November

 A busy, busy, wonderful and happy month:

Dinner with our old friends the Perkins over in Daybreak (where they live—you'd think we'd see them more often being so close!) My girls had a ball with their daughter Lauren. She has 3 brothers so maybe just the girl factor alone sealed the deal for her :) They have a new tiny babe, Hudson, who is purely delicious. It was fun to reconnect, discuss being parents to so many kiddos and see their brand new home. Reminded me that I have so much stuff...maybe I need to move again just so I can purge!

 

This pic is actually from October, just before our family pictures but I loved how dolled up my little lady was. Her soft hair didn't the hold curl too well once we were doing pics but she sure looked cute!

Tiago's baptism. We had all the local family together but not all of the cousins in this picture (Leo, Addy and Isabel). Bentley gave a talk and was so prepared—he had great personality and a lots of advice and instruction.

A Hawaiian dinner on a snowy day to tell the kids we're going to Hawaii with my parents in January! They were so surprised and are totally excited. Lucky, lucky, lucky! Last time we were there as a family was in 2008 so Cares hardly remembers how amazing it is. I'm just thrilled we get to play outside every day for 10 days in the middle of January and feel sunshine and warmth on our skin.

Sweet baby is a solid napper. This day he was watching a little show just before I put him down for a nap and it must have been too lulling for him. Sleeping babies are the best :)

My friend Lindsay and I planned a little girls' escape up at my parents' cabin for a group of friends from our ward. Most of them have served in callings with us at one time or another or are neighbors on our streets or pretty close by. We have the best ward and love them all so we really wanted to invite everyone! Of course that wouldn't work so we did what we could (hoping we didn't hurt anyone's feelings). We sent out the invite to 15 (including us) and ALL of us made it to dinner together that night over at Pizzeria Limone, and then 13 of us stayed over at the cabin. These pictures are from our early afternoon hike/walk. It was such a gorgeous day for November!

L to R: Lindsay (baby Charlotte), Carrie M., Stacy, Amber, Michelle (mama of Charlotte), Jenn, Kristin, Andrea and Jessica

Dinner at Cafe Rio in Kimball Junction Saturday night just before we went home. This was the whole cabin crew (and sadly a blurry picture). I love these women!! We had so much fun together and talked and talked and talked all night long. Some ladies even went to bed at 5 am! I only made it until 2:30 but then slept in until 9:00. It was such a great getaway and we totally bonded. Love strong, beautiful, righteous women in my life who inspire and uplift and help each other. And of course we laughed and shared and passed on lots of great knowledge—love that we felt comfortable and close enough to do so. Good, good times :)

 Beautiful November in the mountains

Right after our girls' getaway we held Young Women in Excellence on a Sunday evening. I asked my articulate, spiritual and world-traveled mom to come speak to us. Our theme was "Your Journey to Happiness" based on Elder Uchtdorf's talk from the YW general meeting last spring. Two of my YW spoke on sections of his talk, my secretary Jessica sang a beautiful song for us, and then my mom spoke on her experiences with travels and journeys and exploring new places which always shed light on Gospel truths and reminded her of her testimony and love of the Lord. She had such good stories and even though I'd heard most of them, they filled my heart that night and I could feel the Spirit bearing witness through her words. A few highlights so I can remember: sacrament with the Navajo branch in Page, AZ, Mary Lou singing I Am a Child of God in Japanese to a young Japanese Woman somewhere in the Alps, making friends with hikers (also in the Alps) and Dad's German giving him the perfect chance to share that he knows the language so well from being a Mormon missionary, and being preserved from harm in a sketchy Taxi in NYC. Cec joined us for the night as did my dad, and Joseph came up just for my mom's talk too (leaving Bean to babysit for 30 minutes) We had a great turnout from our YW and the night was a success. We did some cute decorating with maps and vintage suitcases too, and our YW brought a pair of shoes to show off their talents and displayed them in some cute shoe-boxes they'd wrapped in brown packing paper. I have no pictures of anything else from the night but the one above. At least I got one with my mom and Joseph's awesome chalkboard art he created about an hour before the meeting started! Another big YW event checked off for the year. Now to start plans for New Beginnings (a never-ending cycle :)

 Cutest little vest buddies

 Date night! L to R: Jenny & Russ Emery (used to live across the street from us but moved a few miles away), Chris & Lindsay Barnes, and Brittany & Scott Daw (also neighbors who recently moved to Riverton). We made them try Settebello with us and then they came to our house for games and hanging out. Love these great people.

 Pre-Thanksgiving feast with our LeBaron family about 10 days before the actual holiday. Joseph worked like crazy to make this turkey a delicious success. Wish we'd gotten a picture of all of us together! We are trying to make sure we do Sunday dinner all together once a month while Nanny and Neil are gone on their mission. We've been good so far and have been trading off who hosts all of us (we are only 8 adults and 12 kids but it's still quite a crew!)

 A fun morning downtown with my mom while our car got an oil change. Loved Pottery Barn (as always) but it was a huge sign that Christmas is coming!!

Hunger Games date night with Cec and Chad. Such a good movie! And it was free as our mortgage broker had rented out a theater for his clients. He actually teamed up with the Freiss real estate team so we ended seeing their great family their too.

Lights on the house and kids on the roof. Freaky but adorable and they got the job done. Except that one strand is out on the far side of the house and we still haven't replaced it and now there is a solid layer of snow on the roof. It may just be a little off this year, but I still love my lights! Thanks for putting them up babe!