Late 2014 Photo Album Part 2

A continuation of my loooooooong photo album from the last several weeks of 2014 (not including Christmas).  Here we go!

I'm not sure why we took this picture, but I sure like it!  My 3 handsome boys after church one Sunday.  Trey is holding Christmas decorations like they are his toys.  There is something written on the chalkboard that is in a language I can't read.  Typical stuff!

We're happy to help with the annual fundraiser for the Broomfield Piano Festival at iPie.  Just a couple of goofballs, doing their part!

Yummiest pizza place!  And some of my favorite guys, too.

Here I am preparing for a school lesson for Courtney.  I do this kind of thing a lot.  It's what I do!

Our cool neighbor, Bob Reeder, who came over one afternoon to show my kids how to observe a solar eclipse with a piece of paper and a pair of binoculars.  So interesting!

Our little Miss, using her sewing machine to make part of Trey's Halloween costume.  She's learning the ropes!

Our family theme for Halloween this year was Greek mythology.  And here you see the cutest little cyclops you could ever hope to meet!

Here's our hero, Jason, and his Golden Fleece!

You might want to look away--it's Medusa!

The God of the Sea--Poseidon!

Such a beauty; thus, we have Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty!

Here is Ares, the God of War!

Cutest kids!

At the ward Trunk or Treat: Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monsters!

This God looks to have a great power over this Monster.  Swoon!

The title of this photo is: This Happens Every Single Day.  Three sons means that wrestling matches are a given.  At least they appear to be having fun!

We made it to the pumpkin patch on a cool, beautiful, fall evening.  This is one handsome kid!

She always sparkles, but especially in this light!

Happiness in a pumpkin patch!

I'm just plain blinded by Nate's presence in this photo.

Handsome young man!

The pumpkin harvest was impressive this year with the unusual summer weather.  More water, cooler temperatures = lots of big pumpkins!

Daddy's pumpkin carving tradition!

Avery's concentration while designing his Jack-o-lantern is intense!

Four Jack-o-lanterns lit up on the porch!  Just in time for Halloween.

We realized that the new Rick Riordan book was out for sale, so we rushed to Walmart to pick up our copy.  And of course, our little bookworm, Avery, couldn't even wait to get to the car to start reading.  Ha!

Preparing to leave for Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.  This guy can really put the scary on!

A very serious Greek war hero--Jason and the Golden Fleece.

We're the Monsters of the bunch!

And this lovely lady has some influence over all of us!

This tough guy wants your candy--NO tricks!

Heading out for Trick or Treat.  It took Trey about a half hour before he was brave enough to actually go up to the neighbors' doors to say "trick or treat."  But he did it!

Annnnnd, it's official!  Chase has overtaken me in height.  He's growing so amazingly fast that these pants, which we bought for him only two months earlier, are already high on his ankles.  And he's wearing his Daddy's shoes.  Wow...stop the world!

Some homeschool fun: Coco was doing an experiment in which she grew microbes in homemade petri dishes.  Here, she was taking a swab of cells from the inside of Chase's mouth.  Hardly anything grew in that dish, though.  He must have just brushed his teeth!

I love my book club ladies!  We had a good group here, but we were missing a few of our regulars.  Rhonda Matthias no longer comes because of Alzheimer's.  And we didn't know it yet, but our Kathie Reynolds was very sick on this date and shortly afterwards passed away.  Pictured here is (front row, left to right): Paula Ludwig, Lexy Ludwig, Karen Larson, (top row, left to right) Becky Portner, Carmen Poulson, Mandie Burton, me, and Elisa Smith.

More homeschool fun:  I took a series of photos of Chase and Courtney as they acted out scenes from the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  This was the chapter in which Lucy first visits Narnia and spends the afternoon at the cave of Mr. Tumnus, the faun.  Chase played Mr. Tumnus, and in this photo, he was playing the flute to put Lucy (played by Coco) to sleep as he contemplated capturing her for the White Witch.

In this scene, Mr. Tumnus regrets what he was about to do to Lucy and starts to cry.  Lucy forgives him and comforts him.

And here, Lucy and Mr. Tumnus are sneaking back to the forest near the lamppost so that Lucy can find her way back to the magic wardrobe and back home.  Cutest little actors!

