November is half way over! Here’s our story so far this month… (i may have a pic for everyday – that’s the way I roll with my cell phone now)

Raymond learned how to clap on November 1st! I had never thought to try it and hadn’t busted out patty cake in a while so it was fun to see him so excited. The kids thought it was amazing that little Ray Ray could really clap:

love the excitement!

The 2nd was cousins night at our house. The kids played in the leaves:

I love Lily jumping in this pic

Ellie is super cute.

Tin Tin and Rosie are good friends.

Saturday the 3rd was my RS Super Saturday. It was also a perfect november park day:

Mia, Benji, Alessandro, Packer, and Cali… they all felt a little sick afterwards.

the 4th:

lookin handsome in their suits.

November 5th:

Ray got his first bloody lip from climbing on the rocking chair.

November 6th:

Packer got the Walmart add and had me write his Christmas List for Santa! He seems to think that HE WILL be getting everything on the list.. hmmm… sorry buddy. Excitement is in the air already at our house!!

Wednesday November 7th:

love when babies grab their toes

Thursday the 8th Ben and I snuck out for a date night. Joel wrestled all 5 kids for us – pretty amazing for a single white guy 🙂 We went with Michelle and Udine to the Real Soccer Game: Real Salt Lake vs Seattle Sounders. FUN.

November 9th was our first snow day. It snowed most of the afternoon and some more in the evening. We didn’t get a ton but enough for the kids to play in and a week later it is still here – it’s been a COLD week.

Packer and Cali loving the white stuff. They couldn’t stop eating it.

And sometimes (I’ll blame this time on the snow) sometimes mom gets to relax and play computer while watching netflix and wrestling the baby.

I am going to post this half of the first half of November because it is getting long and it is getting late so I can at least be halfway caught up…

what to do with lots of pictures – make lots of picture collages 🙂

Cali LOVES my phone. She loves to play games on it and she LOVES to use the camera on it. She takes lots of self portraits and some good ones of her little friends. Once in a while I will find fun random pictures from her point of view and this last week she was showing Packer the joys of taking your own picture.

Fall is in the air. It’s cool and beautiful and exciting. The kids were so excited for October 1st and the Fall festivities. We are planning our Great Pumpkin Party for the last Friday night of the month – Be Here.

We have tried on lots of costumes! We went through our box and the girls went through a box at their cousins house. Dress up is so much fun!

My brothers and their people come over most Sundays. I love that they live close enough to do that and we all look forward to that time together. I just love the picture of Ray raising his hand – cute. And Ben had the boys sporting Mozy Head Bands most of the night.

That night we got to celebrate Taylee’s 12th birthday! She is so fun and smart and pretty and I love that she takes time to play with my kids even though she is older. And yes, she talked on purpose so that everyone could eat their cake under the table with her.

Rose is getting so big. She is communicating a lot. She has a fun and feisty personality. She decided to pose for some pics on Sunday so here she is with her hair combed – the bow lasted almost an hour this time! unfortunately she was ready for church 2 hours before so no one got to see her cuteness.

One of the reasons the kids get excited for October is for the Caramel Apples. Ben is Mr. Tradition and Mr. Fun so the kids really look forward to fun traditions with their dad. We rolled them in butterfinger, andes mints and heath chips.

I play soccer on a women’s indoor team and the games are usually on Friday nights. I love that I get to play on this team but it does mean that our Friday nights are hard to schedule. This past Friday we decided to head up the canyon with the kids for a quick picnic. We had just enough time to eat our dinner and go on a short hike. Then I hurried everyone along so I wouldn’t be late to my 7:40 soccer game 🙂 The kids loved it. Packer proclaimed many times how awesome nature is! They all just enjoyed being out and with the family. They collected leaves, sticks, rocks, and anything else that looked cool. We should definitely go more often… maybe if we just bought the season pass for the canyon we’d go more, or maybe not…

I ran to my soccer game and let my amazing husband finish out the evening and put the kids to bed. After the game I got to go out for shakes and fries with the girls and pretend I was young again. Very fun. Soccer is in full swing so we did that from 8 to 1 on Saturday and then I was exhausted so we had a lazy afternoon before taking the kids to cousins night. Ben and I shopped and went out to dinner that evening. Then on Sunday we got to go to the stake center for the Brigham City Temple Dedication! It was neat to take part in the dedication and to do something out of the ordinary. Then we spent the afternoon with my brothers. Ryan has mastered my moms chicken noodle soup and I won the rook game so it was a good way to spend the day. In the evening we celebrated birthdays with the Nettesheim’s. We had tons of dessert and lots of discussion. We came home a little warn out which is a sign of a fun weekend. Today the kids get out of school early and the Packers play tonight so the fun continues.

This was Cali’s response to the big hole in the ground toilet. She was definitely not risking sitting on that thing and falling in! (good thing she’s wearing diapers so it didn’t matter.)

Football season has started! No, none of us actually play, we just really enjoy watching the NFL and College Football. This year we had to re-order our cable TV so that we could see the games – it is that important 🙂 The Hancock’s came and stayed with us for a few days at the end of August for the BYU home opener. SO fun. The BYU win and the Visitors. They are the biggest BYU fans I know.  The only pictures I took of their visit were at the splash pad. We went on a school day morning so noone was there and the kids loved having the place to themselves.

Rose

Claira, Cali

Gentry

Packer, Benji, Camry

Pacen

On Thursday we had Michelle and Pete’s families and Ben’s parents come over to watch the Packers beat up on the Bears. It’s fun to have something that we are all passionate about and can enjoy watching together.

Rose, Ben, Cali, Ray

Ray, Packer, Cali