November Highlights!

This November has been very busy for our family. It has been a fun month, but unfortunately it's been hard to find time to blog. So here are some highlights of the happenings this last month.

The boys participated in Soccer and it ended the 2nd weekend of November. Zeke was the boys coach. He is a great coach, the boys love having him as their coach. We ended up with a great team. Landon and Mason also are getting to be pretty good soccer players.






Below is Mason playing defender. What can I say I think he knew I was taking his picture.

It's so him!

Landon stealing the ball.

Since the boys are in a 3rd/4Th split class at school, they participated in the 4Th grade Veteran's Program. It was a 1940's Melody. Mason had a speaking part and played the role of Frank Sinatra. The most exciting thing for him was being able to wear a suit.

Landon played one of many Jackie Robinson.

Thanksgiving came quick this year. Lydia loved helping Grandma in the kitchen this year. She claimed that the cherry pie was her own.

Doesn't it look YUMMY! I love Thanksgiving food, especially the Sweet Potatoes!

It was nice to go to my parent's house. Thanks for the great meal Mom and Dad!

It has become a tradition in our family to go into Seattle the day after Thanksgiving. I usually get up at 5am and hit a "Black Friday" sale. Then I come home get my family ready to head out the door up to Seattle for the Seattle Macy's Parade. It is such a fun colorful parade!

After the parade we hang out in Seattle.

Window Shopping....

Visiting the Teddy Bear Suite in the Sheraton Hotel Suite.

That night we checked into the Marriott and swam then relaxed after a day on our feet. We even experience a real fire drill in the hotel. The day was full of excitement.

Saturday Morning was the Seattle Kids Marathon. The boys have done this the last 3 years. They run a mile a day for the last month working up to 25 miles before the race. On Saturday they finish the last mile of the marathon, with hundreds of other kids. They run around the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is located. This final mile run is the funnest mile for the boys, it makes all the others worthwhile.

Here they are before the race with their friend Caleb.

The weather was so beautiful this weekend. After the race we hung out at the Seattle Center Fountain. Jacob loved it! He is such a good sport, waiting and watching the rest of his family participate in all these activities. We love him so much!!!

Finally.. the beard........ Stay tune to a post on the upcoming shave!

For those of you wondering why Zeke has the grisly look. He is a Temple Priest in a musical production that our Stake is putting on this weekend. It is called "The Savior Of the World". It has been a huge time commitment for our family (Landon and Mason are in it too), however it has been a touching experience for them, and has really been a great way to start out the Christmas Season.

"Senior" Pictures

Back when Jacob was born a friend of mine gave me a gift for a photo setting and a choice of a portrait from a friend of hers that is a stay at home mom/ photographer. So I had her come out and I fell in love with every picture she took of Jacob (it wasn't hard since I'm his mother). Recently, I got together with her again and had her take pictures of both Jacob and Lydia separately. I am so glad to have found such a great photographer!!! When I showed my mom some of the pictures, she thought they looked like "senior" pictures for kids. What do you think???

For those of you that like to see the whole collection here is the link to the slide show (warning over 100 pictures) http://www.slide.com/r/EHqyCQB33j_v7QDLQZvxzc_TgSWkaZzj?previous_view=TICKER&previous_action=TICKER_ITEM_CLICK&ciid=360287970443080249

Here are just a few:

Halloween Dress Up!

I have always loved Halloween, I love the candy, pumpkins, cider, parties, sugar cookies, and costumes. But this year my favorite thing was dressing up this little Tiger!!! (my other kids can dress themselves)

Lydia could not make up her mind on what to be this Halloween. Originally she was going to be a Denver Bronco cheerleader (thanks to a friend that recently moved to Denver). But she just couldn't give up the Princesses this year. So at three different Halloween festivities she was a different princess. Here she is as Ariel the night of Halloween. Notice the fork in the hair, her personal touch. The boys were Denver Bronco Football players. (Hence, why Lydia was going to be a Denver Cheerleader)
Before Trick or Treating our Ward (church) had a Halloween Carnival down at the Stake Center.
The boys loved the Donut eating contest. Landon our donut lover, cobbled the donut up before Mason even got a good bite.
Then we headed back to our neighborhood where the kids went Trick or Treating.

Half the fun for the kids was passing out candy back at our house. We had over 200 trick or treaters!





Two days before Halloween I threw a little Halloween Party for Lydia and 7 of her Friends. Don't they look cute? Lydia was Belle for this festivity.

We finished up the party with a balloon stomp, where they would find candy inside the balloons.

Landon and Mason even got to dress up for their sharing piano lesson this week.

On Saturday I took the kids Trick or Treating downtown Auburn.

Here Lydia with her friend Alyssa as two sleeping beauties.

Zeke and I also got into costumes this year, when we attended an annual couples Halloween Party.

With another Sumo wrestler at the party, we couldn't resist a sumo wrestling contest.

Now he was trying too hard to live up to his character. (And incase you are wondering, I am still not crazy about the beard).

The men and one women had fun craving pumpkins using power tools.

Power tool master piece.