Homeschool again!  Chase is studying physiology in his science coursework.  Here he is using the scriptures to look up the spiritual symbolism of the respiratory system. 

And Courtney is concentrating deeply on her math in this photo.

And Avery is writing a novel as part of NaNoWriMo.  Whoever thinks that homeschool is too hard or too crazy is really missing out on observing these kinds of fine accomplishments every single day!

Meanwhile, this little guy keeps occupied by engaging in his own experiments in the living room.  He is learning about engineering and architecture as he builds with couch cushions.  He is practicing physical education, exercise science and anatomy as he jumps as high as he can.  And, he is learning about earth science and physics as he is pulled back to the ground by gravity onto a pile of pillows.  Always learning!

And the lessons using couch cushions extend to the whole crew!  I'm pretty sure that one pair of legs you can see here belong to Avery. 

Some great photos from our Heroes Book Club!  We were discussing a book about Thomas Edison, and Hayden brought a homemade lightbulb and showed everyone how it worked.  They were all fascinated!  We also had an "invent your own" ice cream sundae bar for a treat.

A very special day!  Courtney and I attended a Mother-Daughter "tea" party with the Activity Day girls in November.  They told us to dress up and they took these fancy pictures.  We had a great time and shared our Rosemary-Parmesan drop biscuits with everyone.  So fun!

Chase thought it would be fun to give Courtney a beard using the leftover whipped topping we had after our Heroes Book Club.  It was kind of a mess!

But, she seemed to think it was pretty fun!

Lunch!  Here she made an edible model of a typical animal cell.  I can't even tell what is on it, but the ingredients represent the organelles.  I'm sure it was deeeee-licious!

We haven't had very much snow so far this season, but there was a little bit!  And some truly arctic temperatures to go along with it!  But this little guy really wanted to help clear off the deck with a broom while his big brothers did some shoveling.

Fall piano recital!  Both Chase and Avery were on the couch as the most advanced students performing, and they both played beautifully!

Avery after the piano recital, listening to Gwynneth telling him how fast she could read a really big book . . . and looking pretty skeptical about her claims . . . haha!  This was Avery's first day wearing glasses, too!  In fact, we had just picked them up from Costco only hours before.  The adjustment didn't affect his performance at all, however.  He also looks a little tired in this picture, because he was experiencing one of life's lessons that we all must sometimes learn.  The night before this performance, he had attended an overnight scout activity with Chase and Dad, and he had excitedly decided to stay up as late as he could.  I think he went to bed at 6:00am.  WHAT??????  And then woke up an hour later to find the bathroom.  Boy, he sure had fun!  But he definitely figured out that there are consequences to that choice, because he didn't fully recover for the next two days.  I think that when he attends the next overnight activity, he will remember the feeling of this photo and make it to bed a bit earlier.  Don't you?

Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot!  This was a crazy busy day, but OH so fun!  The weather was outstanding for a Turkey Trot and we got the whole family involved.  It's one of my favorite holiday traditions!

Even Daddy participated in this one!  He took Trey on the half mile kids' race.   Such a great daddy!

This is my run tracker from my phone, with stats from the 10k.  I ran with Avery, and Chase was close behind us on this course.  It was nice and warm, but the wind was crazy!  We had fun and felt great the whole way.  And, of course, I kept pace with Avery throughout the course ... and then at the end he busted out in a sprint and left me behind as we crossed the finish line.  Stinker!

Here's Coco running her best in the kids' half mile!  She was going so fast that I almost missed getting a picture of her!  She's getting to be quite a good little runner. 

More Coco, running with the wind blowing her lovely hair out behind her.  She looks like she is flying!

Here I am ready to cross the finish line!  I had started the race wearing my jacket and gloves, but ended up taking them off when it got too warm about halfway through the course, and carrying my gloves (as well as Avery's big, bulky gloves) in my jacket pockets the rest of the way.  I was a little bit heavy laden, there!  Not really, though, because the stuff I was carrying was not heavy.  Just a bit bulky!  I was smiling in this picture because Avery had just taken off ahead of me, leaving me in his dust.  Why was I not prepared for that?  Haha!

Cute Chase, carrying his jacket and ready to cross the finish line!  Nice 10k!

