Merry Christmas to All...

...and to all a good night!

November in a Nutshell

One of these days I'll stop playing catch-up and just be caught up...that day is not today.  I am soooo tempted to skip November, but I couldn't possibly since that is the month my first-born got baptized!  So, instead, you'll get a few slapped-together pictures with or without captions and we'll call it a day.  Anyway, November was a busy month, culminating in a huge Thanksgiving family visit for Ezra's baptism.  I, in typical fashion, was too busy chasing the chillun' around and baking 50 million pies to take any pictures.  Luckily I swiped some baptism pictures from family, so you'll at least get to put names with faces, for a change. Enjoy!

At the start of the month, Ezra was lucky enough to go with Spencer to the Church's 100 year anniversary of their Boy Scouting connection-thingy (don't ask for details...I'm tired).  What a fun first activity!  Ezra is BEYOND thrilled to be a cub scout.  He's been waiting anxiously since going with Spencer to an occasional cub scout activity when he was a den leader a few years ago.

 My handsome boys

Mid-month we took a Saturday afternoon trip to the Kemper Museum of Modern Art.  That stranger in the middle is one of the girls' besties, Lilly (she lives next door).  The boys, however, refused to cooperate for a picture.  So...you just get an estrogen-laden one instead.

Here's a few random pictures from sometime during the month.  Most of which were taken by and/or with Georgia when she stole my camera to document every nook and crevice in my house.

My scrawny, scrawny baby at 2 months, 3 weeks.

We're working our darndest to get some meat on them bones.

The kids were lucky enough to have Spencer's parents here for their Grandparent's Day, which fell on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  They got to watch the kids in each of their classrooms perform a little program and then got to join them for lunch.  They claim they've never seen our kids eat so much as they do during lunch at school.  Knowing how picky they are at home (especially Ezra), I'm not surprised!  I guess that's the perk of homemade lunches...I only pack things I know they'll eat!

a full-mouthed Ezra and Grandpa

Grandma and Miss G

Georgie and Grandpa

And FINALLY...the baptism!!!

(thanks to my mom-in-law, Eric, and Stephanie for providing 99.9% of the baptismal pictures.  I was too harried to take them myself)

All in white :)

Ez and his bestie, Liam

(who oddly makes Ezra look like a midget)

 Georgia, Ella (cousin), and Scarlett

Most of the mowglis together in their finery

(minus Everly, Oak, and Fischer)

 Everly (cousin), Uncle Phillip, and Ezra

 Mimi, Grandad, and Ezra

Cooper (cousin) and Fischer

Spencer and me with our eldest

All 4 of my boys

A real-live successful family picture

Uncle Phil, Auntie Steph, and Ezzie boy

Waiting to action to start

Ezra with his idol, Uncle Eric (one of the other EE Lifferths)

Ezzie and Grandpa

A rare smiley picture of Oak

The man of the hour

Congrats, Ezra Emil!!!

October in November-ish, part III

Finally, finally our last October in November post...which isn't actually in November at all.  c'est la vie.  I don't have time to split hairs anymore.  As our grand finale...costumes!!

Ezra, the King Cobra

Miss S was a princess.

She was going to be a flapper, but we had a last-minute snafu with the costume...so Georgia's old princess costume got an encore.  Luckily Scarlett's laid-back little personality came in handy and she was fine with the eleventh hour switch.

Miss G, the fashion designer.

She is insistent she's going to be a fashion designer and own her own boutique when she grows up, so we couldn't resist temporarily fulfilling that dream for Halloween.

Army men, Oak and Fischer

 ...and their tank

What can I say, Spencer couldn't resist ;)

Well, that's an October wrap, folks!

October in November, part II

As many of you know, October is a big birthday month around here, with Ezra's on the 23rd and Scarlett's on the 28th.   The last half of October is literally the busiest 2 weeks of the year for me, but I gotta say, I love every minute of it.

Since Ezra turned the big 0-8 this year, he got to have his first friend sleepover.  He was beyond excited for it, as were his guests (especially his bestie, Liam, whose first sleepover it was too).  It was pretty much insanity having an extra three grade-school-aged boys in the house (heaven knows, no one got a wink of sleep), but they all loved it so darn much we'll have to do it again :)

The man of the hour

#1, #2, and #3

The birthday boy with his guests, Hayden (above), Liam and Nathan

Ezra's minecraft creeper cake

(Hayden and Nathan did the chocolate for me since they're oh-so-much-more familiar with all things minecraft)

Happy Birthday, Ezra Emil!!!

Next up, Miss S!  Scarlie-girl turned 5 years old this year. Despite her tiny-stature, she actually is getting bigger all the time, believe it or not.  If not inches, than at least in years :)

 The Birthday Girl!!

 showin' off the goods

 I couldn't resist a stellar-deal on a mini-me American Girl doll, Marie-Grace

(does she not match her perfectly?!)

 The other American Girl doll

She's a simple girl...all she wanted was a yellow cake, purple sparkles, and a number candle.

done. done. and done.

By Scarlett's birthday on the 28th, we were quickly running out time to carve pumpkins, so we squished them in-between the birthday celebrations.

 Ezra with his giant pumpkin, pre-carving

 Oak couldn't wait to get in there and get his hands dirty.

Oh, how I love that boy.

Georgia's my texture-girl and hasn't done any pumpkin-cleaning in the past, but she sucked it up this year and got to work.

Ezra and Scarlett, however, wanted nothing to do with any of that messiness.

Oak, in typical fashion, taking things into his own hands. 

Don't worry, folks, I took it away as soon as I snapped the picture.

 Mr. F watching the action

The birthday girl with her finished product. 

If it looks like nothing to you, don't worry, you're normal.  We have the kids draw their picture straight onto the pumpkin and we attempt to cut it out.  The end results are...unique.

Georgia girl and her pretty pumpkin with the long, golden locks 

Ezra, it seems, oddly resembles his pumpkin

seriously.

We tried and tried and tried to get a group shot, but Oak was just too darn interested in blowing out the candles instead.

Well, that's all for tonight! phew!  Thanks for hanging in there!  Next up...Halloween!