November

Our November just zoomed by. How does that work? 

It's been a strange year. Here are my geraniums on November 16. Geraniums usually die in early October. I pulled these buck-the-trend flowers on the 17th because it was suppose to snow and I hate pulling frozen flowers out of the frozen ground.

The girls helped me with a few projects. We painted paper with liquid autumn shades of watercolors.

Makayla is amazed we get to finally make a project again. We've been kinda slack with the projects since these two finally learned to ride bikes and made so many neighborhood friends this summer.

After the paint dried, we punched them with my leaf punch. We got plans for them!

On another day, we pulled out all of the wooden boxes Stan made for me years ago for a Relief Society dinner centerpiece.

The girls went to work, filling them with light-up candles,

 faux gourds,

 and fake leaves. We've got plans for these, too.

We spent the day at the mall, buying a few wardrobe picker-uppers from the super sale racks, Hailey told me she really needed a new shirt, as Popcorn (the hamster) ate her favorite shirt. Apparently, Hailey left the shirt near the cage and Popcorn managed to pull it into her cage and use it as a chew toy/bedding/toilet. Makayla solemnly told me she needed a black outfit. Black goes with her hair.

We even found some sale

winter gear.

Hailey still goes to occupational therapy once a week, and from time to time, Makayla gets to join her. Today they are playing that classic therapeutic game "Catch Cheetos With The Shaving Cream On My Head".

Stan spent an evening putting up a few lights.

Just in time! The next day it snowed. We keep it simple these days-what goes up has to be taken down and we're just too old to climb around in the cold and snow getting lights off of things.

Things got REALLY fun when the Bassetts showed up.

Jordan brought this cute game she made, and the kids played it happily for an hour or two. Sadly, my picture of the game didn't turn out.

We continued the Thanksgiving tradition of making turkeys out of candy and cookies.

We also continued the tradition of licking frosting off our fingers.

 Cute little "I lost my teeth in a bike accident" Ava.

 Aren't these the cutest grandkids you've ever seen?

 Oh my. Oh my oh my. 

Chase's wonderfully goofy photo smile just makes me giggle every time I see it.

 Yeah, I wouldn't eat that. There's so much shared saliva from everyone's finger-licking, you're likely to eat some pretty contaminated candy....

Hannah's photo smile is nearly as funny as Chase's. Her photo smile involves squinting her eyes. 

 Oops, I caught a real smile!

 Go Big Blue!

We made a few dozen of these beauties.

It was pretty exhausting work.

Seeing Shelly with her kids reminds me of the old days of

 endless braiding. I miss that.
Shelly, are you old enough to have such a grown-up child?

Shelly's beautiful work.

 Hannah has grown so much since we saw her in June.

She's really into saying everyone's name, and wow! Does she ever look like her sister Ava.

It was fun to see these guys have a good time together.

Finally, Thanksgiving arrived and my helpers got busy.

If you're going to have 25 people eat at your house, you need a few dependable workers to pull it together.

Note Hailey and Makayla's boxes, Hailey and Makayla's hand painted leaves (on the runner), and everyone's turkeys.

Lovely! Thanks for all the help! 

I was in charge of the rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, but once again, I had help.

This time we washed our hands and remembered not to lick our fingers.

This beautiful girl is growing up sooo fast. She was just a tiny bit shorter than I was at Thanksgiving, and I know that next time I see Kailyn, she will be at least an inch taller and still growing.

Look at all of these hands, working to get the rolls done.

Good thing! We made 10 dozen rolls over three days--some for the missionaries we fed, some for our dinner, 

and some for the Bassett's second dinner with Ken's family.

It would have taken me centuries to make these by myself.

I could hardly keep up with all of the roll-rollers.

 I could tell these kids are used to pitching in at home- they worked uncomplainingly to help pull dinner together.

Except for maybe Hannah, who didn't fancy the idea of putting her dough on the pan.

That's okay, she's really good at being adored

and loved.

These were yummy! They disappeared as fast as we could pull them out of the oven. They were especially tasty because of all the sizes and shapes the kids made.

 I also tried a few new recipes this year in addition to three pumpkin pies: Death by Chocolate Pie and Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake.  Oops, I just gained another 5 lbs looking at them.

Makayla found one of those new-fangled coloring books meant for grown-ups while snooping  searching through my stuff and pulled it out.  I intended to give it to Hailey and Makayla at a later date, but it looks like that plan is over.

It was great. The kids colored

and colored.

 They would put them aside to do other things, then come back and color some more.

Occasionally we colored where we shouldn't have colored.

After dinner, the kids colored and we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples.

After everyone went home and we cleaned up, I suddenly realized what I SHOULD have bought the grandkids for Christmas this year.

These candles came with a remote control, and the kids spent several hours turning them on and off.  See Ava's sad face? In true big brother fashion, Caden kept turning "her" lights on and off with his remote.

After spending a few days with us, the Bassetts left to spend a few days with Ken's family, but not before we fed them a nutritious breakfast.

We met back up with Bassetts and Ken's parents to make a trip to Scheels

followed by a fun day at the rollerskating rink.

Even Hannah took a few roller-steps.

Beautiful Amy and silly photo bomber.

Heads up, folks. Roller skating is NOT like riding a bike. If you haven't been skating for 35+ years, you are not going to feel comfortable with wheeled shoes on your feet. Stan and I toddled around the outside of the rink for 10 or 15 minutes before we trusted ourselves to join the crazy-fast group in the center. Unfortunately, despite our practicing, we both took a graceful splat. Yeah, you're right. It wasn't that graceful. Oh, the indignities of the elderly!

On to December! Fun times ahead!