Santa

We had a really fun ward party last week. The middle school jazz band played for us, and they were so impressive! All the kids that were there went crazy over the music, it was so cute.

And Santa came!

Go Jessica!

Well what do you know, I've got another stellar girl! Jessica was student of the month for November! In her latest progress report, her teacher said she was "every teacher's dream." I'm so proud, and not at all surprised. Jess is such a good little girl, it's very important to her to always do what's right.

On Marmee's command.

My mom said it's time for me to do a new blog post, and I am nothing if not obedient, so here you go mom.

Actually I didn't think I had any blog-worthy pictures but upon uploading I found that my memory card was rife with cuteness! Enough for many posts to come! Or at least one more after this.

We've been very good this year about getting a jump-start on Christmas. We're basically done with our shopping and we got our tree up the Sunday after thanksgiving. Today I actually finished the decorating, thusly: (ignore the boxes in the corner, we're in charge of ordering the ward emergency supplies . . .)

(Tanya, see your quilt?? It's my most favorite decoration of all!)

On to baby news, Manda is 6 1/2 months old! I can't believe how big she's getting.

She really loves her solid food.

But putting her in her bouncy/feeding seat is becoming treacherous.

So sometimes she gets to sit in the high chair! She thinks this is the best ever.

And our last pic of the day is what I often wake up to on Saturday mornings. Natalie will get Mandie up and entertain all the kids with craft projects in her room while I sleep in. Isn't she cool?

Glasses!

Melissa got glasses today! She's very excited. She and Jessica both have strabismus, which means one of their eyes float toward the center when they try to focus on certain things. They actually have the exact same prescription, and they both get to patch their right eyes for a couple hours a day. If their mom can remember, that is.

Baby Girls in Overalls

Here are all my girls, mostly at 5 months old (missy's a little older), on my bed, in the same outfit. A post 9 years in the making . . .

Natalie

Jessica

Melissa

Amanda

Halloweeeeen!

Okay, I'm finally posting my halloween pictures! I broke my camera so I had to take these with Jason's fancy schmancy work camera. Then I had to like, figure out how to get them on my computer and stuff.

This year I really got to start experiencing the joys of hand-me-down costumes, so this entry will include costume history as well. Ahem:

Here's Jessie as a clown. I bought this one for Nat when she was this age.

Natalie decided to be a leprechaun because there was a box of lucky charms on the counter when I asked if she could be something a little easier than Nanny McPhee. So I made this. I really like the hat.

I also painstakingly taped all that gold into her pot.

And Josh was a mummy! This costume was so much more work than I thought it would be!

Missy wore the blue's clues costume that I made for Natalie when she was 3.

And here's Mandie in the pea pod costume that I made for Josh and has been worn by every baby since.

The three big kids went trick-or-treating all by themselves! They went while it was still light, then we all went to a trunk-or-treat.

We got home by 7, which was nice because we had time to watch the all-important Charlie Brown Halloween movie.

Our Latest Outing

We went out to Three Peaks for family night last week. It's like a campground/recreation area with a lot of cool rock formations to play on. Jason and I came up with the simplest food possible to bring for dinner -- cup of noodles, hot chocolate and graham crackers -- and we had fun, even though it was kinda cold.

Here's Josh whittling with his very own pocket knife.

Nat and Josh enjoying their noodles in the sunshine.
Missy was really happy once we managed to arrange her so that she could reach her food.

Mandie ate her first graham cracker!

Missy posed for pictures while I nursed the baby and everyone else went on a little hike.

Little did we know, whilst they were away, Dad and the kids had encountered rivers of hot lava! They were sooooo happy to see us when they got back!

Here's mandie all bundled up.

And Jess snuggling with my Jacket for warmth, before she spilled her hot chocolate on it.
And then we went home. The End!

Stellar Girl! (and then just some cute pics)

Natalie was nominated as the Stellar Student of the Month for her class last month! It's an award for the kids who "show exemplary character and make the school a better place to be." I'm so proud! She's not just a genius, she's a good person too!

Nat's doing really great in school this year, and we both really like her teacher. She expects a lot out of the kids, I love that. They have a program at their school called Reading Counts, where they read books with point values (depending on the difficulty of the book) and take quizzes on the computer about the book to earn points. Then they earn prizes as they get points, and they have a poster that shows how many points all the kids have. And whoooo you ask has the most points in the SCHOOL so far?? Our Natalie!

Okay, what else? I picked pictures from my latest uploaded batch and I just realized they're all of Manda! Heh heh.

Anyway, here's my two babies.

This is what Manda does when I try to read while nursing her. I thought this was so cute, trying to read . . . she thinks she's people!

And here she is with her cousin Alyssa, are they cute or what?

And this is Grandpa Anderson. She luuuuuvs him so much!

Random

Look what Josh drew yesterday, isn't it cute? It's a helicopter carrying a dinosaur into the snow-covered mountains.

I got a new potato peeler the other day, and today I used it for the first time. It was a beautiful experience.

Tonight for part of family night we made a little house for Sammy the cat. All the inside walls are carpeted. It's pretty great.

We finally found someone to come fix our pool heater! Woohoo!

Did you guys know that at Denny's on tuesday and saturday nights you get TWO free kids meals with every adult? We are so there!

And we'll finish off with a smile from Mandie.

My girls are getting big!

First Nat -- she had a birthday! She's nine now! Jason and I took her to Applebee's for dinner, and I made her ice cream cone cupcakes and she decorated them herself.

Then we have Jess. She's so big, she's walking to the bus stop all by herself!

Missy is also a member of the getting bigger club. She recently filled up her potty training chart and got her very own chocolate cake!

Manda is four months old now! She's grabbing things and playing with them and doing a great sticking-out-her-tongue-and spitting bit, and rolling from her back to her tummy (then getting really mad) and driving me crazy by managing to maneuver around to watch TV even when I tell her she is not allowed!


And that concludes our look at the beautiful growing girls. Thanks for watching.