1st Grade Concert

Monday night Austin had his first concert at school.  All the kid's wore jammies (preferably Christmas ones) and sang an adorable medley of holiday favorites.  We got to meet several of his good friends, and my boy was the ultimate ham, as usual.  Apparently during dress rehearsal he refused to do any of the actions that went along with the songs (as reported by Jacob the Narc), but when it came time for the live performance he was fantastic.

Austin and Aiden

 Austin and Annie (one of his BFF's)

 Austin and Leah

 Austin and our Leah, who thought it was soooo cool Austin also has a friend with her name

 The rest of the shots are a little fuzzy, taken from our seats with a wiggling diva on my lap, but they capture my crazy boy perfectly.

 60+ first graders

 Reciting his line

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Someone just CANNOT keep her hands off the tree.....

Annual Santa Hat Pictures

Back by popular demand, the now traditional, annual, Santa Hat pictures!

Day 4 of our Advent Activity countdown to Christmas:

Little Helper

Leah has finally hit the age where she wants to clean.  When I work in the kitchen, she has her handy Magic Eraser and wipes down anything and everything she can reach.  She loves to dust, and vacuum too.

Last week I was working in the bedroom and walked out to find this:

She had pulled the stool up to the sink on her own and was washing all the dishes (minus soap), and then laying them out on the stove to dry.

and yes Jen, those are the daisy duke shorts :)

November

My kids don't seem to be fazed by 40 degree weather - they continue to play outside until it's dark and I have to haul them inside kicking and screaming.  Austin looks horribly pissy in this picture , but he wasn't.  

I think he's trying to perfect his GQ serious look...

 This is my favorite hat (and Leah's too).   She looks adorable in it, even with a face covered in Halloween chocolate

 We made our inaugural fire tonight - oh how I have missed these bad boys.  My thermostat currently reads 80 degrees.  I love fall.

Halloween 2012 in Pictures

Pumpkin Patch, Playdate and Carving

We went back to EZ Orchards this year for our pumpkin patching.  I asked the kids if they wanted to try someplace new and it was unanimous to go back to what is becoming our traditional destination for fall festivities   They're the place with the amazing donuts (apple cider and pumpkin this time) so I don't mind.

 The crazy balloon clown lady was probably the kids favorite part (although I think A's squid and J's tarantula look an awful lot alike...  Leah's poodle, however, was pretty awesome).

 one of my new favorite pictures

 Leah had just found out the hard way that rocks and balloon poodles don't play nicely together.  The back end of her doggy is slowly wilting.

 Saturday night we had some friends over, and they joined us in our latest pumpkin craft.  The girls decided the pumpkin ornaments worked well as masks too.

 Sunday was the annual Primary Program.  My boys were so handsome and they both rocked their parts.  Their dad and I couldn't have been prouder.

 Sunday afternoon brought pumpkin carving.  I was outvoted this year on painting again.  They all laughed at me when I put on plastic gloves to gut my pumpkin, but at least I was doing it...

 I also sifted through this mess to clean seeds for toasting.

 This face (and the 2 others that go with him) are the only reason I carve pumpkins.  

They're worth it.

 Jake did his entire pumpkin by himself.

 As usual, Dad was the last one at the carving table.

 Austin's Bat in the Moon

 Jake's Fright Face

 My cheerful jack-o-lantern 

(which I shared with Leah after she rolled hers off the table and busted it open)