Thanksgiving 2011

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Oregon this year. We had dinner over at Sara and Jason's house (they prepared everything and it was so good!!). It was a quick trip but we really enjoyed seeing all our family.

Mick, Will and Doug enjoying Thanksgiving football.
Family picture

Annemarie and Grandma

Will and Jack playing a game

Annemarie making a grand entrance.

The boys with cousin Caleb.

Grandpa and Tyler

Annemarie with the teeny glass Uncle Steve gave her.

Annemarie reading to Jen and Uncle Steve.

Snow!

We had a light dusting of snow on Saturday, so that technically would be our first snow. However, this morning when we got up it was snowing and hasn't stopped yet. I had to scramble and find boots, snow pants and mittens for everyone...thankfully it didn't take long. Bring on the snow!

Singing the praises of snow...

Halloween 2011

So the big difference this year was that we had trick-or-treaters at our home. In past years maybe we'd get two or three (in Oregon and Montana). So this year I was ready. I started stock piling candy so I didn't have to purchase it all at once. We ended up going through 4 large Costco bags of candy and a Costco box of fruit snacks (when the candy ran out).

The kids celebrated Halloween at school, they bring their costumes and then get dressed later in the day. They have parade through the school so all the students can see what each other is dressed up as. The teachers and staff also get into the spirit. Second grade teachers were dressed up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 1st grade teachers were fairies. The boys were pretty impressed.

We began our festivities at home around 5p. The Peschels and Erin joined us for food and drinks and then we headed out to trick-or-treat. Erin stayed at the house and handed out candy for us. Stef, Tyler and Kathy stopped by to check out the chaos. Tyler was quite the greeter and wished each and every trick-or-treater Happy Halloween. It was hilarious. The amazing Raider pumpkin above was done by Erin. It received tons of comments and I like to think it was the best looking pumpkin in all of Whitefish!

Jack, Annemarie and Will showing off their costumes
A Storm Trooper, Jedi and Boba Fett. Happy Star Wars Halloween!

John, wearing Annemarie's bumble bee antennas

Trick or Treat!

Candy Monster

"My tummy hurts"

Tyler Larkin - the cutest monkey ever!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving was so much this year. We invited the Akeys to join us. I think the kids are getting good at this. From start to finish only took about 45 minutes! (Also, I think my camera is about to die, some of the pictures are a bit blurry. Sorry.)

Lots of seeds and goo

Annemarie with her pumpkin

Jack with his finished pumpkin

Will, happy with the end result

Anna, Will, Annemarie, Wyatt and Jack

More Pumpkin Patch Pictures...

Annemarie at the Pumpkin Patch

Annemaire's preschool had a field trip to Sweet Pickin's Pumpkin Patch earlier this month. It was a beautiful sunny day. As always there were lots of fun things to do.

Playing in the sand pit

Picture perfect

Bouncing on the pumpkin pillow

Ready for the train ride

Pretty little sunflower

Soccer Videos

The boys on the move...it's been a fun soccer season. Weather has been decent and we've seen some improvement. This Saturday is their last game. Bring on the snow!

Catch Them Doing Something Nice...

I was so happy to catch this moment the other afternoon. Not only was Will reading, but he was reading to Annemarie. So nice and thoughtful!

Homecoming in Whitefish

So, we live on the town parade route. It's so much fun. Friday was the high school homecoming parade and all we had to do was stand outside our house. The kids really clean up when it came to candy. Everyone was throwing or handing out candy...it was like Halloween, only early. We're looking forward to Winter Carnival in February when there's a much bigger parade. We'll have to hold an open house and have our friends over.

All the high school varsity teams had floats. We saw the kids' babysitter on the soccer float.

A sucker was the first piece of candy Annemarie caught. Instead of watching the parade from the sidewalk with the rest of us she sat on the front steps and enjoyed her treat.

Smile

I won't lie...starting in August I begin looking for the perfect holiday card picture opportunity. Over the years there have been good pictures, bad pictures and ones that will just have to do. Two kids is pretty tough...three kids is nearly impossible! Why is looking at the camera so hard? Why can't everyone smile at the same time? Not to worry, you won't be seeing any of these pictures in your mailbox come Christmas time.

Everyone's a clown...

These guys are getting so big!

Annemarie's First Day of School

Like her brothers, this girl loves going to school. Here she is, first day of a new school year. Annemarie goes to school two days a week from 9-3. She loves her teacher and classmates.

Jack Loses His First Tooth

It was very uneventful...on Saturday morning (prior to the 9a soccer game) Jack came into our bedroom with his tooth in his hand. "Look Mom, my tooth fell out." Just like that. The new one had already started to come in. Jack said he wiggled the tooth a little and it fell out. The other one on the bottom is holding strong though with the new teeth coming in it's getting a little crowded.

Labor Day 2011

Aww...Labor Day. It was hot and sunny and since school has already begun it felt a lot like the end of summer. We spent the afternoon at Les Mason (a state park on Whitefish Lake). The kids swam and played. It was a great day. Peschels stopped by in their boat and Doug tried paddle boarding for a little bit, something we may need to look into for next summer.

How many Peppmeiers can you fit in a blow up raft?

All smiles

Will getting a paddle board ride from Laura

Happy Labor Day!