We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home this year. I usually go to my mom's place in Utah, but Ryan had to work on Friday, so we had our first at-home Thanksgiving dinner! To make it more special, we were able to host Ryan's mom, his sister Helena, and their friend Ryan (yeah, that was occasionally confusing.) They came down with all kinds of food, and even had an activity for the kids - a kit for making these cool paper-bag puppets. Elise insisted on being creative with hers, in case you can't see it in the photo. 
I'm totally irritated that we didn't get a picture of the meal, because it turned out great. I did the turkey, and a couple of other little things, and Donna, Helena, and Ryan (guest) did all the veggies and stuffing.
A couple days later, while they were still in town, we got together and went to the Griffith Park Observatory. We snuck Elise in to the planetarium show expecting that I'd have to take her out pretty quickly, but she loved it. That is, until it ended. Then she started wailing about how it had been "too taiwey" (scary), but that she wanted more! Kids are supposed to be 5 years or older to get in, so at least she didn't blow her cover until we were already leaving. Oh, and there are beautiful views from the observatory roof, so those are the only pictures we managed to get! 
Leading up to Thanksgiving, we did a family project of making a "Thankful Tree". It's totally my kind of craft - easy and . . . easy. We hope to make it a tradition. Everybody had to come up with 8-10 blessings to put on a paper leaf, which we taped to the tree. Elise's included "new dress", "candy", and "nursery", while Connor's included "Dogs", "Trees", "Food", and "Mom & Dad". 
Lastly, here are the long-awaited pictures of our new place! Kitchen:
Living Room:
Toy Room:
Bedrooms/Bathroom/Laundry Room:
Backyard:
We're really happy with it, and will probably be here awhile. I just need to figure out how to turn the toy room into a bedroom for Connor and Elise to free up space for #3. Probably something I should get moving on.
Two weeks ago, our friends the Gublers caught Ryan at church and suggested that we go with them the following Saturday to a place called Oak Glen, which is a collection of pick-your-own apple farms about an hour and a half away from here. We didn't realize that the apples were long gone from the trees, but it turned out to be an awesome day anyway. This place is out near San Bernardino, but up in the mountains, so it actually seemed like AUTUMN! A real season! I was in heaven. The kids played with sticks, learned about making cornmeal (until a grouchy lady chased us away -- I guess it was a paid tour thing,) and went on the ubiquitous inflated slide and bounce-house (no pictures of those, since we have enough from previous outings.) 
We also did some archery. Connor and Elise were nowhere near strong enough or safe enough to do it on their own, so they "helped" me pull the string back and aim. We did not impress, but it was cool.
The best activity we did that day was this thing where they let you press your own apple cider. The kids got to pick out the apples, wash them in painfully frigid water, and throw them into a giant daddy-powered grinder. Then they helped turn the handle on the press to actually make the cider. 
It was a pretty messy process, but the cider turned out like some kind of delicious apple-based drug. I think the whole gallon was gone by the next day, and that was us trying to ration it out.
After the cider-making, we went to a different farm to eat cider doughnuts and pet the animals. There was a miniature horse, a llama, and a pygmy goat. They were friendly animals, but every time I tried to take a picture of the miniature horse, she acted as if she was trying to eat my kids. I guess she thought it was funny.
Later that week, we got our new IKEA kitchen pantry put together (almost entirely done by Ryan - so big thanks to him!) The kids had fun helping and stepping on everything. 
It turned out great, though, so now our kitchen looks vastly more tidy than when we just had dirty open shelves. We're totally moving up in the world, eh?
So, for some reason, Halloween seemed to be a massive event this year. It started with a costume birthday party the Saturday before, followed by our ward Halloween party Tuesday night. I think it wouldn't have stressed me out as much if I'd just been smart and purchased both kids' costumes, but I couldn't find a skeleton costume I liked -- they were either too creepy or too poorly made. So, several hours before the ward party I was still glue-gunning felt to a sweatsuit. It took forever, but I think it turned out great!
The ward members all hosted different classrooms in the building for a trick-or-treat, and the kids had their first candy binge of the week!
