Christmas Lights

We love going to see the lights on Eucalyptus Ave in San Carlos. Two blocks of houses completely decked out! There are always so many fun displays and it seems like it's different every year (or maybe I have just have a really bad memory!) Either way, it's a fun tradition for our family.

 

 

Family Pictures and Fentons

At the beginning of December, my talented friend Angelica agreed to take pictures for the whole Farrell family. She did an awesome job!

After pictures were taken, the whole family went to Fenton's for dinner. And of course, a trip to Fenton's wouldn't be complete without a huge ice cream treat!

 

November in a Nutshell

Wow...the last month has been one big, exhausted blur! Trying to think back to what we did all of November and all I can remember is that everybody's been sick at one point or another. First Matthew got a nasty stomach  bug combined with a bout of asthma/allergies. Then me, Ellie, and Jon have taken turns passing around a cold/sinus infection and some terrible headaches. Blah! We're ready to be done with it all.

The kids have become master fort builders this month. Forts in the living room, their bedrooms, the play room....pretty much everywhere. It's been kind of fun to see what kind of stuff they come up with.

 

Jon and I got to go out on a little date to a BYU football game...my first time going to a BYU game! Even though they lost, it was still fun to get out and cheer them on.

 

We did a big bedroom switcharoo last week. Jon's parents generously offered us an extra bed that they aren't using, so we put the two girls in a room together and Matthew has his own room. We were worried about Ellie getting used to having Emma in there, but it's been a smooth transition. And bedtime is SO much easier now that Emma and Matthew can't stay up talking for hours! (Pictures coming after we finish getting the rooms all switched around how we want them)

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We got up bright and early and headed to the city to run a 5k as a family. This is something I hope becomes tradition. Emma did pretty good. She ran/walked the 1st and 3rd mile. She took a break for the second mile and sat in the stroller with the other 2 kids (that was quite a sight I'm sure!). The kids loved doing the race, and kept saying that they hoped we would win.  :)

After our big race (that we definitely didn't win), we packed up and went to spend the next 2 days with Jon's family. We love that we have family close enough to share holidays with. It was a fun day with lots of yummy food, good company, and not much else. We watched The Amazing Spiderman and hung out, and it was so nice to have nothing to do!

On Saturday we went to Pinnacles with most of Jon's family. It is a national park, with hikes and caves and rock formations...really a cool place. We set out on what was supposed to be an easy hike. We started out, excited for this fun adventure. We explored a couple really cool caves and hiked along some really neat trails and then the excitement started to wear off really quickly. Five hours and a few scrapes and bruises later, we wearily finished our hike. We were completely exhausted! Mental note for next time....go explore the caves, but skip the hike, especially if we have kids with us!

 

We finished the month by pulling out our meager Christmas decorations and getting all ready for Christmas. We really don't have much in the way of Christmas decor, but it's enough to make it feel cozy and Christmasy. 

I just really love this picture of Matthew...a lot. When Matthew saw the completed tree, he gasped and exclaimed, "it's our wonderful, cute, teeny Christmas tree!"

 

Ellie and Audrey- the cutest little BFF's ever

 These next few are from a little family date to Fentons after a temple trip

Matthew Says

Matthew has been saying some of the funniest things lately. Here are two that I can remember.

Coming home from preschool with his friend, Eva, Matthew turned to her and said, "Sometimes I just want to kiss you, but sometimes I'm just too itchy".  Haha....I don't even want to know about that one!

The other day Matthew and I were laying in his bed "pretending to sleep".
Matthew: Uh Mom, do you feel like I need to go to the bathroom?
Me: Uhhh...do YOU feel like you need to go to the bathroom?
Matthew: (quiet for a minute then scrambles out of the bed) Just a minute, I'll be right back!

Halloween Highlights

Halloween this year was busy busy! Here's a little bit of what we did:

 

We started off October by busting out the Halloween pajamas

Official Candy Inspector...it's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it.

The weekend before Halloween we headed out to the first annual (?) Farrell Family Halloween Party. It was a blast!

Jon and I went as farmers and brought along our horse, Emma, and our chickens, Matthew and Ellie. 

King Grandpa riding his noble steed

The King and Queen

There was a little doughnut-eating action

 And then we broke out the pinata that Jon made

The next day we (finally!) got some pumpkins and carved them. Halfway through, Jon decided to pull out the power tools and try carving with them. Brilliant!

 For family night the week of Halloween, we had a few friends over to make caramel apples. Despite the fact that I burned the caramel it was a really fun night.

Ellie looked amazing with her post-ponytail hair, candy-covered face, and one shoe.  :)

Emma and her friend Brady all ready for school on Halloween

 

All ready for trick or treating

This little boy wouldn't eat his dinner, despite threats of not getting to go trick or treating. We had to follow through, so I took the girls out while Jon stayed home to give him a chance to finish his food. We came back a while later and he had finished, so we let him go for a few houses...we just couldn't make him miss out on all of it! But I think he got the message.

We went trick or treating on our street and a couple houses on the next street over and then the kids' buckets were completely full, so we came home to pass out candy. Ellie was hilarious trick or treating. The first couple houses she was really annoyed that I was making her go to the door, but then she realized what was going on and was really enthusiastic about it. She knocked on every door, said hiyou when they opened the door, and picked all her own candy.

Picture her little voice saying cheeeee (cheese). She's recently started doing that when she sees the camera.  :)