thanksgiving

It is so nice to have great friends out here to celebrate the holidays with. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Shepards and the Gilbreths. The food was AMAZING! I aspire to one day be able to create fantastic feasts, as they do.

 

 I made some of my mom's rolls and a million pies. I always appreciate a great holiday spread!

When we got home, we put up the tree and decorated it.

                                 

We also found out Crew is not a fan of Santa's hat...

this shut him up real quick

We also started The Elf on the Shelf this year. Landon was skeptical at first and insisted it was fake because, "he's not real". But after some convincing on our part he is SO excited. I don't know how much of it he buys, but he loves searching for "Elfie" every morning. 

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Happy Birthday to Me! I was spoiled rotten by my boys, and family this year.  My birthday fell on a Sunday and it just happened to be the primary program. Landon did a great job, memorized all his parts and made me so proud!

This is what I told Sam to make for my bday cake

This is what I got instead... not a bad swap!

Amidst all the stress, and our never ending car problems, this year I have come to realize I actually enjoy Connecticut! It's weird for me, because AZ is my home and I always just imagined that's where I would be happiest. With only 8 months until Sam graduates, it seems too short! I find myself feeling sad to have to leave. I plan to enjoy the next year and take advantage of our experiences here. A bunch of my friends out here have birthdays in the Fall, so we had a girls lunch at Cheesecake Factory sans kids to celebrate. Thanks everyone for making my birthday special!

who you gonna call?!

Landon became obsessed with the Ghostbusters movie earlier this year. So when we started thinking about Halloween costumes his choice was easy! Coincidentally the youth in Sam's church class have called Crew, "Stay Puft", since we brought him to church for the first time. We got plenty of use out of our costumes at various parties through out the week.Ward Trunk-or-Treat.The Shelley's Halloween partyGoody bags and treats I made for Landon's class party
Since this happened...the Governor tried to tell everybody that Halloween would be cancelled this year, and that nobody was to go trick-or-treating. We rebelled and Landon came home with a nice haul! To end things on a brighter note, this will be our last snowy Halloween!

sleepy hollow

After hearing about last year's adventure, Sam was so happy he could join us this year for the Jack-o-Lantern Blaze. Fall is so pretty here and the drive gave us a chance to see all the beautiful leaves. We got there early this time so we could explore the little town of Sleepy Hollow.

The Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is HUGE, and actually very beautiful. There are many famous people buried here, including Washington Irving, who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Downtown

The Blaze
I only had my phone camera so these pics don't do it justice

disney world

Richard and Erica were kind enough to let us glom onto their trip to Disney World last month. They rented a super nice condo, and took great care of us at all the parks! We didn't have to even think about where to go or what to do next. They even took care of all the Fast Passes, and it seems like we never waited in line for more than 20min all week! Landon had so much fun playing with his cousins and riding on all the "big kid" rides!

Hollywood StudiosMom's Birthday Celebration
The kids got these from the balloon man at the restaurant. Landon cherished his for weeks and finally threw it away a couple days ago.
Epcot

Magic Kingdom
Animal KingdomAfter being forced to pose for pics all week this is what I had to choose fromThe kids were SO GOOD! Landon was in heaven the whole time. He still talks about all the rides we got to go on. Sam was so sad he had to miss out. He is in his 5th clinical rotation and absences are not allowed. Hopefully we get to do this again soon!