Thanksgiving

This past week has been fun and a little crazy. The first half of the week I felt like I was in the car all the time. I picked up my step sister Tuesday evening from the airport. Then the next morning I got up early and went down to Olympia to pick up my sister Jessica and niece Emily. Jessica was buying her 1st car in Seattle so I took her to pick it up. We got home about 3:30 in the afternoon and the kids were so excited to have Emily here! We then started baking! We decided it would be easier to make all the pies for Thanksgiving that evening. So we ended up making a German Chocolate cake (for my mom's birthday, which was on Thanksgiving), a pear pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin log, and an apple pie. We only had 13 people for dinner, but in my humble opinion, you can NEVER have to much pie!

Emma and Emily were so funny! Emma ended up wearing Emily's clothes and Emily ended up in Emma's. Then to make it even more confusing they wanted their hair done in the exact some way! We all kept calling Emily "Emma....ly" cause we had to stop and think about who it was.

My brother Joshua is the "favorite" uncle around our house. Daniel wouldn't let him alone all day!

My mom in the kitchen cooking dinner. We had so much food!

Thanksgiving was also my mom's birthday so we had a little celebration later in the evening with cake and ice cream.

I thought this picture was funny with Noah eating his cake, I think he was the only one who really had a whole piece of cake as we were all so full from dinner and pies!

On Friday morning my mom, Tedra and I got up way to early (4:15am) and went out shopping. We got everything we needed and were home again by 6:30am. It was nice to have more people to go out with and it saves a lot of time having someone stand in line while you run and grab things. I think we spent more time standing in line waiting for the stores to open then we spent in the store itself. Later in the day we decorated the tree for Christmas. The kids always have so much fun with this! You will notice in the video I kept taking ornaments off the tree and placing them in other spots on the tree. The kids kept putting ALL the ornaments on the same three branches which were beginning to look a little crowded. It was a fun few day and it was really nice having Kendall home for 4 whole days!

Visit with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Catherine

Last Week the kids and I took a trip down to visit their Grandpa Bill and Grandma Catherine. We got there Thursday afternoon and stayed till Saturday. The kids had so much fun!

Noah and Emma both LOVE crystals and rocks. So Catherine took Noah and Emma to a really neat rock store close by their house. Noah and Emma had so much fun there and both came home with little crystals and rocks!

Noah showing off one of the crystals Catherine gave him.

Emma enjoyed dressing up in the dress up dresses and made a necklace too.

Noah being pushed on the swing in the back yard!

This is my dad pushing Emma on the swing. Emma LOVES this swing and talks about it all the time!

Daniel waving Hi! He enjoyed walking around the yard, watching the squirrels and humming birds.

Catherine made chocolate banana shakes which Daniel LOVED!

I love this face! He is such a character!

Daniel loved playing with these little plastic cars and always had one in his hand or mouth!

One of the main reasons we went was so that Noah could do some art projects with Catherine, who is an artist. This is Noah working the printing press. We made some beautiful prints of some leaves and other things we made the night before. Noah had fun making a couple books too!

Catherine and Noah at the printing press.

Noah, Catherine, Daniel, my dad and Emma.

Daniel with Grandpa Bill.

Noah, Daniel and Grandpa Bill.

It was a nice visit and the kids had fun spending time with my dad and Catherine. I also got to make some plant medicine with my dad which is something I've been wanting to do for a while now. Thanks Dad and Catherine!

blogging rut.....

The kids love books! Noah is reading a story to Emma and Daniel.

I've been in a little bit of a blogging rut lately, as you few who visit my blog might have noticed. Life has been very busy, yet not very exciting the last couple of weeks. I have been sick with bronchitis for about 4 weeks now, but it's finally starting to go away. Kendall and my mother grounded me to my room this weekend so I could get some rest and maybe start to get better. I think it worked as I am feeling better. I have a hard time staying down and letting someone else take over the cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids. We've been busy with homeschooling Noah, preschool for Emma and trying to keep Daniel out of things. He seems to be able to get into EVERYTHING lately! The picture above is of Noah with his animal fair project, all about grasshoppers. The home school group had all the kids learn about an animal of their choosing and then do a project on it. They had a night set up where they could display their work. Well things have been so crazy lately that I somehow got the dates wrong and we showed up the day after they had it. I felt so bad for Noah as he had worked so hard! We do have a chance to show his work off on Thursday so that hopefully will make up for it. Well that's it for now. Hopefully I will have something blog worthy happen in the next little while and then post more often.

