Thanksgiving Time

Fall Leaves

Hannah preforming at her pre-school Thanksgiving performance and feast.  My friend caught this cute picture of her waving.

 Kids Making the traditional apple and gum drop turkeys at Grandpa and Grandma's new house.  They just moved from Collierville to Bartlett to be closer to the temple since Joe's dad was called into the temple presidency.

 Joe's brother Steve lives right by Joe's parents' new house so we got to see his family a lot over Thanksgiving.  This is the park we went to a lot.  I realize 3 pictures of the same thing aren't necessary, but it made me laugh to see how someone was falling apart in every picture.

We had fun visiting Memphis.  The kids even did well on the drive, which makes any vacation an automatic success.  They're so many things to be thankful for at this season:  family, the Savior, the gospel, a warm home...  It's nice to have a holiday to reflect on our blessings.

Halloween 2013

  Everyday is Halloween for Rachel and Hannah.  They were a dog and a cat for Halloween...and every other day.  I guess it's a really fun game.

 This is the carving pumpkin FHE where I happily let Joe take charge.

 Joe and I went to a just grown ups party where we actually got someone to watch our kids.  It was fun.  I spent a long time trying to make my hair big like a guess who player.  It was sad when I realized that I just did what normal people do to get ready.

 We had our friends over for a Halloween themed dinner and then took the kids trick-or-treating.  We were an intimidating bunch with 12 kids rushing the doors.  Some how our group got bigger and bigger as the night went on.

The final costumes for the night: Lincoln-ninja, Rachel-cat, Hannah-dog, and Lily-BYU cheerleader.  Lincoln was supposed to be a boxer for Halloween.  He had this muscle packed boxer costumed that I spent a long time making a boxer robe for, but he wore it to the trunk or treat and decided he didn't want to wear it for Halloween.  Sad.  Lexington officially moved their trick or treating to November 1st because of bad weather. We were happy because Friday was perfect weather.  Good times!

Visitors and Evan's Orchard

 We love that the Laura and Jay Baker family live within three hours of us so we can see them more.  We knew they liked pumpkin patches so we finally went as a family to Evan's Orchard.

 Everyone on the big slide.

 Uncle Jay won Rachel's heart with a pony ride.

 The "hay" ride.

 The whole group.

 We were cheap and went out to the cars to eat lunch.  This nice guy asked us if we wanted to use his truck bed to eat.  The kids thought that was pretty awesome and wanted to take a picture.  

We also squeezed in conference.  I printed off one big conference packet and the kids did a great job filling it in.  I was especially impressed with Lincoln's determination to write down what every apostle talked about.  I bribed them with a dollar store toy.  Most of those have already made their way to the trash:).

31!

  My real birthday started off with a great breakfast in bed but when down hill after that.  It included cleaning up Hannah's diarrhea at Joe's work party so all these pictures are of my make-up birthday the Sunday after.

 Yummy lasagna

 Cute picture of Hannah

 Holy Cow Cake.  Mmmmm

Joe customized his presents to me.  I told him I wanted money towards the house budget instead of flowers.  His real present was watching the kids while I went shopping when my sisters were visiting.  My kids were very good to try and make the day special for me with many creations.

Student of the Month

Lincoln was pretty excited to earn student of the month from his class.  His teacher came up to me and told me he had been campaigning for it:).  

Hannah's First Day

Today was Hannah's first day of pre-school.  (I guess that's why I have time to blog about it:).  She's very excited.  She went right in to her classroom and started her school work.  What a big girl.

Camp High Five

This is what Lincoln told me was his favorite part of school-"Camp High Five."  It's a cleverly done PTA fundraiser.  I wish I could have captured Lincoln's face as the race started.  He was beaming with happiness.