Christmas Fun

We are enjoying the holiday season together. We've done some fun things as a family. I love it. Paul's sister Nicole made us this traditional West family advent calendar. Paul grew up doing this each Christmas and he loves it. It's so fun to do with Susie every day. She picks a piece from the bag and puts it up with Dad's help (he knows where they all go :) ). 

Santa came to our ward Christmas party and we were so excited to see what Susie would do. I was sure she would cry. But... he was handing out candy which Susie can not pass up. She keep her little eye on him the whole time but tolerated it for the candy. No tears, or smiles for that matter. She sat on Santa's lap, got her candy, and was done. 

 sneaking away..

 He had to wave the candy in front of her to make her look at the camera! Ha! 

Me singing with the YW at the Christmas party. 

We also  went to see the Mesa temple lights. They have hundreds of different nativities from all over the world in the visitor center and it was really neat checking those out. The lights were beautiful! 

Tonight we made a triple batch of Christmas sugar cookies. Susie ate way to much dough (whoops). She loved helping. It was a fun Sunday, spending time together as a family. 

Thanksgiving Holiday

We have been really excited to spend Thanksgiving on the east coast with Paul's family. We flew standby (which went surprisingly well) into Baltimore and spent the weekend first with Jonathon's family. While we were in the DC area we decided to see a few sites. We went to the National Archives and the Natural History Museum (my favorite!). 

Paul trying to keep Susie entertained. She enjoyed covering him with stickers while we were on a train to DC. 

At the archives we saw the Magna Carter (one of the few copies left that is), the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and a few others. It was so cool.

Susie actually touched this Madagascar hissing cockroach! 

On the metro! 

Susie was exhausted! 

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We spent the rest of the week in Duck, North Carolina. We rented a HUGE beach house right by the ocean. We had amazing meals everyday, pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, ribs for dinner, and we all chipped in to help with the big Thanksgiving Day meal. We had fun at the beach even though it was a little cold. Susie says "ocean" so well now! We watched movies and talked and relaxed. The outer banks in North Carolina is so beautiful! It was great spending time with everyone, we had so much fun. 

Susie seeing the ocean for the first time!

She loved it.

A few of us ran a 10K on Thanksgiving morning. A lot of people showed up and it was really fun.

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We were sad to leave but it was nice to be home in our own beds. We got busy right away with holiday decorations. We decided to buy our first fake tree (blasphemy in my family). We listened to Christmas music and had a great day together. 

 

Happy Christmas season everyone! 

Dear November

Dear November, I'm so happy you are here. I've been waiting for you since June. Welcome. Welcome cooler weather, welcome other half of my wardrobe, welcome fun holiday season, welcome six months of perfect weather everyday! 

 

On Halloween we went to our ward's Trunk or Treat. We decorated our truck with a giant spider and his web. Susie and I were both witches. It was a lot of fun. Susie loves collecting free candy! 

On Halloween I let the preschool kids dress up in their costumes. Braxton let Susie wear his Spiderman hat. I thought she looked so cute! Whatever the big kids do, Susie wants to, too! 

Happy dancing girl! 

 Mommy and Susie 

 Susie chowing down on peanut butter. 

Lunch time!  

On our way to church. I thought Susie looked so cute with her hair do and cute tights and dress. She just melts my heart! She doesn't really like me to fix her hair. I have to get her hair completely wet in order to do anything with it. She refuses to have any part in it unless she is watching Curious George or unless I give her a sucker. Silly girl. She is getting to be such a big girl.  

Halloween Fun!

These are dollar store fun glasses. Susie loves them! 

 We are on our way to Midwestern's Halloween Bash. 

Susie looked oh so cute! 

So did this little Robin Hood. I was so glad Sam could come with us! 

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Susie's first trick or treating experience 

(so priceless!) 

"cool lights!" she thinks 

"Uh Dad I'm not so sure about this...."

"You want me to take your candy?"

"Ok this might be fun..."

"I can stash it in this cute bag?..."

10 minutes later--- She's got the system DOWN! 

"Move out of the way---"

"No time to waste." 

"Hurry up Mom, the candy is waiting."

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 We also threw a Halloween party and had some young couples in our ward over. It was a lot of fun! 

Witch fingers, cornbread and chili, little pumpkin pies, mummy dogs, Mm. And Bethany brought a beautiful Halloween cake (not pictured!).

 We played some fun games. One of them was called Tempt your Fate. You had to toss an coin in a bowl and if you missed you had to "Tempt your Fate" and draw a slip of paper. Some of the slips demanded embarrassing performances like "get on all fours and howl at the moon," or "make up a Halloween rap in 10 minutes and perform." Others just asked them to tell us about Halloween memories and such. It was pretty hilarious. PS Phil Larson can't rap...

For this game you had to stick your hand into a bag of goat intestines, vampire teeth, rat droppings, pig eyeballs, and monkey brain and guess what it REALLY was (spaghetti, candy corn, chilled canned corn, peeled grapes, and play-dough).

We have our ward Trunk or Treat tomorrow and I'm excited to see Susie in her little witch costume again. Our ward throws great parties. Then it's goodbye to October!