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photos from Thanksgiving

here are the girls and their 4 H group getting plates ready for the shut ins


the pictures of the girls and everyone at Thanksgiving..we ate, played some games, and then back to eating!

what the holiday is about

Thanksgiving

We all had a great time today. It started at 7:30 when the girls and I were going to go feed the animals. One of our turkeys, MP (Mash Potatoes), was on the front porch wanted to be feed. Then it was down to The Bear's & Ho's for breakfast. Then the girls and I went to Leicester to get together a Thanksgiving lunch for some shut ins. We delivered our lunches and came home. When I got home Donny had been working all morning in the field. I went inside and Ho had been working all morning in the kitchen. Our lunch was so good. We ate and ate. Afterwards, we all played a few games of train dominoes. Very competitive! Dusty even came by and played a few games. After that we rested a little it was time to eat again. Thanksgiving is all about enjoying your family and that is what we did today. We are missing RA RA and Hope. They are on a mission trip this week. We hope and pray that they both come home safely. We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, like we did.




Look...Tim ate a lot of ham today but MooMoo and Daisy are still around.

cookies

Jenna is making cookies for our 4H Thanksgiving dinner. All 25 families from the 4H are bring different things to make a turkey dinner. We are going to meet, in Sandy Mush, Thursday morning at 10 to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for a shut in family. Then we will go out and delivery to them. Hope they will enjoy it as much as we have putting it together.

message for Uncle Tim

PLEASE DON'T EAT ANY OF MY FAMILY!!! HAM IS BAD...TURKEY IS GOOD!!!
love,
MooMoo

flock of turkeys

Here is a picture of my flock of turkeys from church. We tried to make the cool turkey hats, like Aunt Jan, did with us last year. They came out pretty good, just really colorful. Gobble Gobble

Thanksgiving

We would like to wish you and yours and Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for all of my family and friends that sent in their thankfulness notes. We put them on the thankful tree. It was great to read every ones thanks. It is hard for me to say what I am thankful for. There is so much but most of all I am thankful for the little things. Like when I am outside feeding the animals in the morning, even though it is in the 20's I am thankful for the beautiful sunrises every morning. I am thankful that my girls like spending time with me and go long with the crazy ideas without complaint, OK not much complaining. I am thankful for the Bear and Ho. Without them things would not come together like it does. I am thankful for all my family that comes together to help us. It was been said that it takes a village, my village is very full. They help us with chasing animals, or going to our 1st father/daughter dance, they call everyday to make sure we are OK and to make sure there are no problems they need to fix. I am very thankful for all those in my village. I am thankful for the health of my family, the hugs I get everyday from the girls, and the looks from them when I sing really loud before they get dropped off everyday, at school. I am thankful for where I am right now, the most beautiful place in the world. I am thankful for my life. I would not change a thing, just make some improvements. I am thankful for a thankful god and all he has done for us. Sam came up with a new thankfulness Monday night. We had a community church service with the Baptist, the Christian, and our Methodist church. It was getting late and at the end Sam had to go put out the candles out at the alter. She looked up at me and said she was thankful for not being a baptist. She said she couldn't keep up with switching back and forth in the books and verses. She liked just hearing one story at a service. I am thankful for her honest and innocence. I am thankful for Jenna's want to cook, so I don't have to. I am also thankful for Tori's since of style. She makes me get out of my sweatshirts and jeans, somethings. I hope your Thanksgiving is as thankful as mine.

Our wish

This year for the holidays our family want to share our holiday cheer and help others. The 1st thing we have done, so far is bid on a poster to raise money for Toys for Tots. We won the signed autographed poster of Montgomery Gentry. They are one of my favorite groups. The auction had autographed shirts, hats, and guitars. This is a great organization that will help kids in our area that would not have a Christmas without the help of others. I hope we can help more this holiday season. I know everyone is struggling this year, but there are others that are struggling more than us. As long as you can do what you can you are really showing the true meaning of the holiday season.

Christmas Parade

Our town has their Christmas Parade the weekend before Thanksgiving. This is the 1st year that we went and it was cold. We sat in front of the City Bakery and drank hot coco and ate warm cookies. There was 105 entries from local marking bands, the radio stations, some of the charter schools, and the ending was Santa and will 8 BIG reindeer. We got more candy from the parade when we got on Halloween. The best part was the Cherokee Indians were there and they handed out Indians Corn to plant next spring. Ok, I am not disappointed with all the chocolate we got but the Indians are always my favorite. It is hard to believe that Christmas will be here in a month.

