November

We started November off with a great weekend.  Mike and I drove 6 hours to Washington D.C. to attend a cousin's sealing.  The kids were ecstatic to have Oma and Opa come up and play with them while we were gone.  I was so excited to finally see (and better yet, go inside) this beautiful temple!  I've wanted to ever since I was a kid since my parents were sealed there.  It was gorgeous!

We also got to visit said cousin and his little family in Fort Belvoir where I was born!  How cool is that?

Some random photos.  Adorable Alice in her bear towel.

Funny story: we hadn't used the hooded towels in months because of the move.  When we finally unpacked them Alice was rather wary of them.  When Bridget put her on rhino hood, Alice got as far away as possible and she was NOT going to let me put hers on her head.  Luckily she got used to them pretty quickly.  

Nothing says comfort like shelves 

of books.  What a nut!

Fun in the leaves!

We have tons of leaves!  Especially in the back yard.  We've learned the easiest way to get them up to the front is piling them on a huge tarp and dragging them up to the curb.  We're so lucky the city comes and sucks them up with a vacuum truck.

The night before Thanksgiving we had a neighborhood pie night.  It was a great way to meet and get to know our neighbors.  We had a good turnout and the missionaries stopped by for some pie too.  It was great fun!

Alice helped clean up too.  I'm not exactly sure whose pie that was.

For Thanksgiving we had the Hawley's come from Indianapolis!!!  It was wonderful!!!  Charlotte and Spud (Steven Jr) loved playing with our kids and left lots of time for Laura and Steve and us to catch up.  

We even broke out some marshmallows and got the firepit going.  It was great!