Thanksgiving

Alyssa and "Uncle Clayton" came to visit for Thanksgiving. The kids LOVED having them here. Our FHE activity:

Brandon had a feast at his school. The kids all dressed up like Pilgrims and Indians.

And if we are at the school, I have to have a sneak peak at Kathleen in her class. She is so cute.

The boys are obsessed with Uncle Clayton. They even watched him shave. Poor guy couldn't get a break.

All the Plumbs came to our house for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun with our house full. Here is Kathleen holding her cousin Tyler.

Ryan reading a story to all the big kids about Thanksgiving.

So I didn't get any pictures of all my hard work from cooking all week, but I did get a few of the kids making pilgrim hats out of cookies and Reese's.

We also put up Christmas lights on Thanksgiving. Aunt Shysh gave us a gift that we opened. She is always so sweet to send us stuff for the holidays.

Kathleen brought home this from school. It has her favorite animal (horse), food (spaghetti), subject at school (math), family, hobby (singing), and movie (Wizard's of Waverly Place, the Movie).

November Happenings

So I am a little behind on my blog. This happened the first week this month. But here it is. I was babysitting a bunch of kids while their moms were at parent-teacher conferences. I briefly mentioned that I should get a picture as proof of watching the;m all. The next thing I knew, they were all ready and posing for a picture. It was so cute I had to take one. The kids wanted to know how you turned a pumpkin into a pie. So we showed them. Unfortunately it takes a long time to do it. So it turned into just Ryan and me making a pie from a pumpkin.

But it was mmmmmmmm good.

"Mom, take my picture!"

We had our carpets stretched and had to move all our furniture off of it. That meant we had couches in the kitchen. Kathleen really enjoyed reading in the kitchen.

Cody decided it was fun to eat egg salad sandwiches like a dog.

Kathleen entered some artwork in a show at her school.

Kathleen's class did a "Flat Stanley" project at school. She was pretty excited about her postcard from her cousin Katie.

We got some snow and the kids were REALLY excited about it.

Mom and Brandon went on a date one weekend, so we had to dress to match.

So, naturally, Cody had to have his picture taken with mom too.

Ryan got a new suit. He looks so handsome. You can't tell from this picture, but it has a nice pin stripe in it.

The boys:

For FHE we had a lesson on the Iron Rod. The kids thought it was so fun to follow string all through our house in the dark.

Cody and his play date with his buddies. He had so much fun with them.

Cody was sitting watching TV with his legs crossed like this. It was so cute.

Kathleen was really excited about her new shirt and hat.

The boys look so handsome with their new church clothes.

Just for Andrea

This is just for Andrea. I kept hearing blurts of song coming from Kathleen's room, followed by silence. When I went to check on them, they were all singing the chorus in the corner of her room. But would play during the verse that they didn't know the words to.

Happy Halloween x 1,000,000

Kathleen painted this picture to enter in the reflections program at school. But she just informed me today that it is sitting in her cubby at school and she never turned it in. But I thought she did a great job anyway. Brandon had a Halloween party at school.

Cody spent the entire time eating snacks.

Brandon: Mom, guess what!

Mom: What!?!

Brandon: Sam's mom was at my Halloween party and she had BLUE HAIR!

Mom: Really?

Brandon: Don't worry mom, it isn't really blue in real life. [sigh] I love kid cool camp.

The "Magic" pumpkin had gifts inside instead of pumpkin guts.

Kathleen's Halloween party:

We took the kids straight from school and headed off to see family for the Holiday. I love it when the kids are happy in the car. I always make them these coloring/activity books. They love them. Here they are using them. It is just like Thanksgiving, hours of preparation for them to use briefly then be done.

The weather was crazy. It snowed most of the way. But by sunset, it was a beautiful night.

Trick-or-treating at University High School. This is one of the traditions they have there that I love. I wish the high school here would do it.

Kathleen loved holding her new cousin Tyler, AKA: the sweetest baby on planet Earth.

Jump and Bounce:

It took a lot of effort to talk Ryan into going on the slides with me, but when it came to pounding on his brother, it took less than half a second.

Vampire Women:

Dockside-Where Ryan and I went on our first "official" date.

Trick-or-Treat! Brandon LOVES, LOVES his uncles.

Ryan read to the kids "Where the Sidewalk Ends." They loved it.