Our Month of Gratitude

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!

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!

 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!

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!

It is Halloween!

Halloween! So much fun with kids! I love that they have so many fun chances to dress up and party. We started out with our ward Halloween carnival (which Ben missed, traveling for work). I was a little worried about wrangling all three with the chaos and all that, but it went really smoothly. Partly, because a few baby-lovers in the ward wanted to hold Davis, so I went around and did the games with the big kids.  The next night we had the trunk or treat at my parents ward which was also fun!

This year I wanted to use stuff we had/could borrow instead of buying Halloween costumes. Hudson, wonderfully, wanted to be a SWAT guy, which is what Chase was last year. I decided to have Davis be a jack-o-lantern and just make it a tradition for all my babes to wear this little costume their first Halloween. Chase was the hard one. He had a hard time deciding what to be, when I presented the idea of wearing his adventure vest and being an explorer! He loved that idea! We already had the vest and borrow the hat from Nana and he had his costume! They all looked so cute and loved dressing up!

 I love seeing these pics of all my babies side by side. Such cute little pumpkins!

We carved pumpkins for FHE on Monday night. The boys gutted their own pumpkins this year- Hudson loved it, Chase was grossed out. They both designed their own pumpkins, Hudson's is Dracula. Davis was super happy watching it all going on. We lined them up for this picture and Davis got really fussy until Ben grabbed the tiny pumpkin from the porch to put in front of him, and then he was all smiles! He just wanted to be part of the fun!

 Then it was finally Halloween! The kids got to dress up for school. Hudson had a party at preschool and Chase's school does a Halloween parade, which Davis and I went to watch! Then later in the afternoon I got to go help with Chase's class party. I was in charge of reading Halloween books to the kids (which Chase carefully selected from our collection that morning). It was so fun to get to be in his class.

 Then it was FINALLY time to trick or treat! We went up to Nana and Papa's first, then Ben took the boys around our neighborhood. Davis and Hudson lasted about 45 minutes, and then came home. Ben took Chase out for round two after that. He was so into it, running from house to house. Ben said Hudson was much more laid back about it. And Davis just loved being included and seeing all the fun from the stroller.

 I found this is Chase's backpack and I thought it was the cutest thing ever. It says "It explores (the) jungle. And it has a weird hat. What am I?" I LOVE this stage of spelling. It's the best.

All the Fall Fun!

We can't get enough of this fall beauty! The crisp air, the colorful leaves, and so many fun things to do! We've found ourselves in the mountains as often as we can! I love hiking with this little crew. Hudson still maintains, "downhill is my favorite kind of hill!" every time we head back downhill. 

Another big change came in early October, Ben changed jobs (again!). Hopefully for the last time in awhile. He really didn't love Paychex and an opportunity came up to go work for a start up in American Fork. He was excited about the start up (Redlist) and the experience and possibilities there, so after lots of thought and prayer we decided to make the jump! It has been a lot of work (and unfortunately a lot of travel this month) but Ben is liking it and we are hopeful it will be a good fit for him!

This view from our back windows is always amazing, but really so beautiful in the fall! The marsh has since turned yellow/gold and it just takes my breath away every single time I see it (which is like 100 times a day). We all love where we live so much!

We did the real deal pumpkin patch experience this year, meaning we went with Papa to a pumpkin patch he grew! This field is full of specialty pumpkins with so much variety! The boys loved seeing all the different kinds and immediately went nuts picking and picking and picking. And of course, Papa let them pick like 13 pumpkins (seriously, 13) that now look so cute on our front porch. Hudson was so excited when he found the perfect orange/red pumpkin that he immediately kissed it! He's since visited his pumpkin on the front porch many times and kisses it each time!

We have been hiking with our friends, the Jacobs, a few times this month. Adam and Chase and Leah and Hudson get along so well! They run all over this mountain trail and come home happy and super dirty every time!

Hudson walked in my room one morning after getting dressed. He had his shirt on like this, 2 buttons off, one side of his collar popped and the other tucked in and said with a totally straight face, "Mom, did I get my buttons right?" and then in exasperation "these sleeves are so awkward!"

We spent one lovely, golden Friday afternoon at the park! Davis had his first time in a swing! Hudson helped push him and Davis totally loved it!

My dad got released as Bishop! It's crazy to me to think it's really been five years (plus a few months) since he was called. It's been an amazing experience for our family to watch my dad and mom serve and love their ward. It's taken up so much time and he's selflessly and humbly served. I'm glad we got to be there to hear them both speak and to celebrate the end of this time for them. 

Fall break happened! We had a great time. We spent Thursday morning at the coolest park with the Newbold gang (but I was too busy talking with Jodi to take any good pictures). That afternoon we went with Nana and Nora to Dinosaur park! The boys love this place. There are so many trees there, which were beautiful fall colors and it was a perfectly crisp afternoon. It was so much fun!

Friday Chase spent the whole day farming with Papa. Davis and Hudson and I went to Target and then out to lunch with Nana, Nora, Sue, Moira and Caroline. Huds and Nora were actually super well-behaved at lunch and content to play together!

One Saturday Papa blew a HUGE pile of leaves for the boys to jump in. Pure delight!

Papa Ray came to visit! He had a training to teach in Salt Lake so he stayed with us for two nights while he was here. This is the only picture I got, but the boys liked seeing him!