FUN AND GAMES

I LOVE these kids!  They know how to have fun and stay true to the gospel standards!  How cool are these teenagers?!  I am soooooooo glad that I get to be a part of their lives!

Almond and Kotten Kandy searching for their nighttime scavenger hunt...

Iceberg Lettuce found a nest!

See-sawing in America - Fig Newton and Guarana

Maple and her many facial expressions....  :-)

Rice Krispie?!  What's with the wig?!

Juice and Nuts in an intense game of Chess.

Apple learning to jam from Tony!  (Yes, she's wearing a wig too!)

Skittles can sing!

Iceberg Lettuce can really fiddle!

An impromptu sing-a-long, jam session!

It was AWESOME listening to them!

These two caused mischief....  But had lots of fun doing it!

The car was filled with balloons, and had song lyrics written on it!

Cousins ROCK!

Key Lime Pie and Shaved Ice

NOVEMBER HAPPINESS

I realized that there are a LOT of little things that make me happy!  I often struggle with depression... but I know that I need to find things that make me happy.  It's not hard.  There are many things that bring me joy:  my kind husband, my beautiful daughters, my friends' wonderful kids, thoughtful gifts, flowers, etc.

This girl LOVES Top Gun!  This cute sweat shirt and the smirk make me smile!

This quaint, little smoke house on our walk with an adorable Jelly Bean in front make me smile!

This tiny turtle (only about 1 1/2 inches) on our walk made me smile!

Maple's hilarious expressions make me smile!  (She's super fun too!)

Catching Apple Pie with a "real" smile makes me smile!

This BEAUTIFUL, homemade, leather-bound book makes me smile!

Taffy made it!  It's AMAZING!  I want one!  And Kotten Kandy loves it too!

These crazy, co-eds with mud on their face makes me smile!

Raisin's happy moments make me smile!

Scott remembering me when I feel down makes me smile!

Walking in this beautiful park makes me smile!

NaNoWriMo - WRITING IS HIGHLY ENCOURAGED/EXPECTED

NaNoWriMo kicks off today!  The DeGooyers and Bettenhausens have dubbed ourselves The Shelbyville Scribes.  We will be found mostly behind our computers typing furiously in Word Perfect documents.

Our kick-off starts an 12:01 AM on November 1st.  We furiously scribbled and typed while drinking caffeine and eating lots of unhealthy snacks!  So much fun!  Check us out:

Once again, I am being a rebel.  I am writing poetry instead of a novel.

My goal = 2 poems/day for the month of November.

Thanks to Scott and Kotten Kandy, I have a beautiful laptop (named Syl) to use!

Scott is excited about his novel...  He is really gung-ho this year!

He stayed awake ALL night 

and came in second with his word count at 10 AM.

Mark gave up soda.

But without the caffeine he still got a good start on his book.

(Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of my BFF!

Amy wrote the most words last night!  She ROCKS!)

Kiara face-timed us to join in the fun and writing.

Her book sounds fascinating!

And we're so glad she's joining us even though she is 23 hours away....

This girl LOVES NaNoWriMo!

She's won a few times!

And plans to win again this year!

Her new laptop is named Boots 

after the 2 year old sister of Gregor, the Overlander.

Fig Newton is writing with us!

Yahoo!!!!  She especially loved the Sun Chips!

And she wrote 2,000 words last night!

Juice is writing too!

He laughs at his own writing often....

Which makes me laugh.

Nuts is planning on joining us this year!

I believe in him!  And I'm proud of his willingness to write!

Marmalade is really excited about her novel!

She's even given herself a pen name:  M.B. Crystal

Apple Pie is illustrating his book!

We think it's AWESOME to encourage writers at a young age!

And so,,,,

Raisin played an important role in our festivities!

HAPPY WRITING!

HAPPY NaNoWriMo!

ONLY FRIENDLY GHOSTS AND GOBLINS HERE....

I LOVE US!  I LOVE CRAYONS!

I LOVE Halloween!  I LOVE kids!  I LOVE costumes!  I LOVE candy!  And I LOVE the excitement, fun and traditions!
This year we hosted all of our friends for trick-or-treating and chili!  We had 35 people at our house!  I LOVED the crazy fun!  I didn't get a huge group picture... but I got lots of pics.  My eldest daughter also got to have some Halloween fun this weekend.  Her pics are also included!  So... here is a photo journal of our holiday!

This man embraces the fun of dressing up!

He even made his crown out of 54 crayons.

It was really heavy.

One sweet, little trick-or-treater (maybe 4 years old?)

 was really sad that we were passing out candy instead of crayons...

So Scott handed her a purple crayon from his crown!  She was thrilled!

These two cute girls had a lot of fun!

Fig Newton LOVED dressing up and going trick-or-treating!

She's never done it before....

This is only SOME of our crazy kids!

I was soooooo impressed that Juice made his own costume!

And so did Taffy!  - His "Mistborn cloak" was AWESOME!

Stacy and Trina joined us!  They made me laugh!

Since I only have daughters, I've adopted these sweet boys!

Yes, I have sons!!!!

The Crayon King has an affinity for Yellow!

I love this man!

Scott's work got into the holiday spirit!

The fearless, colorful Leader!

Shanae = a Cowgirl

Kiara = a Hufflepuff

They visited a haunted corn maze with these crazy guys!

And they had tons of fun!

I missed celebrating with these crazy college girls!