Early Christmas Festivities

The first half of the month of December was a bit stressful for me (Kendall would say that's an understatement!) which is mostly my own fault for taking on to much! I just can't say "no".  We had parties for church, parties for school co-op, a big trip to Utah to plan and pack for, and all the other things that come with the holidays. We did have fun despite my stress.

 We had our neighbors, Elder Rogers and Elder Young help us decorate our tree this year. The kids are always excited to have them over!

 The kids get kinda wild too!

We gave Elder Young the honor of putting the angel on the tree. He finished his mission on the 18th of December and was able to spend the holidays with his family!

Every year we also decorate "ginger bread" houses. We use graham crackers cause it's easier! The kids look forward to this tradition and put almost as much candy into their mouths as they do on their houses!

Grass hopper food storage

Proof of Noah's grass hopper food storage!

The Thankful Tree

This is our thankful tree this year! So every year we make a tree and every night we each get a leaf to write one thing we are thankful for that day. Then on Thanksgiving after dinner we take the leaves off the tree and read what we have been thankful for that month. It's a great reminder to us of our many blessings and reminds us to say thank you.

Happy Halloween

I love the look on Jacob's face! He was a trooper and cleaned out the guts by himself!

Daniel and Jacob shared a pumpkin this year. This was Daniel's side. Jacob carved on the back of this pumpkin, so I guess you could say this pumpkin is two faced!

Kendall and Noah joined forces on this one. Noah drew the face and Kendall did the carving. As you can see it's puking up its guts!

Daniel was a shadow man.

Jane was a princess (I'll call her sleeping beauty)

Emma with her treats from the cake walk.

Jacob was a tiger.

Noah was a box.

This is our trunk for the trunk-or-treat. Everyone loved the pumpkin puking the candy up!

October Fun

 

This year we joined a home school co-op called LEAF. The kids take classes every Friday and we go on little field trips together. It's been great for the kids and they love making new friends. We went to the plant farm's pumpkin patch again this year. I love that they bring the pumpkins in and put them on the lawn so we don't have to trudge through the muddy fields to get our pumpkins!

They have a little tractor train ride.

Hello PINK! Emma just had to climb on this tractor!

Kendall and I have a tradition of going to a corn maze every October.  We went to a corn maze 13 years ago on our 3rd date. It was a special date, cause he held my hand for the first time that night and he told me he loved me on that date. We usually make it a date night thing, but this year was so busy and the kids really wanted to go so we went as a family. The kids had a great time running around the maze. This is them at the entrance to the maze.

Wild Children

 As a parent of 5 children some times (okay, let's be honest, from the time they get up to the time they go to sleep) the kids can be a little loud and not listen to what you say. So last night I jokingly said something about hog tying our wild children to settle them down. It turns out they do listen to us! (I call it selective audio disorder, all children have it) Emma and Daniel ran out  to the garage and grabbed the rope!

Once they are all tied up we have a little peace and quite while they work and wiggle to get themselves untied. And we get a good laugh.

 Emma was the first to get herself untied! They had so much fun and got all tired and were in bed and asleep by 7pm! (Part of that was due to the fact that the time changed and 6pm felt to them like 7pm)

Temple Leaves

 Every Fall I take the kids to the temple and we look for leaves to bring home and do crafts with. The kids love running around the little trails they have and try to  find the best leaves. I always bring the camera and force them to sit for just a few minutes for pictures.

 My boys are so handsome! Noah was a little miffed at me when I told him he couldn't wear any camo cause I wanted to take nice pictures today. That boy would live in camo every day all year if I let him! It reminds me of Kendall when he was that age!

 I love the girls blue eyes!

 My mom came with us this year!

 My kids can't just do nice smiley picture.....they have to have at least one silly picture! Ha, and you can't really tell in the picture but we noticed after the pictures were all taken that Jacob not only has his shoes on the wrong feet, but both his pants and underwear were on backwards! Sadly, that's not abnormal for him!

 I even got out from behind the camera and let my mom take one of the kids and I.

This has always been my favorite tree!