White October

I L.O.V.E. a white Christmas. A white Halloween however, I despise- and this is what we woke up to this morning- ugh!!

Red October

We celebrated a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving with our dear friends the Cameron's and Martin's.


We feasted on turkey with cranberries, steamed veggie medley, green bean casserole, rutabaga, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, and Yorkshire pudding. Everything was delish!

Len licked his plate clean (so did I!).

We also celebrated Quinn's 7th birthday. So not only did we have scrumptious pumpkin and apple pies with dreamy whipped cream for dessert, but we also had black forest cake a la mode.

We've been debating on when we'll give Teague his first haircut, but I guess this picture proves he is ready!

Gavin has the same do! Ha ha! Actually, it's Tori's wig from when she had cancer. It's a tradition for all the boys in the fam to get their picture taken in it. I am honored that our boys joined the tradition!

The kids were playing in the dress-up clothes, so Kaleb just added the wig to his clown ensemble.

I laughed SO hard when Len tried it on. From across the room, he looked just like another boy I knew back in high school...

Molly much prefers Teague with short hair. Aren't they a cute couple?

We finally painted our bedroom. We decided to do all of the walls aqua. Instead of Behr's 500 C-3 Spa, we chose the C-2 Aqua Pura. It's hard to capture the color on film (ha ha!), but we are both happy with it.

Kaleb has been busy with Cub Scouts. He's been sprouting beans, growing crystals, planting garlic, hiking, and visiting a bird hospital. He'll earn several badges next week and is so thrilled. He also did really well with his school's Cross Country program. He came in 3rd place for the 3rd grade boys race at his school, which qualified him to run in the 12 school track meet. Out of 120 boys in his race he came in at 62. He was happy with his placement and I am so proud of him and all of the practicing he did for it all on his own. Way to go Kaleb!

Noe's been busy too with Activity days, Jazz dance, and making artwork. The kids made these cute spiders and webs at school. Noe missed qualifying for the track meet by one place. She was really bummed about it. Her teacher told me she would have made it if she had ran solo, but she held back to run with her best friend. Even though I was sad because she was that she didn't make it, I'm glad she has more of a compassionate heart instead of a competitive one. Way to go Noe!

The cute play group #2. Our weekly get-togethers with the Martin's are so natural with this group, that I forget that the original group was their 4 older siblings. Gavin's been working harder on potty training (well, he's been letting mommy and daddy work harder at it with him!). He finally p#%ped on the toilet this week and got to eat his chocolate bar that's been in the fridge all month for him. Unfortunately, this morning he didn't want to repeat his previous success. I think this kid may go to Kindergarten next year in Depends- ha ha!

These two are partners in crime, but the little one is the instigator! As soon as my back's turned he's getting into some kind of trouble, then Gavin will rush over to join in. For this activity, he pulled a chair (that's bigger than him) over to the kitchen sink, then proceeded to throw dirty dishes out of the sink onto the floor. Luckily, I caught the glass before it smashed to the floor!

Our little babe is 18 months old now! He is such a tiny guy though. He is still in size 3 diapers and I have to roll the waist of his 12 month pants because his waist is too skinny and his legs are too short. My other babies were wearing size 24 months by now. He is the BEST baby dancer I have ever seen and gets his whole body into it- feet, knees, hips, shoulders, hands, head- it is so hilarious and precious to watch! He's a thumb sucker, always with his right thumb, then his left hand fiddles with his right shirt sleeve. He has the sweetest laugh and the most beautiful smile. I sure love this kid, but we do need to give him his first haircut. Why do they have to grow up so fast?

On to Halloween!

And the winner is...

Frosty! No, no, no it's Michelle!!! I let the roll of the dice choose the winner and I'm excited to send a little Canadian snow to sunny California. Michelle just e-mail me (reil.fun@gmail.com) your mailing address and I will pop your prize in the mail.


So, Saturday we went out shopping to get the final details for our costumes for Halloween and to get a fun Christmas decoration for my giveaway. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of options yet. I couldn't find ANY decorations that wouldn't get broken in the mail or that didn't weigh a ton and would cost a fortune to mail. I did find a cute little snowman cake mold and my kids loved it, so I thought it would be the winner.


Thanks to all who participated and Congrats Michelle!

3rd Anniversary Giveaway

Saturday was my 3rd anniversary to blogging. Whoosh! Time sure flies when you're having fun! I thought it would be fun to do a Halloween giveaway, but then I thought time might be too short for that. And with Canadian and American Thanksgivings being a month apart, that's out too. So, I will give away a cute little Christmas decoration to celebrate being 3. Leave me a comment to enter and I will choose the winner next Monday the 25th (2 months before Christmas!) Let the games begin!

Seeing Red

The fall leaves have been putting on a spectacular fashion show in their yellows, oranges, and reds so we had to go out for our annual photo shoot amongst them.


Instead of our traditional walk we went to the park instead. The kids loved running around in the open field and Len & I soaked up the autumnal beauty.


I put the kids in their red sweaters and thought we could try to capture our Christmas card photo for the year. After 20 tries we finally got a keeper, but all we need is 1 right? I'm not posting it on here though, you'll have to wait and be surprised at Christmas. That reminds me, I'm updating my address book again, so if you'd like a Christmas card e-mail me your address (reil.fun@gmail.com). I love sending Christmas cards each year, but I also love receiving them (hint hint!)

I also saw red because I pretty much despise my current camera and got frustrated more than once during our little shoot. I'm dreaming that Santa will bring me a REAL camera for Christmas and a snazzy 18-200mm IS lens. Unfortunately, I know it's out of his budget! Oh well, I can still dream!

Vote!

I mailed my absentee ballot in this morning. For my fellow ex-pat Americans, I recommend Overseas Vote Foundation to register and to get your ballots. For my fellow Americans still living in the land that I love, make sure you're registered too and get out and vote on November 2nd!!

Pale September

September whizzed by in a blur. Here's a few of the things that kept us busy:


Pioneer Corn Roast


Man's Camp


Primary Presentation- my favorite Sunday of the year. My heart beamed as I watched Kaleb, Noe, AND Gavin give their parts. "I know that my Savior loves me!"

Kaleb is SO excited to be a Wolf Cub!

Noe's found a new favorite spot to read- on the stairs under the window.

Gavin loves his Jolly Phonics class each week. Spider starts with "S".

Teague is a little monkey who loves to jump on the bed!

I found Charlotte's Web- so beautiful!

We've had SO MUCH rain that our front lawn sprouted a mushroom forest. I didn't find any Smurfs though- darn!

School Picture day.

How are these two in third grade already?

We finally finished shooting for our Stake Film Festival. We have 3 music videos that rock! "Elder" set to Beyonce's "Halo," "We Are Mormon Girls" set to Katy Perry's "California Gurls," and "I Had A Vision" set to the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling." Can't wait to see the finished movie!

*This month we also worked on getting our basement organized once and for all and I finally finished unpacking our last 10 boxes. Now this weekend we're hoping to get our bedroom painted. There's never a dull moment around here- geesh!