Snow Day

Yes, you heard me correct. The kids had their 1st snow day today! This was the 4th snow we have had in the past few weeks but it snowed a little more last night than the rest. It was beautiful but to cold to go out in it. It was 25 degrees this morning when I was out feeding, but with the wind chill it was 17. Now anything below 30 doesn't need a wind chill factor added to it. The girls bugged the Bear about getting out in it she said not until it gets above 30. It never got about 30 today but she let them go out and play...they stayed out in for about 3 minutes. It is not even Thanksgiving yet and we have more snow than we did last year.

Chess Team Tournament

Jenna and Sam played in a team tournament last weekend. They play in a team of 4 against 4 others. Each team plays 4 games. It makes a long day but the girls enjoy it. Sam's team did well, she lost one, tied one, won one, and lost the last. Jenna's team was 1/2 point from winning a trophy, she lost one, won one, won one, lost the last.

Veteran' s Day

The girls helped with the 4H support Veteran's Day celebration. They helped decored, handed out programs, and flags. They helped serve food and helped clean up afterwards. It was a very emotional day. The first celebration had 3 veterans talk about their life. There was an older man that had fought in WWII that reminded me of my Grandaddy. He spoke about living your life to fullest you never know what tomorrow will bring. The Leicester high scholars did "I am Army Strong". It is a play that showed the different eras of the army. Afterwards the whole community got together to eat and watch a video about the war today. We saw a picture of Nick in the video, he was one of Tori's teacher's son. They then hung photos of all of the Leicester veterans that died in the line of battle. There were 11 men that had lost their lives from WWI to now. That seems like a lot for such a small town. As the sun went down they did a 21 gun salute. The whole thing makes you think. It is not about if you support the war or not it is about supporting the men and women who are fighting for us. It is like one of the Veteran said...I was not a hero I was just doing my job. All of this reminds me of some of the best Veterans, both of my Grandfathers. I was lucky to go down to the Mighty Eight last summer to see how Grandaddy lived during WWII. I got to touch airplanes that he might have worked on and to see what really went on. I was very blessed to spend PaPa's last weekend alive with him at a reunion with his unit, at Tablee Island, almost 25 years ago. I don't remember all the stories from that weekend but I do remember PaPa's glory then. Have you thanked a Veterans lately????

funraiser

Sam's school had the neatest fund raiser. They put on a basketball game that had the teachers playing basketball and were cheerleaders. They played the other elementary school we have in Arden. They sold tickets to the game, had a 50/50, and sold snacks. It was so much fun. It is all fun and games and it is like a globetrotters game. Lots of money was raised and ACES & ESTES had a blast. The pictures are from the half time show.

end of the 1st 9 weeks

We made it past the 1st nine weeks. All the girls had great grades...Jenna made 4 A's and 1 B...Tori made 3 A's and 2 B's...Sam made 4 A's and 1 B. Sam won the principal and bus award. The twin's made A/B honor roll and was invited to a Valley Springs tea. See the girls get an award for the great grades...thank you HO and Bear for all the homework help!!!!!!

Tori's night

Tori and the Bear went to the fall banquet, for volleyball. Everyone brought a cover dish and enjoyed supper. Afterwards they divided up per sports and went to a classroom for awards. Tori was the manager of the girls volleyball team. They really enjoyed her and gave her a nickname, now she will be know as Jitterbug. Couch K wanted to know if she ever stopped moving. The team ended their season with a score of 12-4. Way to go lady rams!!!!

CIDER

The twins got a lesson, from Alvin, step by step on how to make homemade cider. You just have to watch out for the yellow jackets...
1st you have to was the apples...
then you have to chop up the apples..
next you put it in the peeler to mush them after all that you put them on layers of cloth then you get them in a pile to get the juice out of them
out comes the juice....
We made 5 gallons of apple cider. Of coarse a half a gallon did not make it to the house, they drank it.

How fast can a pig run?

This is not a Dr Suess tale just another day on the funny farm. Daisy, the free pig decided that she wanted to see the farm. She wiggled out and was walking down the farm lane when Alvin saw her. He call the Bear and they headed home from Brevard and the girls and I came home from our errands, to chase the pig. Now, Daisy is short and fat, like me, but she runs a lot faster than I. Jenna grabbed the broom and Sam grabbed the net and we went out. Ho came in the jeep and we all chased the pig. Tried to bribe her with apples and dog biscuits but she keep us on run. Paw Paw, David, came over on the 4 wheeler to help. To see him chasing the pig was so funny. He yelled to grab Daisy's tail to catch her. The only one that could do it was Sam. She taught the pig by the tail and was holding on, I jumped on her, the pig not Sam. Then David came to put the lead on her and Daisy jumped up and knock David to his butt and tried to bite him. We got David up to his 4 wheeler and Ho and I picked the pig up and placed her in the back of the hemi. She was mad. She turned and bite me and was trying to tear up the car to get out. She got loose and David got her running to the barn. Then the guys got her back in and we fixed where she got out. David was ok, he says no bite marks or bruised, can't say that much for me. Above my knee was a 9 inch mark. Glad she had her shots not long ago. It was funny the Bear said in the beginning but after 2 hours and lots of bruises later it was not as funny as the start. Ho and I said after she bite me that she was now was a real free pig...to run free as she wished..not worth the problem but Paw Paw never gave up. Just another lazy Sunday afternoon. Just couldn't stop thinking of Uncle Charlie, if you pull on a pig's tail it could come off. Well Uncle Charlie Daisy's tail did not come off....

