Thanksgiving-and a lemon cheesecake!

Look at this lemon cheesecake. Okay, so I am really proud of it. I found a way to make a "safe" meaning dairy free lemon cheesecake by combining two recipes and buying the expensive but so worth it Tofutti cream cheese. This year it was fun to see how far we've come in making good food that the entire family can eat including those with food allergies. We also made some fantastic garlic mashed potatoes and Brian made an apple pie that I know he was proud of too.

Before we ate today we sat down in a circle and talked about the things we are thankful for. I was really surprised and touched by all the nice things that our kids said. We've had a great year and we do have a ton to be grateful for. We had a really fun day and managed to take a family walk/bike ride around the neighborhood at the precise time it started raining. Tomorrow we are off on our mini vacation to Galveston so more pics to follow.

Here are just a couple of pictures of things the kids did lately that made me laugh.

Annelise using all the hairbows she could find to decorate herself and her stuffed friends.
Annelise and Nathan playing starfall on the computer one Sunday. The were just giggling nonstop and having the best time together.

Halloween costumes and a pumpkin

It was really hard to get a good picture of the kids in their costumes. Lily didn't want to wear hers, but was easily distracted by the dogs that came to the party and didn't realize it when I put the costume on her. Nathan requested to be a "construction site worker" this year and Annelise is a combination of her two favorite things: princesses and butterflies-put together you've got the butterfly princess.
Brian did a great job helping Annelise and Nathan carve this pumpkin. Nathan wanted the "nice pumpkin" to have a missing tooth just like him, so if you look closely you might see the pumpkin's "gapy". The kids had fun collecting candy and Nathan really only wanted a sucker when we got home. I think this would be the last piece of candy Brian or I would chose to eat out of all the choices but he was really happy with this sucker.

Happy 3rd Birthday Nathan!

Annelise made Nathan this birthday sign. She said that the brown blob was a trash can because Nathan loves to talk about garbage day and things that can be recycled.
Here is the birthday boy about to blow out the three candles on his breakfast pumpkin muffin.
He enjoyed getting a sleeping bag, a lot of hot wheels cars, and a remote control Toy Story 3 pizza rocket that he can put his new Woody and Buzzlightyear inside of.

On Nate's birthday we carved a big pumpkin, played toys, made homemade chocolate coconut milk ice cream (with candles in it again to blow out) and later went to the ward trunk or treat.

Nathan has grown a ton this year. He loves to talk, which I didn't really expect since Annelise also loves to talk a lot, he is potty trained (yeah!) and he enjoys being my big helper with the laundry. He is also really good at picking out books about trucks at the library. He asks tons of questions and says lots of cute things. Happy Birthday Nate-man!