We started out November with Peter's birthday. He got a late birthday gift from Aunt Rachel --a boogie board that he LOVES. The day he opened it, we had his little friend, Gemma, over. Of course she wanted to play with it too. Here he is proudly showing off his new toy.
After several minutes waiting patiently, here he is gently trying to move her out of the way so he can have his toy back.
And here he is after his attempts to remove her failed.
(I thought it was pretty impressive that he didn't resort to violence, yelling, or grabbing. I guess he likes Gemma enough that when his "gentle persuasion" failed, he just decided to let her have her own way.)
Mid-November brought the end of Jojo's soccer (Can you tell he's crossing his eyes? He spent nearly the entire photo session making faces at the camera.)
and Matt's birthday. Happy 42! 💕
The week of Thanksgiving, I got into another remodeling fit and repainted the downstairs bathroom. (It really needed it! White is definitely NOT the best color for a bathroom used by six kids.) I think it turned out great, if I do say so myself.
Before:
After:
December 1st brought a surprise, early Christmas present --a bigger trampoline. The big kids were really getting too big for the other one. So now we have two.
We also decorated for Christmas. I love that the kids are old enough to do most of the decorating now.
Peter really took the "stockings" to heart.
For the last field trip of the year, we went to the Railroad museum at Rosenburg. They had some really cool restored trains. Peter especially loved it.
One Saturday, Matt and I were able to attend the wedding of one of his associates. It was a lovely wedding/reception, and we actually got a pretty nice picture from the photobooth.
To entertain Peter, Sadie dressed up as a series of Christmas characters for surprise visits over the course of a week. Each special visitor gave him a little treat, which was, of course, the best part of all. Here is is the Gingerbread Girl.
Making Christmas cookies at Nana's
and Gingerbread houses at home
One day, with nothing better to do, we rode across the street to the church parking lot. In the middle of riding bikes around, a storm blew in wetting the piles of fall leaves that had accumulated. What could be more fun that throwing wet leaves at each other? Not much.
CHRISTMAS!
We had Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Poppie, Uncle Joel, Aunt Alison, Uncle Stephen and Aunt Jenn all here for Christmas. It was wonderful to have so many of our loved ones together!
Other news:
Sadie is really getting into photography. She's always having us stop for a photo opp. She's really getting good.... if only everyone would cooperate.
Right after Thanksgiving, Nana's dog, Pepper, had puppies. The kids have LOVED watching them grow, especially Michael. He is a dog lover, even without one of his own. :(
Peter has been really good about brushing is teeth. One morning, I came downstairs to find him trying to brush the dinosaur puppet's teeth. Awesome! This kid is so smart.
Here is Joseph and Annie. Can you tell which is which?
We've been working on a geology unit for school and had lots of fun cracking open geodes. We actually got some really nice crystal formations.
Looking forward to what 2021 will bring...
