A month of gratitude

November started off perfectly.  At least for me, since I took an airplane ALL BY MYSELF, to see my sister and her family.  Dade held Sol the whole way to the airport.

My oldest nephew was ordained and given the Priesthood.  It's sort of hard to believe how fast these kids are growing up.  He's such a good kid, and it was really fun to see my sister's gorgeous new house.

I made a new friend right before I left with my sister's niece.  Ain't she cootie-patootie??

While I was traveling on a jet plane, Derek & the kids made the first of many, many visits to Slash Bash.   They started by dropping our rotting pumpkins from a cherry picker.

They even had a target below that made a really satisfying crunch when the pumpkins impacted.

There was a guy with some mad machete skills.  They also threw pumpkins from a helicopter, and shot them with paint and pellet guns.  Basically any kind of weapon you can think of was used on the poor, defenseless pumpkins.

And for the grand finale, they dropped huge batches of pumpkins from a crane onto a portapotty and a trailer that they had set on fire.  As Derek put it, it was how rednecks have fun.  Frankly, I must be a redneck.

The older two girls also ran in a x-country qualifier for the Nationals x-country race.  Both of them placed in the top 10 in their division so they are going to Nationals in San Antonio, TX in December!  Wahoo!

Note that in between the pictures of the girls competing was this one of Sol.  He looks like a fashion model with his ears flying in the wind and his fur blowing back from his muzzle...

 Here's Adia's medal and proof that she's going to Nationals!!  She is such a talented runner!!

In preparation for winter, we bought Sol some coats.  We knew for sure he needed a snowsuit since we go sledding frequently.  And who wants to waste the opportunity to wear out the puppy?

We also got him a rain coat...

And a blanket sweater for around the house.  What patient dog he is, despite the enforced fashion show..

The weather for most of November was simply delightful.  So we decided to hit up Discovery (Manila) Park in Pleasant Grove.

2013

In just 2 years, Adia has really grown.  She looks like Alice in Wonderland after drinking from the little glass bottle.  Compare how she fit 2 years ago below.

2011

I guess that's puberty for you--they fly through clothes and you stop being able to remember what size you're supposed to be buying for them because they've been through so many in just a few months...

We have fun trying to get action shots of Sol.  He's a mighty fast little pup and can easily surpass Derek & Adia when sprinting now.

I have a new nephew!  And he's just delicious with those cheekies.  He came a couple weeks early, even!  That is a good baby.

Sadly, my kids put his picture to the Fatify app and now I won't sleep at night.

I managed to sneak one last visit to the temple in before it closed for it's annual (looooooong) holiday maintenance.  When I came out, this gorgeous sunset greeted me.  It was over just a couple seconds after I left the building.  I felt like it was no coincidence that I walked out the door just at that time.

Did you know Lincoln Logs make excellent building materials for Polly Pockets?  I didn't either.  My kids don't really do Barbies--not that I never bought them any.  It's just that they love the Pollies.  Maybe it's the cool stretchy plastic clothes they can actually change.  Maybe it's their cute tininess.  Either way, I'm glad because it's far less noticeable to have naked 2" dolls hanging around compared to the naked 10" dolls flashing visitors to our house.

Speaking of Pollies, the girls took a bath that was more than an hour long.  These hands are the result.  Why were they in so long?  They were having a Polly convention.

We had been wanting to take the kids on a night hike of Y mountain, but in the summer, it doesn't get dark till well after bedtime for most of them.  November's gorgeous weather and early darkness allowed us to hit the trail and see the city lights before it got too late.

And this is how we found Sol after we got the kids to bed.  I guess he has gotten just as out of shape as we had in the 3 months since we hiked Timp.

Ah, the zipper tie.  The first time Dade wore his (thank you Steph?), he zipped and unzipped it the entire 3 hours of church.  His teachers made some snarky comments.  Then he wore it while I was out of town, and to everyone's horror (but not surprise), it broke.  Fortunately, it was just a few easy seams to fix and he is once again driving everyone crazy with the zip/unzip in Primary.

Ash entertaining my little nephew on the iPad.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love iPads for educational purposes?  They have the greatest free apps that have taught Dade so much, not the least which has been better hand-eye coordination and spatial skills.  Of course, he's also addicted to Minion Rush (like Temple Run, but cuter), so it has it's drawbacks...

Thanksgiving Break: a great time to start stripping wallpaper!  It's grody, sticky work, especially trying to get the glue scraped off.  The wallpaper itself has been easy, particularly the top portion.  The glue, not so much...

Christmas time is also a great time to visit Trafalga because everyone else seems to be too busy to go.

Dade & his cousin trying to shoot each other.  These boys were awfully excited to be holding "real" guns.

All four of the girls are excellent climbers.  It took a while to convince Brynn & Ash to try, but once they did, their mountain goat genes shone.  The thing I don't get is how they climb in boots and sneakers.  I prefer just socks myself...

At times I actually feel pity for this dog.  I think there may be a special place in heaven reserved for pets that end up in this family.

I didn't even see the dog for the first 3 minutes I was down in the basement.  No wonder.

Thanksgiving: a day for running in races and winning turkeys for Christmas dinner.  And lots of cooking.

 

Also a day for devouring turkey made with my favorite Emeril Lagasse recipe, along with the other food.  And let's be honest: everything is secondary to the turkey and gravy.

Post-dinner Uno.  We love Killer Uno, especially with the Hello Kitty cards.  (Or the Harry Potter ones, or the Star Trek ones, etc)

The week of Thanksgiving, I started getting the lights up on the house.  I knew the good weather wouldn't hold, and our roof is very sharply pitched.

Derek took stealthy pictures of me trying not to injure sensitive parts of my poor body while also putting the shingle pins in for the lights.

Ta da!  Christmas lights are one of my favorite things in the whole entire world.  They symbolize all that is good, and look pretty as well.  Now I just need to get a big Moravian star to hang from my basketball hoop and we'll be set!

One night we went out to walk Sol and were greeted by this amazing halo around the moon.  My sister took this shot and managed to really capture the colors.  I've never in my life seen such a large, colorful halo.  And true to it's portent, it snowed the next day... Good thing we go the lights up!