Gingerbread Party

We had our annual gingerbread house party.  The kids had a great time decorating their houses.  I got a kick out of how little Brandon put on his.

 Yep, this sums it up:

 She is getting pretty good at it:

 Ryan did the Merlion - from his trip to Singapore.

 And mine...yeah...

Decorating for Christmas

We always have at least one kid who plays in the box (and in this case, eats candy) while we set up the tree.

 The kids did the one in the playroom all by themselves this year.

 When mom steps out for a bit, guess what she comes back to.  That's right, kids on the roof.  Man, sometimes it amazes me how differently a mother and father can feel about things.

 Brandon set up the train.

 Decorations:

We went to the city tree lighting ceremony.

Happy Thanksgiving

We went to visit family for Thanksgiving.  It was such a nice trip.  We got to watch cousins play basketball (which was sooooo fun):

 Grandma and Grandpa's outside freezer quit working.  So the kids HAD to eat all the ice cream.

 I made these place settings for the big day.  They actually turned out cute, believe it or not.  They were filled with chocolate mints.

 Brandon had so much fun doing his Thanksgiving sort Pompa gave him with Skittles.

 Oh yeah, and we got to have 2 Thanksgiving feasts.  One with my family and one with Ryan's.  Mmmm.  I am still a little sick just thinking about it.

 Here is my family, only missing Alyssa and Jared and their families.

Misc. November

Okay, so I have been the worst blogger this year.  We have been up to a lot lately, but I haven't blogged any of it.  So be prepared for a lot of updates here.

The Boise Temple is finally open again.  We are so grateful to have it back.  Ryan and I got to work at the open house, which was a very good experience for both of us.  We really enjoyed bringing our kids through on a tour.

 Brandon had to cook a meal at home for scouts and it lit a fire under him.  Now he loves to cook and is always asking if he can make dinner.  I am LOVING it.

 The kids all entered artwork of some kind into the Reflections Art Contest at school.

 Cody won!  For his little Halloween book he threw together one day.  He was so excited.

Happy Halloween (a little late)

Pumpkins:

 Nothing as fun as jumping in leaves:

 Kathleen's teacher came to her soccer game.  What an amazing lady.

 "Oh Yeah!"

 Ryan finished up coaching Cody's soccer team.  Turns out, Cody loves soccer.  Who would have thought?

 Carving Pumpkins with the Reeses:

 Put em to work:

 Kathleen insisted on having her hair done this way for Halloween.  She is Little Red Riding Hood (from the show "Once Upon a Time" specifically).

 Brandon's class party:

 Cody's class party:

 Kathleen's class party (I thought it was so great that they were all at different times so I could attend them all.  Turns out I was just tricked into being at the school all day).

 Spook alley in our garage:

 Once Halloween was over I finally was able to convince Brandon to cut his hair.  He LOVED having someone wash his hair.  He grinned the whole time.  He keeps asking to go back.

Happy Halloween!