November 2017

For Family Home Evening one night, Matt taught us a game his Grandma Paskett had taught him when he was a kid.  All you have to do is balance on one foot and pick up a brown paper bag with just your mouth.  As soon as everyone has had a try, you cut an inch or two off the top of the bag and go again.  It got pretty challenging - Carly and Cameron ended up being the most flexible.  Sometimes you could balance and it looks like this...

but most times you end up like this!  Haha!

Cameron took over my "nest" to read a good book.  He looks so comfy and happy.  I'm jealous.

The twins are 6 and have started losing their baby teeth.  They are keeping the tooth fairy busy!

 The first picture isn't a tooth, obviously, but Jacie lost not only a tooth - but a toenail!

 We opt not to drive south to visit family over Thanksgiving because the roads are always snow covered and icy and the last time we went we almost hit a moose!  So this year we enjoyed hosting the feast at our apartment with a few friends who were also staying home for the holiday.  The kids loved making our meal fun and festive...

 The drumstick name card place holder things are full of treats.  And these are fun facts...

 I just liked this shot of Cameron helping his brother read the scriptures one morning...

and I liked this shot of a gorgeous Fall morning...

 Here is our Thanksgiving fun.  After dinner, we went to the gym at the church and played some dodgeball -great shot of Cameron getting hit - look how proud Matt is of that hit!

boys against girls - who do you think won?!

 

On Black Friday, we headed up to Seattle to visit the Aquarium right on the waterfront there.  We had free tickets!  There was a lot of fun stuff to see and experience - the touchable tide pools, underwater viewing and rainbow of jellyfish were pretty cool.

 the octopus was even really active while we were there - he's saying hi to the kids here

 We walked along the pier after the aquarium and saw the giant ferris wheel and discovered a guy with a unicorn head playing the bucket drums - pretty talented!  The coolest part of our wanderings was when we spotted a lot of men fishing and pulling up squid after squid after squid.  The squid would squirt out ink or water when they came out and Matt and Cameron said they saw one squirt three guys in the face!  The men would just run their buckets of fresh squid up the hill to Pike Market Place to be sold right away. 

 We found the biggest gumball machine ever and visited the iconic Pike Street Market

And the kids were super excited to finally get to see the GUM WALL!  People just leave their gum on the wall.  Like, for real.  So gross but fascinating at the same time.  

The twins were pretty excited to leave their gum on the wall!  

 And to end our November, the kids were eager to break out the Christmas decorations - they even set every little thing up all by themselves - I didn't have to lift a finger!  I kind of like this gig!  The older girls are encroaching on my territory of having my picture ornament the highest on the tree - so I
one-upped them and hung mine from the top of the star - haha.  It didn't stay up there very long, though!

I hope this finds you all happy, healthy and enjoying the holiday season.  Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!