A good lesson

Sophie was in charge of our Family Home Evening lesson last night. Here is what she wrote down with zero help from anyone (I typed it straight from her notebook & wanted it to look just how she'd written it, hence the typos):

There's two ways to go. Follow Lousifer or Satin, or God. God lets you choose to! If you follow Satin you feel satisfied at first but sooner or later you feel tarible! If you repent you are forgeven (which is a relif!) Like the story of Enos he felt bad about his sins and put down his bow and arrow and prayd all day and all night for repentec. This story teaches me to not sin and go serve God don't let Satin catch up! If you end up on the rong path pray for repentence and it will be given to you.
Being a parent is hard work and sometimes I wonder what the heck I'm doing, and how in the world I can help my kids learn the things they need to be happy and to have a desire to live the gospel. It's times like these that reassure me that the things we are trying to teach are sinking in!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

True to tradition we went and cut down our tree the day after Thanksgiving. We went to a fun place called Tannenbaum's (where we've gone the last three years) and had a fun and freezing cold time. This year we decided we'd take the first tree we found that we liked and that was in our budget and be done instead of walking all around searching for the perfect tree. We've learned with kids that the searching part gets old pretty quickly! So within 10 minutes we found our tree and got some hot cocoa and doughnuts and sat by the fire. It is beautiful tree and we had a great time together. We almost lost our tree on the tractor/trailer ride back from the fields. Luckily Brian balanced it on his foot (both of our hands were full) until someone grabbed it for us! Funny.

Here's our tree!

One of Santa's reindeer is always there to visit.

Hot cocoa and doughnuts by the fire - yum!

Wesley slept the whole time.

Nora found this fungus and really wanted to bring it home with us. We convinced her a picture would be better.

Happy Thanksgiving...

from our four little turkeys!

I feel so blessed for these four beautiful, healthy and wonderful kids the Lord has given me to be a mother to. And so thankful for my husband, the gospel, all my family and the good friends I have that bless my life each day! I am amazed and humbled every day at how much I have to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

The boys

Wesley is two months old now and getting cuter every day!

See?

Miles is a typical little boy and likes getting into mischief - but lately he's upped his game and been doing things like painting with Desitin, squirting out anything he finds that is squirtable (cleaner, nose spray, etc...) throwing anything and everything and just causing trouble in general. :)
At the park today he took a tumble down some wooden stairs and got a bloody nose and major fat lip. Under his lip is all purple and bloody. Poor little guy!

This last picture just makes me smile. Our nightly routine is Brian reads books to the kids while I sit and fold laundry in their room or hold Wesley if he's awake. Tonight he was taking it easy on Miles' bed. Great times.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Brian bought the girls and I tickets to go see the Broadway show Mary Poppins at the Wharton Center. We had a great time together and it was an amazing show! Sophie was so excited because she has loved Mary Poppins since she was two and used to call it "Pa-Pottins" and want to watch it twice a day. I think it's obvious from the pictures just how excited she was! She was grinning the whole time and loved every second of it. Nora liked it as well, but it was really late and she fell asleep just before intermission and again for the last part of the show. Brian and the boys got to stay home and play cars and build a fort together. It was a fun night for all of us!

Sunday

Just another peaceful Sunday afternoon...

The kids made a huge pile of pillows and blankets in their room and were jumping off the dresser onto it. There are about 10 more videos with Sophie directing Nora what she should do. And yes that is Miles completely naked at the end.

Sweet Wesley

We are enjoying an unseasonably warm November (thus far) and are soaking up as much sunshine as possible in preparation for winter. We are adjusting nicely to being a family of six. It might help that Wesley is a dream baby and happy pretty much all the time. He loves his bouncy chair and the swing and laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling fan. He's seriously awesome. And yes, I am so grateful. And lucky.

He is growing like a weed and I can't wait to see how much he weighs at his 2 month check up later this month. Oh, I want him to be chunky!

Classic sleeping baby position

He spent about 20 minutes just grinning up at this frog.
So cute! But don't worry, he doesn't get neglected because he's so good. I make sure I get plenty of those adorable smiles, too! And that double chin? Love it!!

Four

I really wanted a picture of all the kids together outside before it got too cold to take one. I think this is the best one I got:

A pretty cute bunch I daresay!

Sweet and silly miss Sophie

Cutie pie Nora - who loves getting her picture taken by the way!

{insert picture of Miles here... he was much too busy for an individual picture}

and kissable Mr. Chubs

We have a smiler...

Wesley is 6 weeks old today and has just started really smiling at us and is it ever cute! I am so loving his cheeks and little dimple. Such a sweetheart.

A Happy Halloweek!

We had a fun and busy week of Halloween. The girls had two 1/2 days this week and no school on Friday and a school parade and party on Thursday. Saturday we made yummy doughnuts and that night we went to a Trunk or Treat hosted by some friends in our ward. It was a lot of fun! The kids came home with a ton of candy and we gave them a dime for every piece they were willing to part with (which I passed out in Young Womens on Sunday!) Sophie ended up with $2.50 and Nora $2.00. A good deal all around! Miles has been talking about being a puppy for such a long time that half the time he insists on being called "puppy Miles". A friend of ours gave us Wesley's costume and he made a cute little skeleton. I went as an Oompa Loompa (if you couldn't tell) and Brian was a gas station worker (boring!) I wanted him to be an Oompa Loompa with me but he didn't want to put on the hair and face stuff. And the girls told him he couldn't be "that weird guy again" so....
Pictures from the girls' school parties:

Happy Halloween!