November

My sister Ashlie got hitched on 11.11.11 at the Salt Lake City Temple to her honey Cade.

We took the kiddos out of school for a week and went out a little early to help get things ready.

Of course we spent the whole time sick, but we were so thankful to be able to go.

Ashlie had asked if I would be in charge of the decor for the reception and I agreed. It may have taken a few years off of my life but we survived. I procrastinated of course and was hurriedly working on things even the morning of the wedding. Thankfully I had some awesome people jump in and help in various ways and we managed to get everything done and decorated just in time for the reception.

Jeff was a peach and hauled the kids to the luncheon and to run an errand or two while I worked on decorating. He was such a help the day of and for weeks in advance and was so patient as I freaked out when things weren't quite turning out as I had envisioned. Love that man!

Photo Dump:

sick kids waiting for the bride and groom

Cade and Ashlie

Nicholas-Brett-Ashlie-Alissa-Nathan

5 out of the 9 siblings

-a sister and brother/sister-in-law were having babies, a brother was in London, and another brother in the MTC. We sure missed you guys!

we were supposed to make goofy faces but apparently not everyone was listening

my niece Sydnie!! such a cutie!

So happy for you Ashlie and Cade!! Thanks for letting us be part of your beautiful day!!

October

Maddox

maddox as charlie chaplin-I can't seem to find any halloween

pics of the older kids.

October was spent getting ready for our(me and Mad) trip to Boston,

surviving our trip to Boston, and then recovering from our trip to Boston.

It was intense. Thankfully we left with good news(see Maddox's blog)

but it was an exhausting couple of days.

Boston was followed by Maddox's 2nd birthday, which we hardly acknowledged.

Sorry bud. We are so grateful for the two years we've had with you, Mad.

You are one crazy little man, but we wouldn't trade you for anything!

And then came Halloween. Costumes were thrown together with what we had and much candy was consumed. I tried to talk the kids into taking their candy to the dentist and trading it in for money. Sounds pretty wonderful to me, but the kids were less enthusiastic.

So, instead I helped them eat the candy. What's a pregnant woman to do, right?

SEPTEMBER

Uncle Seth

My younger brother, Seth, lived with us for a few months in between graduating from BYU and heading to London to start his graduate studies. We loved having him here and probably cured him of ever wanting to reproduce-that's what sisters are for, right!

He babysat often enough that he was proficient at feeding Maddox and giving him his meds, and even replaced Mad's g-button when it would come out-I'm pretty sure that only happened once while Jeff and I were not around. We loved getting to go out on dates more often.

Seth introduced us to many movies(he's a film studies major) and upped the number of intelligent conversations that took place in our home-unfortunately that has since

returned to normal.

We played LOTS of soccer while he was here, both outside and on the computer and my kids now cheer for Liverpool thanks to Seth's influence.

We also played board games at night more often because it's always more fun with

three people than it is with two.

Seth left us to get his graduate degree from Kings College London in September.

I guess he thought that was a better gig than working at a factory

and being our live in babysitter.

We sure miss him and hope he is soaking up all London(and Europe)

has to offer.

*a tad jealous over here Seth*

SOCCER SEASON

Keyan played his second season of soccer during the fall.

It was a challenging season and really frustrated Keyan.

I'm not sure it was the learning experience any of us were hoping for

since I think he only learned to hate losing more.

Oh well. Someone has to lose.

The bright side is that he sure looked cute doing it.

love that sweaty head and cute tongue hanging out

August

SPECIAL VISITORS

The week after school started my brother Brandon,

his pregnant wife Ashley, and their kiddos Kathleen, Sophia, and Edwin came for a visit.

It had been quite a while since we had seen them last due to the fact that they had been living in Cairo Egypt for the past two years. They had been evacuated when things got crazy over there and then had gone back to finish their two year post(brandon is in the foreign service).

We were pretty boring hosts, but enjoyed hanging out, chatting, eating, and playing games together after the kiddos went to bed. The kiddos spent a lot of time dressing up.

brynna-sophia-kathleen

edwin saw through their disguises

Thanks guys for making the extremely long trip to come and visit!

We loved getting to see you before you left for distant lands again.

(Brandon and Ashley added baby Joseph to the family before moving to Baku, Azerbaijan the end of December).

NEW SCHOOL YEAR

School started again in August and we had our annual back to school feast,

Father's blessings, baths, set out clothes and went to bed anticipating a new school year.

Keyan started 2nd grade and Brynna 1st. Both were excited and nervous.

wearing their toothless grins

How did they get to be so grown up?

TRIP TO MISSOURI

Uncle Seth(my brother) and I drove with the kids to G'ma and G'pa's house in Missouri before school started. Uncle Nathan, Aunt Tegan, a house full of cousins, Uncle Brett and Uncle Adam were going to be there and we couldn't pass up seeing everyone. Uncle Adam was getting ready to leave on his mission to Argentina and Uncle Seth was preparing to go to London for his graduate studies and so it was the perfect time to go.

The boy cousins played video games, the girls played with Grandma's special horde of dolls,

and the adults visited. With a family so large it is not often that many of us are able to be together and it always results in a chaotically good time.

One of the highlights, for my kids at least, was being able to go shooting. It was their first time and Tracen had been praying about it for months. Uncle Nathan was happy to help his prayers get answered.

Uncle Nathan talked to the kids about gun safety and rules for when we go shooting.

keyan and tracen with their protective eye wear

*cousins*

brynna-kate-makenzie

tracen

cousin sam

-story about sam-

he was standing off to the side while someone else took their turn shooting and one of the hot shells popped into his shoe. he started screaming and dancing around. it took us a second to figure out what had happened. by the time we got his shoe off he had a couple big blisters where the shell had burned him. with tears in his eyes and his little voice shaking he asked, "Am I going to die?" It was the sweetest and most heart wrenching moment and we all just wanted to squeeze the poor kid. His dad gave him a big hug and reassured him that he was going to be fine, and then it was his time to shoot. Needless to say he was a little less enthusiastic about the outing after that.

brynna

cousin kenzie

-you do not want to meet this girl in a dark alley somewhere with a gun-

keyan

cousin kate

cousin brennan

checking out one of uncle adam's unfinished sculptures that we were using as a target.

the poor guy didn't make it through in one piece.

uncle adam

target

tracen carrying a piece of the sculpture after the dust settled

so grown up and shooting guns

*so proud*

the girls were pretending to be spies...spies with cheers!

"GOOOO SECRET AGENTS!"

We were also able to spend a little more time with Brook,

the little girl my parents are adopting.

She turned three in October and was good buds with cousin creighton by the time the visit was over. Since then she has referred to cute little creighton as "my boy" because apparently they were two peas in a pod.

It was a short trip, but a nice one and was perfect as our last hurrah before school started. It may be a while until we see all those fun cousins again,

but we'll happily look forward to the next time, whenever it may be.

Messes

Pictures of Maddox from July.

-no this was not self inflicted or due to his love of food-

I tried to smear food all over him to help him work on his sensory issues and

loved the many messy faces that followed!!

*love him*