November moments

Amid all of the structured activities, here are some moments during November that made me pause and appreciate my life.

A sunrise that took my breath away.

Daxton actually stopping to play with a friend on the walk home from school.  

Having a very random night to ourselves where we ate chicken wings at the park.

Cuddle attack on the couch.

McKenzie's room is going through a teenager transformation and it's looking great so far.

Binge watching Netflix with the girls.

Trying to lure back the squirrels to our backyard.  They've been missing and the kids want their friendly faces back.

Moki knows that it he waits long enough, Jeremy will likely toss him a piece of his lunch...or breakfast...or snack...or dinner.

Making decisions can be hard!  Cambrie was trying to decide if she should register for an HXP humanitarian trip next summer or not.  This is how it was going.

Taxi dog in cat mode.

Bouldering Comps

Kelton has made the climbing team at our local rock climbing gym.  Right now it's bouldering season and he has absolutely loved every minute of it.  He has had three comps so far this season.  There's been a bit of a learning curve as we figure out how to climb strategically and what the comps entail.  When he tops a route he is so ecstatic.  When he falls he doesn't let it get him down and he'll keep going back as many times as they'll let him.  

He is so in his element, it is awesome watching him do what he loves.

Cello recital

Cambrie is still loving playing the cello.  She loves her teacher.  She loves how playing calms her.  She has yet to love recitals.  They still make her nervous but she did so well this last time!  

She stayed calm, her hands didn't shake, and she smiled when she was done.  I love hearing her play.

Halloween

This is Halloween!  Between our skeleton shirt and the boys' costumes this year, I rarely saw them in normal clothes this whole week.  I love that.  (Too soon they'll be too cool to dress up in costumes all the time.)   

The weather warmed up a little from the bitter weekend, but it was still going to be a chilly night.  We were home base for McKenzie and her friends, but we needed to grab Cambrie before she disappeared into the night.  No theme this year, just fun!  Cambrie was a ghost, Kelton was his skeleton ninja with mask, Daxton was an alien astronaut (just to keep things interesting), Moki was a lion and McKenzie went full spooky mode as an escaped pysch ward patient.  

She, Shaila and Hannah lookied absolutely terrifying.  Seriously I had a hard time looking at them.  Apparently they stayed in character when knocking on doors and scared more than one kind candy giver.  

Jeremy took out the boys while I stayed and passed out candy.  He said they had so much more stamina than the friends they met up with.  Their bag came home totally stuffed.  It was a quiet night for trick-or-treaters so Moki and I ended up with a bunch of leftover candy.  I hope it was the action-packed weekend and not a sign that our neighborhood is growing up.  That would be so sad! But I will take any princess, pirate, super hero, or movie character that comes knocking, even the big kids who scare me a little.  

Happy Halloween!

Behold the Pumpkins

Our favorite pumpkin patch was closed this season so we had to change our pumpkin plans a bit.  We found a convenient patch...right in front of the grocery store.  The kids still took just as long choosing their perfect pumpkin but we simply didn't have to walk as far to find them.  

We are to the point where our kids are almost on their own carving.  The girls need no help.  Kelton needs minimal assistance, and Daxton simply needs help with the more difficult carving maneuvers.  So this year we ended up with six perfectly carved pumpkins for our porch.  

Behold!

Trunk or Treating

We had THREE opportunities to go trunk-or-treating before Halloween this year.  Normally I don't pay much attention to the school events since the church event and actual trick-or-treating is so successful.  But this year I decided to say yes and we went to check them out.  The first night we went to Meridian.  The boys have been looking forward to any excuse to wear their costumes and this way they could show them off to their school friends.  Daxton went as an astronaut and Kelton went as a skeleton ninja.  

We had to wait in line with all the other excited kids, but that gave us a chance to meet up with Reece and we went around with us.

Look at all this candy!

The next night Legacy had their trick-or-treat street and haunted house.  Cambrie plays eerie music with the orchestra while she's there so it's fun to see her.  Kelton really just wanted to experience the haunted house.  Last year I was impressed by how spooky it actually was.  Daxton didn't want to endure that again so just Kelton and I went this year.  They do a very good job.

From there we picked up the Mowers and headed straight to the ward trunk-or-treat.  McKenzie's real Halloween costume is a little too spooky for a church event so she came up with a special one for the night-Cambrie.  She raided Cambrie's closet, covered her arms in paint and even wore her glasses.  More than one ward member mistook her for Cambrie that night.  

The boys ran around all night with their friends while I visited and ate dinner.  I decided to actually put some effort into my chili this year to see if I could win the chili cook-off.  I won the spicy category!  Honestly I was pretty happy with that.  In true Colorado form it decided to get really cold and snow while we were eating, so we had the trunk-or-treat inside.  The kids made their loops as usual and had full bags by the end of the night.  I love seeing the candy exchange when it's all over.  I am fascinated by the current candy currency exchange and what these kids think is worth trading for.  

Tonight's Rogers crew.

Leaf gathering

We have cleaned up the leaves in the yard three times now-they just keep falling!  At this point we may just leave whatever leaves are there to deal with next spring.  Jeremy did the bulk of the work but the kids stepped in one afternoon to finish up. 

 I think they finished up in style, what do you think?