Monkey boy

 We would store Jonas' pacifier on top of the fridge but that didn't stop him from getting it because he's a little monkey!  His Dad is quite impressed with his foot jamming technique.

He's one cute little monkey!

Christmas

The kids received a Special Delivery straight from the North Pole.  Inside was the Elf that they named Harry that kept an eye on things during December to report back to Santa. 

 

Santa visits the ward Christmas Party.

 

 

Love the view from our house during Christmas with all the homes decorated in lights!

 Christmas Day!

Maren's 5th Birthday!

To celebrate Maren's 5th birthday we went skiing at Solitude as a family and then enjoyed pizza and rides at the local Jungle Jim's play place.

Random November pictures

 Whitney's photograph that she entered into the school Reflections contest.  The theme was Diversity.

 Snowy day.  Why not have the neighborhood over to do paper maiche!?!

 Another lost tooth!

They really do love each other!

My book worm

Thanksgiving trip

Jim unexpectedly ended up with 10 days off over Thanksgiving.   We decided we needed to do something fun with the time and since it is horribly expensive to fly that time of year we opted for a road trip instead.    We decided we wanted to head south to avoid the snowstorms so decided on heading to Oklahoma and Texas to visit families.  The first day of our journey we started before daybreak heading south.  We made Farmington, NM around lunch time and enjoyed a fun visit with the Stanton family.   We didn't have a set stopping place for the night and ended up pushing all the way through to my brothers home in Altus,OK arriving about midnight.   

The kids had a ton of fun playing together the next morning and then we headed to church with them.  

 

We left that afternoon to make the couple hour drive into Fort Worth to the Baker's home.  On Wednesday we headed back up to Oklahoma to do some rock climbing at the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge where the Remke's  met us on their journey from Kansas.   

We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with the Remke's and Baker's. 

  That night the Mom's headed out to do some Black Friday shopping.  We found some great deals but didn't make it to bed until the wee hours of the morning.   The kids enjoyed spending time with quite a few of their cousins on this trip.  On the way home we split the trip up by stopping for the night in Albuquerque.    

Halloween

This year for Halloween Whitney was Trixie the Halloween Fairy, Maren was a butterfly, and Jonas was Yoda.   I had fun making Jonas' costume this year even though he wasn't very fond of the robe.    We went to the school to watch the Halloween parade which is quite a sight!  They set up chairs in the school gym and the classes snake through the rows so everyone can see all the costumes. Everybody including the teachers dress up!  Quite the change from Virginia where Halloween is a taboo subject in the schools.   The second grade also puts on a Halloween program each year so we watched that after the parade. The kids brought home quite the loot haul of candy from the short loop around the neighborhood.   Jonas was dragging his bucket by the end but would not let anyone else hold it for him.  Maren also wanted to carve a unicorn pumpkin this year but they are not easy designs to find so we adapted a horse clip art we found.

 Our annual witches brew and pumpkin soup bowls for dinner!