November Days

November was much, much, MUCH calmer than October. We still had a few things going on, however. Amelia had festival a few weeks ago. She was really nervous, but scored 95 out of 100! Glad those expensive lessons are paying off!

All November, each Saturday, Amelia and Cooper have had practices for The Nutcracker. It's the first weekend in December--just next weekend!

Cooper also had his first choir concert. IT. WAS. PACKED. He did a great job and sang his little heart out.

Over Thanksgiving weekend we did some shopping in Idaho Falls and HAD to stop by Papa Kelsey's for lunch. It was delicious! 

We continued onto Blackfoot to have our Call Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see all our family, cuddle babies, and eat yummy food!

 We came home Friday night and started setting up Christmas! Our tree is getting full of ornaments. Each year we choose an ornament that signifies something we accomplished/experienced/learned that year. We also have one for our family. It's so much fun to re-live the last ornament's stories.

Notice Amelia's perfectly pointed toe?

That's it for November! We have a concert tonight, but then we're clear until next Saturday for The Nutcracker!

More Autumn/Halloween Activities!

It will never be said our family is dull, boring, or doesn't do anything. And if my children try to, I'll refer them to all the blog posts from October! Here's a few more happenings in our lives:

Cooper and his choir class sang the national anthem at our last home football game. If you'd like to see chaos, massive spikes of energy, and general insaness, go watch a bunch of 5th graders sing. 

Oh, what's that you see? Yes, you're correct. IT WAS SNOWING! And guess who grew out of their winter coat last year? He now has one, but on this night it was still hanging on the rack at the store. Luckily, pure lunacy kept them all warm.

Amelia also had her Young Women in Excellence later that week. She grew a garden for her project. Here is a couple pictures from the night:

Why aren't there any with me? Funny you should ask. My super social daughter couldn't take a moment to pose with her  mommy. The picture with the trophy was taken by her friend and I had to text it to me. Doesn't Amelia understand I'm trying to preserve memories here?!

Now onto our crazy weekend. The previous two events were during the week. On Friday we had the school carnival. Again, we were all split up so this is the only picture I have of both my children:

Saturday we went to Nutcracker practice, then to Hocus Pocus. I think this will be the last year for it, both kiddos were not as impressed. Of course, it's hard to top Frightmares at Lagoon......

Then later than night we had our ward trunk-or-treat. Amelia did dress up for that---I think mostly because of the young men that were also in attendance!

Once His Majesty Cooper had gone through all the cars, he sat down to start eating all his candy! Notice the full cup holder on his right.

Finally, finally, finally, we carved our pumpkins Sunday night. Amelia picked a massive one and was disgusted with all it's innards.  Cooper of course, excused himself from the cleaning out of the pumpkins.

Whew! On the actual day of Halloween, Amelia has a school carnival and I told my children they could pick 4 houses to go to. We've celebrated enough. Oh, and it's a school night. :-) As exhausted as I am, I'm sure happy we squeezed every drop of the Halloween spirit out of October!

Straw Maze and Pumpkin Patch

We've hit the straw maze and the pumpkins patch! My mom was able to meet us in Idaho Falls and go winter coat shopping and to the pumpkin patch with us. We're so happy she could! Here's some pics:

Burying Cooper in the corn kernels.

It was a coooooold day, but luckily we're used to those:

The corn kernel pit was pretty cool--even for teenagers!

The slide was equally as fun.

We visited the straw maze with friends. Cooper and Amelia are getting to the ages that it's more fun to bring a friend. Just for the record---they still needed their mommy to find their way out!

Halloween is getting closer! We have Hocus Pocus this week, school carnivals, trunk-or-treats, and finally Halloween. Although, I don't think we're actually going anywhere ON Halloween! :-)

Temple Square and Lagoon!

Last weekend we grabbed tickets to Lagoon, rented a car, booked a hotel room and headed down to Utah for the weekend. We hung out at Temple Square, Lagoon, and with Katie, David, and our adorable nephew/cousin Linus! Here are some pictures:

This is Cooper after his first roller coaster ride. Turns out he doesn't like them! They "make his tummy feel weird".  Maybe you'll change your mind in a few years, kiddo. :-)

Katie was in the same boat as Cooper, so I was Amelia's roller coaster buddy.

Before I had children I could ride them all day. Since becoming a mother....not so much. We managed four roller coasters before I had to call it quits. I would've been okay except for that Cannibal one. It was about 4G's too much for me!

Cooper didn't mind the rides that went around and around, but Amelia wasn't a fan/ 

Everyone liked the go-carts!

We rode the slow ski lift across the park, but Katie and Cooper agreed it was waaaaaaay too high. And it was too "boring" for Amelia. 

Along with experiencing "firsts", Cooper ate in a mall food court for the first time! (Amelia had already done it with her orchestra last May).

However, it WAS the first time both of them had been in a parking garage!

It was a perfect day on Temple Square!

Amelia found a secluded bench in the corner area of the temple grounds. 

View from the top of the conference center. 

Linus was thrilled to run free:

What Cooper was most excited about:

We had a great time, and it was so much fun to hang out in SLC with family! Next up--straw mazes, Nutcracker practices, Halloween craziness, and lots of autumn activities!

EISF 2017!

Whew! School is back in session, lessons have started, and our schedules are busy! A few weeks ago we did make our yearly trip to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Amelia and Cooper entered the baked goods division again, and won! I think they are getting tired of winning every year, though. Once they've hit 1st place everything else is just a ribbon to them. :-) Here are some pictures of our visit:

Cooper won first place with his orange bread!

Amelia won second place with her coconut bread! 

We visited the petting zoo before hitting the food area and stuffing ourselves! 

We had so much fun visiting family:

We also grabbed some haircuts this weekend. Our first day of school looks were getting a little shaggy. Here's Amelia, who cut ALOT of inches. I was surprised, because usually she's really leery of cutting anything off before the Nutcracker in December. Which, by the way, both children are performing in again this year.

That's it! Now that autumn is finally here I'll be posting about our straw maze trips, Halloween, apple picking, and all the other activities we love!