I am Thankful

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. The day passed without incident and with lots of food and friends. Our numbers hit 21 people this year. It was a group effort on the dinner and the dessert spread was awesome. I must say, if you cant be with all your family, close friends are a great substitute. Thanks to all who came!

We are mindful at this Thanksgiving of all the wonderful blessings we have. For all the sacrifices made by good people long ago, and currently, who give of themselves to bless others. We looked around at our little ones and cant imagine life without them. We are grateful for health, for employment and for our blessings from heaven. We know from whence our gifts flow, and our very lives are indebted.
We are glad Turkey Day came and we are glad its over.

Dinner Table

Mike and Nate. What 'cha drinking there Nate? CHEERS!
Michelle and Jimmy

Hungry Baby Asher



Party with the Poulsons


Eric and Jana. Abigail on the lap.

Kids table, which remained unoccupied while adults ate.
The kids played while the adults had their fill. It was delightful
to get to enjoy your meal without being interrupted.

Bailey getting some grub

Yummy!

If you cant see it it says: "Faithful friends who are dear to us.

Gather near to us once more".

Weeks of SCARY

Things have been busy around here. Life seems to pick up with holidays and the shortening of the daylight hours (have I mentioned that I hate daylight savings...what a crock!)

After Halloween was through, I thought I had my fill of scary things. However, things never seem to stay the same and a few more SCARY things have happened in the past few weeks. Where to start?-

Scary thing 1#- Lincoln left on his mission- This is scary for me, because it makes me feel so old. Its scary for Lincoln because he has to be in the MTC through all the holidays and he gets to meet lots of weird people in the Salt Lake City/ Spanish speaking mission (totally scary if you think about all the fanatical Mormon offshoots that he will be meeting). Overall, just a new scary strange experience for him.

Lincoln is the 8th child in my family. He was incredibly cute as a little boy and was lovingly referred to as "butter tooth" for the first few years of his toddler hood. He tipped over a chair while standing on it, hit his front teeth on the floor and one of them died, looking yellow in color.- We loved to tease him about it. He didn't love it much. He grew up to be a really great brother with tons of personality and heart.

He has dealt with kidney issues since he was little and endured a kidney transplant last December. The fact that he is even alive to go on a mission is amazing. The fact that he was worthy to go is commendable. The chance that he will succeed on a mission is absolute. He is a wonderful person...I am so proud.

Scary thing #2- My dad was called to be the Scranton Stake Patriarch here in PA. Its a huge job in the church with lots of responsibilities.- I would be scared to death to get such a big job. I know he will be great at it, and its totally inspired. He shouldn't be scared, but I'm guessing its probably really new and intimidating. I love my dad, I know he will do a great job.

Scary thing #3- We took the boys to see DISNEY'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Thinking that this movie might have a few intense parts, I quizzed the boys on "pretend" and "real" before we went. Intense was an understatement. This movie was scary for Four year olds. And it takes alot to scare Zachary. Just even the noises in the movie, ringing bells, screaming ghosts, the chains clanging were loud and frightening. Mike and I enjoyed the movie, its amazing to see the realistic animation these days. It really is a neat movie to watch from that standpoint. However, its not for little kids.

The opening scene is of Jacob Marley in a coffin. He is dead and really nasty looking. I kept looking over to make sure no one was writhing in terror. I asked Tanner about 6 times if he was alright, finally he said "Be quiet mom, Im trying to watch this movie". :)

-The boys made it through the movie. But they had alot of questions about ghosts and graveyards for the rest of the week. And why did "Santa" (ghost of Christmas present) melt into a skeleton and have evil little monsters under his coat?-Guess you need to see it to know what they are talking about. Pretty weird.

Scary thing # 4- I finished my Zumba certification! I am officially an instructor. This can be really scary for those of you who can imagine me dancing and swinging my hips on a stage, in front of people. Its really fun and I love it. Im not the skinniest person in the room, but I definitely think that I will be a great instructor because of my love of the music. I will admit, I was pretty scared to go to the training in Philadelphia. I knew no one, didnt know where I was going, and I knew that it would be 8 hours of Zumba. When I got home, I was exhausted!! It was worth it and Im glad to finally have my certificate.

Enough scary things for now. Hopefully, the next few weeks will be easy and not at all scary.

Asher 18th mth Update:

Asher update:
At Ashers 18 mth old dr. appt he weighed in at a hefty 30 lbs and 35 inches. He is in the 90% in weight and height. He even said "Hi" when the dr. walked in. Then gave her five and asked to see the "ight" (he wanted to hold the otoscope). She was like "does he say anything else?". Then he repeated a ton of words to her and staked a huge pile of blocks, threw and kicked her a tennis ball, then sat down to read a book from my diaper bag. He is too funny. We love him.
He has such an easy personality. He loves his dad and wants Mike to take him out to see the moon every night. He says "moon...sky" which is the signal. He thinks he is a big boy and wants to do everything the older boys do. He eats really well and likes about everything. I gave him a hand full of raw blueberries and fresh raspberries. He was walking around all day saying "berry! Num,Num". Our only issue now will be taking away the bottle that is still a comfort tool. He doesnt like sippy cups in the evening hours and he starts crying for a bottle. Its time. Im praying for only a couple of hard days.
Asher is such a great blessing and wonderful little boy. He is growing up too fast!

Park in the Dark

We finished up October by spending some weekends at Hershey Park in the Dark. We have really enjoyed the theme park this year. We had a great time, and our boys are at the prime age for rollercoasters and rides. Asher is finally able to ride a few of the "bigger" rides. Here are a few pictures. He loves being a "big boy", cant you tell by the look on his face! I love this age!