November.... Where did it go?

Here we are at the end of November and I'm once again wondering, where did the month go? Time seems to be speeding up every day and the months just fly by. Also, the weather here is so fabulous right now, it doesn't seem possible that it is the end of November. Here is a recap of some of the events at our house the past few weeks......


Peyton had two loose front teeth. As you can see, this one was barely hanging on for about 9 days. We tried and tried to convince Peyton to pull it out or to let us pull it out, but she wouldn't do it. We even tied dental floss around her tooth and the door knob to see if she would slam the door and pop it out, but once again, she wouldn't do it. She had a dentist appointment to have some cavities fixed and the dentist was able to get her to agree to let him wiggle it out. I only agreed to this after he told me he wouldn't charge me for the "extraction". She is so funny, our Peyton doesn't have any tolerance for pain, discomfort or anything of the sort.

One less tooth to brush!!! Now we need to start wiggling the one next to the empty space.

The girls school does a fun event every year in November called the Turkey Trot. The P.E. department spends the month of November having the kids train for the race and they focus on physical activity and the importance of being active. Here are the 3rd grade girls lined up and ready to go. Peyton is in the pink shirt on the far right side.

Here she is finishing the race. She didn't win or beat any records, but she ran (ok, more like jogged) and finished the race and that's what counts.

Peyton and Abby were racing buddies.

After the race there was a drawing for goodies and prizes. Peyton was picked and she chose a box of yummy sugar cookies with lots of frosting!

The race was shorter for the Kindergartners and they actually had some of the older kids put on feathers and beaks so the kids could chase turkeys. It was very cute. Here comes Sydnie, she was just about to the finish line.

After the race everyone got a sucker and a sticker.

Both of the girls were able to make place mats at school to use for their Thanksgiving dinner. Here is Sydnie using hers a day early.

Peyton made so many fun Thanksgiving crafts at school. This was one of the place markers she made. She was very thoughtful and made sure she had one for everyone who was having dinner with us.

Here is Peyton putting all of her crafts to use a day before turkey day. She was so proud of all her hard work and craftiness.

How cute is this little napkin holder.... So easy and oh so cute.

Peyton also made a scarecrow. She was the first one in her class to curl the scarecrows hair. After that all the little girls were wrapping the paper around pencils or crinkling it up to make it wavy. She really is so very creative.

Sydnie also came home with a few crafts. Here she is modeling her Pilgrim hat. Isn't she so lovely!

Here we have the Native American version of Sydnie. Very colorful!!! Notice she's striking a pose.....

This year Andy, Irena, Jake and Nicky came to our house for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to have cousins to play with. The weather was spectacular and we spent a lot of time at the park and the zoo.

Peyton was such a great helper with Jake and Nicky. She made sure everyone was safe and accounted for.

On this trip to the park the slides were the favorite thing for everyone. There were so many to choose from and I think they tried them all.

Jake was constantly in motion. He is such a high energy, sweet little guy!

Nicky was being camera shy.....

She is getting so big!


The day after Thanksgiving we headed to the zoo. This is the 2nd year in a row that we've done this, so we're thinking about making it a tradition. Once again the weather was fantastic and we enjoyed a full day at the zoo with temps around 82 degrees.

Here is Peyton inside a giant shell. Yes, we are still wearing sunscreen, hats and sunglasses to protect ourselves from the sun and heat, in NOVEMBER!!!!

Sisters in a shell.

Sydnie and Jake taking a ride on the tractor. Wait, should she be driving?

Sydnie riding the cow. How cute is this life size version of the Fisher Price toy! They had the whole farm set. The kids loved it!

Peyton being cradled in the elephants trunk. She could have stayed there all day.

Fun with cousins. Jake found the play dough on the last day of their visit, so we had to get it out and play with it. They made cookies, snakes, ice cream cones and cup cakes. Oh and a mess on the floor and table, but they had so much fun!

They loved the play dough.

Sydnie making cupcakes.

Overall it's been a great month. We are thankful for so many things, especially family, good friends, warm weather and healthy kids just to name a few. We hope everyone near and far had a great holiday! It will be Christmas before we know it. :-)




WAIT.... One last thing. The girls got hair cuts.

