Feeling Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. It was eventful, and at times, emotional, but we are definitely feeling grateful.

Thanksgiving morning started off with the first annual Family 5K. We biked, ran, or scooted (is that the correct form for riding a scooter?) Anywho, it was a lot of fun. We just ran the local trail, so it wasn't an official event or anything. Seth and Rick ended up biking about 5 miles (with Rick pulling Katy and Cru in the bike trailer). Hannah biked along with us runners...with a water bottle in her basket.
Alison, Karen, Heather and I ran it. Ethan and Alex lapped us several times in our run. I had not prepared AT ALL for this run...so I didn't run the entire way...I walked at intervals, but definitely ran more than I walked. We came in at about a 45 minute time, so not bad, but not good. Heather, Alison and Karen SO could have beat me, but they were nice and stuck with me!

Ethan and Alex
Cute baby cousins. Cru and Soren are about 3 1/2 months apart.
Nothing like freshly drilled mashed potatoes. Papa has a special way of creaming his mashed potatoes with a drill. Hey! Don't knock it. It works!
No one was cooperative about having their picture taken at the table, so I left those pictures off. But the food was delicious. Papa always does an amazing job.

I call this next picture: Tryptophan.
And I call this one: Not Enough Tryptophan.
These kids are so lucky to have uncles that play with them.
We visited my parents for a few minutes later in the evening. Cru was happy to snuggle.
The next day I got this picture of Cru looking a bit like he had something up his sleeve. Well, he did. After contentedly sitting with NO SIGN of wanting to crawl, the boy up and decided to start crawling. He went from an awkward army crawl to up on his knees lunging in less than 24 hours. He is still not totally confident, and does a lot of spinning, inching, army crawling, rocking and lunging, but he can go from one room to another if he is motivated enough. LOVE that boy.
These four cousins were all born within a year. At this point there were four adults standing behind me trying to get these guys to smile, but as you can see, they are a tough audience. They are still cute, though.
Not pictured events include:

• the annual trip to the Gift Show the day after Thanksgiving
• a girls night to New Moon (where three of the guys joined us...and Rick wants to make sure that you know that HE was NOT one of them) I will keep my opinions of the movie to myself, as I don't love having my house egged by Twihards... Just kidding. It wasn't THAT bad.
• soccer games. (not ours...we attended as fans)
  
• a birthday party.
• the avoidance of Black Friday shopping.
• a walking trip to the duck pond.
  
• lots of laughs...a few tears...and family time.

I am thankful for health, love, family, recovery, plenty, the gospel, baby smiles, giggles, family, kids, chocolate, Rick, family, bedtime, Hannah, Seth, MaKaty, Cru, family, and love.

Randomness

This post is just as random as random can be...so be prepared for that. I have gotten behind on a lot of things lately, and here is my meager attempt to recapture the random events of the last 2 months.

Katy had a little soccer envy: (please note that both legs are in the same hole)
We went on an adventure with Grandpa. He knew of this cool cave. We ventured in only a few feet, for safety reasons, but the kids were all sorts of intrigued.
The very same Grandpa suffered a brain bleed and had neurosurgery in October. Thanks to the marvel of modern medicine, and the miracle of prayer, he is recovering well.
Rick designed another new park.
It received the MaKaty seal of approval.She's cute. Were it not for the cuteness factor, she would be sold on the black market. She is the most troublesome toddler I have had yet...
You see that attitude?
This girl has taken to doing her own hair.
He continues to get cuter.
I find similar set-ups on a regular basis. Note the bat hanging in the tree. Good stuff.
We made homemade rootbeer with dry ice. Twice.
Hannah attended her first (non-grandmother) sleepover.
This made me laugh. Hard.
Rick and the kids went Conveniency Camping. This is where you attend the campsite...hike around...roast marshmallows...enjoy the campfire...and drive home and sleep in your own beds.

That is all for now.

My favorite outtake:

A friend of ours (thanks Shauna) took a few pictures for the ol' Christmas card a week or so ago. This was my favorite of the outtakes. Ah yeah, that's a little slice of my life. Enjoy!

A Farewell To Soccer

Another soccer season is over. It was a good year. Hannah went from having no desire to play, to begging her coach to keep her in. They both learned a lot about teamwork, and learned that there is more to soccer than just kicking the ball. While neither kid got a goal this year, they both had multiple assists, and some great saves. Thank goodness for good coaches and teammates. We saw an increase in effort and enthusiasm, and kept the tears and the trash talk to a minimum. Hooray for soccer!












Blue Bunnies and Orange Bombers rock!

