Some of our December activities…
Visiting Santa. Daniel still hates him!
Josh’s band concert and Emily’s recital
Gingerbread houses. Warning: there was an overabundance of sugar consumed during the making of these houses!
A visit to Temple Square to see the lights.
We also had a fun party with Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrom, aunts and uncles and cousins too.
Christmas came early when Daniel won a contest! He won a Strider bike for himself and SIX more bikes for our local chapter of our state’s Down syndrome foundation!
He’s not a huge fan right now, unless someone else is touching it. Then he’s more than anxious to go for a drive around the house! For now we’re keeping it inside, but come warmer weather we’ll be moving to the great outdoors.
In case you’re wondering about the contest: I saw a link for it online and just couldn’t resist. I had to submit a picture of Daniel and tell a little bit about his story. I don’t even remember what I wrote! Here’s the photo I submitted. How could anyone possibly resist that?!?!
We invented our own version of cleaning the sink. (Daniel is enjoying his own little bowl of ice cream next to where I’m standing.)
We took goofy selfies.
The weather was so nice for so long that we were able to get the front door painted the weekend before Thanksgiving! Obviously we still have some work to do with the frame and the sidelights…but I’m still not sure how I feel about the door.
Rachel participated in the Veterans’ Day program that the 2nd grade puts on every year. Made me all teary-eyed!!
And I worked on some projects. This one is the finished drapes for the sliding glass door.
Thanksgiving mantel.
Fall centerpiece. Jared cut the wood and assembled the box. I sanded, stained and did all the foliage.
We also hosted Thanksgiving for my side of the family. We had lots of fun, ate lots of good food and yummy pies, and enjoyed the day. We only had 12 people total so it was actually kind of quiet. I was not very good at taking pictures. But we did get these few phone pics.
Caleb drinking his M&M water and an “M” that floated to the top of the water.
Daniel really enjoyed the pie.
And the day after Thanksgiving (thankfully), Daniel started the puke fest. It made its way through him, Caleb and then Rachel. So glad it didn’t hit any sooner!
The last project for the month was putting up the Christmas tree, which I did in between rounds of puke with Daniel.
I’m trying desperately to get caught up!!
We had a great Halloween week, with lots of preparations and lots of partying. Over the course of 4 days I made a tutu, a skirt, leggings and a hooded robe. I also crocheted a hat, dyed a shirt and overalls, reconstructed and embellished a shirt for Emily, created an Olaf face shirt for Rachel, and made a ninja turtle shirt for Caleb. And I don’t even like Halloween!!!! Maybe that means I’m a nice mom after all!
We partied with Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrom and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. We partied with our ward and even got to take part in the shooting of a candy cannon. And of course we trick-or-treated until we just couldn’t take it any more!
Here are Olaf and Anna.
Next up are Leonardo and the Grim Reaper.
And last, but certainly not least, the most adorable minion you’ll ever meet!
Hope your Halloween was as delightful/frightful as was ours! Time to start planning the next round of costumes…
