Lula's Puppies

We said goodbye to Lula's last litter of puppies in November. It was bittersweet for us. The puppies are so cute and fun, but it is nice to have Lula home permanently with us.

The breeders 2 female dogs had litters of puppies around Christmastime(15 total), so the kids are itching to go over there and play with them.
 

California

We took a quick trip to California the weekend before Christmas to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We didn't do a lot of the normal California things that we have done in the past. We mostly just wanted to spend time with my parents. The kids had fun exploring all of Grandma's toys. Alyssa played tennis with Danny. We pulled out a Christmas puzzle (which we did not finish before we left, even though Alyssa and I worked diligently on it for 3 days). On Sunday, we slipped away to go see Danny's brother, Brian, and family. Bobby's family also joined up with us after church and we had a BBQ and let the kids have fun playing. They recently moved into a new house, so it was nice to see it in person. Unfortunately, I did not remember to take any pictures while we were over there.

In planning for the trip, I asked mom if there was anything around LA that she could do that she thought the kids would enjoy. She came back to me with Disney on Ice. That idea got shot down when we learned that our boys, who were not yet fully vaccinated, would have to take covid tests in order to go. We thought that would be too much of a hassle, so she didn't get tickets. After we got to their house, Mom mentioned this Christmas lights display at the LA arboretum. Since it was outdoors, there was no need for vaccinations, and she thought she could handle the mile walk around the gardens. So on Monday night, we headed off to the light show. It was actually really cool. The kids loved it, and mom made it around the gardens with a few rest stops.

We were so glad that we were able to go down there and spend this precious time with Grandma and Grandpa. It was also nice to escape the cold and soak in some warm California sunshine.
 

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving for Danny's family. We had to bring home some supplies from the Convention Center, but everything turned out well.

Danny looked up a video on how to carve a turkey and it looked so pretty laid out on the plates.

Danny's brother, Bobby, and his family flew in from California to spend the holiday weekend with all of us. They bought the kids cookie decorating kits. They had fun with them.

We also went to Cabela's together to visit Santa and look at the animals and fish.

It was a fun weekend with family.

Fall Leaves

I don't know why kids love playing in leaf piles so much. We had quite the leaf pile in the fall and they had an hour of fun playing in it. Even Lula joined in.

 

Halloween

Our 3 younger kids are a bit obsessed with this computer game called Baldi's Basics. The setting of the game is an empty school. The goal is to find 7 notebooks in the school and answer the 3 math problems in the notebook and then escape from the school before Baldi, the math teacher(in the green shirt), gets you. The catch: some of the math problems are impossible to solve...as in they use symbols like $%^^$## instead of actual numbers. Oh, and when you get the math problem wrong, Baldi gets angry and chases you faster. And he gets more angry with each problem you miss. Oh, and as you go through the halls, you sometimes face obstacles like the girl in the red shirt that makes you stop and jump rope with her, or the principle(in black) who sends you to detention. The robot thing with big hands pushes you back if you run into it in the hallway. The broom pushes you out of a room if you open the wrong door. I'm not quite sure what the other things do, but the kids thought they were important and included them in their costume theme. If you look closely at their group picture, all of the things they are holding represents a character. 

Their cousins are in the picture and not part of the theme, just their to have fun trick or treating.

Ashley was Baldi

Tyler was the Bully - He steals your candy(which I think is supposed to stop Baldi from getting you).

And Camden was Principal. 

Alyssa did all of their make up. We didn't get a picture of Alyssa, but she dressed up with her friends in an 80's theme.

the kids had fun carving their pumpkins this year, too.

I made jack-o-lantern pizza's on the 30th before the kids went out trick or treating.

The kids got a lot of candy and were sad when the fun was over. 

More Puppy Pictures

Lula's puppies are getting big and are almost ready to go to their new homes. It is bittersweet for most of us. It will be nice to have Lula home full time after next week, but it has been fun to go and play with her puppies. Fortunately, we are friends with the breeders and they will continue to breed their dogs and have puppies at their house to play with(2 litters are due in about 6 weeks). But it will still be different not having them be Lula's puppies. Not that we have any plans to breed her after this. 

We wore the pups out when we went over to play with them one day. The one next to Lula's paw is the funniest. Not sure why he found that position comfortable. He is kind of a crazy, energetic puppy though so I guess it makes sense.

We are looking forward to having Lula home again and to have Ashley around a little more than she has been over the past 2 months.

Zoo Field Trip

I got to chaperone Camden's field trip to the zoo. This was my first time going as a chaperone at the public school. It was a different experience since we had to ride on the bus with the kids, instead of driving them in our cars. And the bus was crowded(3 to a seat) with very little leg room. It was a long 45 minutes there because I was by the window. On the way back, I snagged an aisle seat and it was slightly more comfortable. The weather was cool, but not to bad with a coat and hat on. We were just happy that we didn't get rained on since it was pretty stormy looking that day.

Here is a picture of Camden's class. His teacher is quite short but he seems to really like her.

We got a nice close look at the lions as they napped near the glass.

And the polar bear was pretty close, too, lounging on the rocks near the glass. These were the 3 boys that I was in charge of for the day. They were well behaved and pretty easy to keep track of. The boy in the hat has become a good friend to Camden this year since they are in the same class and they are also on the same basketball team. Plus, they only live a few streets over from us in our neighborhood.

The only disappointment of the day was not being able to find the penguins, that one of the boys said they have at the zoo. I don't know where They would have been since we went in every section and building in the zoo. 
 

Soccer and Basketball

Camden finished up his soccer season towards the end of September and went straight into his basketball season. He had fun playing soccer. He wasn't the most talented player on his team. but he got in there and had some good kicks in every game. 

He is enjoying basketball, as well. We try to get him to practice shooting outside, but he hasn't quite picked up the habit of doing it on his own. He will go out with Danny and shoot. I pointed out to him the other day when I was picking him up from a play date how his friend was practicing shooting the basketball all by himself. this friend is one of the best shooters on their team. I tried to explain to Camden that practicing a skill is what makes you get better at doing stuff. He has done well with basketball, though. He makes a shot or two in each of his games. It is nice that the kids aren't allowed to steal the ball while dribbling at this age. It gives him a chance to shoot the ball occasionally.