Here is Peyton before....

Here is Sydnie before.....

And here is Sydnie after..... So cute! She wanted it cut just like her friend McKenna's at school. Since we've been growing her bangs out I figured it was the perfect cut!

Here is Peyton's after..... Hers is a little more choppy around the edges. She wanted layers this time. I think we'll pass on those the next time around. I LOVE her freckles!!!

The BIG CRUNCH!!!!!

We made a very quick trip to Utah last weekend. We were greeted by cooler temperatures and lots of leaves. We were so excited that there were still some fall leaves for us to enjoy! We arrived at Grandma Judy's a little later than expected (yes, it was dark outside), but we didn't let that stop us from playing in the leaves. We don't have any leaves at home, so we had to take advantage of it while we could.

Grandma had actually blown the leaves into a long, wide strip. However, she let each of the girls take a turn with the leaf blower and that was the end of any sort of pile. The girls did think it was fantastic to scatter the leaves all over. But, you can't jump in them if they aren't piled up. So, we got to work making another pile for our BIG CRUNCH!!!!

The girls are actually very good at raking leaves.
We started with just a little pile, but decided that just wouldn't do.

So, they raked..... and raked.....

then Grandma got the blower out to help.

It was a family affair in the dark.

Finally the girls had a decent size pile.

Almost done.

Ready, set, JUMP......

And that was the BIGGEST CRUNCH ever!!!!! Then the batteries for my camera died and that's all I was able to capture. However, I was picking leaves out of the girls hair for four days. They loved it!!!

While we were visiting Aunt Kristy she took the girls to the Gateway for their annual shopping trip. Each of the girls took $5 and off they went. Peyton chose chap stick and a trick hand buzzer. Sydine on the other hand chose beautiful pink, purple and blue make-up. As you can see she used it very liberally. Isn't she so pretty!

I'm not sure who she's been watching apply make-up, but I have my work cut out for me. I think we'll tell her she has to be 18 before she can start wearing it out of the house. :-)

So much Halloween and Fall fun!!!

Here are some pictures from our Trunk or Treat party. Sydnie was a fairy princess for Halloween and Peyton went the scarier rout as a vampire. They both picked their own costumes and we had so much fun finding them this year.

We had to have a picture of the little wings on the back. So sweet.....

So scary!!!!!!! Too bad the picture doesn't have the horrible hissing sound she would make. YIKES!!!

Tavarese (aka Batman) with the fairy princess.

Brianna (a pretty pink kitty cat) and the vampire.

Marin the butterfly and the fairy princess. I'm still not sure where they found daggers, but they were fighting off all of the super hero's with them. Sydnie was definitely the leader.

The costume parade. There's the little fairy princess.

Here's the scary vampire.

It was a fun night and it got the candy rush started early this month. Sydnie came home with pink cheeks because it was so hot. Both girls had melted chocolate too. It's very different from Halloween in Utah!

Sydnie's class went on their first filed trip of the year. It was to a farm. Sydnie was very disgusted that there weren't any cows even though it smelled like cow poop. I mean really, what kind of a farm doesn't have cows????

Farmer Laura telling us all about corn and the product that are made with it.

Walking through the corn maze.

Sydnie and Connor T. next to a giant pumpkin.

Sydnie hanging out with the boys trying to keep up on the racing bikes. Her legs were a little short for this one.

This one was a little easier to maneuver, but oops, she's going the wrong direction! Her dad would say she drives like her mom... :-)

So much fun!

Waiting in line for the lady bug train. Are you starting to notice a pattern? Sydnie is always surrounded by boys!!! Here she's waiting with Freddie, Clay, and Max. I finally asked her teacher if she is always with the boys or if she plays with the girls too. Her teacher reassured me that she spends plenty of time with both.

Sydnie and Max going for a ride.

Too cute!

She was a good sport and let Max do the driving.

Sydnie on the slide.

Sydnie in the Melon Hut.

