Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was spent up in Ashburn with the Glass and Allred families, while Lance got to fly to Utah to spend the week with his Dahlquist relatives.

This year, the Chens came up from Texas for the week to celebrate with the Glass family. They stayed at Jen and Eric's house, so we got to see them several times while we were up.

These boys loved playing Halo together while the girls perfected their Rainbow looming.

And it wouldn't be a true holiday without Hot Pot! Seriously, I love this stuff. It's a bit like fondue except you throw everything into a pot of boiling water and then pull out whatever you want to eat.

Of course the kids had a great time running around, chasing Diesel and being the "quality control" tasters for all the food.

I think Grandmom's deviled eggs got a thumbs-up from Cole. :)

It was great hanging out at my Mom's house, too! Laura and her cute family were there along with Amy and Stephen.

Look how big Grant is! Can you believe he's only three months old in this picture?

Amy was on dessert duty this year and out-did her self with several amazing pies.

Apple pie, pecan pie, chocolate pecan pie, pineapple cheesecake... I think we had pie for breakfast for at least three days after Thanksgiving was over.

Even Bethany came to visit for a couple days! She's attending BYU right now and the rest of her family lives in Provo, but she flew in to spend Thanksgiving with an old friend.

After having the Simmons live only 40 minutes away for the last several years, it's been a tough adjustment for us that they are so far away, so it was wonderful to see her!

Grandma's house is full of neat things. :) These boys had fun treating us all to many concerts over the week.

The day before Thanksgiving was spent prepping for the feast the following day.

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Glass's stuffed turkey.

After stuffing the turkey, I headed over to my mom's house to make rolls and spend some quality time with the family.

The Poultons (Laura and Tyler's friends) were visiting as was Amy's boyfriend Daniel.

Making rolls. Don't you love how pregnant bellies are magnets for messes?

Bed around 2 a.m., then it was up again with the kiddos around 7 to start Thanksgiving day!

Cole thought Daddy's stuffing for the pumpkins was amazing and probably ate about a cup of cheese, bacon, and bread soaked in cream. I mean, can you blame him?

These boys are great friends. I love that they will play together and I love hearing them laugh and squeal.

Then it was time to feast! Jen and Eric hosted the meal this year. While we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive, Jude and Cole played outside with the Callie, Bryce, Emerson, Alex and Reagan.

Dr. Glass carving the turkey...

...and the duck!

Halo party downstairs!

Cousins! I'm bummed I accidentally cut Jude out of the picture.

Dinner was amazing! Of course we only had about an hour to let it settle before it was on to the Allred's house for ANOTHER Thanksgiving dinner.

Making some gravy.

I got to cuddle this love bug. He's just the sweetest!

These three boys were so funny! They got their own special table.

They're all saying "cheese". Love it!

The family!

We missed you Jason and Chad!

The next morning we hit up IHop with the Chens and Scholz before the Chens had to fly home.

It was a great week full of family and fun!  And now, bring on Christmas!

November: leaves, more leaves and a hawk!

November feels like it flew by. Honestly, it seems like Halloween just happened and here we are at the beginning of December already. Crazy.

November was a pretty quiet month. I've spent a few hours every day working on the quilts I'm making for the kids, Lance was in school and Jude and Cole played a lot with their buddies Cameron and Jake. We did enjoy the last couple weeks of leaves on the ground and took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to play outside as often as we could.

Cole LOVES to be outside and thinks he's one of the big kids. He'll open up our back door and just wander over to the park to play whenever he feels like it. Such a stinker!

This is the look on his face most of the day:

 He is usually the happiest kid and runs around smiling and laughing. I love it. If you ask him if he's happy, he'll throw his hands in the air and yell, "HAPPY!" It makes my heart sing.

 Such a funny kid!

Our Halloween pumpkins turned out well, but they didn't last two nights before the tenant of our local oak trees decided they made a good feast.

 It was fun to watch the squirrels come and eat away at the pumpkins and carry off the tops to their nests. 

We have huge trees behind our apartment and the leaves the drop provide hours of entertainment. I know I've posted tons of pictures of the boys playing in the leaves, but I couldn't help posting some more. The smiles on their faces just make me so happy!

Lance came home from school and joined in the fun, too!

Lance is still missing his good buddies Killian and Kendall, but he has found a few boys his age that he plays with occasionally.

 It always makes me happy to see him outside being a boy. :)

Every year after most of the leaves have dropped, Family Housing sends out several workers to blow all the leaves into one gigantic leaf pile. They usually bring a truck and suck up the pile fairly quickly, but this year they left the glorious pile of leaves for several days. The boys were in heaven! I mean, this pile of leaves is at least 300 feet long!

 What made it even better was Daddy got to come play one day when he was off work!

 (Can you see how huge this pile is? It stretches from one side of the yard to the other, about three feet deep and 10 feet wide. Awesome.)

 Oh, how I love the fall!

And finally, Lance has acquired a new pet! Well, it's actually Scott's pet. George and I watched the Elmers for a week while their parents were out of town and one day I took the twins and Jude with Lance to meet Scott at the Zobrist's farm so they could see the new addition to Lance's family.

Of course we had to first ride the Polaris around the farm, chasing all the geese and trying to out-run Falcon.

And then they fed the ducks:

And then it was time to meet...

Fawkes!

Scott is being apprenticed in Falconry and he and Lance (with the help of their sponsor) snared a female juvenile red-tailed hawk at the end of October. She is currently living in Scott's basement while she learns to come when called and adjusts to life with humans. (Props to Abby for being okay with a huge bird of prey living in her house!) It's quite the hunting sport and is heavily regulated--Scott will have to be apprenticed for two years before he can officially Falcon on his own and he has to register his birds with the government since they are an endangered species.

 While at the farm, Scott and Lance did some training while the rest of the kiddos and I watched from a distance. 

 It was pretty cool to see his bird fly to Scott when he called her. 

Her colors will change a bit--I think Scott said she'll lose her brown and white mottling and will get the "red tail" of her breed. I think she's beautiful!

After the short training period, Scott let all the kids hold her.

I love these pictures of Jude holding Fawkes:

My favorite picture:

 I love the look on Fawkes' face, Jude's smile and Lance's thumbs-up. This picture makes me laugh every time.

While she'll allow people touch her, she's not a dog and doesn't get a thrill from being petted.

 "Don't touch me."

And Falcon was such a good boy. He just hung out and stayed with the kids. He and Fawkes have an understanding and basically leave each other alone, although if Falcon gets a little too close, Fawkes has no qualms reaching out a foot to smack him.

So cool! 

I think that brings Lance's tally of pets up to a whopping three! A dog, a snake and now a hawk. Is he not the luckiest kid in the world?