Giving Thanks

Our house is officially a home. It has gone through the important rite of passage known as "Thanksgiving Dinner." Well, lunch actually. Chad had to work that evening.

Things I'm thankful for this year include a kitchen island. Look at the size of this thing!

And the new home, good schools, and amazing in-home therapy for Lincoln. And being close to my parents and my brother's family. Close enough to sit down at the table together for holidays like this.

Yes, we are blessed.

And darn good looking too.

Fall Carnival

Yes, we have to pay an HOA fee. But we enjoy a clean neighborhood, nicely kept parks, and every once in a while, a free carnival pops up around the corner.

With rides,

Friends,

Dancing with the DJ,

And...this,

Cool firemen who let you play with their stuff,

Not bad for free entertainment on a Saturday afternoon.

Our October

The kids had their first-ever Awards Assembly this month. Bree received a Perfect Attendance Award, and Mason made the Principle's List for straight A's (a common achievement among kindergarteners). Bree was very proud as she stood up when her name was called.

10/18/13

We carved pumpkins, and the kids sketched out several drafts before we cut into them.

10/26/13

The jack-o-lanterns lasted a whole three days in our warm autumn weather before rotting to mush. Sadly, I did not get any photos of them.

Our Ward Halloween Party and Trunk-r-Treat was fun, and even though it was crowded, and the food line was insanely long, the green screen photo made the evening worth it.

Lincoln looked adorable in his Zero costume.

Everyone commented on how awesome our costumes were...and two or three people even knew who we were supposed to be!

We had a little Halloween Dinner Party on Halloween night, and I invited a bunch of our neighbors. We had TONS of food.

Aside from my family, only two people showed up. Sigh. That's what I get from trying to advance our neighbors from acquaintance status to friend status. But we had fun anyway.

And my brother's family won the prize for cutest costumes.

Happy Halloween indeed.

Autumn is...

Sweaters, scarves and boots. Even if the weather is still in the upper 80s. Incidentally, I knitted myself a scarf with some Sashay yarn I found for $1.00. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Looks kinda like this:

Wardrobe changeovers for the kids. The hand-me-down bins open up, we sort through items that might still fit from last year, and we scan the clearance aisles to stock up for next year.

Fall cleaning. The cat hair from the previous homeowners is officially gone. From the window sills anyway. Thank you Chad.

Halloween decorations.

Homemade pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin cake, and pumpkin cookies. And I can now say with certainty: a can of pumpkin plus a box of spice cake mix does not equal amazing cookies.  Edible, sure, but not amazing. The doughnuts and the cake, however? Drool.

The first hot chocolate of the season. Sadly, I did not get a picture of this event, but I found this photo from a 2007 blog post. Recently I couldn't get my beloved Cafe-Motion to work, but Chad was able to fix it! They just don't make them anymore. No, really--they actually don't. Please don't die, little motor...I don't know what I'd do without you!

Fran's Caramel Corn. Soft and heavenly.

Directions:
Boil:
2 full packed cups brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
Add:
1 can sweetened condensed milk (I totally made my own with powdered milk!)
Bring to boil stirring constantly, cook to soft ball stage.
Pour over 3 gallons popped corn (1 1/3 cups kernels)

And while we were at it, we made caramel apples. The dipped slices weren't a success...the caramel liquified and slid off. They were still delicious, and the kids had fun decorating them.

Whole caramel apples were more successful, even though the caramel sagged a little overnight. They still made decent gifts for the kids' teachers, though. And I felt like such a super mom, I was almost envious of myself.

Okay, bring on the cooler weather. We are so ready.

Fall Break in Las Vegas

During the kids' Fall Break from school we were able to visit Chad's family in Las Vegas. One of the main highlights of the trip was the Discovery Children's Museum. We had been to the old Children's Museum, but this new one was bigger and better. Chad chased Bree and Mason around (they spent a ton of time in the three-story play structure), and Fran and Jim and I hung out with Lincoln and Trust in the little kids' area. Lincoln was in heaven.

Mason lost his first tooth while we were there. Luckily the Tooth Fairy found us. Now he and Bree have matching smiles.

We also visited Chad's cousin Curtis and his family. The kids played a little (Cal was loving on Lincoln--so adorable) before we headed out for some shopping at Town Square (Amber is an awesome shopping buddy).

 

A weekend of General Conference rounded out the visit. The weather was chilly and glorious; it felt like fall had officially arrived. And we said goodbye to the house Fran and Jim have lived in for so many years, since they'll be moving soon. The next time we visit, it will be to their new place! Hopefully that time won't be too far off.

Walk the Walk

The kids look forward to "The Walk" every year. It's not only a lot of fun for our family, but it's a great opportunity for us to raise money for Sharing Down Syndrome (an organization that has made such a difference to our family and the community). We had a great group of people who donated this year, and were so grateful.

Saturday morning dawn hot (of course), and sunny (no surprise there). We got to the stadium at 8:00 am. The event goes until noon, but we've realized over the years that everyone's happier if we can finish up by 10:30, before we become red-faced, sweaty, and a tad cranky.

The pictures speak for themselves:

The beach umbrella was Chad's idea. Genius.

Corban's first time.

Lincoln was obsessed with this therapy dog. He kept hugging her. It. Was. Adorable.

We were joined by Adam's family and my cousin Jennifer's family.

It was a great day, and a great reason to walk.

Eight-Hour Date

Chad and I don't go on dates enough. Money is tight, and we're pretty lazy. We usually just watch a DVD from the library and call it a date. But it's not the same as getting out of the house on our own.

Since my mom was coming to visit, and volunteered to babysit, I decided we should go on an actual date. I didn't want to spend much money... in fact, I thought it sounded like a much better idea if we could actually earn money while on our date.

Hello, ride-along.

It was my second time going to work with Chad, but my first time since we moved. I wanted to see his new area, and spend some quality time with my favorite person.

We had a surprising amount of fun. It was clear that we had desperately needed some one-on-one time. I watched him hand out warnings and a few tickets. He's a very kind officer; he definitely does not pull the "bad cop" act unless someone is being a complete idiot.

I learned the ins and outs of the computer system, and tore off the citations as they printed out below my seat. I handed him the scanner when he came back with the subjects' signatures. And I was ready to push the special button to release the huge rifle between our seats, in case things got crazy.

Things didn't get crazy. But we did get to run code, and we ran through some traffic lights and stuff. It was cool. He handled a collision at the freeway exit where rear-ending is an almost daily occurrence during afternoon rush-hour. Chad was kind enough to put the front end of the woman's car in her back seat for her. What a gentleman.

Perhaps not the most romantic date, but I had a great time nonetheless.