The Kids' Half Mile race!  Trey wanted to hold Daddy's hand the whole way.  So cute!

Except for when he saw me on the sidelines taking pictures.  He let go of Daddy and came running toward me.  I think he thought he was done!  Haha!  But, back on track he went and they finished together.

Daddy and the Littles showing off their race ribbons!  This was Trey's first official Turkey Trot!  We start them young in this family. :)

Post race photo with my little runners!  Don't you love the hats???

Thanksgiving!  This was the first of 3 tables that we set for our house full of guests!  We had dinner with two other families, (the Burtons and the Smiths) plus a set of elders from our ward, which meant big crowds and tons of food.  It was a total of 21 people at our house for the feast.

This table was so long with the extra leaves that our table cloth didn't quite fit.  Oops!  And yes, we did use paper products for serving.  Twenty-one people, 13 of whom were children.  That definitely calls for paper products!  I thought it still looked nice.

The kids' table!  See...the cups all have lids and straws!  Oh, and we even made nametags for all of our guests.  We were well-prepared!

We had SO much food!  We provided a gazillion rolls, the turkey (I used a yummy homemade brine and it turned out awesome!), a pumpkin pie and whipped topping, and a sparkling punch.  The Burtons and Smiths brought tons of side dishes and even more desserts.  Mandie brought some cute crafts for the kids to do between the meal and dessert while the adults allowed things to digest a while.  The kids loved it!  So thoughtful!

Trey and I working on a noodle necklace.

Crafts at the kids' table!  Trey loved sitting by his buddy, Hyrum.  In fact, the promise of sitting by Hyrum was the only way we could keep him from hiding out in my room while the guests were here.  Thank goodness for that! 

The Elders and some of the guys recovering from the big meal.

My run tracker from the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I post this photo because it was significant to me, even if it isn't that impressive to anyone else.  I really wanted to see what I could do running a 10k by myself, without the crowds and wind and my young running partner.  Really, it was a personal challenge.  And I was so surprised to see how fast I ran and how strong I felt!  In the middle of my course, I ran across a group of people doing some hills training with a coach.  They were mostly women, and looked kind of new to running.  I was amazed as I blew right past all of them, uphill, and that I was able to run upright and strong, without the hunched over, lumbering stance that many newer runners use.  And then when I got home and saw that I had run a pace of well under 9 min/mile for over 6 miles, I was stunned!  And I really don't even run that much anymore; that is, not more than once a week because I am doing other types of training at home.  The truth is that since I was a young girl I always had a secret dream of being an athlete, but I didn't grow up in an environment where that was really nurtured or made possible, and I never believed I could ever really be athletic.  But, at over 44 years old, to be able to run better than I have since I was a teenager?  I think I can finally say that I am something of an athlete!  And boy, does that feel AMAZING!  Yay for me!

And here we are at the end of National Novel Writing Month, with 3 NaNoWriMo winners in our house!  These kids are amazing with their dedication and hard work at writing original novels every November.  Chase completed his fourth novel at over 35,000 words.  Avery's third novel was over 25,000 words, and Coco's second novel was over 10,000 words long!

And here are my young novelists, pictured with Trey, their biggest fan!

This kid got his first black eye when Daddy took him and Courtney to see Disney on Ice.  How on earth?  Apparently he was playing with the stadium seat during intermission and slipped and hit his eye on the chair.  The first thing he said to me when he got home was, "I didn't have any fun at all because I hit my head on the chair!"  Ha!  And boy, he sure had some swelling and bruising to show for it.  Incidentally, I'm pretty sure he had fun otherwise.  "Mommy, I saw Buzz!"

These two cute brothers built a fort out of couch cushions and then got tired and settled in to watch The Lego Movie together ("What a bunch of hippy, dippy baloney!").  One of my favorite things about having both big kids and littles, is to observe how the big brothers treat they younger ones with such love, kindness, and patience.  It makes me feel like we must have done the same to them when they were the little guys.  And that is such a relief!  Sometimes I only remember the times I was less than patient.  But, overall I think they felt the love, because they are passing it on to the next little ones!

Daddy and I giving Chase lessons about how to be prepared for church dances.  I don't think any of us took this very seriously!  And, why is there a stuffed plush snake on my kitchen counter?