Happy Thanksgiving!

After a warm and mild fall we had our first big snowstorm. So the kids started the day by shoveling and playing in the new snow.

It was my very first time to host Thanksgiving. We had our feast a little later than the norm because we wanted to give the Millers enough time to join us, which was actually really nice. We grazed on some yummy appetizers, and I had all day to cook our dinner.

For the first time since we bought it, we used the extra leaf for our table. It was fun to have such a big group all sit together at one table.

It was a fun Thanksgiving, and a great day to remember all of the countless things we are blessed with.

Mom's Getaway

It was nice of Justin to take a couple of days off from work and take care of the kids so I could get away for some quality "sister time". He was even OK with keeping London, but I knew he and the older three would have more fun if I took her with me, so London and I took the trip out to Bloomington, Indiana to visit my sister and her cute family.

We spent our time eating yummy food, crocheting, shopping, and talking, talking, talking. My mom even flew out for part of the time.

It was so fun to get these two cousins together. Norah and London are only 3 months apart. But you wouldn't know that London was the younger one by the looks of those chubby cheeks:

On one of the days, we went to a quaint little town called Nashville (not to be confused with the one in Tennessee). It was fun to walk around and look in all of the cute little shops and sample some tasty treats.

London was such a good baby the whole time

Some pictures of Nashville:

This cute little shop had the yummiest fried biscuits with Home-made apple butter:

Delicious!

Lillian and Blake live in Bloomington because he is going to graduate school at IU. They have an excellent music program there. It is a fun college town, and surprisingly pretty ethnically diverse. They took us to an awesome Indian restaurant there, and it rivaled some of the best curries I've ever had:

On one of the days we also went to a farmer's market by their home. The weather was amazing-- in the low 70s-- and so their growing season is a lot longer than ours. Lillian and my mom made a fabulous Sunday Dinner with their findings:

It was so fun to hang out with my sister for a few days. You just can't beat a girl's weekend that involves good food and late night chats.

Prepare to be blown away...

I always get really excited for SEP conferences because it is awesome to watch Brighton converse with his Chinese teacher. The first time Justin and I went, we were speechless. I even teared up a little. We had our first conference for this school year last week, and it did not disappoint.

I wish I could have posted a longer video, but it was too big to upload... so here's a short clip of Brighton reading to us in Chinese.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Chinese Immersion Program?

Cause you gotta have friends

Justin had to go out of town for work so I decided to take Brighton to the RSL playoff game, and I let him invite a special friend to come along. It wasn't the greatest game... they only tied which put them out of the playoffs and ended their season, but I was loving watching these boys enjoy being there so much.

Speaking of friends, I haven't had a chance to post these fun pictures from a pumpkin patch outing we had just before Halloween. I love these pictures of Chelsea with "her bestest friend in the whole wide world" (her words). And I have to admit, he is one cute kid. Thanks for the awesome pics, Wende.

It makes me happy that our house seems to be a popular gathering place because I get such a kick out of watching my kids interact with their friends.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2010

Go Giants!

Justin has always been a HUGE SF Giants fan, which means that now we are all Giants fans. This year they made it to the World Series, which is pretty exciting stuff. Since that happens so rarely, I told Justin he should try to make it out there for a game or two if he can.

Tim Lincecum-- Brighton's favorite Giants player

While Justin spent Wednesday and Thursday nights here:

AT&T Park in San Francisco

The kids and I had a "picnic" in the playroom and watched the games from home:

The girls even watched pretty intently, with hopes that they would catch a glimpse of their Dad on TV...

He brought home some cool Giants stuff:

And I was the most excited about this:

The first two games were amazing, and we hope they keep up their winning streak!

Primary Presentation 2010

Yesterday we had our Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. All of the kids did a fabulous job, but of course I was especially proud of Brighton and Chelsea. It was sad when we realized that Siena was under the assumption that she would be part of the program, too. And who can blame her? She learned all the songs along with her big brother and sister. Next year, Siena :)

And here are Brighton and Chelsea's talks, and Siena singing one of the songs:

All of the Primary kids drew pictures for the program covers, and here was Brighton's:

I love that he drew the Holy Ghost like a spirit

My New Hobby

About a month ago my friend Stacie taught me how to make crocheted flowers. It has been a fun and inexpensive hobby, and I can make one in about 15 minutes while I watch TV. My kind of project. Lately I've expanded my repertoire to include headbands and other styles of flowers, too. Very useful when you have three girls :)

Brighton's 7-year-old Pictures

There is no school today, so I got Brighton dressed bright and early to go and take some pictures of him. As I was driving around I found the coolest old barn that I thought would be great to take pictures in front of, but when I saw the "No Trespassing" sign I chickened out. So we went to our old stand-by on Main Street. Love this old building.

I probably should have taken these before Sunday when he lost his front tooth, but I guess that's part of his 7-year-old charm.

My, how he has grown in a year: