November Photo Dump

November was a super fun month! Ellie and I baked cookies- she is an awesome little helper!

For Veteran's Day, Justin's family always does "Let's Do Something" at the nearest retirement community and has done it ever since Justin was young. Basically, the family puts together a patriotic program complete with songs, slide show presentations, and recognizes all the veterans in the room. How awesome is it that they do something like that?! The retired folk love it and LOVE Justin's family. Since the Smith family only has 2 kiddos at home, they invited us to come help them out. While everyone sang and played musical instruments, I happily took care of Mason Man :)

Chalene and Jordan both played the violin

and everyone sang while Mom Smith played the piano. 

Ethan was so cute sitting on Grandpa Chapman's lap.

And Ellie thoroughly enjoyed all the yummy food and desserts that was provided for us!

Ethan and Ellie had their very own special (and last minute) musical number that they were able to perform. Ellie was more like the hype girl waving that flag and Ethan made sure to stop in the middle of the song to tell her that she was suppose to be waving it :) While Ethan may or not be slightly off key the whole time, it sure is cute regardless...

I wish we would've gotten him speaking prior to singing on camera because he totally stood up there, fearless, and basically bore his testimony to everyone! He thanked his mommy and daddy and said things like "I know that this is true" and then when he decided he was done talking he told everyone that at the end of his signing they are all to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. All that was totally not prompted by us! Funny, funny kid. 

Thanksgiving:

We had all the Smith kids home in AZ for Thanksgiving this year and I think our numbers are now up to 16- and we are the only ones that have kids so far!

Unfortunately the only pictures I have are of a little walk we took one day around a natural preservation place nearby. 

Ellie loves her Aunt Caryn. She always says, "Where's my Caryn?" when she walks into their home and just the other day I said, "Ellie, you are my best friend!" and then when I asked her who her best friend was she said very matter of factly, "Umm.. Caryn." Ellie also looks SO much like Caryn did when she was little. They are cute little buddies. 

Digging for dinosaur bones is fun to do- no matter how old you are!

We decorated our Christmas tree and had a little help from Ellie's neighbor boyfriend. 

I'm not sure I've written anything about Tripp since we moved into our new house but Tripp deserves his own post. For now, these two love and adore each other and already sneak out of the house to find each other. They are double double toil and trouble though.. I'll write another time of the adventures of Tripp and Ellie. :)

Ellie and I occasionally like to go down to the nearby pond and have a picnic while feeding the ducks. Have I mentioned how amazing our neighborhood is? Truly, it is a one of a kind here in the valley!

A very ghetto and way overpriced carnival came to down just down the road at a local grocery store. We couldn't drive out of our neighborhood without the kids begging us to go there. One night we caved in and spent way more money than we should have for two dinky little rides. The kids were so happy and grateful for those two rides so I suppose it was totally worth it for those happy smiles on their faces.

Ellie has entered the world of dress up and can be found being a different princess every 10 minutes or so. She is just about the cutest little girl ever! If you know Ellie, you know she has personality plus!

I just noticed that I have a lot of pictures that involve Ellie eating, or Ellie with food on her mouth, or Ellie just being around food. And yep...that sounds about right. She loves to eat!

Speaking of eating, Mason loves his food!

He started sitting up without any support in November and since he turned 6 months he started eating all the good stuff. Oh how I wish I had a video of his first taste of squash. I was laughing so hard I was crying! He definitely did not love it at first but is now a fan of it. He is such a good eater and will eat any fruit or veggie I put in front of him! 

Well, I think that's all I got for November except our family pictures that we took but I think I'll save that for another post.