Thanksgiving Break

The girls had a half day of school on Wednesday and then a four-day weekend for Thanksgiving. We filled our time with a good balance of family time, friends, partying, and relaxing. 

Our Thanksgiving meal was at Grandma and Grandpa's house, but we weren't eating until about 1:00. Kim and Thane were spending their day with the Veltkamp side of the family so they weren't going to be joining us, but they weren't heading over there until the afternoon either. Annaliese was a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to see Elias, so we decided to head to Lynden for a little while in the morning. Kyle and the girls hung out at the house with Thane and the boys and Kim and I went to Berthusen Park for a run. It was a perfect way to start the day! 

From there, we grabbed our turkey from a local meat processing place where I had dropped it off to get smoked. By far, the best way to do a Thanksgiving turkey! We headed over to Mom and Dad's house and spent the rest of the day eating food, watching a little football, and playing games. 

Annaliese needed a haircut...so we trimmed off a few inches!

Haleigh and Mallory did not need haircuts...but their hair was in their faces,
and apparently cutting it was the best way to take care of that problem! (We took this picture the next day, when we could get them to stand next together and look at the camera at the same time!)

On Friday, we had to the opportunity to drive out to Birch Bay and hang out with one of my college friends and her family. Her grandparents live in Lynden, so they drove up from New Mexico for Thanksgiving. I haven't seen Tara and JM since Kyle and I got married! It was so fun to meet their wonderful kids and spend time together! I managed to take a few pictures of the kids, but totally forgot to get one of Tara and I!

Evie and Annaliese

Samantha and Haleigh

All the girls patiently waiting for a table at lunchtime...
doesn't get much better than an awesome view with awesome friends!

The rest of our weekend was filled up with getting the Christmas tree, decorating the house, and celebrating Annaliese's birthday. We ended the weekend tired but happy...and very thankful for all we have! 

More October Fun

That last post was getting a bit long, so I decided to divide it into two posts.

Thane built a climbing wall in their house and it was finally at a point where we could try it out. One evening we gave all the kids a chance to climb!

Annaliese

Owen

Haleigh

Mallory

Elias

There were also quite a few cute pictures of the girls from around the house; they love to have their pictures taken but don't always stand still long enough for a clear picture!

I told Lydia I thought she looked cute today and that I wanted to take a picture of her outfit...
so she turned around and said 'cheese!'

This looks like such an awkward way to sleep!

October

I feel like I just posted a September update and here it is time for an October update already! Looking back through my pictures, I realized that we spent a lot of time at the park  and hanging out with our friends! Makes for a good month!

I wanted to make some dried apples so one morning we headed to the apple orchard nd picked some apples. It was a beautiful morning and it there were so many apples on the trees. We were able to make lots of dried apples, some homemade applesauce, an apple pie, apple cookies and apple muffins!

 

 

We continued our fall fun with an afternoon Harvest party at some friends from church. They had pumpkins for carving, chili and hot dogs, and s’mores for dessert!

 

We decided to have an Italian-themed dinner in memory of Grandpa Tursellino, kid-free, so one night Kyle and I headed over to Mom and Dad's house while the girls stayed home with a babysitter. Mom made bragioli and we had salad and bread to go along with it! Dessert was tiramisu, carrot cake and some fancy thing that Ben made. It was all delicious! While we love our kids, it was really nice to have a kid-free night together with my parents and sisters.

 

The weather has been fantastic, so we spent lots of time outside! Annaliese is a fan of the monkey bars, so she prefers to go to Star Park, but we also visited Hovander, Berthusen, and Elizabeth Park as well!

She was so focused! She wanted to climb along the outside of the play structure.
 It's hard to tell from here, but she's about 5 feet off the ground.