The Big Fat November Post

Sorry I've been missing for most of November!  Things got away from me, we've been so busy here!  But it's been good busy and I'll try to catch you up now!

With our Halloween running over (trick or treating getting postponed and then going to Kings Dominion the day after), I sort of feel like November started a couple days late?  Is that a thing?  And then the kids didn't have school the first couple days, so that was awesome-- we had a five-day weekend, which we very much enjoyed (and also gave us plenty of time to adjust to the time change).  The weather was great, so there was much raking of leaves and building of treehouses:

No clue what Ryder was so upset about here...?  But everyone else seems to be having fun!

Camille is ready to be a homeless person

Colton is getting so good at riding his bike!

The tree house is coming along!

This is my new favorite park

This is from Riverview Park, and now you know why it's called that!  It runs along the Rivanna River for a few miles with this lovely walking/biking trail the whole way.  It's wonderful!

We also got our family portraits and I LOVE them!!!!  I'll share more later.  For now, know that all my favorites are coming to a Christmas card near you very soon!

My parents came for a quick visit, which was wonderful and somehow I didn't take pictures of them here at all.  I do that a lot, I'm afraid-- I'm the worst!  But we had a great time and ate a TON of wonderful food and sat around talking a lot.  All of my favorite things!  We also took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast where my bestie Sarah was playing the role of Mrs. Potts!  I was really nervous to shell out that much money and worried the kids would be awful (especially since it started when they normally go to bed!), but it was WONDERFUL!  The kids loved it and we all had a great time.  Yay for awesome family time!




And then the NEXT day, also while my parents were here, Ryder had his birthday party!  It was a bit early, but since his actual birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year, we figured we needed to get a jump on things.  Speaking of which, he opted to take a couple friends to Jump! so that was a lot of fun for them.  And I stayed home with my parents while Craig took him.  So everyone had a good time!

Opening his presents and cards from Henry and Owen

The candles make this look even weirder, but this was the cake he requested: his name spelled out (and all I had was pink) and extra M&Ms.  He was happy.

Gotta love that gleeful anticipation!

Money shot

After the party, we went up to Carter Mountain, because it's one of my favorite places.  My kids have this place where they love to hide, so here's Bentley with his buddy Asher up in a tree over the hiding place:

My parents left (sniff, sniff!) and I had to get to work on Stake Conference stuff.  I'd offered to buy some of the food for the dinner we were giving for all the female leadership in the stake.  All I had to get were rolls and salad, but when you're feeding 120 people, that's a lot!  I looked crazy!

360 rolls, 20 bags of salad!

Craig got there with me for set up at 2pm, and then I had to help run some of the training.  And then the dinner, which Craig helped out with, too.  (To thank him, we let him join us and eat, too!)  Then they had the Saturday adult session, which was nice and easy and I could actually sit with Craig, so that was lovely.  And we stopped by Five Guys on our way home and got me a milkshake!  And then the NEXT morning, I had to speak at the general session of Stake Conference, so that was a big deal and I spent a TON of time working on that talk. 

They'd actually asked me to speak a year ago, but then it snowed and everything got canceled.  I didn't think I could possibly get that lucky again, and I was right.  So I'd prepared.  I don't normally get too nervous about public speaking, but this felt like a big deal.

Anyway, I think it all went fine.  I was super relieved to be done and took the best nap EVER that afternoon!

And then the next day I was back to cleaning house because Craig's Aunt Lynda and Uncle Greg were arriving that evening!  I'd already mopped and polished floors, but so much stuff can only be done the day of (like vacuuming).  Or, if your kids are super gross like mine, you really have to clean toilets about five minutes before your company arrives.  Plus I was making dinner for everyone (in all fairness, Tom and Donna had offered to just take us all to dinner, but I was worried the timing wouldn't work out, so I'd decided to just make a big pot of chili for everyone).  So that was a busy day, too!  But so fun to see everyone again!

AND THEN, the next day, Craig managed to be a chaperone for a school field trip to see Hamilton!!!!  And he'd managed to score a ticket for me and one for Ryder (who we hadn't been able to take last year), so we got to ride on a school bus to Richmond with a bunch of high schoolers!  TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Our seats weren't together, so Craig and I switched at intermission so we each got to sit with Ryder for part of the show.  Extra thanks go to Tom and Donna AND Lynda and Greg for babysitting all the other kiddos for us!

