the easiest thanksgiving

this year marked our first year staying home for thanksgiving. (last year was the first year staying home for christmas, this year thanksgiving. we are so boring. but i really love not dealing with all the travel stress, and being able to make our own traditions!) we figured it would be just the four of us and loved my MIL's idea of going out to eat last year, so we made reservations instead of a turkey and it was awesome.

we all went to the gym on thanksgiving morning, then got ready and hung around the house. (jack and i built some minecraft legos; the box said they're for ages 8+ and it was hard even for me.) then we got in the car and drove to seattle! it had been raining all week but just barely stopped that afternoon -- we even saw the sun peeking out, but it was WINDY and cold.

family selfie from steinbruek park:

we had dinner at cutter's and it was delish. the restaurant was perfect -- just noisy enough that our kids weren't an embarrassment, and we lucked out with a table right next to the window overlooking the bay. our four-course thanksgiving meal wasn't too bad either. see -- restaurants do it just like home!

another couple from our ward ended up joining us; they're canadian and thought our whole thanksgiving thing was amusing. it was so fun to have them with us too -- felt more festive to be with friends. hudson pounded the turkey, jack wouldn't touch it. we had pumpkin pie for dessert and headed home for the seahawks game. a perfect thanksgiving with my little family. 

more october fun

lots more good stuff happened in october! the first weekend was general conference, my favorite time of year, but b left for europe halfway through. it's always an adventure finding ways to keep these boys (and myself) occupied while he's gone -- especially on weekends! we took a sunday field trip to the temple. :)

we also got to tour our local fire station. and there were enough nice days of weather left that i got to hook up the bike trailer and take the boys for a ride. i get desperate for exercise time when b's gone and i can't go to the gym!

we tried to enjoy our last few weeks of nice weather as much as possible! jack's BFF allie is so cute with huddy -- she loves taking him down the slide. 

hudson is the cutest little cheeser. he finally started walking in october, hooray! love looking down and seeing this little sidekick. he's also VERY into football and wants to wear the utah helmet all the time. 

love this early morning sunrise. sometimes it's the only time we see evidence of the sun the whole day, but it's worth it!

one weekend we had a HUGE storm, which knocked out power for 24 hours. that was all the motivation b needed to finally get us a generator. ;) it was fun at night, the davis' came over and tj and b tried their best to listen to the utah game over ipad and cell phone, but when we woke up and it was still off we were a little bummed. 

church lasted about 20 minutes that day and we spent a very bored day inside. luckily our friends' power came back on and we went over there for dinner -- it was nice to get out of our cold dark house. the lights came back on late that night. here's a look at our street the day after the storm -- there were tree branches and leaves everywhere!

just some cute kids hanging out on the tennis court. 

i guess this counts as november, but the morning after halloween we headed out to seattle to run a few errands. i took the fam up to kerry park because b had never been -- it's such an awesome view of downtown seattle and the sound, and with all the pretty trees in the background that day it was perfect. 

we loooove fall in seattle!

halloween 2014

october has to be one of my most favorite times of the year. the leaves change into the most GORGEOUS colors around here, it starts feeling like fall (without being too cold or rainy yet), it's our anniversary and we've got all the festive fun of halloween. here's a look at our halloween fun in 2014.

we put up our decorations on october 1. i don't have a ton of interior decorations, just a few that the boys love to help me set up -- but this year (thanks to pinterest) i decided our front door needed some spooky stuff too. jack and joey helped me put up this monster face and it was a hit with everyone who came to the door that month.

we headed to jubilee farm one afternoon for our traditional family pumpkin patch outing (though next year i think we'll stick to the one right down the street and buy pumpkins from safeway because holy crap what a rip off!). we all had fun tromping through the mud to find the perfect pumpkin. and going for a hay ride of course. 

i got the boys matching glow-in-the-dark pjs this year and they were a HIT. they're still wearing them a month later. ;) 

i always try to make some fun, festive food for halloween -- whipped up these graveyard pudding cups for a halloween party jack attended at allie's house. i also made my favorite mummy hot dogs for his preschool party, and ghost pancakes for halloween morning. that night for dinner we got cheap boo-rritos from chipotle cause i was all crafted out. ;)

we had a ward trunk or treat on the 30th, and then it was fiiiinally halloween. (i feel like we always have SO many halloween activities before the actual day arrives. at least the boys get lots of chances to dress up...though, let's be honest, jack has been wearing his spiderman costume daily since we bought it in may. the cost per wear on that thing has got to be in the negatives by now.) 

jack & em / hudson and his fellow babies / h being very serious about his candy / jack and the winger boys:

finally it was really halloween. we started the day with a "pumpkin palooza" and potluck at preschool. 

then headed to microsoft to show off costumes in a horde of other people. we didn't stay long. ;) 

and THEN after dinner we went trick or treating. hudson sat in the stroller but desperately wanted to join the big boys. we went around our neighborhood (about 12 houses) with our neighbors, the bedells -- it was the perfect length of time for my dudes. jack b, jack w and joey (a storm trooper, spiderman, and ninja respectively) were the cutest things i have ever seen, running from house to house whooping with joy over their candy-filled buckets. 

then it was home for one piece of candy, kid bedtimes, and hocus pocus for me and b. a perfect halloween!

california 2014

the day after labor day, the boys and i headed to california! it was a busy trip -- we packed in a lot of activities and a LOT of sunshine from those 95 degree days. we almost melted. ;)

grammie took us on all sorts of field trips, from the LA natural history museum to irvine park to ride ponies. the boys also had a blast just playing with all of her cool toys and riding bikes down the driveway for hours on end.

lots of trips down memory lane this time too, as we drove by BOTH of me & b's LA apartments, getting my fave ice cream sandwiches at diddy riese, and meeting up with the fackrells one day for lunch. love having such good friends down there still!

best of all, b flew down for the weekend and accompanied me to las vegas for my PR workshop! it was SO much fun taking a mini road trip together and exploring vegas for 24 hours. soooo grateful to my parents for watching the boys and giving us this little getaway. 

such a fun, recharging trip -- i always feel so good after getting some time in the california homeland.