Thanksgiving, Santa, Ears Pierced

We had a fun and productive Thanksgiving weekend. We spent one day for Thanksgiving, one day for Christmas (seeing Santa, getting up lights, tree, and decorations), and one day for painting :)

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Pete and Andrea, Alexa, Elli and Adam came to spend the day with us. We had a great time.

The guys just hanging out downstairs.

We all played Apples to Apples and a fun game of Bingo that Andrea brought.

The day after Thanksgiving, we have a tradition of going to the University Mall to see Santa arrive on the helicopter. It is usually pretty cold, but this year was actually not too cold. It's just when you are standing around waiting for so long, you start getting colder. This year we were even able to get the free cookies and hot cocoa.

 Mom getting kisses from Maddi. Yum!

Audrey trying to stay warm.

 Here it finally comes!

After we saw Santa, we went in to the mall to get our new ornament. This year it was easy to choose since we got the "New House" ornament. Then we went over to Claire's to get Audrey's ears pierced. She has been asking for a long time, and it just hasn't fit into our schedule. So now she will have the studs in just long enough to get new earrings for Christmas.

waiting to get started and trying not get too nervous

Here's the dot with the marker. Ready to go...

 Audrey was so brave. She didn't cry at all!

She did get more worried for the second ear, but was a good sport. She was so excited to have her ears pierced.

We are so proud of you, Audrey! You were so brave!

October Conference Weekend

We have a well-loved tradition of spending General Conference weekend in October with our friends, the Sinemas. (2011 was our 7th year going.) The first time we went, we only had Kimee! They have girls the same ages as ours, so it's really fun to be together.

We have been to a few different places, but mostly Wolf Creek, which is where we went this year. This year was a little bit difficult, because it was right about the time were were going to be able to get into our house. The previous owners told us they would be out on Friday. Well, that ended up falling through and they couldn't get the movers to come until Tuesday. So we were able to just relax and enjoy ourselves for a few days. Boy, did that feel good!

On our way up, we stopped at the Hill Air Force Base Museum. We have always admired it from the freeway as we drove past, so this time we decided to make it our adventure stop on the way. It was well worth the stop, considering that admission was free. A little over the top of the little ones heads, but the airplanes were still amazing to look at and run around.

 We got to go inside this one. It was really cool.

I guess I didn't take any pictures at the condo. That's too bad because I'm sure there were lots of cute moments with the kids playing. One of my kids got my phone and took a bunch of pictures. Here are a few that weren't too blurry :)

Aimee and I visiting

 Watching the BYU football game vs. Utah State. We won at the last minute.

We also went out to Aimee's family cabin and spent some time running around and cleaning up there from the flooding this spring/summer. This trip seemed really short since we didn't go up until Friday and came home Sunday at noon. (We used to go up on Thursday, but it's gotten harder to leave work/school a day early.) I'll have to take more pictures next time so I can remember what we did!

Halloween

The week before Halloween, we went on the Stringtown Halloween train with our friends the Seamons. They have three kids the same ages as ours, so it's always fun. We went right after school, so it wouldn't be too scary.

The Saturday before Halloween, Dave carved jack-o-lanterns with Kimee and Audrey. I did Maddi's with a marker :)

Here are a few photos from the Halloween parade at school.

This year we started a new Halloween tradition. We have done the last few years with Jill, but sadly, she moved this summer. And since we moved closer to Janna, we decided to do Halloween with her this year. Janna and her kids came to our ward's trunk or treat, and then we Trick-or Treated the street from the church to our house. (This street is in Janna's ward, so she knew all the people, but they don't do a trunk-or-treat). It was a perfect night and a perfect street. Not too long, but long enough, and no hills!

Here they are at the end, at our front door.

Audrey is not in the photo because two houses away from home (luckily) she started screaming. She had chewed through a glow stick that was around her neck and the liquid inside started coming out. Well, it got all over her hands, and naturally, she rubbed her eyes. Then she rubbed them more as they started to hurt. I ran home carrying her and washed her hands, face, and eyes with water for at least 5 minutes before it all came off. Now THAT was scary!

BYU Football

Dave got season tickets again to the BYU football games. I had the privilege of going to the first game with him and had a great time. We carpooled with our friends the Foxes and went out to dinner at Magelby's Fresh before the game. One game, Kimee and Audrey traded off at half time. While Kimee was at the game with Dad, I took Maddi and Audrey to McDonalds. It was great. They played like crazy and I did a ton of school work on my laptop. At half time, I picked up Kimee and dropped off Audrey. Unfortunately, Dave found out as he was going out the gate that they won't let you switch who is using the ticket. Luckily, his friend Jonathan had an extra ticket, so he went back in a got it so Audrey could get in. It was a great idea, but I guess we won't do that again.

See how dirty their feet got? Yuck!

One game, we were able to leave Maddi with Ben, whom she adores, and the four of us went. It was still a really hot game, so the girls had a hard time. 

Fall Fun

Just after school started, we went to the school carnival. 

Grandma and Grandpa K. tagged along for the fun. 

 Kimee and Audrey got their hair done at one of the booths.

My favorite part is the yummy dinner: grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, cookies, chips and pop. And I didn't have to make it or clean up the mess!

Before we moved, Audrey and I picked the pumpkins in our back yard. We didn't get many because of a cute little 2 year old.  Every time we would notice a new little baby pumpkin growing, Maddi would hurry and pick it because she thought it was so cute. So they didn't have much of a chance. We had to stop looking at the pumpkins.