Thursday night we carved the pumpkins we had picked out for Family Home Evening. We wussed out again, by the way, and had gone to the grocery store rather than a pumpkin patch. Hopefully next year we'll be more inventive, but at least we had fun carving them. Connor actually designed and drew the face on his, then Ryan cut it out for him. For Elise's, we asked her to choose between happy, scared, angry, and surprised faces, and she appropriately chose scared. 
We learned from Halloweens past down here, and waited to carve the pumpkins until a day or two before the event. It took exactly three days for mold to appear in the 85 degree weather, and one week before they were liquifying all over the porch.
Friday morning we had our Joy School party, which was fairly elaborate this year. We had pumpkin-shaped cake, mummy pizzas, eyeball doughnut holes, and witches brew, among other things. Oh, and of course, they trick-or-treated inside the house and ate candy. 
Saturday night we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood, which was surprisingly deserted. As a result, everyone we visited was just shoveling candy into their bags to try to get rid of it. Connor and Elise thought this was awesome, of course. 
That night was the major sugar-gorging. Elise ate a full-size Three Musketeer bar, at least 4-5 smaller candies, then an entire doughnut (Sister Callister hands these out every year), and still climbed out of the car at the end of the night saying "I'm uungweee!" I think they ran around in circles in the living room until 11pm, and I was truly surprised not to find any vomit the next morning. Good old Halloween, the celebration of lousy parenting!
On an unrelated note, here is one of the cool roses growing in our front yard. Plus, the kids decided to share a story in the dog cage. How else to pass the time while Mom and Dad are out partying? 
A few days after we moved, we had a great visit from some of our friends from NoCal: Justin and Tiffany, and their 4 kids! They have a timeshare in Arizona, and since we're at about the halfway point, we've been able to host them a few times. They were very gracious about sleeping surrounded by cardboard boxes -- we obviously scheduled all this before we knew we were moving! I'm also very impressed by their commitment to vacationing - they have 3 month old twins, a 2 year old, and a 13 year old, and they managed to pull together a two-week-long trip anyway. They actually scheduled an extra day to spend down here, so Ryan took a day off, and we all went down to the Aquarium of the Pacific. I'm not sure why I have no pictures of the fish. I'm equally confused that I took no pictures of the Palmers. Hmmm. Anyway, we do have a bunch of pictures of the lorikeet exhibit, where you buy a little cup of nectar to feed the birds, then wander around desperately trying to convince one that they should indulge you by drinking it. Despite the birds playing hard-to-get, Connor loved it. He did finally get several to drink the nectar, then begged me for my cup so he could do it all again. 
The lady in this picture is about to get after us (again) for letting the kids climb on the fence. 
After the aquarium, we went on a 45 minute harbor tour, which was a lot of fun (though windy). 
Elise was heartbroken that we had to say goodbye to these sea lions. They were advertised as being "in their natural environment". I guess they evolved on buoys and abandoned barges. Luckily, we saw some more on the way back.
It was silly, but being on a boat for even 45 minutes was really fun and exciting for everybody. We need to find a kid-friendly cruise or something. Maybe someday we'll be brave like the Palmers, and actually go on a family vacation!
I'm totally irritated that we didn't get a picture of the meal, because it turned out great. I did the turkey, and a couple of other little things, and Donna, Helena, and Ryan (guest) did all the veggies and stuffing.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, we did a family project of making a "Thankful Tree". It's totally my kind of craft - easy and . . . easy. We hope to make it a tradition. Everybody had to come up with 8-10 blessings to put on a paper leaf, which we taped to the tree. Elise's included "new dress", "candy", and "nursery", while Connor's included "Dogs", "Trees", "Food", and "Mom & Dad". 
Lastly, here are the long-awaited pictures of our new place!
Living Room:
Toy Room:
Bedrooms/Bathroom/Laundry Room:
We're really happy with it, and will probably be here awhile. I just need to figure out how to turn the toy room into a bedroom for Connor and Elise to free up space for #3. Probably something I should get moving on.
