Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving this year, we got to do something we have never done before... go to the gulf coast!  Our good friends from graduate school days, the Cox family, live in Lubbock Texas, and asked us if we wanted to meet for Thanksgiving.  We did, of course!  So, we rented a condo in Port Aransas, and met Wednesday evening.  We had to take a ferry to get to the island, which the girls liked!  It was so much fun!  We got to go to the beach at least once a day, and we saw all kinds of wildlife.  Thursday, we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which both families provided.  (We brought it all with us!)  Friday was the best day at the beach... we saw sea turtles, dolphins, crabs, jellyfish, a shrimp, lots of birds and shells... The adults went out to dinner on Friday night to a cajun restaurant.  They just came with the food and dumped it onto your table... it was interesting!  Fun times!  We drove home Saturday (so sad!), but had a wonderful time with the Cox family!  We will definitely vacation there again sometime!

Fashion Show, Field Trip, and an Owl...

I chaperoned Autumn's field trip to the Dallas Arboretum Children's Garden.  It was really a neat place, it was great weather, and we had a lot of fun!

Ciera and Chloe had a Modesty Fashion Show for Young Women in Excellence.  Each girl had to sew something, and then model it.  It turned out to be a great evening.  Ciera (and I) made her dress, and Chloe (and I) made the skirt and scarf that she wore.  Great job girls!

Autumn had a project at school where she had to use something she would throw away or recycle and make something.  She made an Owl piggybank out of a Nutella jar.  It turned out so cute!

UIL Competition

Brooke and Autumn both made it onto UIL teams this year.  Autumn was on the 2nd grade Storytelling team, and Brooke was on 4th grade Oral Reading.  The competition took a couple of hours, and they did their very best!  Autumn got a participant ribbon... we are so proud of her for doing something new that she had never done before!  Brooke got 4th place out of all the 4th graders that competed (which was about 20)!  We are proud of her for doing her best and trying hard!  Way to go girls!!

Grandma and Grandpa's November Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Elvester were able to visit us for a week in early November.  It was a really great visit.  The girls were in school, so Grandpa rode with me every day to drop them all off... then he and Grandma took turns going with me to pick them all back up again.  They got to see how busy  our lives are!  We took them to Ciera's football game on Friday night... which was freezing!  We were not doing so great, so we left after halftime.  Turns out that it was Senior night, so the band didn't get to do their full show anyway.  But Grandma and Grandpa got to see Cici in action a little! We went out to eat, shopped a bit, and just enjoyed their company. We are glad they got to come! We had a great visit with them!!

Finishing out Marching Band Season

I got some really cute pictures of Ciera during the marching band season.  It was really time consuming and difficult, but she learned so much and really ended up doing great!  I got choked up every time I watched her perform, which is not surprising...
We are so proud of Ciera!

Halloween 2014... the 3rd and Final Installment

Halloween night, Ciera had a football game to march at, so she didn't get to dress up at all.  Autumn was invited over to a friend's house for a Halloween costume party (Yes, that is her third costume this year!), and Chloe was invited over to Trick-or-Treat with a friend, so Dave and I took Brookie Trick-or-Treating.  It was fun, and she got a lot of candy!  Between the several Halloween events, we had two HUGE bowls full of candy.  I am sure our dentist will love us (haha!)!

In the morning, the girls had their awards ceremony for the first quarter.  (They got to wear costumes to school!)  Brooke and Autumn both got recognized for grades.  We are so proud of them.  That afternoon, they had their classroom parties, which I volunteered at.  Brooke's was a glow-in-the-dark party.  They had a lot of fun!

Halloween Part 2

Our ward Trunk or Treat was on Wednesday, October 29th.  All of the girls got to dress up, even the older ones!  The Young Women were having a costume contest and games during the activity.  Ciera ended up with Prettiest Costume.  All of the girls were so cute and got a TON of candy!  It was fun!

We always try to carve pumpkins the day before Halloween... last year we did it early and the pumpkins were FULL of mold by the time Halloween rolled around.  So, we did that on the 30th this year again.  It is always fun to watch the girls scoop out the "guts"!  They all did a great job designing (and Cici and Chloe, carving) their pumpkins this year!  They are in order, left to right, Autumn, Brooke, Chloe, Cici.  (Chloe's is a koala... the large oval is it's nose!)  How fun!