This is a classic Owen expression. He has lots of expressions. He’s very dramatic. His eyebrows and forehead have numerous combinations for different emotions he is trying to express. Here he wanted the camera. I get this look a lot. Mostly for mini-marshmallows (he became acquainted with these at thanksgiving atop the sweet potatoes), my phone, my keys and anything that resembles candy. He is too cute and funny. It is so bad because I shouldn’t laugh half of the time but I can’t help it. He will go from acting heartbroken to giggling in seconds. He’s quite the actor.

Olivia performed at Redmond High School for her dance concert. She was beautiful but still managed to be her silly self. She and all of the dancers did a great job. It was really fun to see her up there enjoying performing.

Olivia caroled at Redmond Town Center with her Girl Scout Troop.

Every year Redmond has “Redmond Lights” where they light up the tree in the city center. Santa comes in a sleigh with all of his reindeer. There are dancers and singers from all over the world. They light the river trail with candles for a couple of miles. Everybody walks the trail together with carolers and bands along the way.The city hands out little flashing lights you clip on your jacket. It looks really cool with everyone flashing.  It is one of our favorite things to do all year. This year we made it about a few hundred feet further than last year. Maybe someday we’ll make it the entire way. The hot home made donuts were our favorite thing this year!

Olivia got to climb in the hot air balloon while he blasted the fire and heat into the balloon.

The church behind the Seattle Temple gathers hundreds of Nativities and transforms the entire building. It is a fun environment but is a nightmare for parents with small children who like to touch and play with the beautiful and rare little pieces!  We pushed our luck for about 20 minutes and then walked around the temple.

Mary & Joseph

We had a great time with all of the sea otters, sharks and even got to see the scuba driver feeding the fish. At the end Bennett accidentally fell into the freezing fountains. He came out really shocked from the freezing water. I quickly pulled of his t-shirt and jacket and wrapped  him in Owens blanket. Bennett has the cutest disposition. He just laughed at the whole thing and thought it was really funny.

Thanksgiving dinner was yummy. It was the first time Laura or I have done the dinner solo so we were a bit nervous about putting it all together. It turned out really great but we had enough left overs for a week. We had such a good time with Laura and Dave. We stayed up most nights playing Farkle, Qwirlke, or Hoopla. Joel ordered special delicious popcorn because it is Laura’s favorite. Bennett was in Wii heaven. We finally replaced our TV.  Bennett was playing Mario Kart in his sleep. Owen learned really quickly how to hold the steering wheel and drive (well, he thought he was really driving). He would climb up right next to Bennett on the chair and drive right next to him. It made his so happy to be a big kid.

Laura, Dave and Evan are here for Thanksgiving. Today we went to Pike’s place and ate at amazing Beechers. Then we took the monorail to the Pacific Science Center. Laura and I took the kids to the Kids Museum for a couple of hours while Joel and Dave went to EMP. It was really fun, my favorite part was in the pretend grocery store when Owen found a fake banana and was getting so angry because he couldn’t eat it. He just kept showing it to me like he wanted me to peel it.

It was pouring the entire day and we got super soaked, which was perfect because we wanted to give them the ultimate Seattle experience.

We drove to Keri’s house in Boise for Cole’s baptism. Olivia and Bennett did amazing on the 9 hour drive. They are pro’s after this summer’s marathon drive I guess. Owen had some hard moments. It was so great being with Keri’s family and my mom for about 4 days. Olivia, Bennett and Cole played a ton (Keri let him stay home and play with the cousins!). I barely saw Bennett the whole trip because when he wasn’t playing with the kids he was playing baseball on the Wii. Ever since our TV had a Wii remote smashed into it from a bowling mishap (6months ago) Bennett has been Wii free. He sure made up for it this weekend!

It was a really great weekend. I wish we could go see Keri every month. I’d be in heaven.

We had some cute forest animals around our house this year. Saturday night we had a ward Halloween party. They had lots of fun little carnival games for the kids. They gave out tickets at each game and had a little store where you could buy stuff. It was a huge hit. Bennett kept going back and playing the games over and over so that he could get more tickets. The cutest thing about it was that he was so excited to buy something for each person in his family. He felt so proud when he presented me with a little farm animal that he had “bought” for me. Of course he melted my heart and was able to eat any amount of candy he wanted after that :) I think he might be catching on to the fact that mom is a real sucker for sweet little blond boys who steal my heart!

Halloween night we spent with the Ingebretsen’s in Mill Creek. It was a school night so we really hadn’t planned on going. But the closer Halloween night got I realized it has become a tradition to spend Halloween with them and I don’t know if it would feel like Halloween if we weren’t all together. So Halloween afternoon Andra and I plotted and decided to be really irresponsible parents and go ahead and party it up. Needless to say it was close to midnight before our kids were in bed. We had some crabby kids (okay, and parents) in the morning rushing to get to school on time, but we’ll do it again next year I’m sure!

The weather has been beautiful this fall. Just enough rain to keep everything green with a LOT more sun than we are used to! We went to this little pumpkin patch with our neighbors, the Thompsons. Our kids are all around the same age and so they had a lot of fun at the duck races, picking out pumpkins and the in the corn maze together.

This year just flew by. I can’t believe my baby is one already! Owen you are so scrumptious and keep us laughing and melting all the time.