Brrr...

It's cold this morning. I guess it IS November, and all of the trees still have their leaves, so it's time, but brrr!! (Ok, all of my loving relatives from Colorado where it is probably snowing right now, say at the same time, awwwww.....) It's the second night we have let Cocoa sleep inside. It just feels too mean to kick him out when we go to bed and it's cold. He has been really good keeping his privilege. (so far)

The girls have a new game for discipline. Shanna's teacher gave me the idea. I bought them two rolls of carnival tickets, and they have to have 5 tickets to watch a tv show. They can earn or lose tickets for behavior and by doing chores. We'll see how it goes. Kaci earned and lost a bunch yesterday. I gave Shanna her 5 (they start with 5 each morning) a few minutes ago and told her that she better have these now because she is going to start losing them fast.

We saw the baby and *his* heartbeat yesterday. It was the best sight ever! After the past 2 months of wondering if there was anyone in there, we saw *him*! The baby made sure we knew *he* wouldn't be upstaged by *his* sisters and did a few backflips! (Already *he's* saying "Look Mom, Look Dad!") Of course we don't know if *he* is a *he*, but we'll just call *him* that for now. It's better than calling it *it*. Everything looks great so far.

Oops... Shanna just lost a ticket.

According to Shanna, we are now "the only" house in our neighborhood without Christmas lights. I just told her "bah humbug." We'll try to get them out this weekend. I think the growing pile of laundry it going to bury me by this weekend, so maybe I won't have to worry about it after all. I did get my Christmas shopping started, last year I was done by now. If you think you should be on my list this year, you better e-mail me some ideas. (hint hint especially to a certain tall dark and handsome man!)

Time to get moving. I have 4 bananas sitting on the counter turning darker and darker that are begging to be made into banana bread. Happy Thanksgiving!