November

For the most part we had quite a mild fall (and winter too, so far). And it was beautiful, though to me it seemed like there wasn't quite the stunning variety of color this year as in years past. Except for the tree in Mom's yard. Every year it turns the most breathtaking shade of crimson. Cars driving by will actually slow down to admire it. We decided to get a picture in front of it, though it was late in the day so the lighting was poor and the photos don't even do it justice. And also, it seems to be impossible to get everyone to look at and/or smile for the camera at the same time.

And one of them is my big teenage son.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this month by going to New Jersey for my niece Cecily's baptism. It was, of course, a very rushed trip but so much fun.

Lynnsey has wanted to get her ears pierced since she was eight and had our permission to make that choice (Kalen claims he never said such a thing but there were too many witnesses). But she kept putting it off because she was a teeny bit scared of what it would be like and how much it was going to hurt. And then she had the idea that maybe she and Cecily could go and have it done together. So we planned a little excursion to Claire's while we were in town.

After I got over the sticker shock (seriously didn't it only used to cost like 5 bucks to do this?), the girls each got to pick a set of earrings. Lynnsey chose a rainbow flower and Cecily chose a purple flower.

Cecily went first at Lynnsey's insistence.

At first you could tell Lynnsey was terrified (see her gripping the armrest for dear life) but she was smiling too.

After the first one went in, the smile was gone and I think she was pretty sure she'd made a mistake.

She recovered though, and once she saw the finished result, she was pretty happy.

Both girls were so cute for the rest of our visit, making sure that they were keeping their ears clean and turning the earrings just like they were shown.

On our way out of the mall, we passed one of those hurricane simulators which all the kids crammed into and tried out.

Mild weather in NJ made it perfect for lots of playground visits. Having Uncle Jonathan around was a big bonus for the kids!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's family--they are always so warm and welcoming to us that we sometimes forget they aren't our real family too!

Baptism day arrived and Cecily was pretty excited. We gathered for a few photos before the event. She had lots of cousins from both sides there.

Bentley was given some duplicate hand-me-downs of this shirt, so he gave one to Spencer who was more than happy to dress alike with his favorite cousin. He calls it his "Bentley Shirt" now whenever he wants to wear it.

The baptism was beautiful. After the program we had a delicious luncheon in the gym. And then we took advantage of another gorgeous day and went to another playground for the afternoon.

Some of the "boys" played King of the Hill on top of this big hill next to the playground. Taylor ended up being thrown down the side by his loving father who got a tiny bit carried away. It was too bad that I didn't get a video of it--we might be ten thousand dollars richer right now.

We did lots of visiting and playing and eating yummy food (I just got Alison's Stromboli recipe to try out for dinner this week!) It was such a fun visit. Hopefully next time we can stay longer:)