November 2016

Our November wasn't terribly busy but it definitely disappeared quickly.  

Here are some of the fun things we did this month...

We enjoyed some pleasant weather and played at the park with our friends.

We did a fun kid craft at Home Depot - Matt painting a minion was my favorite part!

 Matt had to work way up north by my sister's house one week so he spent most of one night using his work truck to help scrub all the mold off the side of her house - looks much better!

Alissa had her Young Women in Excellence Night

Matt got a great shot from his work truck of the sunrise by Mt. Rainier.

I practiced my rodeo skills one night on the kids...they were willing participants!

We have our very own Jack-o-Lantern!

Matt got to work on a sign that is only a couple blocks from our house so I met him there to take him to lunch - check out what the sign says under the Jiffy Lube sign!

 I got this sweet picture of my brother Jarom's baby - what a dolly!

Alissa made the Principal's Award list for having a 4.0 so far this year - this is the group of kids that all hit that goal so far.  Way to go!

 These are twins that are in our ward that are working hard to keep their grades up too.

 The Kindergartners are doing a Gingerbread Man unit and had the homework task to turn a gingerbread man into something creative - Trevor loved what we came up with - I love that he added that awesome little curl!

We got to babysit the 2 cute kids of our new friends.  This little Mia girl makes the funniest faces!  I was trying to stack as many blocks as I could while she was trying to knock them down.

 We invited our friends over for some s'mores - cold enough to use our fireplace sometimes now!

The end of November brought THANKSGIVING!!  Our first one away from either side of our families.  

 Our first turkey too - I made Matt do the gross stuff!  HaHa!  It actually turned out quite delicious and Alissa even said it's the best turkey she's EVER had - so, there you go.

 We tried to pull together a big group of others who may not be able to be with their extended families for the holiday but it ended up being just us, our friends the Pauls and our upstairs neighbor guy.  We had it at our church so we could have plenty of room to play and enjoy the feast.

 We made our  neighbor carve the turkey  :) 

 And here is our yummy feast!

 After the feasting, the fun began.  I taught the kids how to play some baseball...

 And Matt taught the girls how to play some basketball...

 And any spectators got to watch the fun in comfort...

 I'm hoping this is the start of a new tradition - a Thanksgiving Pinata!  So fun.

 Matt had a great time keeping the pinata away from the older girls - very funny to watch.

 Later, we enjoyed the leftovers.  Carly had been so eager to have pumpkin pie.  she got a big slice and loaded it up with Cool Whip then bumped the plate wrong and it fell on the ground face down!

We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday.  SO many things to be thankful for - our lives are very blessed and we thank our Father in Heaven every day for our countless blessings.

To end the month of  November, I got called into Jury Duty yet again - this is like my 4th or 5th time being summoned (Matt has never been summoned) - I've only made it on to one other jury, though.  I also made it onto the jury this time!  It was a very easy case of a felon caught with a firearm but it took 3 days to get through the process and finally deliver the verdict of guilty.  It felt so odd to be stuck, literally, in a small jury room with 12 other people for 3 days then once the trial is over you go your separate ways and probably never see those people again!  On the way home one day, there was this gigantic mob of crows flying all around - I had to snap a picture just because.  ;)

 Our December Fun has already begun!  Then our year of 2016 will come to a close.  See you in a month!