The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As we looked at all the available options for family fun during the month of December we quickly realized there was no way we could do it all. So, we counseled together with the girls and decided which activities were most important and appealing. Here are some of the highlights:

Decorating the tree together the Monday after Thanksgiving
has been our tradition for quite a few years.

Nearly everyone voted for the City of Bryan's annual "Holiday Magic" in the park.
The big draw is the sledding hill, which all the girls were big enough for this year.

Drinking hot chocolate while enjoying the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional
is a must-do every December.

Anne came home with this plate of yumminess
after attending a Christmas Cookie Exchange.

We enjoyed McKell's preschool Christmas program and the live nativity
at the Lutheran Church where she attends school.

Another successful holiday cupcake delivery to Russ's office.
I kind of loved how the candy melt Christmas trees turned out (and they tasted good too!)

We spent Christmas Eve away from home this year, so we had our beloved
"Choose-Your-Own-Cereal" dinner a week early.

Thanksgiving & Visitors

McKell made an adorable pilgrim for her preschool's Thanksgiving program.

Last year we were fortunate enough to have lots of my family here for Thanksgiving, including my brother Adam, who lives in Indiana.

He had such a great time at our house last year, that he decided to make a repeat visit this year. :) And happily, he brought along his fiancée Diana, whom we had yet to meet.

Adam is a little more lenient with his kids than I am with mine. ;)

We always love having time with cousins!

We taught Adam and Diana the wonders of Kinect Sports on the XBox.

I was REALLY glad Adam came, so he could take care of the turkey for me. 

We had to make our traditional spice drop turkeys with the kids. Adam and I grew up making these, so we're passing on the practice to our kiddos.

Here's the gang before the feast. The food was yummy and the company was excellent.
We were SO happy Adam and his family joined us for the holiday. 

Friday night we moved from Thanksgiving into the Christmas
with a visit to a local light display in the park.

November News

Russ's favorite news of . . . his entire life (well, at least of 2016) was that the CUBS won the World Series! He's been a Cubs fan for a LONG time, so it was pretty awesome for all of us to follow them through the post-season. 

Watching the final out of the series. It was late when the game was ending, but Russ chose to wake Kaylee and Ashlyn and let them see the very end of the game.

Finally!!!

Aaaaand then he crashed. He said he had been so nervous all day long. Every time he though about the game coming up that night he felt that anxious/nauseous feeling. The only other time he's been this stressed was when he defended his thesis at the end of grad school.

 Ashlyn's most exciting news of the month was winning 3rd place in her district academic competition. She was on the Art team, which means she studied about 40 paintings and for the competition was required to identify and write down the title (from memory) for 20 of them, and choose the correct artist from a list. Way to go Awesome Ashlyn!

McKell's favorite news of the month was that she was finally tall enough to ride a real roller coaster at Six Flags! She LOVED it. No surprise there. We predict she'll be about as daring as Ashlyn when it comes to crazy rides. We all had a great time.

Brenna's least favorite news of the month was that she had a tonsillectomy. Below you can see her Before and After feelings about the surgery. Her smiles pretty much vanished for the next few weeks. She did eventually make a full recovery. We're all glad that's done with though!

Halloween

Another fun holiday! This year we tried our hand at homemade rootbeer. We were a bit thrown off when we opened the rootbeer extract and it was clear, rather than brown. Drinking clear liquid that tastes like rootbeer is . . . odd. We used food coloring to make it green for Halloween. Drinking green liquid that tastes like rootbeer is still . . . odd, but it was fun and I'm sure we'll make it again some time.

Traditional Halloween dinner: mummy dogs, ghostly pears, carrot fingers, and orange pumpkins.

And here are my cuties in their costumes!

McKell wanted to be Dora the Explorer. Brenna requested Sofia the First. Ashlyn broke the mold for our girly house and went as a ninja. And Kaylee, who read The Hunger Games over the summer, wanted to be Katniss, of course. 

Preschool, Pumpkins, and More

Here's Brenna at the cute farm-themes photo area at the library.

We went to the rodeo for the 2nd year in a row.

McKell enjoyed feeding the goats during her preschool field trip 

to the pumpkin patch.

My parents came to visit for a few days the end of October.

We went to the park, but it was too hot to play 

so the girls ended up at the splash pad instead.

Welcome to Autumn in Texas!

We split into 2 teams to carve pumpkins.

Team Ashlyn/McKell chose to do a princess.

And team Kaylee/Ashlyn picked a baseball player 

(in honor of the Cubs making it to the postseason!)

Happenings

It's time to play catch-up on my blog! Here are some happenings from Sept and Oct:

Russ had a birthday. Shout hooray!

Ashlyn ran for student council at school. It was a tight race and she didn't get elected, but it was a good experience for her. And she used her creativity to the fullest in designing her flyers and poster. (The poster says: I promise to SKOR you a super fun year, to work EXTRA hard to fill Bowen Elementary with MOUNDS of JOY. And to make this the best student council in the MILKY WAY!) 

Ashlyn and Russ went on a super date to Six Flags San Antonio and spent the day riding all the crazy roller coasters they could find

And we discovered that pulling out a fun puzzle is a great way to keep everyone in the room and out of trouble during General Conference. :)