Thanksgiving

Some friends organized a Friendsgiving at the church this year! We packed the place pretty well with a large gaggle of our collective kids and had quite the feast. 

 

Felix was more interested in rolling around a basketball than eating food.

Isaac and Annie both had pie parties that Felix and I attended. Isaac's featured a stirring enactment of "Turkey Trouble" (he was turkey dressed as a cow) with pizza and pie for desert. Annie's was straight pie- each got 6 slices with unlimited whipped cream to sample and rank. 

Our Thanksgiving Feast was delicious this year! We had all the classics and got to enjoy the perfect weather outside. 

Poor Isaac had the flu and was running a temperature, so we made him a puzzle table on the patio. Claudia brought over some of their 100 piece puzzles for him. He did 3 of them! He's a puzzle fiend these days. He had no appetite and ate only a piece of pie all day. 

The rest of us had a Thanksgiving pool party! We had a fierce game of PIG that Stephen won. 

The day ended with a magnificent sunset as we ate pie around the fireplace. 

We have so much to be grateful for this year! We are truly blessed to have such close relationships with our family here, and to have great friends and things to be a part of as well. I've seen growth in all of the kids this year. It's a wonderful life we lead!

Felix's First Steps

Felix gets another post because he has been wowing us all with his skills, and because he's just a little guy.

Felix is obsessed with cars. Parking lots are places of immense joy for him. After each meal, I tell him, "All done!" and he responds, "Car!" because he knows he will get to look for cars out the window while I wash him up. 

The sweetest of all car-loving little heads

Some of my best Relief Society work is done on walks around the lake. Felix is always up for it!

Somehow all of my children have independently decided that they love climbing into this particular drawer. 

He discovered toilets. We now have strict rules about keeping bathroom doors closed, or he WILL go for a splash. 

Now for some videos!

Felix's fan club from the ward potluck helped form a basketball percussion group. 

He loves books, and has lots of favorites. Annie is the only one who has been able to get him to showcase the fact that he has all of "Peek A Who" memorized. Aaron and I went back to our videos of all the other kids and determined that he's our earliest talking baby.

This is a good shot of his little voice, laughs, and the antics of his daddy and siblings

And now for the big milestone- Felix took his first steps at 16 months old! He has been VERY opposed to the idea of taking steps or standing by himself for a long time, although he would walk a little bit with someone holding his hands. Now he will stand or take a few steps and clap for himself, or walk all over the place holding someone's hand. He really likes it when we cheer for him. 

Life is much more entertaining with baby Felix around!

Fall Happenings

Isaac's Kindergarten class had the cutest Teddy Bear Picnic! They used their Tongs to put their Treats in their Teddy bear bag, then we went outside for a picnic on the grass. It was so cute watching Isaac interacting with his classmates. 

The kids got to put all their teddies on a parachute. Classic elementary school. 

Isaac's school picture is worth documenting. It's up for debate if this facial expression is a grimace of pain or a soulless stare into the abyss. 

The cub scout pack went to Apple Annie's. It was our first time going.

Elliot and James did a great job navigating us through the beginner and intermediate mazes. Apple Annie's was not messing around- the mazes were LONG! It was nice the boys were locked in, and we could blissfully meander after them. 

We took the hayride to the pumpkin patch, were we frolicked and looked for the lumpiest pumpkin while the kids asked when it was going to be pie time. 

The apple orchard was a short drive away. We picked Asian pears and a couple of varieties of apples, Then rounded off the day with apple cider donuts and pie. 

In case we didn't have enough produce, we went in on a borderlands rescue produce box and ended up with mangos that were literally the size of Isaac's head. They were so good, too!

The Library gave out free tickets to the Children's museum, so we spent a lovely morning hanging out there.

The jump screen

Felix enjoyed climbing in the tinker toy bins probably better than any other activity there

Another dad was seeing how many blocks he could jump in the courtyard. Aaron whispered to me that he could clear 7. Naturally, I forced him to back up his claim. He could indeed jump over 7 to the amazement of all the people of the courtyard!

A series of jump related challenges ensued. 

Grumpa and Mimi dispatched two rattlesnakes by their pool, leading to the creation of our "Snake Rules."

Aunt Trisha came to town! She wanted to go to a Monster Truck Rally in Phoenix. My family spent the night before with Mary, and Annie and I went to see Rebekah in "Legally Blond: The Musical." We met up with Trisha, Breezy, and her friend Maja at the rally. It was more fun than I thought it would be! The Classroom Crusher pictured above was my favorite. He smashed himself to pieces then jumped into what remained of the pool at the end. We were delighted to find that they had the most Annie coded truck of all time- a unicorn truck named Sparkle Smash driven by Kayla Blood (we will claim her as a distant cousin), a beautiful woman that ripped off her helmet, let down her long blonde hair, and did a roundoff after each of her runs. 

The kids crashed hard on the long drive home from the rally. 

We started having the Wickley family over for weekly dinners while their Dad is deployed. They are vegetarian, and we are attempting to be more vegetarian, so it works out great! Cruz loves the quail. 

Cub scouts had a rocket launch day! Felix cried for the first several launches- too noisy. Annie's was lost in a tree. The wow factor of rockets launched hundreds of feet in the air wore off, and many of the kids found more immediate joy in tossing their rockets into the mud. 

