December

December was a lovely month. We enjoyed celebrating Christmas, enjoying some seasonal activities, and spending a lot of time relaxing as a family.

Some winter break puzzles

Got a new Christmas sweater. Spencer got one too, but I don't think we managed a photo.

We had fun trying a new donut shop--fresh hot donuts made to order.

We saw the new Spiderman movie and loved it.

Audrey turned 15 and had a wonderful celebration.

Ian played in his school concert--it was phenomenal! 

We celebrated the end of the year with our dear friends, lots of good food, and hilarious games.

And the BEST part of the month (for me), was going to visit my brother Paul in early December. My dear friend Amber came up to SLC from Provo and spent the weekend with us. We saw the Broadway show Mean Girls, went out to delicious restaurants, shopped, and stayed up super late chatting and catching up. It was a quick visit but we packed it in, and I can't wait to do it again sometime.

 

November

We had a lot of good times in November!

We had a fun double date with our good friends, the Orihuelas.

We enjoyed our annual day-after-Thanksgiving movie. This year we saw Ghostbusters: Afterlife and thought it was very fun.

Audrey and I went to see Hairspray at the San Jose Performing Arts Center. It was fantastic. The drive up was awful--an extra hour of traffic on top of an already long drive. We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat at Chick-fil-A, got literally blessed to find parking, and made it to the show. Once we were there, it was nothing but good times!

Audrey went to Homecoming with some friends, got to dress up all fancy!

Ian went to Fall Ball with his buddies. We had pizza at our house beforehand and the boys had a great time at the event.

Ian earned his blue-green belt at karate and showed strong work!

Audrey finished up her marching band season with the end of football season. We had fun hearing her play--Spencer went to every home game!

I hosted a lovely baby shower for my dear friend Rachael. A new recipe turned out delicious--creme brulee cheesecake bars.

We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving feast, just the five of us. Spencer's parents came to celebrate with us, but got sick and had to rest at the hotel. They had to eat their Thanksgiving takeout style. Eventually they got to come over and spend a few days hanging out with us, thank goodness!

 

Halloween

 After skipping the Halloween party last year, we resumed the tradition with a smaller crowd, a fajita dinner, some fun games, and a great time. I had a lot of fun decorating and adding some new projects I'd worked on, and on Halloween night the kids had a lot of fun trick-or-treating, adding to their haul from the night before trunk-or-treating at the church party. 

Audrey's costume was President Loki--she got tons of compliments at school and even won a costume prize at the church party.

Ian was the same scary scarecrow from two years ago--costume barely fit but he loved it and looked very creepy (the goal).

Declan also wanted to be creepy this year and went with a Grim Reaper costume. Watch out!

We gathered at a neighbor's before trick-or-treating to hang out. This is our friend Ann, Ian's buddy Mako's mom. Ian had a whole crew who went trick-or-treating together.

Here's the crew of 12-year-olds roaming the streets of PG in search of good treats!

My friend sent me this awesome soap skull. I want to use it and I don't want to use it, you know? 

The kids helped me set up for our annual Halloween party--they are pretty good sports about never being invited, but they also got to watch movies and play video games in the back of the house.

I made those gold bug plaques and eyeball plaques this year, and I thought they turned out very cute. I put them up with Command strips to complete my apothecary mantle scene.

My costume this year was Winifred Sanderson from the movie Hocus Pocus. I loved it!

Audrey's turn to play--she was the photographer for our guests' photos at the party. She did great!

Spencer was Variant Loki (from the Disney+ show), and the wig was maybe too nice? We joked that he was Loki with a blowout. 

Spencer and the kids carved some awesome pumpkins (baby Yoda! I mean, Grogu).

Fall break

Fall break brought a visit from my wonderful parents, who generously agreed to extend their visit so Spencer and I could get away! We had a wonderful few days with them (while actually Spencer flew up to WA to celebrate HIS dad's 70th--it was a busy travel month for him!), and then Spencer and I headed to Southern California for fun at Disneyland and to see our friend perform in a musical.

My dad at the beach

Ian and a hermit crab

What my kids do all the time...

See?

My parents spoiled my kids--arcade, eating out, video games, walks to the beach, decorating gingerbread haunted houses. They had a great time.

Pics from our two days at Disney--one day at each park. Everything was decorated for Halloween and even some rides were different. It was so fun!

 

Our friend Valerie played Mrs. Wormwood in a community theater production of Matilda the Musical, and she was phenomenal! Her daughter played Lavender. We got to hang out with Val and her husband Mike before the show too, and had a great time catching up. We met them in our Atlanta days and it's been my goal to see Val in one of her shows; finally I got to!!

Pictures from Spencer's dad's birthday celebration: 

Spencer and his family: Amanda, Sam, Cathie (mom), Rick (dad), Carly, and Spencer