Happy Halloween

This year we had a lot going on for Halloween. The kids had a few opportunities to dress up. We had a party with the home school group on Thursday. Preschool party for Emma on Friday, and then trick or treating on Saturday. We had planned on heading down for the big Halloween event at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, but Kendall came down with the flu Thursday night, and I was not going to take the kids down there alone!

Noah was a bat this year. Daniel was a ghost and Emma was a ballerina.

Noah and Emma.

All 35 kids from the home school party on Thursday. The kids had so much fun! And I managed to come away without a headache!

Noah with his cupcake he decorated.

Halloween night at the trunk-or-treat at the church. Daniel caught on really fast to the whole concept of trick-or-treating. We came home put Daniel to bed and my mom and I took Noah and Emma around the neighborhood. They have never been trick-or treating before. So they were a little confused about the whole going to "strangers" homes and knocking on the door. We had to practically push them up the driveways! (We usually go to the church and do the trunk-or-treat every year. So that's why they haven't been trick-or-treating.)

Kendall put Emma's pumpkin on our headless scarecrow last night. I can't wait for the cobwebs and scarecrow to come down tomorrow!

Annual Hepworth FHE Pumpkin Carving

Every year on the Monday before Halloween we carve our pumpkins for family home evening. Tonight we carved pumpkins and ate caramel apples. The kids have been waiting all month for this!
Daniel with his pumpkin before the carving started.

Emma with her pumpkin.

And Noah with his pumpkin. He didn't get to use the pumpkin he picked out at the pumpkin patch, because I made dinner in it the other night. So he got to use one of our pumpkins we grew in the garden.

Daniel scooping out the seeds and goo. He wasn't to into it and Kendall and I had to finish cleaning it out.

Emma, of course, wanted nothing to do with cleaning out her pumpkin, but we insisted that she do a little.

I have to give her a hard time every year and squish her hands in the goo. I had so much fun! I'm so mean!

Noah cleaning his pumpkin. He was just making a face for the camera, and really doesn't mind cleaning out the seeds.

I went for simple with Daniel's pumpkin, cause he doesn't really care. He had fun poking his fingers in the eyes and mouth of the pumpkin.

Emma with her scary faced pumpkin.

Kendall had to help Noah with his a little. Mana making the carmel sauce for the apples.

All three pumpkins with the lights out. Daniel didn't like the other two pumpkins, a little to scary for him.

Noah's pumpkins are never really done, until we throw them away. We had finished carving and put Emma and Daniel to bed when Noah called me into the kitchen. He added a hole between the eyes, and spikes in the top (as a crown). Oh, and he was hungry so Noah fed him some garlic. It was a fun filled evening, with very few tears (which is always a good thing).

What we've been up to lately, and other random thoughts

Watching shows with Mana, or just hanging out in her room. The kids think Mana's room is special and love going in there.

I don't have many sippy cups for Daniel, and the other day I couldn't find any of them, until it was time to start making dinner. This is what I found in the pots and pans. I guess roasted sippy cups and boiled Legos were on the menu that night!

I tried something new the other night for dinner and it turned out so yummy! I made beef stew in a pumpkin. The kids loved it, even Emma who NEVER eats any kind of soup or stew ate it! Notice Emma in the back ground making funny faces for the camera. :)

The kids wanted to do some painting last week, so we went to the craft store and found these bird houses really really cheap. The kids had so much fun painting them and can't wait to get them hung up outside.

Emma working on her house, brown and purple. Those seem to be her favorite colors these days.

Other things going on, my mom found a good job that is really close by. She started last week and I think she enjoys being able to work again. The kids miss having her around all day though. We have been doing a lot with our new home schooling group. We went to play with legos at the library for 3 hours today. Noah made some new friends, which is really good! When we were leaving he said to me "Mom, that was the funnest thing I've ever done in my life!" So I think that he had fun and we will do it again next month. He's so cute. This week we've got 4 Halloween parties to go to so I will update again soon, hopefully with some cute pictures!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Last week Emma's preschool group went to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a lot of fun! We pretty much had the place to ourselves the first hour, which was really nice! We went to the same place last year. This year we were lucky and it didn't rain on us.
Emma playing on the tractor.

Daniel playing on the tractor.

Noah on the tractor.

Emma and Tanner playing.

They had a little train pulled by a tractor. The kids loved this! Daniel kept wandering back to the train throughout the morning.

Daniel and Emma on the train ride.

Daniel and Emma in the bouncy house.

Emma and Jack in the bouncy house.

Noah, Emma and Daniel posing by the giant pumpkin.

All the preschool kids by the giant pumpkin.

The kids getting ready for the hay ride.

They had sheep and geese, which were a big hit!

They even took one of the sheep out so the kids could pet it.