November

Here is my catch up.
We went to OMSI for the first time as a family. Got to get our money's worth out of our pass :) The kids love it, and we could go again and again.

We had a "snow day" where they actually cancelled school for less than an inch of snow. So we spent an hour getting snow clothes on, 20 minutes playing in it, then an hour cleaning up snow clothes :) The kids got bored, and wanted snow like at the "faraway" Grandma's house. It was actually really cold that day.




There's only so many snow angels you can do in this amount of snow.



This is our very first year that we will be spending Christmas Eve and doing Christmas morning at our own house. We decided that this would be the perfect year to get our first real tree. So off to one of the many tree farms in Oregon we went.
They had an economy lot with some already cut, so we decided to check it out first to see if there was anything good.
Wondering if this could be the one?

Or maybe this one?
The chosen one!

Poor tree didn't even last 2 days in our house. And not enough time to get decorated and picutres. Our carpet couldn't stand any more water being spilled from being tipped over by Cooper! I was done trying to stand the stupid thing up, and when the stand finally broke, we decided maybe this wasn't such a perfect year for a real tree and the fake one went up the next day. Now I won't say that the fake one hasn't tipped over a time or two, but now water isn't spilled and I can actually tip it back up myself. And we have a partially decorated fake tree for Christmas this year. :)

Finally Halloween

Just over a month late, here are our Halloween pictures.
We went "trunk or treating" with Grandma and Grandpas ward because we missed ours.
We have a Red Power Ranger, and our Fairy Princess.

And our little Monkey.

Who is a monkey!

We then went to the downtown Hillsboro Trick or Treating.
I think Cooper is our little Halloween lover. He was not afraid of anything, and loved all the little scary things! He kept saying RRRAARRR right back to them. Ian and I went to our friend's annual Halloween Party.Where they have a Spook Walk.Awesome decorations, food, and games.
And a Halloween video game that Ian won this year! He got a fancy caramel apple.

Malia's 7th Birthday

For Malia's birthday we got tickets for Disney on Ice. We surprised her and it took her a few minutes walking around the Rose Garden before she realized what we were doing. She was so excited! They also gave out a free disposable camera that night, and so she had fun taking pictures. I think Cooper loved it the most though! He was gettting into it!



Then on her birthday (30th) we went to the Sauvie Island corn maze. We had already bought tickets, so even though it was a little rainy and muddy we were determined to go!











Then on Halloween we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house for dinner, presents and cake and ice cream.

Utah Hunt

We went on a quick trip to Utah so Ian could hunt deer. We decided to try driving all night, and it went pretty good I think. The kids slept most of the way, and we had minimal stops. Ian drove the whole way, lasting on Mt. Dew and 5 hour energy drinks. But by the time we got to Enterprise, and not used to drinking much pop or caffeine, he wasn't feeling too good. We all got a nap, and were ready to go!
The kids were excited to get to play with cousins. That makes their trip for them, along with seeing the faraway grandpa and grandma.

We had a short little party for Malia.

And painted pumpkins.


And just played more with cousins!

The only pics I got of the hunter! It seemed like we were there for such a short time, I didn't hardly take any.

Maybe they thought doing something like this would bring them some luck hunting?

Nope! But here is a nice 4-point that my cute little cousin shot. The last night I got to go out with my dad and Ian to watch the herd of deer at the farm. There were a couple of two points that we watched for a while, and they started fighting! It was fun to watch. But Ian decided a two point wasn't worth it and we went home. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come again!