Thanksgiving

Iris' class had a presentation for Veterans Day. My parents came to see her and my dad was an honored veteran.

The day before Thanksgiving, we kicked off the season by heading down to my mom's cousin's house where, moments before, a cow had given birth.
Nothing whets the Thanksgiving appetite quite like watching a mother cow devour her afterbirth.

Sybil was a little too comfortable around the cows. 

She is so violently independent that I was afraid she would be trampled.

She was not afraid.

This was Thanksgiving morning. We were the only 2 awake early. Elijah slept in until 10am! He must be turning into a teenager a few years too early!
Sybil helped me make Marguerite's carrot soufflé recipe and added the secret ingredient: hygienic nose bubbles. JJ. I have a 100% sterile house.

 I also made mini pepper poppers, stuffing, and raspberry jello with pretzel crust.

David and Basiru playing football

 The girls at the park

 The kids were more interested in climbing than eating

 This is where the boys enjoyed their Thanksgiving lunch. 

The day after Thanksgiving, the kids invited their friends to go to see the temple lights with us and the missionaries.

 And the next day was the big Michigan vs Ohio game. The first of those games I watched was when we lived in Ann Arbor. I called the Nagel family (who are avid, as in die-hard, Ohio fans) right before the game with a little taunting.
I didn't call after the game.
And have never had reason to call about one of the games again.

The kids decorated during the game. 

Pants are always optional for the boy.

David pretended to decorate, but wanted to leave most of the artistic decisions in the hands of the masters.

Feliz Navidad!

Oh, how I love this season!
Below is a link to a "Christmas card" video a woman made for our ward. It is absolutely beautiful.

https://vimeo.com/193772280/6a3c02b217

There's a shot of me laughing at one point. I'll tell you why. There's one thing at any time of the year that makes me laugh more than just about anything else ever. It's the scene in "Elf" where Will Ferrel burps magnificently for about 20 seconds and then asks the kid sitting next to him if he heard it. I laugh the whole time and then some. Tears come to my eyes. It's hard to breathe.

Also, we are trying the Service Advent Calendar this year to remember Christ and become more like Him. On the calendar, every day has an attribute of Christ that we are supposed to emulate.Yesterday was "Jesus lifted others' burdens and so can you." This is what the kids told me they did:

Elijah: "I said a good prayer because I prayed for other people." It really was wonderful. He said it as we knelt by his bed at 9:30pm. He told me to tell David how good it was.
Claire: "I let everyone play who wanted to play Sand Monster."
Iris: "I was bullied all day, so I didn't do anything nice." "Bullied" meant her friend told her that clubs are dumb.

The kids didn't believe me when I said that today is "Jesus honored his parents and so can you." They also didn't believe me when I told them that would be the theme for the rest of the month...with good reason.

Religious Mixup

Iris: Mom, here are 2 coins to pay me with, but you have to give them back to me because one of them is Jewish.

Me: What does "Jewish: mean?

Iris: They are invisible from a far away land.

Fall Break: Disneyland

2 Disneyland first-timers

they got special pins

We went to California Adventure first

Claire decided to go dressed as the queen of hearts (we went the week before Halloween). The hair and makeup were done quickly that morning. As we walked through the parking lot, Claire said, "Everyone is looking at me." I said, "Do you like that?" She said no, but I didn't believe her.

Below was the first of Sybil's many temper tantrums that day. Toddlers just don't understand waiting in lines, or much of anything else. Sybil is fiercely independent. Usually, the only 2 reasons she approaches me in public are: 1) to wipe her nose on me, 2) to hit me because she wants me to go away. Nevertheless, I stayed with her most of the day while David took the older kids on bigger-kid rides.

Sybil usually has the "anyone but mom" mentality, except when over-sized, stuffed, moving creatures are near.

 The 2 little girls and I visited the area with the Disney characters' houses. I think this was Goofy's couch.

 Minnie's chaise lounge.

 Minnie's outdoor tea table

 It was interesting seeing Sybil's stages of exhaustion. Until Disney, I had only ever gotten to the violent stage. After the violence subsided, euphoria ensued. That was about when we went on the "It's a Small World" ride. She absolutely loved it: waving to everything and blowing kisses left and right. I've never seen her so enthralled. David took her again later and observed the same. I wish I could live in that ride forever.

I was surprised that Elijah was the first kid to lose steam and want to go home. Maybe it has to to with the fact that he is a dabber. He has caught on to the dab fever and does the dance move often (although not now as much as he used to--I think the fad might be fading from when we first heard about it from my niece Elle this past summer).

On the way home, I told Iris that Jose was going to live with us forever. 

She replied, "You mean we are stuck with him?" He was in the car too.

The problem is that Iris is so easy to mess with. It's hard not to. 

Fall Break: LA

We got a VRBO in Anaheim to share with the Sessum family. The kids played in the playroom-converted-garage that night and we headed out the red tour bus the next morning.
First stop: Chinese theater in Hollywood.

After we took this group shot, a few men approached us and asked us to be part of a skit for 6 Minute Prank. He told us that we had to ask his colleague to take a picture of us and then watch as the man ran away with our camera. We used his phone because we weren't sure wether to trust him, even after signing waivers. Look for us on a tiny cable network (maybe) in a few months.

On the bus again. The little one didn't allow David to listen to too much of the audio tour. 

We ate at the outdoor market

Hanging out at the La Brea tarpits.

Fall Break: Grand Canyon

Fall Break! 

Our friend Jose came down from BYU Idaho to visit us for Fall Break. Jose and his brother were our primary babysitters when we lived in NYC and attended the Harlem 2 Spanish branch. Many times, Claire's diaper was on backward when we got home, but it didn't matter bc the kids always begged for the Munoz's to babysit. One Sunday night, when I was ripe with baby, their wonderful mother came to our tiny apartment to cook us dinner. A few hours after she left, we called her to come back and stay with E and C while Iris was born.
David has kept in better touch than I have, with his occasional business trips to the Big Apple.
We decided to take Jose to CA for Fall Break, but stopped at the Grand Canyon first.

 Everyone was taking in the solemn beauty. 

Except one.

Mid-day star gazing

oops

I've been going through the pictures from our Fall Break and came across this gem. Elijah pointing an finger gun at the star of our most probably new president.
Ooops.
I think nobody thought this could happen.
Double oops.

The news this morning claimed that the only people voting for Trump were white, uneducated, bitter, middle-class men.
And then some.
Including Claire.
Claire said she is pro-Trump so she will still have a shot at being the first woman president. It's as good an argument as any.
Mind you, I didn't vote for the incumbent either; refused to choose between bigotry and corruption.