Sydnie loved the baby pigs. The little black one was her favorite. I was sure she was going to end up in the pen head first, but she managed to balance on the side without falling in.

We wanted to take him home with us, but I told her the farmer wouldn't let us.

Holding baby chickens. I was beginning to think she belongs on a farm.....

Finally we found some girls at the baby chickens. This is Morgan, I couldn't get a picture of her where she didn't pose. It was really funny.

Sydnie and Macey with the goats.
Picking out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

This was the highlight of the farm. It was a box that was filled with about 4 inches of corn and was about 10 feet by 5 feet. The kids LOVED it!!! They had so much fun playing in all of these dried corn kernels, really, who knew corn was so much fun.

Everyone took turns trying to bury Max.

Then it was Sydnie and Trevor's turn to be buried alive.

Here was the fresh produce we brought home from the farm. One pumpkin, two cucumbers, two zucchini's and a handful of radishes. Jeff and I ate some of it, Sydnie wouldn't even try it. She did decorate the pumpkin as you'll see farther down. :-)

She came home happy and exhausted. It was so much fun!!!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!! In the middle of all the Halloween and Fall fun, we also got to celebrate Jeff's birthday. Here is his cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Enjoying cake and putting together Halloween houses from Grandma Judy. Yummy cake.....

Mmmmmmm.........

Sydnie's finished Halloween house. I'm not sure why there are giant farm animals, but they had to be part of the picture.

Peyton's semi finished house.

Sydnie had a friend from school who invited her to his birthday party at the park. Of course, Peyton and I had to stay for the fun. There was a face painter on hand and both the girls wanted to be painted like cats. I think Peyton was going for the sweet look like the cat in Shrek.

Sydnie was a more of a scary cat.

Meeeeeoooowww........

At the girls school they only let kids from Kindergarten through 2nd grade dress up for Halloween. Peyton was extremly disgusted by this rule. Her class didn't even have a party this year. They did get to watch a few Halloween cartoons, but that was it. Sydnie, however; had a day of fun and partying and I was able to attend in the morning.

Here is Morgan the witch, Sydnie, Marin the bumble bee, Isabell a pink creature from Yo Gabba Gabba and Bella who was Wonder Woman.

Bowling for ghosts. This was the only game they played inside. The rest of the morning we were outside playing games. Once again, it's so different from how we spent this holiday in Utah!!!

Fishing for stickers.

After a parade through the halls I got to stay and have lunch with Sydnie. This picture is really blurry, but I wanted to show her teacher in the background. She was dressed up as "Lucky" from Lucky Charms. She was really cute, but never held still long enough for me to snap a good picture. I guess when you have 24 five and six year olds, there is no time to sit or stand still.

Decorating pumpkins...... Sort of.

So, I took the easy way out this year. While my mom was visiting we found these push in's at Wal-Mart to decorate pumpkins with. They are similar to Mr. Potato Head except you put them in your pumpkins. It went very quickly and there was no mess. But I'll be honest, I missed grossing the girls out as I scooped out the guts and seeds. It just wasn't the same. Maybe next year will do a couple of each.

Here is Peyton picking out just the right face for this pumpkin. Hmmm, what's up with the purple gloves you ask? She went to the dermatologist earlier that day and saw a box of purple gloves. Of course we couldn't leave without asking to take a pair home. Then she insisted on wearing them the rest of the day. You've got to love her! :-)

Jeff helping Sydnie put the face on one of her pumpkins. It was a little tough to push them in for such little hands, so she recruited help from her daddy.

Here are Sydnie's finished products.

My pumpkin(with the yellow ears) and Jeff's (on the right).

Halloween night. We had people over for dinner and then they stayed to trick or treat around our neighborhood. Mitchell was a spooky creation on the left, Max was a character from Star Wars, then my fairy princess and the scary vampire. They had so much fun and got SO much candy! They were so worn out and slept so well! It was a wonderful night of spooky fun!

One last picture of my terrifing vampire! I remember the years of her being a pink puppy, a pink kitty, a ladybug. Not this year, it was all about being grown up and a little scary. She sure has gotten big!!!!