Our Last Day in NC

The last day we were in NC was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Tom's mom talked me into making the donut recipe we made growing up. We spent the afternoon in the kitchen, making dough, rolling it out and cutting out doughnuts. Then cooking them up and making glaze and frosting. Everyone came to see us and say goodbye....and eat doughnuts. They were about the best tasting doughnuts I've ever had. Jane made this buttermilk glaze and I made some chocolate frosting. MMMMM! I think I am still working off those 6 or 7 doughnuts I ate that night. At any rate, I took enough of a break from our work in the kitchen to snap some "candid" pictures of everyone. There are a lot of pictures because I couldn't decide which I liked most so I put them all. Thanks for the great trip everyone! We miss you!

Sefa, Tom and Elizabeth

Tua, Jane, and Pelu wait for the fun to begin.

PopPop relaxes in his recliner.

Amberly has Uncle Greg wrapped around her little finger. It seems she is always able to finagle a shoulder ride out of one of her Uncles.

Rachael and Tom entertain the little ones.

Nate, Callie and Tua...Hmmm....what's this about?

Sweet, cute Liam!

Are we done cooking yet?...No the fun has just begun!
(Mom and Jane)

Wesley...look at all those doughnuts!! (The recipe makes 10 dozen)

Beautiful Caylyn!

Pelu and Liam pose for the camera.

Jocelyn and Reili have fun with the I-phone.

Amberly hanging out with Callie and Ashley.

Connor loves baby Elizabeth!

The two Janes.

Amberly's picture of Jocelyn enjoying a donut. I let Amberly take some pictures.

Beautiful Aunt Amy (captured by Amberly)!

Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving this year, we finally took a trip out to North Carolina to visit the Schell Family. It had been 2 1/2 years since we'd been there, so it was nice (except for the drive) to go back for a short visit. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins and getting reacquainted with them. We miss having family around.

The morning before Thanksgiving the kids enjoyed raking the leaves in Gamma and PopPop's yard and jumping in them. We don't have enough trees in our yard to make it worth raking.

Rolling the ball down the ramp was Wesley's fun that morning.

Uncle Nate just loves babies (as do all Tom's brothers).

After the big meal, the cousins all enjoyed jumping on Amy and Nate's trampoline.

Amberly patiently (sort of) waited for her turn.

Wes, what is up with the broom?

Elizabeth was quite cranky on our trip. I think she was suffering some separation anxiety. I couldn't get her to smile, but I wanted a picture of her with Aunt Jane.

Amberly loved riding on all her Uncles' shoulders. Here she is with Uncle Sam.

Sweet Ellie - at 10 months!

I keep forgetting to take pictures of Ellie at her exact monthly dates, but these are some cute pictures of her around the beginning of November while my parents were visiting. She turned 10 months while they were here.

She was enjoying cruising along the furniture at that point.

Still crawling on all fours most of the time.

We just love her to pieces and are glad she's in our family. The kids still fight over her.

Veterans Day

In November, my parents (who recently finished their mission) were able to drive out and visit us. It was so wonderful to have them here. They got here just in time for a Veterans Day program put on by all the third graders at Reili's school. Since Tom was off that day too, we all went together.

All ready to perform!

Elizabeth all excited for the program (can you tell).

The two Veterans, Wesley, and Grandma.

How we entertained Wesley before the program started...by taking some pictures of his great faces. A camera is always provides loads of entertainment for our kids.

Raaaaar!

Rrrrrrrr!

Daddy and Daughter after the performance. Thanks Dad and Grandpa for all you've done!

A short rest from all the noise of 4 kids, watching the BYU game.

All about October

October started and ended with a race of sorts. I ran another Half Marathon with two friends of mine, Hannah and Kari. We ran the Roots n' Blues n' BBQ Half in Columbia, MO on October 2. Kari drove out from West Virginia for the week and stayed at our place. It was super fun to have her here. This was Hannah's first half and it was so awesome to be able to train with her and run it together. It is always such an emotional moment to finish a race. Kari PRed and was able to catch our picture at the end since she finished first.

I just love the looks on our faces here. 13.1 miles done!

Way to go girls!

I just thought this was such a cute, everyday shot of Wes and Ellie. He still wants to hold her at least once a day even though she is almost as big as he is. She is 9 months now and into everything she can get her hands on, and it usually goes in her mouth!

The month ended with the "race" of Halloween. I admitted to some of my friends here that I am the Halloween Grinch. It would be so nice to be a makeup artist or costume designer at this time of year and actually love getting the costumes put together and the make up on the kids. Unfortunately, I detest that part. Then to top that off "doling" out all the candy so your kids aren't on an endless sugar high (or low) isn't my cup of tea either. So I would be up for skipping Halloween every year, but the kids love it. I try to humor them and not be a real "witch" on Halloween. It doesn't always work out that way. I am always at least the "mean mom". Since Halloween was on Sunday this year, we just counted Halloween as Friday when the kids dressed up for school and we had Trunk or Treat at the church that night. It was great to get it over with early.

Our resident Vampire. YIKES!

A cute "vampire" bat.

The witch....I mean Wizard!

All the kids (including our neighbors Princess Leah (Brooke) and MU Chearleader (Maggie)) right before we left for Trunk or Treat.

Ellie wasn't too excited to get a picture in her costume...this was the best I could do. (Try to block out the baskets of clean laundry in the background). What a cute Little Bee though!

The Wizard plays the bean bag toss at the carnival before Trunk or Treat.

A Halloween kiss for Little Bee! (She gets all the kisses around here.)

The weather has finally turned cool here and I got out the winter clothes and put the summer ones away (a chore I rather dislike (sorry about all the negativity in this post). I thought all the kids looked so cute in their church finery that I had to take a picture on Halloween right before we got in the van to head for church.

Peace out!