November is always such a beautiful month! I love thinking of our blessings all month long. We put up our Thankful tree and Ben and I had a few discussions about spending the month being present, enjoying the kids, counting our blessings and not stressing the small stuff. It was a good reminder for me mentally and I can say I really just ENJOYED my life and my kids this month and felt so very blessed every single day.
This is how family prayer ends most nights. Everyone just piles on dad.
The first Saturday of the month we had little dates with our kids. Chase earned a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut for making his reading goal in October, so Ben took him to cash that in and sent me this adorable picture. I took Hudson to Pizza Pie Cafe and failed to take any pictures, but I did enjoy listening to him talk the whole time. In my defense, we had Davis with us.
A neighbor gave us Pie Face. Oh man, the boys LOVE this game. It made another appearance later in the month. The boys love getting pied, and love when anyone else does too. They happily help the person clean their face and lots of whipped cream is eaten in the process.
We raked leaves and jumped in them. I tried to set Davis in with the boys for a photo, but he did not see the magic in the activity. This is seriously one of Chase's very favorite things to do in the fall. Thank goodness we had a lot of trees! Once we were done, the boys helped me load all the leaves into the trash can!
We spent one gloriously warm afternoon at the park. Chase took Davis down the slide again and again and Davis loved it. I love seeing this boy in his role as big brother!
I finally took these pictures down like 11 days after Halloween. I loved the way they decorated the doors during Halloween. All of these were their own ideas and I just loved what they came up with. It was very festive!
In my spirit of Thanksgiving, I took a little more time during my day to just love on my sweet kids. I really love these little guys. They are adorable, hilarious and full of so much love!
Davis had a cold and a really fussy patch there for awhile, so he went back into the ergo just like his newborn days! I made several dinners like this! Ben is working later hours these days and is almost never home before 7:00. I was spoiled before having an extra adult around during dinner prep!
I love the way Chase is learning to write and spell. Some of these things he brought home were so darling!
While Heidi was in town, Jana was also in town for a day! So we all got together and it was fabulous. I love these sisters of mine so much!
We made three pies for our Thanksgiving dinner. We did a pumpkin pie, lemon sour cream pie and an apple pie. Clearly, Chase knew exactly how to make the pumpkin pie! The boys helped me (for awhile) and so did my mom and Heid, and they all turned out so good!
We went up to visit my Grandma one morning right before Thanksgiving. I really should get there more often, it always makes Grandma so happy, especially to see this baby! He smiled and smiled for her (Hudson was kind of stinker while we were there- a theme for him that particular week)
We had a game night with the whole family right before Thanksgiving. We brought pie face and lots of laughter and enthusiasm ensued. We also played a few other games. Chase is really into games these days- he loves them and can't get enough.
Our Thankful Tree. Chase really got it this year. He came up with great things he was thankful for, and I love his spelling so much! He got really sick one day and missed school, so we carefully came up for things he could be thankful for even while he was sick, like medicine and his pillow. I wanted to take a picture and Hudson was so mad he didn't get to hold Davis, so we had to take another shot. Speaking of Davis, he was one of the first things we put on the tree. We are all SO THANKFUL for Davis this year. This little guy has brought so much joy and happiness to our home and we all love him so much. Almost every day when I would ask Hudson what he wanted to put on the tree he'd say "Davis".
We started off Thanksgiving morning with a bike ride/run/walk on this beautiful trail! It was beautiful weather, like 60 degrees and it was great company and a fun time!
Then we went home and got working on our dinner! For Thanksgiving day we had my parents and Heidi over to our house. We loved being able to host! We made the turkey, green beans, sweet potato casserole, and previously mentioned pies. My mom brought stuffing, salad and homemade rolls. It was a super delicious feast! We played a hilarious game of Clue in between dinner and dessert and there was some football watching in there as well.
Oh Hudson- like I said, he was kind of a stinker this week. Stinker or not, we are still all thankful for this crazy kid!
And here is the photographic evidence of us "ete[ing] at Nanu's and popu's", "at the sqaur taibll", in the white room. We did an early Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family and it was super delicious. We didn't remember to bring any baby food for Davis, and he happily feasted on squash, stuffing and rolls!
Thanksgiving morning I woke up with my heart so full of gratitude and my eyes brimmed with happy tears. I'm so thankful for the life I have. I'm so thankful for my four guys who are all I ever dreamed of and have made me so happy. I am so thankful we are healthy and live in such a wonderful, safe, happy home. I was thankful we got to have extended family together for the holiday. My life is so full!