And yes, the show was great even a second time!  I think in some ways I enjoyed it more-- I could take my eyes off the main characters and watch the dancers more and just appreciate some of the more technical aspects of it all.  Seriously, it is SUCH a great show!

The next day we headed up to Culpeper for more family time and so Craig could make PIES.

Hey, we got a picture of Lynda and Greg!  Here they are listening to Colton's books!

AND we also celebrated Ryder's birthday some more!

This time he wanted doughnuts

We also let him open up a few more presents on his actual birthday:

He was really excited about the fitbit we got him!

Happy 9th birthday to my Ryder-- what a joy it's been having you in our family!


And...  I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving.  But it was wonderful with really great food and family and a lot of over-eating and all that good stuff.  Everything you could ask for in a holiday!


November has been great, but a little on the insane side.  And I expect December will be even busier!  Here we go!!!

Random Pics

I have a whole bunch of random photos that are just begging to be shared on ye olde blogge here, and who am I to resist?

Look!  I parked where the blue bus parks!  How apropos!

Camille holding hands with Tessa while we walk along the Rivanna River-- so precious!

Playing hide-and-seek at the bus stop

I love Camille's exuberance!

Totally bragging here.  You'd think I would weigh less, though, right???  Whatever, I'm still proud!

Yay for Craig!  I especially loved that they said he was "unflappable"-- it's a phrase I adore.

Kendra ready to root for the AHS Patriots!

Colton introduces Oreo to his stuffed animal bunny

Too precious!

Bentley adopts my method of protecting your eyes from onion fumes.  It's weird, but it works!

And speaking of pictures, we just got our family portraits and I am SO EXCITED to get to work ordering Christmas cards!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

More Halloween

We had even more celebrating this Halloween than usual, which is A LOT.  On the actual day, they were predicting crazy awful weather, including possible tornadoes, so our neighborhood made the executive decision to postpone trick-or-treating for a day.  Hallelujah for that!

Knowing that the kids would be a little bummed out, Craig decided that we should spend the evening carving our pumpkin, watching Coco, and drinking hot cocoa.  This was met with resounding enthusiasm, and we had a fantastic night!

The kids wanted it to look skeletal and angry.  Mission accomplished.

Love this movie!

The NEXT day, the kids didn't have school, so they were pretty excited about that.  And that evening, we started out at a neighbor's house for pizza, then I hurried home to give out candy and Craig took the kids trick-or-treating.  The weather was great-- clear and crisp.  We got TONS of trick-or-treaters and I enjoyed passing out fistfuls of candy to all of them.  Quinn and Theo showed up, so I was excited to see them again and hear how cute it was when Theo tried to say "trick or treat" for me-- I've missed my little buddy!

Bentley and a bunch of his friends.  Those cow costumes really are obscene, aren't they?

And a goofy pic, too!

And then that night after the little kids were all tucked in, I made Bentley and Kendra start watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so that made ME very happy!


 They're not totally sold on it yet, but give them time, I'm sure they'll come around!

And then the NEXT day (Saturday), Craig's parents came and babysat so Craig and I could take Bentley and Ryder back to Kings Dominion to go through all their haunted houses and spook alleys and whatnot.  (Kendra did not want to come, and since I've finally gotten Colton sleeping at night, I'm not willing to ruin that by giving him more fodder for nightmares!)  It was fun seeing all the stuff they had-- haunted corn maze, prison where the inmates have escaped, haunted hotel wedding thing...  I learned that when you scare me, I will jump and squeal and then start laughing.  It makes for a pretty weird nervous tick, and probably not what the employees were hoping for, but there you go.  And I made someone hold my hand whenever we were in a dark place where people might jump out at me.  And all my boys were VERY obliging!

We got home around midnight, which would have been terrible, but since Daylight Savings was ending that night, we got an extra hour of sleep before church, so that was nice!

And now we can start getting excited for Thanksgiving!!!  The fun never stops around here!!!