Christmas Trees etc.

 The 1st weekend of December Scott took the oldest two kids (since I was home while Brock napped) up to Idaho City to cut down a fresh one.  A huge Charlie Brown tree. I should've gotten a picture of the tree in the back of his truck. It was huge! It didn't fit in our office, so he cut the very top off, which we used as our mini-tree in our kitchen cove.

 

 

Then we also put up our fake one... which is starting to look a little run down like our real one. I let the kids decorate that little one.

The pictures below: real tree, fake tree, top of real tree now our mini tree, decorations and our mistletoe! ;)

While the kids were gone cutting down the Christmas tree, I put up all our Christmas decorations... much faster without the little one's help :) 

It's been cold here lately... and I don't remember it ever being this cold when we lived here the 4 years before dental school.  It got down to -5 degrees last Tuesday. Crazy ridiculous, if I do say so!
This California girl here will complain about the weather in Idaho every year...
sorry, get use to it!

Snow Day

On Saturday morning we woke up to lots and lots and lots of SNOW!

And it kept snowing until the middle of the afternoon.

What's the only thing snow is good for?

PLAYING IN IT!!!

 We went to a nearby school where there was a huge hill in the back.

PERFECT for sledding!

They're all becoming braver each time we go.

Cole actually went down all by himself this time!

Fun times

{Family Pictures 2013}

While we were in Portland for my sister's baby's blessing, my stepsister Kathryn took some family pictures of us, and I'm so happy how they turned out.

{Thanksgiving}

We had Thanksgiving at Scott's parent's house this year.

It was quite the awful week though...

EVERYONE in our house got sick with the flu bug

TWO kids at night, every other night massively threw up

Scott and myself included had our turn in there during the week...

Nevertheless...

Thanksgiving day was wonderful:

(all pics taken on my iphone, sorry for their blurriness)

The kids had pilgrim hats...

 

We had a delicious meal around a beautifully set table

We played the "things" game

We then went to Kassie's house for dessert.

 

 I made the pecan pie, key lime pie, and these individual pumpkin desserts/tarts that Ella helped me make the morning of.

It was a great day and everyone was happy and healthy...

but later that night was another story!

 

Ella walked in the door a couple days before Thanksgiving looking like this! I love her thankful letter that she wrote! So proud of this girl of mine.

Portland: Audrey's Blessing

The first weekend of November we went up to Portland to see my
new niece and be apart of her blessing day.
 I was instantly obsessed with her!
She has this full thick head of dark hair, and I just wanted to eat her up!

  The night before we all gathered at Red Robin to eat.

Then after church we gathered at her clubhouse for a luncheon.

Such a nice time for us all to visit.

My brother flew in from UT, my BIL flew in from China, my mom & stepdad from Oklahoma, my stepsiblings drove from Seattle, my stepdad's sister & husband and all of Kyle's family from Portland were there to show their support.

 I mean, you guys, look at her....

what a living doll!

proud parents:

my sister Melanie & Kyle

Glamour Shots!

 We also sneaked some time in for family pictures...

more to come on that!

Pumpkin Carvin' & Trick-or-Treating

Grandma and Grandpa Thompson do an annual pumpkin carving and s'mores over the backyard fire pit. Cole wanted to do iron man face, and Ella wanted the wolves howling at the moon... thought they turned out alright.

 Then on Halloween night it was Kade's 10th birthday the night before, so Kiley does a family party for him and then all the cousins go trick-or-treating together. How fun for them!

 Ella wanted to be a vampire, Cole is Spiderman, and Brock is a dragon.

 It was fun to see all their excitement! It was Brock's first year understanding what it was all about. 

 After trick-or-treating we came back to Kiley's for cake & ice cream.

What a party!

Daddy-Daughter Halloween Party

My calling right now is over the activity day girls. I absolutely LOVE it.

I can't wait for another 9 months until my Ella can join us!

We threw a daddy-daughter Halloween party. I made the mummy-dogs,

there were egg eyeballs, carrot stick witch fingers, goblin cheese ball, and breadstick bones dipped in blood (marinara). There were also witches hats and broomsticks and sweet popcorn we made.

We had many games for them to do with their dads, including finding the eyeballs in spaghetti noodles, Halloween bean bag toss, finding the skeletons in the sand, etc.

 We also had each of them take a picture with their dads, and while we printed off their pictures on photo paper, they were able to decorate their frame to take home with them.

 Here are all of us leaders, they are a great group to work with!

We got to join in on the donut-on-a-string game...

krispy kremes... yum!

Fall Preschool Fieldtrips

Have I mentioned how I love Cole's preschool? I do.

They had a fieldtrip to Linder Farms a couple weeks ago,

and they were able to do things we didn't have time for last time.

 The corn pit was a blast, both our boys had fun 

creating "corn angels" and messing around in there.

 There's this huge pipe slide on top of some hay bales, and Brock, being the independent little man that he is, insisted on climbing up there and going down... no fear this child has!

Cole helped him go down, what a nice older brother.

 Here's us on the hay ride to pick a pumpkin.

 Brock was fascinated by the green ones

Then his preschool had a Halloween Party today, where they all dressed up and played games, had treats, and candy!  His teacher is Miss Danica in the pink princess costume below.

Class picture