dancerinas.

the girls just had the cutest dance recital. they both love their dance classes! it's something so new to me, but i love to watch them work hard and enjoy doing something they love.

{a couple of pre-performance shots...they were soooo excited}

{my dancerinas after the show}

{and the cute dancers and the big guy}

family pics 2013.

a few weeks ago we headed out to try and get family pics done. the dreaded 2 hours of each year!! so much work and stressful, and such a relief when they're all done!!

elsie's face cracks me up in this one. she was not amused!

else {3}

mae mae {5}

conna-man {7}

willem {1}

deckin our halls.

we had fun the day after thanksgiving putting up the tree and decorating the house for christmas!!

will was a big fan of the train.

connor stopped building the train long enough to put up a few ornaments.

mabel helped set up the nativity that grandma jaxon made. 

it's a very treasured set.

and cute else was lucky enough to put the snowflake on top the tree.

happy thanksgivin.

i loved seeing signs on my mission that said, "happy thanksgivin!" warmed my heart! this year, we had a wonderful month of november with our "thank you for tree" and thanksgiving! each night as we sat at the dinner table, we'd take turns thinking of what we were thankful for that day. we've done this for 3 or 4 years now and it's one of our favorite thanksgiving traditions. this year we wrote them down on a paper circle and hung them from tree branches. thanksgiving day was filled with fun, lots of food and family. cory, mabel and connor ran a 1k turkey leg race. connor been excited about this for a month and mabel decided that morning that she wanted to do it too. i had planned to run with connor, but didn't feel well the night before, so cory took one for the team and ran with them. i was very proud of my turkey leg-ers!! then we headed off to packer's for our thanksgiving meal.

indian mabel and her turkey she painted.

indian elsie and her apple turkey.

elsie got to join connor at his 2nd grade feast. 

he requested i make chicken pot pies for it...

he was very excited about that part.

the whole crew about to dig in!

before shot.

after ~ so proud of you three!

turkey coma with anna.

cute little elsie's hand turkey.

where did november go?

i've found myself wondering where november went...well here's a few glimpses into what we were up to.

poor will had the croup.

making a special project for grandma's bday...an owl box.

helping anna move...and some playing too.

will's first bites of bday cake.

big boy.

playin in the leaves.

cute kids watching out for each other.

moving a tree to replace our old one that blew over in the wind.

and it's transplanted.

rocket launching.

will's favorite spot during sacrament.

connor's unfortunate broken thumb...poor kid had it broken for 10 days before we had it x-rayed...good news though, when you wait that long, the cast only has to be on for 3 weeks!! broke it in dance class at school!

connor's self portrait drawn with a cast on, pretty impressive!

he was able to play basketball & baseball with his cast, 

not much slows this boy down!

it's official. will is one!

wow. can't believe a year has flown by. my baby is one!! i keep thinking to myself, how did this happen?!? anyways, he's still as precious as can be. he is full of energy, always on the move and loves to play with connor and the girls. it's been a month already since his birthday and he's a walking machine. he walks everywhere and i love, love to see his little body walking about. he has 4 teeth. 2 on top and 2 on bottom. he loves, loves people food. loves to drink chalk. he makes the cutest dolphin sounds. we're pretty sure he's gonna be a talker. so far his word tally is, mom, dad, ball and hat.

our birthday boy willem.

failed monster cake...covered that baby in sprinkles...

playing with the loot. tubby toys, mr potato head, 

and his very own rc car! {connor was suuuuper excited about that one}

pizza for dinner. mabel's choice for will.

he loved his cake. we noticed that he is a very neat cake eater. 

ate lots of it, but didn't have a lot everywhere else. 

made for a quick cleanup though!!

love how he crosses his ankles when he eats.

happy birthday {a month ago} my sweet boy!

grandpa's pumpkin patch.

this year, like every year, the kids couldn't wait to go pumpkin hunting at grandpa's pumpkin patch! in the spring, all the grandkids help grandpa plant the seeds in the little trays. then, as the plants get bigger, they transplant them into the pumpkin garden. they check on them periodically during the summer to how much they've grown, but mostly to scope out the biggest ones. then comes the picking, hauling up to the house, washing, hauling to our house, and then finally selling them. it's been such a fun thing for the kids to do each year. a lot of work, but such a great experience for them. thanks to grandpa and grandma!!

before the "reeping"

just a few...we had more than 200 this year.

first of 2 trips up to the house. we used the suburban this year...

...don't know why we hadn't thought of using it before...

elsie found her perfect one.

the second trip up to the house.

the first day of selling. i never got a shot of all the pumpkins, 

but they had probably close to 100.

back at it for a second day.

third day...the pile slowly gets smaller.

the last day of selling they decided to drive around and drop a few of the pumpkins off on the porches of some of the older couples/widows in the neighborhood. such cute kiddos.

thanks for everyone who came by and supported the kids!!