Thanksgiving in Pasco

After a rather long 12 hour trip, we made our way to Pasco for Thanksgiving.  We got to carpool with Krystal's family, which made the trip a lot easier on us.  The cousins were entertained in the back and we had plenty of adults (and baby Einstein movies) to help keep Elsa content.  It's so nice to be back in driving distance to family for holidays again!

It's too bad we won't be able to carpool next year.  Krystal will have a new addition to the family by then and we were already at max capacity.  Should have gotten the 16 seater...

When we first got there, the kids got to go on a treasure hunt in Grandma and Grandpa's new house.  A lot of these pictures I stole from Krystal's blog.  Apparently I didn't take too many over the break!

 Nadia had Aunt Chandra's help finding her hidden My Little Pony.

 Rowan found a transformer I think.

 

The cousins got to have sleepovers every night.  There was quite of bit of giggling and late nights.

Steve- the turkey.  We brined again this year.  Delicious!

Great Grandpa Judd joined us.  I don't think he had met any of our kids before, so it was nice for them to get to meet him.

The Walch family did the decor and made these cute napkin rings with everyone's picture on them as an Indian.

When you don't like food, Thanksgiving can be a bit boring so you have to create your own entertainment as Elsa discovered.

Elsa wasn't so sure of Grandpa Judd.  She warmed up well to Grandpa Luke though.

Chandra took on babysitting duties more than she should have.  Here she is playing board games with the kiddies.  Thanks to the abundance of babysitters, Steve and I got to go see several movies in the theater.  Hunger Games was my personal favorite.

I think Grandpa Luke's lifespan was shortened by a couple years for babysitting the kids while we enjoyed the movies, but he's a glutton for punishment it seems.

The trip back was worse than the trip there, but we made it though and got home before the snow started to hit.  We're so thankful for the blessing it was to spend this holiday especially surrounded by those we love.

November Mish Mash

I've been decorating a bit in our little abode and I saw these ikats that were featured in one of the HGTV dream homes.  I fell in love with them and my mom offered to duplicate them for me as they were over $500 for just one.  It was like Christmas morning when I got them in the mail.  Thanks mom!

The one on the right is a less saturated one, she sent me two sets of four to choose from!

I was scrubbing our tile floors one day and Nadia decided I was missing a very important accessory, which she promptly taped to my head.  My daughter is the best! 

Rowan is quite the little artist sometimes and he did this drawing for me.  Apparently we need to discover a better way to draw pectoral muscles on centaurs, but otherwise it was pretty awesome.

Rain, rain...

Elsa loves the rain!  Snow, not so much.

Preschool Science Night

 Nadia's preschool hosted a Science Night for their students and their students' families.  They had booths throughout the school and it turned out to be a really fun event.  Nadia has blossomed so much at this preschool.  A few weeks after attending, her teacher told me she showed no signs of selective mutism and even occasionally gets in trouble for talking too much.  That's one misbehavior I can get behind!

 Volcanoes.
Rowan's needed a little more juice before it got going.

 Making boats out of aluminum foil and seeing what floats and what doesn't.

 Magnet table.

 Rowan acting as part of the solar system.

Elsa was more enthralled with watching the people and enjoying her beverage.

We've been conflicted with knowing what to do with Nadia for her kindergarten year.  BYU also offers a fantastic kindergarten program and after seeing how Nadia has thrived in her current class, we don't want to let the opportunity slip by enrolling her in the public school.  There are also some fears of her regressing since the public school classes are bigger and there's more of a chance that she'll slip under the radar.  I want to keep pushing her to come out of her shell and not feel inhibited by any anxieties that she may feel.  That being said, Nadia has been determined to go to school with Rowan and keeps insisting on being able to walk to school with Rowan etc.  A friend of mine had the genius notion to put her in both schools as they have half day preschool here.  It never occured to me that that was possible and it has proved to be a perfect solution to our dilemma.  Rowan did really well with all day kindergarten and I know Nadia will do the same.  She'll go to school with Rowan in the morning, come home for lunch and then I'll take her to preschool at BYU in the afternoon.  A bit of running around for us, but since both schools are less than 5 minutes away, it'll be perfectly doable.  I'm really excited for her!

Caroline's Birthday

It's so nice to be able to go to cousin's birthday parties now.  Here's a few shots of Elsa and Nadia at Caroline's 4th birthday party.

Caroline clearly loves donuts.

Elsa ate something!  Hallelujah!

Nadia hates games where she is under pressure.  I think Randy just held the stick so she could snack on it while using her hands.  They were playing dressup before the games, thus the dress.

Surprisingly, bobbing for apples had the same enthusiasm as donuts on a stick.

Got it!

Who wants ice cream?