Fall and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Time has been flying by, as per usual. This little lady is now 4 months old. She is a doll and loved by all.

Especially loved by her big brothers.

Now, for the fall recap. Enjoying one of the last warmer days, having lunch with dad at work.

We had a great Halloween! We enjoyed dressing up as the minions, Lucy, and Gru for our church trunk or treat. Russell was excited that we won best family costume. Both boys enjoyed carnival games and of course, candy.

Carving our minion pumpkin before Halloween. Some of us take themes seriously.

Russell also won best costume in his school class. I think the stakes for next year are now too high!

Happy trick or treaters! Russell is saying "BOO"

Love this sweet big brother:

The boys went on a leaf raking service project with Ricardo and took it very seriously.

We went to the local arboretum for family photos with the fall leaves. A few of my favorites..

We drove to Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with good old BYU friends. Our kids had never met and it was fun that they all played well together. We had a great trip!

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and the next day did a little Black Friday shopping. Russell wanted to buy this chair but was disappointed.

Otherwise we mostly just enjoyed hanging out with our friends. The babies stared at each other.

The 2 year olds played alongside and occasionally with each other.

And the big brothers went fishing (among other things).

Another former college roommate of mine drove in for a visit too! It was fun to reminisce and meet everyone's sweet kids!

By the end we were all exhausted, some more than others. Thomas couldn't quite finish his snack before falling asleep on the drive home!

We have enjoyed tons of great Christmas events around town this December. First we left the kids at home for Ricardo's work party. There are 9 kids between all of the first year residents (!)

A local church put on an amazing Bethelem reenactment that we got to walk through one night.

Coming home with the Christmas tree. Surprisingly, our adventurous Thomas was not interested in sitting on top of the car for this photo op.

Ricardo had a birthday in between all of the holiday festivities. The kids decorated the house for him to come home to and we enjoyed creme brulee for his birthday dessert (one of the few desserts he likes!)

I wanted to remember this quote from Thomas. He showed me this book and said "Look, that's my dad!" I hope he always thinks his dad is superman.

We went to a luminaria at the local arboretum, it started snowing a little bit while we were there. They were trying to eat snowflakes here.

We saw Santa at this event, which was a lego winter wonderland competition. Kids in the area entered their creations and then people could come see them and vote for the best one. They also had other crafts for the kids. It was really fun. There was a 2 min wait for Santa, you can't beat that!

First snow that stuck on the ground this winter. Russell immediately got on all of winter gear and ran outside. Thomas, my Florida boy, refused and watched from the inside.

Our church put on a nativity display/musical performance for the community. They had some amazing nativities from all over the world. The kids enjoyed dressing up as well.