It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We enjoyed making gingerbread houses with friends (3 families) after Thanksgiving.  (Not everyone was there - four people were sick.)  We were randomly paired up and the creations (and candy eating) began.  After Julie's house was finished, we thought her garden looked like it would make a good pig pen, so I made a cute little piggy for it!  We laughed about putting the pig in their "garden".  

We took a couple houses home with us, gave one away, and then proceeded to eat the other house in about 1 week.  Some people like to make gingerbread houses and then keep them around for decoration.  Our gingerbread houses get demolished quickly and look more like castle ruins.  

We got our Christmas tree up and decorated.  The first ornament I saw was the one that Nathan and Jared gave me last year, so it was sentimental.  I had to put that one up first.  We had some fun dancing around later that evening.  Love the lights, the special ornaments, the music, and the hot chocolate! 

 

Thanksgiving 2022

We spent Thanksgiving week in Arizona with my parents and 2 of my sisters and their families.  It was a central meeting point for UT, CA, and TX.  We rented a house in Pinetop, AZ for 4 nights, with 21 of us there.  Our family got to Thatcher, AZ on Monday night so we could go to the Gila Valley Temple the next morning before meeting everyone on Tuesday evening.  (That temple was mine and Alex's 48th temple together).  

We had a good week, with lots of relaxing, pie making, movies, World Cup soccer, games, pool table, kickball, and lots of food.  Baba helped the girls make pies.  We made 2 apple, 1 pumpkin, 1 lemon, 2 cherry, and 1 pecan.  Owen made a key lime pie and we pulled a chocolate pie out of the freezer.  We had plenty of pies!  I had to try a bite of each.  We got to talk to Nathan on Thanksgiving, with him on the big screen so everyone could see him.  Everyone helped with the Thanksgiving feast.  Our family made rolls, fried chicken, and mashed potatoes.  

We had a birthday party for Eden on Friday.  She turned 2, so Alison and Micah planned a "Two-tti Fruitti" birthday party for her, with lots of fruit, candy, and cupcakes.  She was cute walking her new toy dog around.  Speaking of dogs, Finn (Ashley and Daniel's dog) and Kai were able to come with us.  We discovered that on the way there, that dogs were okay with a deposit, so Kai was happy not to stay in the kennel that week.  Finn was a little more active than Kai wanted, but they got along pretty well.

We got in 2-3 morning runs, despite the cold weather and played a few kickball games at the park.  Weston loved that!  Weston also didn't mind helping himself to a handful lap full of rolls the day after Thanksgiving. Kickball and rolls - doesn't get much better than that. 

It was sad to say good-bye at the end of the week, which seemed really short!  The car ride home was quite entertaining at times.  Owen started singing, and I started recording.  They were singing "You're Welcome" from Moana and another song "Friends on the Other Side" from The Princess and the Frog.  

Weston's talk

Weston gave his first talk in Sacrament Meeting in November and did a great job!  (Not sure if the volume is loud enough on this, but I tried another recording of a Zoom recording.)  I had to clip the very first part since he said our last name, but he introduced himself as "Weston from the Deacon's Quorum".  He talked about service, being kind, and loving our neighbors.  See if you can hear it.

Backpacking Trip

Alex took the boys and a few others backpacking over Veterans Day holiday.  Here's what he said on Facebook about the trip, "We had a chance to go backpacking this past weekend.  Originally we had planned on going up to Kings Canyon, but a storm closed off the road.  Determined to still have a Sierras trip, we decided to go up along the Kern River.  It had snowed a couple days before and was still pretty cold (25) at night, but we still managed to have fun."  

Weston found a hammer along the way and decided to carry it with him the whole time.

  

Friends

We shared some good times with friends in November.  First was a mission farewell for my friend Nicole's son Devan (and one of Nathan's good friends).  Devan is serving in Boston, Massachusetts.  I went to a ladies lunch celebrating by friends Lyndsi and Carrie's birthdays.  Alex started doing a "dude's night" with some of the guys who like to play Catan and other board games.  We're grateful for good friends!

One funny thing about the guys picture - that was kind of a joke.  It was really late that night and I messaged Alex to see if he was still there.  He decided to take a picture as a reply, and the guys gave him a hard time about needing proof of his whereabouts!  "Did she need proof?"  A "yes" would have been fine with me, but I'm glad for a picture to document the fun. This will probably be the only picture ever from the Dudes Nights - they don't really take pictures.  😀

We had one of Alex's fellow colleagues visit for dinner one Sunday evening in November.  They were a long way from home, visiting from Australia.  We hadn't seen them in quite a while so it was good to catch up with them and meet their kids.

Halloween festivities

We went to the pumpkin patch a couple of times.  The first was for a short time just before it closed in the evening, as part of a youth activity.  Since Savannah didn't get a chance to do anything except pick out a pumpkin, I took her again another day.  We got to do the hay ride, maze, sit on the tractor, and see the animals.  The kids carved the pumpkins (this time without my help) the day before Halloween (the pumpkins mold fast).  We didn't do much work on costumes this year.  Owen was a cowboy (he wore the same thing for his music performance), Jared put together a pirate costume (he needed one for a dance), Savannah was Cinderella (I bought her costume this year), and Weston was an Oreo.  The only costume I made was the Oreo.  You can't see it well in the pictures, but he also wore Oreo socks.  I think I'm about done with costumes and trick or treating (and most of Halloween).  It's not my favorite.  I did make something semi-festive for Halloween dinner, with a spiderweb dip, mummy dogs, quesadillas, and chocolate shakes in festive cups.  It was just 5 of us, since Owen was at his friend RJ's Halloween party.

Savannah and Weston had their Halloween parade at school.  I guess I have 2 more years of that for Savannah.  She still likes trick-or-treating, so Jared was a good sport and took her around. We went to the church trunk-or-treat and enjoyed a nice chili dinner (I contributed chili), some games for the kids, and handing out candy.  I decided to open up our trunk this year and at least put up a dollar store Halloween sign.  It wasn't much, but better than standing behind our closed trunk handing out the candy.  I just can't seem to get excited about spending the time to decorate our trunk which will be used for 30 minutes and then thrown out... maybe if I already had Halloween decorations at home, then I could pop those in the trunk.  Anyway, we do still show up at the activities and support them.  I made a decorative cover for our corn hole game for use for the games.  It turned out pretty cute.

We made it through another Halloween! 

Beauty, Friendship, and Courage

 The first picture was from a day Savannah had a field trip to the Natural History Museum.  I love her shirt and hat choices - "Just Be Beautiful You".  This beautiful girl made a new best friend this fall.  Evelyn and her family moved in a few months ago, and Savannah and Evelyn quickly became friends.  (And I have a new friend too, as I really enjoy talking to Evelyn's mom!).  These girls have had a weekly play date, which is exactly what Savannah needed.  She's very social and so she needs more interaction with others.

Savannah showed a lot of courage in October, participating in the annual Primary Presentation in Sacrament Meeting at church.  She gave a short talk and she also sang a solo (one of the verses to Follow the Prophet).  She sang beautifully and didn't sound nervous at all.  She got a lot of compliments afterward.  

I actually recorded the Zoom recording on my phone so I could send it to Nathan.  We're not supposed to record in Sacrament Meeting, but this time due to still having access to Zoom I have a recording of her talk and singing.  😊