Once Upon a November. 2014, that is.

Ahhhh, November.

And continuing almost where I left off in October ..... Emma's wacky braids for her Halloween costume -- turned into some REALLY wild hair on All Saints' Day:

The annual leaves .... what am I going to do when all my leaf-rakers have permanently moved out?

(More on leaves in a moment.)

So, I didn't even stop to count how many photos I stuck in this blog post. All I know is that November kept us hopping. This was a banner year for our Alyssa, because she hit the two-decade mark. Twenty.

I know, right??? I must have been 9 years old when I had her. How can she possibly be twenty years old??? 

This is Alys with her her beau. (About a week before he proposed!)

So we had our traditional family birthday party. Streamers and balloons. And this is Emma, doing "Heavy, Heavy Hangover" and giving Alyssa her gift:

We did cakes differently this year -- and ohhhhh, man, was it ever good!! It's about the size of a bread pan (so we got two of them!), and this one is an orange creamsicle cake.

YUM!!

The following Monday, we went bowling for Family Home Evening. It's not something we do very often -- bowling is more of an occasional thing in our family. Emma had a lot more fun after we raised the bumpers ... heh, heh, heh!

I think it's interesting to see each person's individual bowling style ....

Todd has a spin and a quiet delivery. 

Me -- not so much!!

Miss Darcie turned out to be the amazing bowler of the evening -- outscoring all of us.

Miss Emma has pretty amazing form:

I smile because Alyssa bowls .... like she pitches softball! That's called, "muscle memory" right there!!

(at least she doesn't wind-up over her head, right?!)

(And Cameron bowls a lot like his dad!)

Like I said -- we bowl for fun. So don't expect impressive scores. Except Darcie. Who wrapped up her evening feeling pretty good about 6 strikes and three spares. Seriously? Whose child is this?

Moving on!

I hope when my kids grow up and reflect back on their childhoods, .... I hope that they remember things like jumping in piles of leaves.....

..... tossing them high over their heads....

... and burying themselves in them!!

November is also the wedding anniversary of this young couple:

Fifty-three years for Todd's parents!! Love them so much!!

And as memories go, I'm pretty sure that both Cameron and Darcie will look back and remember this one: The time that Darcie talked Cameron into asking her out on a "date". And he really put some effort into this one...... he cleaned out the vehicle, they both dressed up, he actually came to the front door and picked her up, (shook my hand!) .... opened the vehicle door for her, ..... and took her to dinner and a movie. I was so impressed with him!!

Impressed, yes. But I shouldn't be surprised, though. When he was young, he really had a handle on courtesies. He was always jumping forward to hold doors open for him momma. It makes me smile, knowing that my kids have grown from playing with each other, to actually being friends as adults. This makes my heart sing!

And this photo is .... "Mom, we're going to leave now, so you'll have to stop taking pictures."

And, we made our annual trip to Locomotive Park to enjoy the holiday lights there. This year, we went rather early -- I know this, because our photos were taken in November. (Usually it's the first or second week of December when we go.) Pretty sure it was a certain six-year-old that was the driving force behind the early trip. There was no snow, but it was a bit on the rainy and wet side.

Because it was wet, I thought the pathway looked like a river of light with all the reflections on it.

Next up -- Thanksgiving Day, and all the trimmings. Once again, it was two turkeys, outside in the smoker grills, starting pretty early in the morning.

I was really glad to see that Todd marshalled the troops and they all got busy with putting up the outdoor Christmas lights on Thanksgiving morning! It was perfect mild weather for it, and with all the extra help, they really got 'er done.

(Light-testers extraordinaire!)

It was fun to get Cameron and his cousin, Nathan, together again!

These two are only 3 weeks apart in age and it had been a while since they'd seen each other:

I think we ended up with 16 people, overall, for dinner. It was really, really nice. I love that we sit together, and eat and talk and everyone is so relaxed.

Maybe that's just all the tryptophan in the turkey, though.  Haha!!

Turkey chef extraordinaire!
(and he makes a mean smokey green bean casserole, too!)

And, finally......

As per usual, the day after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas tree!!

(Which made it really nice to have both the outdoor lights, and most of the indoor decorations all put up during one weekend -- and DONE!! We need to do it this way every year!!)

When I asked him why he was growing out the facial hair, his response was,

"Because I can."

Fair enough. 

(He shaved it off not long after this.)

And we finished with our traditional egg nog toast.

Which got a little crazy. I'm just sayin'.

Lately, I've had the lyrics of the chorus to a country song running through my head, thinking about a few different things. The rest of the song doesn't really apply, but the chorus really strikes a note with me. Pun intended.

The song is, "These are My People" by Rodney Atkins. (It's on YouTube -- if you're interested.)

The chorus goes like this:

These are my people

This is where I come from

We're givin' this life everything we've got and then some

It ain't always pretty

But it's real

That's the way we were made

Wouldn't have it any other way

These are my people

I hope, when my kids are all grown and living on their own, that they can remember this.

That these are your people.

This is where you come from.

It's not always pretty. But I wouldn't change a thing.

It's us. And It's real.

 

october adventures. 2014 version.

In my mind, October will forever be the month of Emma's birthday. She kind of has the month all to herself. Especially after the rush of all the September family birthdays. 

