Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving!  Wes cooked the big bird this year.  I loved his pose as he sharpened his knife to carve it.

 Parker, Paige, & Tatum all getting ready to eat.

 Kenzie getting started at her table.

A bunch of goofballs at my table!

 I couldn't get Grandma's attention, so I finally yelled, "Pretend you're having fun!"

 

After we were too full to move, there was lots of sitting around...

  

 ...and the big boys played a board game...

...and Parker basically was in the basement all afternoon at the air hockey table.  He played against everyone.  Grandpa was extremely impressed by Parker's hand-eye coordination.   Parker had a huge smile on his face the whole time, too.

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Finally it was pie time!  Cameron was not too impressed with Thanksgiving dinner - he ate several rolls, lots of olives and pickles from the veggie tray, and some pretzels from the Crispix mix - but he was very excited for pie time.  He scanned the whole counter very seriously before pointing at the chocolate pie and stating, "Cake!"

And finally, all bundled up to head home, the kiddos had yet another roll, and the feasting was complete!

Free Zoo Day

 Wednesday was a free day at the zoo.  Last year we went, and it didn't get busy until the zoo had been open for an hour or so.  Apparently people realized that, because this year we arrived about 15 minutes after the zoo opened, and there was quite the crowd already.  It still wasn't too bad, though, and worth the crowds to save quite a bit of money.

 Kenzie on the zebra.  She usually complains about waking up early, especially on a day off from school, but she said, "It was worth it!"

Parker, as always, on the panda.  He was getting tired and kind of whined, "Are we going on the carousel yet?"  When I pointed out that was exactly where we were heading, he suddenly perked right back up!

 

 This was Cameron's first time riding the carousel, and he picked the "kitty" (leopard).  He had a great time, which was cute to see.

In front of the grizzly bears (kind of hard to tell, but they are back there!).  Parker refuses to even try to smile if the sun is in his eyes.

 

 Cameron likes Winnie the Pooh, and awhile ago started calling all bears, "Pooh Pooh."  It cracks us up, although we do try to teach him to say, "Bear."  In the video you can kind of hear him say, "Hi Pooh Pooh!" to the grizzly bear.  He also yelled it at the polar bear.

Cameron was wiggling, but here they were admiring the black-footed cats.  After that, the kids were sufficiently tired, so we headed home for lunch and I started making pies for Thanksgiving!

Josh's Homecoming

 

 Last Sunday we got to listen to Josh give his homecoming talk.  It was so cute to see how his mission had helped his testimony.  I thought it was adorable (I'm his old aunt.  I can say that!).  Afterwards we had lunch and the kids hung out at the little park across the street from Uncle Arnie's house.  It was quite chilly outside but the kids didn't seem to mind!

 
Camille is a silly kid!

It was the first time Cameron really wore his coat, and I thought he looked so cute all bundled up!

Here's Josh and Parker in Oct. 2012 at Josh's farewell...

 

...and here they were Sunday!  I finally got a chance to take a picture of them together to show how much they'd both grown up in two years. Kind of crazy how fast time flies!  Welcome back, Josh!

The Many Sleeps of Cam

Cameron is such a busy kid.  I have a lot of pictures of him napping, though, for two reasons: 1. he's actually holding still, so it's not a blurry picture; and 2. he is sweet and often hilarious when he's sleeping, just based on where he fell asleep at.

 He fell asleep the other day on the floor in the living room while playing on my phone.

 This was on the way back from a late family dinner.  Notice that, like a true warrior, he did not lose his grip on his sword even in sleep.

I wish this wasn't so dark, but he was asleep in our linen closet.  He crawled in with all his own blankets and stuffed Mickey, and went right to sleep on the pile of sheets and blankets.

 Cameron practically lived in this box for a week, until it was so trashed from him jumping into it that it was shredded and I had to recycle it.  He fell asleep in it several times.

 

 Here's another night, when he snuck out of bed to play in the hall in his box, and then fell asleep in it again.  

This is my favorite - it was very unusual a few days ago for Cameron to snuggle on Daddy's shoulder and not immediately start squirming (he likes to fight his urge to nap).   We were both surprised when Cameron actually fell asleep, though.  Daddy had to quickly take a picture in the mirror, just in case that's the last time little Cameron falls asleep on Daddy's shoulder.

Sweet dreams, little guy.

How to Hide a Turkey

I think my kids are quite entertaining.  The most recent thing that amused me was this: part of Parker's homework this week was to help disguise a turkey so it could join in at Thanksgiving.  McKenzie came up with lots of suggestions ("He could wear a tuxedo!  Spies wear tuxedos.  Or he could be a DJ!"), but Parker immediately and firmly stated, "He could hide in a bucket!"  I'm sure it's not quite what his teacher is expecting, but Parker's turkey will be spending Thanksgiving dinner disguised in a bucket.  So random.  So Parker.

The Art of a Picture

 This is Cameron the Zookeeper.  He wanted to make a pretend sandwich.  He did not want to pose for a picture.

 Here he is trying to escape from the couch, to get back to building that fake sandwich.  Kenzie and Parker wanted to get trick-or-treating, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

 Mommy tried handing Cameron a container of cookies, thinking that would distract him long enough to sit still.  It kind of worked, but the container wasn't opened.

 Cameron the Zookeeper was sad, very sad.  He could not smile for the camera while holding a closed container.  He could not smile without a cookie.  Or two.

Mommy handed him a few cookies from the container, and ta-da!  An instant smile!  Then Cameron the Zookeeper got down and went right back to his pretend sandwich.

Halloween 2014

 Cameron showing off the set of teeth from Grandma Susan!  He was very excited about all the treats that go along with Halloween!

 Kenzie was so excited to go trick-or-treating that she forgot her nerd glasses.  I was so busy trying to convince Cameron to stay in his costume that I didn't notice until long after they'd left. 

 My nerd, zookeeper, and Batman.  They're fun kids.  I would not care for Halloween at all if it wasn't for their excitement!

 We tried to get a good picture of the little zookeeper, but Cameron is just so darn busy.  He does not want to stand and pose for a picture.

 Cameron had no clue what he was off to do, but he was happy to be included with his big siblings.  (He wound up with the most candy, though, because when offered a bowl he grabbed as many as he could... and he was cute enough to get away with it!)

 Our pumpkins all lit up on the porch.

Admiring their candy!  It wasn't even as much as in past years, because with Cameron walking slowly (Daddy said Cameron had to stop and look at every Halloween light and decoration, too) they didn't make great time, but our kids didn't care.  They were happy for any candy at all, and they excitedly sorted through it for the rest of the night!