Beck Christmas Party

Friday we got up and ate a yummy breakfast, the kids got ready and went out with Grandpa to do a burn pile, they burned a ton of branches, it was fun watching them work together carrying the branches to the pile.  Grandma got out her Christmas decorations and Titus helped get that all set up.  Us moms went out for a little shopping, we had a lot fun talking and shopping together.  when we got back it was time to party, we ate and then there was a fishing pond for the kids, they all loved it.  Then we had some white elephant gift exchanges, the kids went first, they had fun exchanging gifts.  Then the adults went, again it was really fun.  I should mention that we don't usually make it to the Beck Christmas party so this was our first time, we had all been pretty excited about it, and we weren't disappointed.  We sat around and visited all evening, it is especially fun to watch the cousins together, they don't see each other very often, but they get along great and just have so much fun when they do see each other.  After the kids were in bed some of us snuck out to the movies, and had a good time. 

Thanksgiving

 

 We got up Thursday morning ready to head to Grandma and Grandpa Becks house for Thanksgiving.  Of course everything took longer than we expected, but we finally made it out the door, the drive took longer too, there was a lot of traffic and rain.  We got there just in time for dinner, the food was fantastic.  We loved being able to eat and visit with each other, it was very nice.  After dinner we cleaned up, Rachel took some family pictured for us and we enjoyed  visiting and catching up with everyone.  Then it was time for the pie contest that Joe has started, there were a lot of pies and they were all really good.  I had some requests to make the chocolate chess pie that I made last year, so I did and it won again, my mom came in second with a chocolate orange pie.  The kids got ready for bed and watched a movie with Grandma and then the older kids got to have a slumber party in the mud room, they thought that was pretty great.  Of course us adults sat up talking way to late, but it sure is fun to be together.  It was a great day. 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

First Basketball game

Kyle had his first basketball game yesterday.  Kyle has never played on a basketball team before so this was really his first official game ever, and the first time that I have ever watched him play a game that wasn't just in the front yard.  It was really fun to watch.  He ended up making the B team this year, which I am sure he was a little disappointed about at first but he soon realized that it was really a good thing, if he had been on the A team he would have sat on the bench a lot, but on the B team he is the starting point guard and gets to play most of the game, he is going to get a lot of good experience.  His team won, but only by one point so it was a pretty exciting game, it is going to be a really fun season.

our weekend

 Saturday morning we participated in a fun run to help raise money for a girl at the twins school who has cancer.  It was freezing cold, but we had a lot of fun doing it as a family. The picture shows us all with our medals that we got for finishing the run, also the kids all won water bottles.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home together, Marc and Kyle played some basketball and the girls played in the leaves all afternoon, they love making the leaves into a castle, and then jumping in them.

 On Sunday Marc spoke in sacrament meeting, he did a really nice job, and then Lydia gave her first talk in primary, she did a great job.

artwork

 Hailey brought this picture of herself home the other day, she had made it at the beginning of the school year, on the glasses they had to write words that describe themselves, hers turned out really cute.

 

Katie and Nicole did the apples, I cant remember who did which one, I will have to ask them.

 Katie and Nicole also did the scarecrows, they both really love any kind of art

Lydia loves to play with playdough, she made this butterfly the other day.

Halloween

Our Halloween celebrations lasted a whole week.  The Friday before Halloween there was a party at Katie and Nicoles school, they have carnival games and food and lots of prizes and candy.  We all ended up going, Kyle and Hailey ran one of the game booths and the girls ran around with their friends.  Monday night some friends from church invited us over to carve pumpkins for Family Home Evening, Hailey had basketball practice, so just Katie and Nicole and Lydia did their pumpkins that night.

 These two girls did theirs on their own, they turned out really cute

Lydia fell in love with this funny colored pumpkin when we picked them out, it was so hard, it was awful to carve, but Kyle was great to help her and it turned out really good.

The kids had half days all week so Wednesday they all invited a friend over to play in the afternoon, I made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies for them to decorate and eat, somehow I ended up with about 20 kids over making cookies, it was a little crazy but I think they all had fun.

Wednesday night was our church Halloween party, they had chilli and cornbread, there were a few games for the kids and then the activity day girls performed a dance to Monster Mash and the young women did a dance to Thriller, they were fun to watch.  They also had a trunk or treat, but we didn't stay for that because the kids wanted to go out on Friday.

 

Haileys friend Isabella went with us, she goes to activity days with Hailey, Hailey was a vampire, Kyle a basketball player, Nicole a magician Lydia the girl from Frozen, Katie a girl from the 50's in her poodle skirt.

These are the girls doing their dance, they each took a member of their family up with them, so you can also see Marc up there.

Thursday after school Kyle and Hailey finally got to carve their pumpkins they turned out great.

All the pumpkins out on the steps Halloween night.

Friday the kids dressed up for school and had a good time.  Marc was off from work Friday and our van had been having problems so we took it in to the shop, they called back and told us how much it would cost to fix it, it was more than we wanted to spend, so we decided to go car shopping, our van is 14 years old, it has been great, but it is starting to get old and have problems.  We ended up buying a new van! We didn't tell the kids, when we got home we had dinner and then the kids put on costumes and we met up with some friends that live in our neighborhood and we did some trick or treating.  The car salesman drove our new van out to us later that night so when we got home from trick or treating it was in the driveway the kids were pretty excited, we signed all the paperwork and then took them for a little drive.  In all the craziness I didnt take any pictures except for this one of them looking at all their treats, this is always their favorite part.

This is the new van