Give Thanks November

So much to be thankful for.

Noah, Alex and Kiah compounding the leaves in the trash can.

 I can't resist taking a picture of a sleeping baby. They are so angelic.

Alex's Thanksgiving preschool program. His indian name: "Catching Lizard", apparently given to him by his teacher after catching a lizard at school.

Lot's of baking went on this November.

After he wowed everyone with his candy and cookie turkeys last year he attempted to stake his claim to most domestic dad again and succeeded. He perfected two creations this year. The first was a delicious bread pudding. I had never cared for bread pudding before, but his was the perfect combination of decadence and comfort food. His other creation was a white chocolate pumpkin cheese cake in a gingersnap crust. YUM! Way to get in touch with your domestic side, Rob.

Thanksgiving morning we had our neighbor's, the McGoverns, over for breakfast. The menu: PIE! I'm usually too full Thanksgiving night to fully enjoy pie for dessert. It was fantastic for breakfast. My favorite to make and eat is my caramel apple pie. 

The kids made their own pies to eat. Addilyn choose apple, Maycie blueberry (of course) and Alex pumpkin.

Isaac thought the pie was okay, but mostly liked the whipped cream.

Thanksgiving dinner at the Abbotts house with lots of friends and LOTS of food. 

The party included us, the Abbotts, the Smiths, the Yandows and Julie Sandidge. 

Maycie enjoying coloring the kid's table.

Sandy's beautiful centerpiece for the Adult table.

Thanksgiving weekend we took the kids to a farm to cut down a Christmas tree. We didn't end up cutting a tree from the farm (we didn't like any of them), but we enjoyed a picnic, farm animals and the zip line.

Later that weekend, we had our "Deck the Halls" party. The kids got to pick out their ornaments for the year. Maycie choose a crystal - she likes pretty things. Addilyn choose a Harry Potter ornament since she's been reading the books this year. Alex choose a guitar since that's what he asked Santa for. Isaac got Mickey Mouse ears since we made our first family trip to Disney World this year.

Addilyn reading the letter from "Christmas", our elf.

Addilyn also requested an "Elf on the Shelf". She sent a letter to Santa with one of the neighbor's elves.  A few days later an elf appeared at our house. The kids voted to call her "Christmas". Every morning she would be in a new location and be holding up either a smiley face or frowney face based on the kids behavior from the day before. It was a pretty effective warning system. The kids were terrified that the elf might give Santa a bad report.

Stitches

One Saturday morning, while Rob was at a stake scouting meeting, Alex was being a boy hit his head on the edge of a plant pot. I was made aware of the situation by blood curdling screams, not by Alex, but by Addilyn. After trying to calm Addie and making a few phone calls, I dropped the kids off at the neighbors and drove Alex to the ER trying to avoid the word "stitches" with him. Rob met me there and in the end he had 7 stitches. The anticipation was much worse than the actual procedure. Alex was so brave and actually quite proud of his war wound. One more scar to add to his collection on his forehead.

Blue not Red

I woke up feeling a bit blue today because the country wasn't more red. 

Obama versus Romney in the 2012 election and my guy didn't win. I have never felt so invested in a presidential election and it's not just because Romney is a mormon. In fact, during the primaries, I kept a pretty unbiased mindset. But the more I heard from Romney the more I really liked the guy - most of the time. I felt his motives for running for president were not egotistical. I didn't feel he wanted the power or fame and he certainly didn't need the money. I felt like he truly wanted to help our country during this difficult economic and politically polarized time. He is smart. He's had a lot of experience turning difficult situations into better ones and he represented many of my moral and political views. It's not that I hate Obama. I don't. I just felt like my guy could have done a better job. I'm sad because personally, I think it will be a while before we have another candidate that I have so much faith in.

Oh well. Here's what we did to celebrate election night (before the blues hit).

 Patriotic pizza and cake.

 Rob took advantage of a teaching moment to explain the privilege of voting and the ever confusing electoral college.

We let the kids stay up a little later to begin adding up those all important votes. Maycie colors our giant map with red or blue. Go red!

Happy Halloween

Maycie and Avery playing cat and mouse.

Ella and Addilyn.

Halloween night we had a pot luck with the neighbors then the kids did some trick-or-treating while the grown ups kept cozy around the fire. The kids picked their 10 favorite pieces of candy then took my bribe to pay them $5 to dump the rest.

Fall Fun

We took a weekend trip to Boone to take in the fall colors along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were about one week shy of peak colors but it was still beautiful to see those Smokey Mountains changing.

Maycie found a woolley worm on the trail.

The boys enjoyed rolling/sliding down the hill.

We stopped at the Moses Cone Mansion, built in the late 1800's, to take in more spectacular views.

The kids had a blast with the neighbor kids raking up the leaves jumping and throwing them around.

Random October Pics

Caleb Abbott, the baby lover, taking care of Isaac.

Pinwheel sword fight at Declan Smith's birthday party.

Did Rob suddenly grow hair?

No. That's a stranger at the party that Isaac took to.

Maycie and Alex raided my closet. The funny thing is I remember doing the same thing with my mom's knee high boots that went up to my thigh when I was that age.

Friend Friday.

Claire Campbell, Liam Smith, Isaac

Isaac loves to help me make my morning juice by feeding the veggies into the grinder.

Spinach, carrots, celery, kale, apple and lemon. Mmmm! He actually like to drink it, too.

Rob wanted to re-live one of his favorite childhood activities with the kids. He purchased a rocket kit and we all headed to the local football field to set it off. 1000 feet in the air then a gentle parachute ride down.  The kids loved it.

Girlfriends.

Addilyn, Ella and Chloe.

Night games in the cul-de-sac. 

"Six steps on ice, a game the neighbor kids make up, is a neighbor hood favorite."