November & Thanksgiving

At the beginning of November, we went to see the band my cousin Matt is in, perform at Maritini Ranch. It was one of their final stops on their US tour! It was awesome seeing him and seeing all of their fans! Very cool.

My mom was trying to take a picture of Scott and I at the concert and he couldn't resist making a weird face so I handled that problem.

Had to share this picture, Rylee obviously had a very long hard day at school! She passed right out!

Our Thanksgiving was spent with just about all of my family and some of Scott's! We went to Scott's family's first and then went over to mine. We started taking a huge family picture (my family) every year on Thanksgiving so here is this year's, 30 of us!

The boys. (obviously the women easily outnumber them in my family :)

My grandpa and I!

My uncle had come up with an experiment to try. It involves freezing bubbles using dry ice. It didn't work super well but we found something else that worked. Placing a small chunk of dry ice in a cup and running a soapy film over the top of the cup makes these awesome bubbles that grow!

After we got home on Thanksgiving around 9pm, I turned right around and went out shopping with my sister-in-law Holly. We shopped all night long! We had a lot of fun, although I'd rather the stores go back to opening early black Friday morning rather than Thanksgiving night!

After I recovered from black Friday shopping, we decorated our Christmas tree! The kids all wanted to be the one to put the star on top so they all 3 helped!

We wrapped up Thanksgiving weekend with lunch out with my mom, aunt, cousin, and his girlfriend Jael!.
Rylee eating "Paseggi" as she calls it. =)

Scott and I, thanks to Rylee's photography!

My Mom, Haylee and I.

My kids have some awesome Uncles. Matt being one of them, even though he is actually my cousin he is the closest thing a had to a brother growing up. So I consider him an Uncle to my kids. They love him!

October

October started out with Scott and I celebrating 7 years of marriage! We went to Flemming's Steak House in Scottsdale. It was delicious and we ate way too much! October also brought cooler weather, finally!! We have been going to the park a lot and just enjoying getting outside again! The picture below was Zac's first time to the park and he literally just stood there in awe. He didn't budge from this spot for a long time! He started walking around but every time he fell he was very unhappy with the new textures of the ground. He didn't like the sand or grass especially!

Every time we've been after that he still just stands there and observes. It makes it easier on me, that's for sure! I stuck him in the swing and he seemed to like that.

And then there's Haylee...

We took the kids to Schnepf Farms this year to pick out pumpkins and check out the festival. We had never been in the fall, but I have always wanted to go! It was a lot of fun and there was a ton to do! It was actually pretty cheap too, considering all that we got to do. Except, the pumpkins were expensive! Next time we will probably get our pumpkins elsewhere!
We went through the corn maze first, before it got dark and scary.

Rylee and I rode the oh so scary roller coaster. After the first drop, Rylee was not happy and was done, but lucky for her it goes around 3 times! But then of course when we got off, she loved it and wanted to go again.

Picking out pumpkins

My girls and I

We went to the Fright Fest and Rylee's school. The kids loved being able to dress up more than just on Halloween. It was a lot of fun this year!

I think their favorite part was at the very end when we were waiting for Scott to get the van, there was a dance area squared off by hay. They loved running around on the hay and must have done this for over 20mins. Scott actually came back into the festival wondering what we were doing. Haylee would "fly" around the hay like super girl, it was hilarious. This is blurry and dark but hey, its an action shot. =)

We decided it was time to take the training wheels off of Rylee's bike and teach her how to ride. She still hasn't figured it out yet, but she is doing well!

She is so serious, she was pretty uptight the whole time hoping Daddy wouldn't let her fall.

We carved our pumpkins the day before Halloween.

The finished products!

On Halloween, Rylee missed her first day of school! She was running a fever, had a sore throat, and slept most of the day away! She was sad that she missed her class's Halloween party at school, what a bummer day to get sick! But, when it was time to trick-or-treat she was up and feeling better so we took the kids out for a bit!

Don't make the Hulk angry...
Oh so fitting for our little guy.

Super Girl!

And Rapunzel
Zac reacted to trick-or-treating the same way he does to the park. He just stood there and observed. He didn't even get one piece of candy! We were so excited to take him this year since he started walking. We pictured how cute and little he would be. He was definitely cute, he just had no clue what was going on or what to do! The girls had a great time (in between fighting over who rang the doorbell) and they got a ton of really good candy!

The whole gang
Elliott, Dade, Haylee, Rylee, Eli, and Zac.

Our Very Hungry Caterpillar

We celebrated Zac's first birthday on Saturday with a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" themed party! I saw this idea last year and when it was time to start planning his party, I knew we had to use it. It was very fun putting it all together!

The birthday boy

He did not like being attached to the balloons.

The cake!
His smash cake

The food!

The decor

Party People!

I was really excited for him to open presents because I thought he would love all of the tissue paper and ripping things. I was wrong, he could care less.

He did like the cards though.

So I called his sisters in for reinforcement!

The only picture I got with my big boy!

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Make a wish!
I bet he wished that this cake was allll his.

Checking things out...

"Yup, it's good!"

The damage

"Have a bite, Dad!"

Hosing him down!

The girls letting his birthday balloons go

My handsome young man in his awesome boxer briefs, handmade by Aunt Holly! I will admit something, one of the (many) reasons I wanted a son was so I could put his adorable baby butt in boxer briefs. Yup, that's me.

Another first birthday, done! Crazy!