Blake had a birthday! We celebrated at Texas Roadhouse. 

Grumpa and I made some little cutting boards out of the mesquite wood from the front yard tree! They are perfect for cutting up the morning bananas and slicing apples. I use them as plates when I'm feeling rustic. 

Isaac's Kindergarten teacher is a saint! Notes like this crack us all up. Apparently he had a 'no shoes' coupon and forgot to put his shoes back on before going to lunch, which is actually a bit of a hike to the cafeteria that is shared by SPS, SIS, and SMS. Somehow the solution to the no-shoes problem was that he ate his lunch in the office with the principal? I'm still confused, but Isaac thinks it was a great adventure. Mrs. Chittum emailed me to say that Isaac would be taking a break from 'no shoes' coupons for a while. 

Halloween

We started out the Halloween season with a Trunk-or-Treat at The Villas where Papa lives. This was probably peak costuming for us this year since it was the only time we had Breezy on hand to do Annie's killer vampire makeup. 

 

The cute dragon hat lasted 2 seconds. 

The parties were relentless. Ballet, Gymnastics, cub scouts, the ward Trunk-or-Treat... it seemed like a lot this year!

Elliot decided to pivot his costume to being a "Waist/Waste of Time" for Halloween night. We had our new neighbors over for spaghetti with meatball eyeballs, and then Mimi and Karina's family came over for trick or treating. I never get tired of dispensing candy through my Frankenstein nose. Halloween is not my favorite holiday, but it is the best holiday at getting neighbors out and talking to each other, and I do like that. I just wish there were less dismembered body parts involved. 

New this year- we did a count of the candy from halloween night and did some graphing. Annie was very enthusiastic about her data analysis.

Annie at 8

Annie campaigned long and hard to get two things for her 8th birthday: bangs and pierced ears. 

The bangs in particular took a lot of persuasion because I knew I would have to trim them- but I do think they turned out adorable, and Annie loves them! She does her own hair now, and it consistently looks much better than when I was in charge of doing it. 

Here's Annie with her doppelganger, Brooklyn. I think a lot of people were relieved when Annie got bangs- it's a bit easier to tell them apart now, even on the many days that they find themselves wearing matching outfits. 

Annie was a champ when we got her ears pierced! We went to a place called Straight to the Point. Annie was nervous and had lots of questions but went right into the chair with no hesitation when the time came. She's been doing a great job keeping them clean and has been begging to shorten the recommended wait time for being able to swap out to other earrings for weeks now.  

Annie's greatest passion these days is gymnastics. She was born with muscles so tight that her pediatrician had me moving her head from side to side to stretch out and loosen her muscles when she was a baby. She worked HARD to learn how to to do the splits... and cartwheels... and handstands... and and back bends! I have a vast reservoir of videos on my phone of her doing her gymnastics tricks. She likes watching the recordings to see how she can do better. It's awesome watching her work so hard at something she loves. It's also a bit dangerous around the house because if you don't watch out, you could get kicked in the face by Annie flipping into a headstand and not noticing you were nearby. She spends a substantial amount of her waking hours upside down. 

She's getting pretty strong!

Annie remains the social butterfly of the family. She frequently gets off the bus and ends up going to a friend's house. She reports that she is in the "grape" reading group at school, which is the only one that is reading chapter books. She's an excellent reader, but sitting alone with a book is usually low down on list of things she likes to do. Her younger brothers adore her- Felix is always talking about "Nana" and although sometimes that means "banana," usually it means he's thinking about her. She's always looking out for Isaac and will help him say his prayers or do "Isaac School" with him. She's curious and likes talking about new ideas- she asks great questions, and it's delightful seeing the moment when things click into place for her. She signed herself up for a solo in the Primary Program and brought me to tears when she absolutely nailed the last line of "My Own Sacred Grove." She's up for anything and a great person to have around!

Annie's Birthday

Annie's birthday fell on the Saturday at the end of Fall Break this year. It was an action packed day! The morning started with the oh-so-important event of Annie's Baptism!

 

Annie is beautiful inside and out. She is kind, loving, and brave. 

We are all so proud of our gal and were glad to be there to support her!

Of course we needed a picture of the Kimberlies! Mimi showed up with a wagon of tablecloths and floral arrangements for the room. 

The program was lovely. Breezy and Grumpa gave the talks, and Casa Johnson folks and I put together a day-of musical number. It is overwhelmingly sweet to see Annie with her Daddy in the baptismal font and receiving the Holy Ghost. She had lots of friends from church there to support her- and also her best friend Ellie and her teacher, Mrs. Miller!

A few hours later, we transitioned to party mode! Annie had a KPop Demon Hunters birthday party. 

The plan was to watch the sing-along version of the whole movie while eating bottomless popcorn. They ended up being too antsy to watch the whole movie, so we moved downstairs for games, pizza, and ramen. 

Follow-the-leader dancing is a staple at any Annie birthday. Isaac was so eager to get his turn doing his famous Isaac style dance with all the kicks and punches. 

Aaron agreed to be a human pinata again this year. We branded it as him being a demon they had to slay while "Takedown" was blasting on the speakers. In retrospect, this needed to be done at the park because there were far too many kids. They cornered him with their sheer numbers and he didn't want to knock them over, so he didn't get to do any of his cool jumping on counters moves. 

Happiest of birthdays, Annie!