One thing in particular about our Em that I treasure, is our snuggley chats at her bedtime, which are part of our whole bedtime routine. We talk about four things:

1. What was your Happy Time today?

2. What was your Sad Time today?

3. Angry Time?

4. Frustrated Time?

My answers usually vary. But her answers are almost always identical. I'm sure she'll grow out of giving me the same answers all the time, but for now, I'm loving this.

1. Her happy time is always, "Seeing you."

2. Her sad time is always, "Missing you."

#3 and #4 are always, "Didn't have one."

Wouldn't it be wonderful to dance through life with never an angry or frustrating moment? She's pretty well-grounded and doesn't have any separation anxiety, so don't let her #2 answer fool you.

She reminds me a little bit of my own younger self.

When I was her age, I would go downstairs to my dad's "corner", and sit on his lap to tell him goodnight. And we would talk and talk. He never got tired of my questions. Looking back on that, I used to never understand why my siblings all labeled me as "Dad's favorite". But as a parent, now when I look back on that, I realize how that habit of mine must have endeared me to him. Still miss my wonderful dad!

So, I'm starting off October's summary with photos of our super-sweet birthday girl:

Well. Sweet, and spunky.

Our weather in October actually remained quite nice .... nice enough for playing outside without a coat or jacket!

So, that scarecrow had been out on our front porch, and one windy/rainy afternoon, I brought it indoors, to keep it dry and prevent its falling over repeatedly. Two days later, I discovered the praying mantis on it. INDOORS. While I think a mantis is cool -- I want them in their own habitat. Not in mine!! OUT the door it went!!

October also had a lot of school, band, and spirit stuff going on for Darcie. It was her senior night for marching band:

I love her band friends -- they really rock!

Darcie was the lucky recipient of a check from our bank, through their. "Pays for A's" program. She was totally surprised by the giant check they presented to her at the high school's homecoming rally:

Alyssa and Emma and I snuck down to the school, and we surprised her, too.

The totally hilarious moment was when we were trying to be unobtrusive, and stay out of Darcie's line of sight, so she wouldn't see us and we might have to confess as to our purpose for being there.

And then she walked right in our direction (we turned our backs and tried to look small), and she was about five feet behind us, talking to someone up in the stands above us!!! And she did not clue in that it was us standing there. At all!! Todd says that it comes down to  the fact that people see what they're looking for -- and she wasn't looking for us. Obviously!!

So, we were a surprise to her, too:

Love her personality!

That night was the halftime performance at the homecoming game:

And the next night was the Homecoming Dance:

(You might have noticed that a few of those dance-night friends are the same people as the band-friends.) I love that she doesn't worry about boys or boyfriends, or any of that awkwardness. She just goes with friends, and she just wants to have fun. Hmm, sounds like a Cyndi Lauper song!

I feel lucky that they let me hang around and take photos of them. It's good practice for me!

And finally, Halloween:

I was kind of happy that Emma did not choose to be a princess for Halloween this year. Not that she wouldn't have been adorable, but it's kind of nice to change it up. Can you tell what she is?

She wouldn't let me very close to her eyes, so this is as good as the face paint got. The costume came with a head piece, but it was one of those that has the child's face coming out of the character's mouth -- which always seems kind of weird to me. So I opted not to use it, and we did makeup and hairstyle instead. And, we had fun braiding pipe cleaners into her hair, too!

She got together with an "Elsa" and an "Anna" at our church Trunk-or-Treat activity:

And then we really played with those braids when we changed clothes afterwards at the annual pizza party at Grandpa & Grandma's house:

Some of the other kids also dressed up for Halloween:

Well. Sort of!!

We're looking forward to welcoming Andrew -- Alyssa's fiance -- into the family this spring!

So exciting!!

Summin' Up September

September 2014.

Minimal Words. Plenty of Pictures.

This was us.

A thrilling First Day of School (Emma started Kindergarten. Darcie started her big senior year in high school. Wait. How is this possible??

Stop growing up!! Wait!! WAIT!!!!!!!!)

Rockin' the bright outfit!

Darcie was also rockin' the bright outfit. She was a "senior leader" on Day One.

Her sister left her a loving note on her Jeep:

Second Day of School: wearing the cool outfit.

And getting photo-bombed by a cat:

And we had a wedding in the family!! Here's Todd's brother, Clynn with his pretty new bride, Joey:

Parade Day! We found the perfect parade-spot: right in front of DQ. We ate lunch while waiting, and got ice cream treats when it was over. Why haven't I done this for all the years I've watched this parade??

The coolest band chick in the world:

... who waves to the five-year-old:

She also had the big 18th birthday. Not sure how that happened, either.

Her wish list included lots of books --- so this made her pretty happy:

I'm biased, but I think she's beautiful:

Other birthdays...... (celebrated together again!)

I think someone moved around the number candles!

And then, for one epic Family Home Evening, Todd took the whole family down to the shooting range. The girls have said that they don't ever remember shooting guns with us, so this was their moment. It was a pretty fun time!

When the zombie apocalypse comes, we can rest easy knowing we've got Darcie to defend us all!

(Todd also wanted to sight-in one of his newer guns -- that was the "reason" behind the trip.)

The End.

Sure love this family of mine!!