Eight Months Old

Our little big man. Just look at him. He's huge! And cuter than ever!

Looking thoughtful...



This picture was poorly composed, but I had to post it because it shows all of Cru's teeth. All SIX of them! See the big one on the top? That tooth and I, we don't get along so well. I'll let you use your imagination to figure out why...
Oh yeah, this next one is just keeping it real. So so glad that I could capture the infamous snot bubble.
Proof that even Captain Chill gets sick of having his picture taken:
And this last picture was taken by my niece. So cute. And yes, he is already a flirt.
Some facts:

• Cru sprouted 2 new teeth this month.
• He is FAR to content to want to learn to crawl, though he has finally tried to get to his hands and knees.
  
• He is perfecting the pincer grasp.
• He LOVES squash.
• He LOVES his stuffed dog.
• He has shown signs of stranger danger, and gets shy.
  
• He LOVES cats, but dogs tend to scare him a bit.
• He is experimenting with the "bum scoot" form of transportation.
• He gives high fives, with gusto!
• He reaches out to be picked up.
• He will often clap in imitation.
• He thinks Baby Mum Mum's are THE STUFF!
  

Some favorites:

• I love his cheeks, and how his dimple is emerging more and more all the time
• I love how he snuggles just about as long as you will let him.
• I love his fake cry...and how it turns off as soon as you pick him up.
• I love his baby blues.
• I love how he laughs when Katy pretends to sneeze.
• I love his sleep habits.
  
• I love it when he yells and scares himself.
• I love how he gets excited at the sight of food.
• I love how he imitates facial expressions, like when I raise my eyebrows and he returns it.
• I love his birthmark.
• I love to watch him splash in the bath.
• I love to watch him play with toys. Spinning, pushing, banging, dumping.
  
• I love his wet kisses.

Keep up the cuteness, Cruzer!

A Whole Week of Halloween Scares

OK, so this post is another photo heavy one. It's totally for my benefit more than anyone else's. So if you have seen enough pictures of pumpkin carving/kids in costume/pre-sugar-high festivities, I won't feel bad if you just move on.

The week started with a spooky dinner of "spider dogs" . I know they look totally gross, but the kids thought they were "the stuff!" Essentially you just poke spaghetti noodles into hot dogs and boil them. We dipped our spider dogs in "blood" (ketchup). Gross, but good.
Tirsa painted Hannah's fingernails to go with her Sally costume. I think they were the coolest! (click on the photo to see them close up!)
Monday we invaded Jake and Beka's house and turned the kids loose with cupcakes and frosting. Black frosting. Looks cool. On the cupcake. Everywhere else, not so much. I didn't take many pictures that day...but here is one of Cru. Ready to party!
Tuesday we turned three pumpkins over to the kids for carving. Seth was SO EXCITED to use a knife. He was bummed to realize that there was still a lot of supervision.

Kate got totally into the pumpkin guts.
Hannah kept one arm in her shirt so that only one would get all gross.
Seth with his spiderman pumpkin. I ran a practice round on the drawing a lightning scar on him, if you can't tell.
A couple of years ago, our friends Jared and Amy had used a smoke bomb in their pumpkins. So I saved a couple from the 4th of July. They were lots of fun. Stinky, but fun!

Katy wanted a happy pumpkin. Hannah got Zero, from Nightmare Before Christmas, and Seth rocked the Spiderman pumpkin.
Wednesday was our neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat. You have already seen pictures from that day, but here are a few of the outtakes.

Weird, but adorable. I should make him a shirt that says that.

Yes, it's true...he did keep the patch on. I promise. The kid is ultra-mellow.
And the opposite of mellow...Miss Katy. Who had begged and begged to be a cow. And wanted to take the hood off the whole time. Stinker.
The whole crew.
Two of Seth's best neighborhood buddies were Optimus Prime. So cute. (try to ignore the fact that you can see the back of Seth's tie, revealing that his Gryffindor tie is actually a regular tie with masking tape stripes colored gold.)
People honestly could not tell it was Hannah under there. She looked a little freaky, but LOVED it!
He fell asleep trick-or-treating. Patch and all!Hannah shared her sucker with Cru. I just love the sneaky look in his eyes!
Let the acquisition of candy begin.
this pirate is armed!
not only does she look cool, but she made the entire costume herself. So she *is* cool!
not sure what to think...
cutest dragon EVER!
The three boy cousins. AKA: ImpossibletogettolookatyouatthesametimeAnd now I get to live with three kids who have either had far too much sugar, or they are convinced that they are being deprived of sugar.

Hope you had a good Halloween!