Thanksgiving!

We went back to Michigan for Thanksgiving and had such a fun time with our friends there. The kids all played together just like old times and Miles even tried to go in our old house to get something! Nora was SO excited to see Maddie and they spent a lot of time crafting together, and even called themselves "the craft girls", which it says in the picture they are coloring.

Just hanging out...

We stayed with the Johnson's and these three boys were pretty darn excited to be having a sleepover. They were so cute together the whole time. Zach and Grant are so good at sharing their toys. Miles was in heaven and is still asking me when we are going back!

More hanging out...

These 3 played together a lot as well and all had fun being puppies and superhero's! Zach introduced Miles to the world of superheroes and today he asked me to be Wonderwoman. I asked what Superhero he was and he said, "Dinoco Lightning!"

There were kids all over the place...

Sophie also got to stay with her BFF from Michigan - Ellie! They had fun and Ellie was so cute and started crying when she saw Sophie.

Sophie and Timmy made a yummy apple pie together.

And the Johnson's cooked the turkey. On Thanksgiving Nora informed both Brian and I that she was not going to eat any turkey because turkey's are animals and part of nature. And she hasn't eaten meat since. She has never really liked it so it's not too surprising. I imagine she'll still eat it sometimes, but we'll see where that goes. :) Sophie loves taking care of the little kids. Especially if they let her carry them around. Here she is with cute Emmaline Jane. Who is adorable.

At Zach's house Miles fell in complete love with this Dinoco Lightning toy (that used to be Spencer's). He kept it with him constantly and before we left Zach gave it to Miles! And he is so thrilled. He has played with it every day and slept with it every night since he got it! Thanks Zach! I don't think Miles needs Christmas now.

The only downfall to our trip was that we had to say good-bye. Sad! We had such a great time and we miss them all over again!

Here we are on our way home! The kids were amazing both ways. We definitely have some good travelers! We only stopped once on the way to Michigan and once on the way home. Awesome. And they only watched one movie on the way there and one and a half on the way home. There's our plant, Rapunzel, in the back window that Ruth was saving for me! It's nice to have her back.

A Happy Halloween!

The kids had such a great time trick-or-treating this year. It was so much fun to watch their excitement. I made Sophie a poodle skirt and she wore that to school and to our ward trunk-or-treat and on Halloween on the way home from school she said, "Mom, how would you feel if I wore a different costume tonight?" I thought it was cute she was worried about hurting my feelings. So she was a Cowgirl and wore my boots, Brian's hat, Miles' plaid shirt and Nora's jean shirt! She looked pretty cute. Nora was a witch - her classic every other year costume. She pulled out this size 2 witch dress, paired it with some pants I cut up for Miles' pirate costume and ta-da, she was happy. Miles was, of course, Thomas. As if there was any other option! I found his costume brand new at the thrift store for 6.99 so that was awesome! Nora painted both her and Miles' faces :) Wesley was a dragon for our ward party and the cutest teddy bear ever on Halloween. Which was fun since he loooves bears right now and does a cute "rarrr" for a bear sound.

We walked around our block and Nora was cracking Brian and I up. She loves candy and she loves dressing up so Halloween was a dream come true for her. She would run from house to house giggling hysterically and kept pointing to all the houses that had porch lights on and saying, "We haven't been to that one!" So fun. And Miles got a Thomas dvd from the person at the first house we stopped at so his expectations were high. His standard saying all night was, "Trick or treat, smell my feet. I love Thomas!" Once Wesley got a piece of candy from someone he insisted on getting some at every house. He would hold out his hand and grunt and lean towards the candy bowl.

Crazy witch.

They got so much candy. I think the funnest part of Halloween is sorting the candy! They ate a few pieces and then I told them we'd buy it from them for 10 cents a piece.

Friends!

This weekend the Seedall family came to visit us! We surprised the kids and didn't tell them they were coming (and the Seedall kids didn't know either until they were here!) They knocked on our door and Sophie answered and Ryan said, "boo!" and Sophie said, "Didn't scare me!" Then she got this shocked look on her face as she realized who was at our door!

They came on Thursday night and left Sunday morning so we had lots of fun in two days!

Wesley and Benny playing in the balls together. On Friday we went to the zoo:

We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat party. Ruth and I went as hillbilly sisters (with their baby dragons...)

Wesley got a sucker in the car on the way home and he was pretty excited about it!

The big kids all slept in the girls room and had a great time whispering, reading and giggling until late.

They did fall asleep pretty good the second night since they were so worn out. Maddie was so tired she fell asleep reading her book!

Early morning cartoon watching. Most of the kids were all up by 630.

We made donuts one morning...

Carved pumpkins...

Saturday morning Benny fell off a chair and cut his lip :( Poor little guy. I have a neighbor who is a nurse and her husband is an EMT so they came and looked at it and said it would be ok.

The boys playing trains...

Miles and Eliza playing on the top bunk, just like they did in Michigan!

We went to the park and took family pictures and played...

We also went to Ella's Deli but my camera battery was dead. It was a lot of fun to have them come and see us in Wisconsin! We sure miss being neighbors but look forward to seeing them in Utah when we head out west for a visit.