Thankful in November

November was a nice month. We had an FHE lesson at the beginning of the month about gratitude/thankfulness, so that helped us to bring a more grateful spirit into our home. This year we did a door of Thankfulness. Throughout the month we added pictures/descriptions of things we are thankful for.

 The details are kind of hard to see, but the kids drawing were cute!

This is what we had on our door for 2014. Over 100 things! 

turkey, raspberries, presents, rain and rainbows, my family, butterflies, cats, science, friends, ocean, prophets, Christmas trees, blankets, police, helicopter, un-baked, cookies, Halloween, water, fireworks, candy, terraria, Sky the fish, seasons, music, shapes, snow, joy, books, Lego Star Wars game, smiles, Box Car Children book, leaves, temple, the piano, foxes, education, people, bees, priesthood, paper, minions, bikes, balloons, horses, computers, peace, work, brains, a comfy place to sleep, flowers, babies, rolls, the earth, our house, running, the woods, our country, the alphabet, hamburgers, monkeys, pumpkins, orange chicken, birds, Christmas, STEM club, Santa, porcupines, light, shoes, Legos, parks, clothes, doors, deer, dolphins, pizza, Lily, Zach, Anwyn, Dad, Mom, watches, T.V., cars, hot dogs, salad, snowmen, birthdays, veterans, dogs, scooters, ice cream, church, Jesus, the sun, skunks, carrots, pumpkin bread, blueberries, cups, plates, spoons, squirrels

Zach's preschool class decorated turkey handprint t-shirts and had a cute little parade.

Jared had a High Council speaking assignment in Cross City the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We all travelled along with him and enjoyed visiting with the members of the branch there. They hosted a Thanksgiving dinner after church which was really nice.

The girls dressed up as pilgrims in primary in Cross City.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with our good friends the Beck family. They were kind enough to invite us over for dinner again this year, and we enjoyed fantastic food and great company. 

I am thankful this month that things are moving along well with pregnancy #4, and very thankful to be past the yucky nausea stage! 

20 weeks of pregnancy on Thanksgiving Day.

We are thankful for these three great kids in our family!

Another race and a beautiful hat

Anwyn participated in her second cross country race this past Saturday (November 1). The race was in Lakeland, FL, and was part of the middle school state championships. Jared and Anwyn made the 2.5 hour drive (leaving at 6:30 a.m.), while Kristi stayed home with Zach and Lily.

Anwyn ran the 2000m this time and did great. She ran it in 9:28, which put her in 6th place for the girls (3rd and 4th graders). She had a pretty bad stomachache for the entire race, sadly, but she still pushed herself hard to run fast. 

Ready to race!

Almost finished. 

We ended up with some unseasonably cold and windy weather that day, with highs in the 50 degree range. So Zach and Lily had to dress up warm to go play outside! 

Earlier this week Anwyn had a Vocabulary Hat Day at school. She had to pick a sizzling word and decorate a hat to illustrate it. She picked the word pulchritudinous (Jared's favorite word) and made a very beautiful hat. 

It was funny to hear Zach saying pulchritudinous repeatedly this week. 

Halloween Fun

We started off our Halloween activities this year with the First Ward Fall Festival. Chili and cornbread and hot dogs for dinner, then carnival type games, followed up by trunk or treating. It was a fun event that turned out well.

Anwyn was Hermione Granger from Hogwarts. Jared spent a few hours crafting her a wand from a piece of wood, and it turned out pretty neat.

The wand in stages from beginning to end.

Lily was a jellyfish. This was a fun and pretty easy costume to make, but Lily did get tired of holding the heavy umbrella. We attached glowstick bracelets to the bottom edges to make it glow, which was a neat effect in the dark.

And Zach picked superman this year (he has quite the assortment of superhero costumes now). He is definitely the cutest superman I've seen!

Zach wasn't the only superman at the fall festival that night. He posed with all the super missionaries currently serving in our ward.

The week of Halloween we had our traditional FHE activity at the pumpkin patch in Alachua.

We carved our pumpkins on Halloween Eve. This year we did three!

Halloween afternoon the children and Kristi went to Boo at the Zoo. This is an annual favorite event--trick or treating among the animals. The zoo staff and volunteers always do a fantastic job decorating with a lot of themes (this year they had Frozen, western, Legos, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, etc).

Lily opted to go as Little Red Riding Hood for this round, since neither she nor I wanted to carry the heavy jellyfish umbrella.

Lily made some scary signs to make sure our doorway was scary for any potential trick or treaters.

After a dinner of mummy dogs (pigs in a blanket) and veggies and dip, the kids headed out with Jared for some trick or treating in the neighborhood. 

After all of these fun events, our candy stash is well stocked for the next year!