Elf on the Shelf

One of Jared's coworkers told me about the Elf on the Shelf at last year's Christmas party.  I asked Santa to send us one.  He arrived about a week before Thanksgiving.  Our elf's name is Peter, and it is his job to watch Luke and Micah and report back to Santa each night to let Santa know if they have been naughty or nice.  Hopefully Santa will be pretty forgiving because Peter has seen a lot of interesting things and been privy to some interesting conversations such as, "Micah, I've told you time and again.  YOU CAN'T PEE IN THE DRAIN OUTSIDE!  YOU NEED TO COME INSIDE AND USE THE TOILET!"  One time Luke was doing something he's not supposed to and I told him, "Peter can see you!"  Luke just replied, "No he can't.  He's looking the other way."  It's true.  He was looking the other way.  So even though the motivation might not be all it could be, it's still fun to find Peter each morning.  And the conversations about Peter have been very fun.  Luke wants to know how he moves around and how he gets out of the house and how he comes back in.  What does Peter eat?  What does Peter do while we're gone?  Etc, etc, etc.  So if you don't have an elf and your kids are old enough to get it, then get one.  Pretty fun!

Missing Top Teeth

Sometime in November Luke lost his first top tooth.  He is scared to wiggle his teeth, so they will be loose for months before they finally just drop out.  It happened while he was home sick.  Luke is wearing his backpack, not because he is coming home from school, but because his new backpack arrived in the mail.  With his birthday money from Mima and Papa, he got a Lightning McQueen backpack, and with his birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma he got a matching lunchbox.  His old backpack ripped, so we actually ordered his new one a couple weeks before his birthday.

Looks pretty different, huh?

Family Trip to Blessington Farms

My friend Carrie introduced the boys and I to Blessington Farms last spring break.  The boys had asked to go back several times.  Finally, the first weekend in November, we made it back.  And Dad got to come too!

Blessington Farms is a working farm that is also an outside play land.  The boys (all of them!) loved the big slides.

Luke's favorite thing was the pedal cars.  He kept wanting to go back.  When we went over spring break, Micah wasn't big enough to reach any of the pedals, but this time he was tall enough to reach them on the smallest cars.

Micah wanted to ride the barrel train, but he also didn't want to wait in line.  There was 1 empty barrel, so I put him in with a stranger.  Good thing he didn't care.

While Micah jumped on some hay bales, Luke pulled Jared around in this wagon.  Pretty tough!

We also had a picnic by the pond, went on the hay ride, visited the barn, and dug in the sand mountain. I just didn't get pictures of those things.  It was a very fun day!

Galveston

In the first part of October, Jared loaded us all up on Saturday and took us on a trip to the beach.  Galveston is not the best beach, but it is pretty close and we had lots of fun.  We went to Galveston Island State park which has the still side and the wave side just on opposite sides of the road.  We didn't know that at first and started on the still side.  This turned out to be super nice because it was great for wading and there was a lot of empty beach.  

Even the dogs did some wading.  Phoenix liked the water, but Griffin hated it.

We tossed Cheetos to the seagulls and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to dig in the sand.  But we had a great time.  

Then we drove to the other side and saw the waves.  The boys had SOOOOO much fun jumping in the waves.  I sat on the beach with the dogs and watched my boys play around.  It was perfect!  The only thing that would have made it better was if I had taken pictures :)

Best Friends

A Frozen Halloween

I know pretty much every little girl under the age of 10 wanted to be Anna or Elsa for Halloween.  I was a bit surprised when my boys announced they also wanted to be characters from the movie Frozen.  Micah was Hans the bad guy.  Mima (my mom) made his outfit as it was impossible to find a store-bought costume.  I'm glad he has a grandmother with sewing talent.  His outfit turned out adorable.  He tried it on at Michael's house and made Libby Rae put on her Elsa dress.

He built a sword out of legos and spent the afternoon pretending to attack Elsa over and over again.  Luckily Mima or I took turns being Elsa, so Libby was safe.  She actually built her own sword and did some pretty good attacking herself.

On Sunday before Halloween we carved our pumpkin.

This is at the ward Halloween party.  They posed with friends who went as (surprise!) Elsa and Anna.

Playing ball at the party

This is from Micah's Halloween parade at school.  

He was the ONLY Hans.

On Halloween night we had dinner at Michael and Cara's with some friends.  Then we all went trick-or-treating together.

Grandma Debbi joined us for trick or treating.  So fun!

Libby Rae refused to let anyone carry her bucket until the VERY end of the night.  It finally became too heavy for her to handle any more, but she was a trooper til the end.

Violin

I think Luke first saw a violin in church.  Someone played during sacrament meeting.  He was fascinated, and he asked a lot of questions about the violin.  Then we visited Megan (my sister) and Luke learned that his cousins, Taylie and Brenna, played the violin.  He got to see one up close.  And then he started asking to play the violin.  He was about 4 years old.  We originally told him that he could start violin lessons when he started Kindergarten.  But then Kinder was such an adjustment that we waited until this year.  Luke is in first grade.  

It was a little bit tricky to find a teacher.  I couldn't find anyone through church here in Katy.  I asked Mom if she knew anyone who taught lessons, and she told me that Sister Reyes from Bear Creek Ward (my ward growing up) played.  If she didn't teach lessons herself, she'd know someone who did.  So I called, and she teaches.  Luke started the first week of school.  Luke LOVES his lessons, and he practices on his own --without reminders from me!-- almost every day.  When he first started he just did plucking while he learned fingering.  He started using the bow a few weeks ago.  

The videos are out of order.  The bottom one should be first.  It was before he learned the bow.

Micah's Birthday

This year Micah wanted a Peppa Pig party.  Decorating ended up being very fun.  We put up some pictures and books.  I found these stuffed animals on Amazon for $5/ pair.  And then a friend brought us back a Peppa Pig magazine from England.  I cut out the pictures and hung them around the kitchen.

Table centerpiece

I loved his cake!  We ordered it from a lady whose business in called "Patty Cakes."  Grandma Debbi orders cakes from her often and can get a good deal, so she ordered it for me.

Micah was lucky to have many family members visit Europe this summer, so he got lots of Peppa Pig items that crossed a wide blue ocean to get to this little silly boy.

Peppa pig dolls

Peppa pig dough

And Kinder eggs!!!

I accidentally bought trick candles!

Playing with dough at the end of the night.

What a great party!!!