Miscellaneous November Pics

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Decorating the Christmas tree is so much fun (well.... the ornaments are fun, not putting on the lights... I hate that job).  Anyway - it's so much fun when we open up the box of ornaments and the kids get so excited to start rifling through them to find their personal ornaments from over the years.  They each make their own piles and get so excited remembering their ornaments from the past.   I also have several ornaments still that I received when I was a kid, so I tell them things I remember about them.  Then we find the ornaments we got while traveling and reminisce about the fun trips we have taken.  It's definitely one of my favorite times of the Christmas season!

Brad really took one for the team and stuck his face right into that pokey tree just so Olive could be the one to put the top on the tree.  ha ha

I'm so grateful for this bunch of people I get to call mine!

New Ornaments!

Getting a new Christmas tree ornament is a favorite tradition around here.  The kids get so excited for the day the tree goes up because they know they get to open what feels like an early Christmas present.  I love it too because finding an ornament that represents their interests at the time can sometimes be challenging, but it's so much fun.

Karly got to go first and she loved her Princess Poppy from the movie Trolls.  This movie will always make me think of her because she started singing and dancing to the soundtrack of this movie well before she could even walk.  She still LOVES when we play that soundtrack.

Olive got Moana which is her favorite movie right now.  She also loves to blast this soundtrack and sings the songs so cute.

Bentley got a soccer ornament.  He really rocked his soccer season this year and had so much fun.  He loves to play in the backyard with anyone who will play with him.  He never gets tired of it.  I love it.

And it should come as no surprise that Eden got a Harry Potter ornament.  Those books have been a constant around here.  She has now read all seven books, some of them three times!  I love that she loves books so much.

Between these new personal ornaments each year, our ornaments from the travel we are able to do throughout the year, and the home made ornaments from grandma Justice, we sure do love the memories that cover our tree.  :)

Olive's Tea Party

Olive is our first kid to really like to do pretend play.  By far, her favorites are playing family and having tea parties.  Usually she insists that she can only play these things with real people (usually me or dad because we are the only ones who play along!).  However, sometimes if I help her get it all set up, she will play with her "friends" too.  So cute.

Thanksgiving in Parker!

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year.  We traveled north to Parker and spent the week with Greg, Steph and their kids.  We always have so much fun together and it's the perfect mix of going on adventures, but also spending plenty of time relaxing at home.  We love our time there.

These kids were anxiously awaiting the feast.  They were seated quite early, just chatting away while they waited for food.

We had plenty of delicious food, and it was enjoyed by all!

Little picky Karly wasn't too into it, I'm not sure I really was successful in getting her to try much, but she loved the dessert of course!

Aside from our huge and delicious meal, we enjoyed many outings together that week. The weather was beautiful and the kids loved walking over to the park when we felt the need to get out.

And of course, there were A LOT of games played that week.  We had a lot of really good laughs.

Bentley loved being included in so many more games with the adults this year.  He's pretty good at holding his own against those old dudes.

Olive loved all of Maddie's cute Calico Critter toys and houses.  She was in pretend play heaven over in her little corner.

Mason just recently got a great dane puppy and he was the source of a lot of love and entertainment by others during our down time.

Karly really loves uncle Greg.  He is very sweet to her and even let her strum his guitar a bit.

I don't even know what came over us, but Brad and I actually decided to go to the mall with all the kids on black Friday.  I think our only purchases were made at the Lego store when each kid filled up a giant cup of whatever random pieces they could fit it.  They thought it was pretty awesome.

 Maddie is the cutest and just blends right in with our family. 

We went into the "Justice" store and Olive and Karly fell in love with all the sparkly things in there.

I love that Eden and Maddie walk around holding hands.  It's adorable.

The North Pole was already set up in the back of the mall and the kids were very excited to peak in and see Santa.

We also went to downtown Parker on the night they lit the big Christmas tree.  It was beautiful there and so fun to kick of the Christmas season!

We also went and saw the new Disney movie "Coco".  It has a lot of Spanish cultural things and it sure made me think of some of the fondness of growing up in New Mexico!  It also made me miss my granny Moe very much.  It was a very sentimental and cute movie.

It was such a fun week and I'm so grateful for the time we spent with this awesome family.  We love them and can't wait for our next adventures together!