to enjoy some sports watching with his girlies! ; )

Lauren's first day of "pre-k" and the start of her last year of preschool!

Lauren started her "pre-k" class today, officially beginning the start of her last year of preschool! And, Katelyn began her first day of one time per week "parents day out" program this year. Whew, the house sure was quiet this morning and I have to admit I was a bit sad when Katie wasn't thrilled I was leaving her there at school for a bit but she got over it quickly, they both had a great time and I got most of my bookkeeping work for the day done...yeah! : ) Here are a couple of photos from the start of our day!