Turkey Day

Lilli made it for Thanksgiving!! I love having all my kids under the same roof!  And you can tell by the sleeping arrangement that I'm not the only one that has missed her.

I love that my family gets together for holidays.  It give the grandkids cousin time.

9 of the grandkids were able to make it for dinner.

Grit got some time with Uncle Matt.

Boone is just like my sister, DJ.  He sleeps with his eyes open.

I love that they just pile on top of each other all the time.

And pretend to be sleeping to avoid pictures.

Food Pantry Field Trip

The November preschool field trip was to a food pantry.  I wasn't able to attend, so my mom was gracious enough to go with Duke.

The pantry is located in a school that the preschool teacher's kids attend in Ontario.

Duke took some food to donate to the pantry and came home telling me all about a special shelf that was just for him.

I'm so thankful that I live close enough to my parents and that they are willing to help me when needed.

Fright Night

Duke found a cat skull outside.

Such a perfect find on halloween!

For costumes, Duke was willing to wear his Army guy suit again. He kept saying he already wore it for preschool so he needed a new costume, but in the end, he put it on.

Hoss is getting to the stage where dressing up is a bore.  So we convinced him that being a farmer wouldn't be so bad.  He humored us and went with it, not sure how much longer he will.

Grit, our cute little tiger.

And Boone, the football player.

Then we got a big surprise when we received this picture of Lilli dressed up. Makes my heart happy!

Primary Program

Again, I am so proud of these boys!  They both memorized their parts for the primary program.

Duke's part: "I treat my body as a temple by eating nutritious food and reading good books"

Hoss was asked to speak on the Scripture Hero challenge that has been in this year's Friend magazine.  I think he's really the only kid that is working hard on memorizing every scripture, every month.  He's been working so hard on writing and memorizing his part.  And he NAILED it!

October Preschool Adventures

I love that Duke's teacher sends pictures of the kids activities in class.  With Grit being so small, I'm not able to volunteer, so pictures are a great way for me to still feel involved.

He was so excited that his plant sprouted!

They made a human square!

He speaks of these block things all the time.

For his birthday snack, we mixed up some monster munch and made some boo juice tags.

Preschool Halloween Party

One thing that I'm trying to work on in my life is being too busy.  This is a perfect example.  Too much going on that I miss the Halloween costume parade.

I'm grateful for people that take pictures, so that I can still be part of the action that way.

Duke has made good friends with these two.  Tyler Ruf and Winston Peterson.  He will probably never rub shoulders with them again after preschool since one lives in Ontario and the other in Nyssa, but for now, it's great!

The entire class looked great!

Preschool Pet

We tried to be diligent about taking the preschool pet with us everywhere we went.

It went to the dentist.

Celebrated a birthday

Opened gifts

Enjoyed being sang to like it was it's own birthday.

Then it came time for chores.  We didn't let it out of that.

And Family Home Evening.  He had to help teach the lesson, since it was Duke's turn to do so.

Shooting Sports

Brandon took the boys, and Eli Belnap, to the shooting sports activity in Ontario.  

 They really enjoyed the BB shooting.

 Archery was a bit harder for them, but they still had a good time.

Duke actually did pretty well for his first time.

Duke's 5th Birthday

Right on the heels of Boone's birthday comes Duke's birthday.  He was chosen as spotlight for preschool and we were provided with a poster board to decorate. 

He asked for streamers and balloons, just like Boone, so I decorated for him as well.

He's much better about smiling for the growth chart picture.

He also go to see the dentist for his birthday!  He also has the class pet for the weekend, so it joined us too.

Brotherly love.

He requested spaghetti for his birthday. 

He got a new tractor set and some much needed new jammies.

He insisted his tractor be stuck on his cake.  So, we buried it in frosting. Even the class pet got to wear a party hat.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

For the October preschool field trip we took a drive to the other side of town to a pumpkin patch.  It was nice that this field trip was in Vale, since his school in in Nyssa.  The farmers of this field have two grandkids in Duke's class, so it worked out great.

They had pumpkins of all sizes, so even Grit got one just for him.

The kids were adorable.

Boone was especially great helping me find the perfect pumpkin for our annual casserole in a pumpkin dinner.