Halloween

We spent halloween night at the church and had a great time. Over 200 people came by for trunk and treat. Yes, I said trunk and not trick. We park our cars and open our trunks and hand out candy. As a family we all went as hippies. We wore the shirts the girls made for us. The weather was nice not to cold not to warm.


As for Tori she went as a hippie and then changed costumes a few times. Our friends Bo & Sara borrowed the Pooh and Tigger so they let Tori were Bo's usual costume.

Tori finally grew!!! Then she helped Phil and became a cowgirl.

Afterwards, Sam went to a sleep over at a friends house. See, I had a dumb moment. I got a call in the beginning of Oct about this birthday/sleepover. I wrote it down and went on with the my crazy life. I took Sam the 3rd Saturday to the party but no one was home. Do you know why? The party was the night before. So, the Wilkies let Sam come over the next weekend and have a little party. Only me, have the right time but wrong day. Halloween night was fun. We have been eating candy for weeks now.

the monkey bars win

I got a call from school one afternoon and Cindy, my life line to school, said I needed to come and get Sam. She was playing on the monkey bars and fell. I pictured the worst but Sam is tuff. She broke her permanent front tooth. She was so upset because she worked so hard to get her front teeth in after all the problems she had when she was smaller. Sam said she did not know she had broke her tooth until she put her tongue up there. My tuff little girl!!!!

Alex's new friend

Mom was been on the free cycle again and found Jenna and Sam new rabbits. They are lionhead rabbits just like Tori's rabbit Alex. We now have 3 male rabbits. Jenna's rabbit is name Meer, like the sound of a cow makes...
he is black and white and so friendly, unlike Jenna's last rabbit. Sam's is named Squirt (that is what Dusty calls her).. He is all white and all fur.

SAFF sheep show

All 3 girls showed sheep on Sunday. They did great. The girls are such a natural when it comes to showing. When you show wool sheep you don't wash them or sheer them. You do trim the fuzzies around the face and bottom. The judge comes and ask you about your sheep, you have to open the sheep's mouth, and set up your sheep by the way the judge is looking at you. Jenna placed 5th, Tori placed 3rd, and Sam placed 2nd in the spring lamb natural fine wool class. In the fleece fine wool class Jenna placed 4th, Tori placed 3rd, and Sam placed 2nd. In the fleece class the judge is looking only at the wool on your sheep. For the fine wool spring class the judge is looking at you, the sheep's body and it's wool. Sunday's show class is harder because they are showing with adults as well as kids (open), unlike Saturday's show where you show just JR's (kids). This is a harder show for the wool because these people come for the wool and live for the wool. The wooly bullies are looked over so much..when the judge came by to look at Sam's and Tori's sheep they use a flashlight to look at the layers. Jenna had a slight problem during the fleece show her sheep, LuLu did not want to walk or stand, she sat for the judging. Donny and Dusty went to GA for Dusty to ride in the World NHA. So, Ho and I had to take the sheep home. Have you ever seen sheep in a cage in a motorcycle trailer? How about being pulled with a wrangler jeep? We always do things different!

normal Saturday

Now normal to us is not normal to everyone else, I don't think we have ever been normal. Saturday started off at Granny Bear's house at 7:30 am. The Bear took Jenna and Sam to a Halloween Chess tournament, in Hendersonville, while Tori and I went to SAFF, so she could show sheep. It was a winning Saturday for the Ross'. Sam won 1st place in the Halloween costume contest..
She went as Dorthoy of the Wizzard of Oz. Sam won 1, lost 1, and tie 2. Jenna placed 5th in the chess tournament, winning 3 of her 4 games..
Tori placed 1st in the spring lamb fine natural wool, 1st place in the spring lamb fine wool fleece, and 1st in the fine wool sheep class...
After the sheep show Tori and I went to see the awards for the chess. Yes sir their my babies..... And the crowd goes wild !!!