November Fun Before The Holidays

Ellie is so cute in the kitchen. Actually she is pretty darn cute anywhere she goes but the other day she was watching me cook in the kitchen and I left the flour bucket open and got busy cooking. A few minutes later I looked down and saw Ellie playing in the flour. I let her continue awhile, but the time came for me to clean up and BOY was she not pleased with that!

Dan's B-day was November 9th, and we've been so crazy busy with our craft business preparations. I broke down and bought a cake this year. I felt rather guilty about it too. But....I eventually got over it. I bought a chocolate cake from Costco and it was pretty good. Happy Birthday to the best Husband ever! I couldn't find a picture of him opening any gifts or blowing out the candles. I'll just add that to my guilt pile. I'll do better next year, I promise!

At least I got a picture of someone enjoying the cake :) Ellie seems to approved, what do you think?

Here's another reason I've been so busy. It's chicken canning season!

We've been getting things ready for our craft night making replicas of the hurricane lantern we got from Dan's Dad. They turned out awesome!

This is a picture of the lantern kits all prepped and ready for the craft night.

 Here's what they looked like all assembled. Aren't they just gorgeous! I made one for us to keep too so now we have two total. It's a lucky thing too...We ended up having to use them during another storm and power outage. Talk about good timing!

The craft night went rather well but unfortunately only three people were able to show up to our craft night due to some nasty weather and flooding that covered roads they needed to cross in order to get here. So I ended up assembling the rest of them and then delivered them to those people later.


And to add yet another project to my already busy self! It never seems to end. Especially when you're the wife to the Cub Master in our ward. For Christmas Dan is having the boys make portable checkers sets. They will then be taking their sets to the local retirement home and playing their games with the residences who live there.
I can't remember who's idea it was, but I ended up making all the drawstring bags that'll hold their checkers pieces. Dan sure is lucky to have me for his wife :)

It's moments like this that make life so sweet. During one of our crazy winter storms the power was out. I found Ethan reading to his two younger sisters while Emma held a flashlight. Just melts my heart.

This is what we ended up making for dinner while we had no power. All the local restaurants that still had power were packed full or had horribly long lines. Except for Papa Murphy's that is.  Dan went in and they had some already made pizzas that no one would be picking up with the power being out so he was able to get a discount on them as well. We brought them home and I cut the raw pizza up into sections and folded them over themselves and we made pizza calzones in the dutch oven out on the back deck. They were awesome!

See, I told you they'd come in handy!

The aftermath from the storm was pretty extensive all around town. Our friends Ben and Kara May got hit pretty good where they were living in Marysville too. I called Kara up the next day and the kids and I went over late morning and helped clean up her yard of all the broken tree branches that fell in their yard and even went over and cleaned up her elderly neighbors yard. I hope that my kids are learning the joys that come from serving others. I'm trying to teach them.

To take a break from all the crazy we decided we needed a game night. So we got a babysitter and invited a few friends over for dinner and games. It was a good time too! Our friends Dave and Kristi hoover from our Stillaguamish ward brought the game Pie Face. It was a hoot!

Check out this cutie. Just crusin' in car with mommy's sunglasses on.

The kids doing some coloring with Maddie Fanning our neighbor. They just adore Maddie. She's in middle school and you'd think she'd rather spend time with the neighbors more her age but no, instead she treats them like they are her cousins. The kids are so close. The kids will watch for her van to get home from dance practice and run over to greet her before she even has a chance to get out of the car.

October Shenanigans

The Fall has arrived. The leaves on the neighborhood trees have decided to dump all at once. On a Saturday afternoon that was surprisingly warmer than normal we took to cleaning up the yard but before packing the leaves away I wanted to take the opportunity to take some pictures of the kids in them.

For one of Emma's preschool Homework assignments she had to make a scarecrow. So for Family Night we all got together and made this lil guy. Emma picked the scrapbook papers and colors and the kids took turn on what piece to assemble. We made it using some left over backer board from the garage and some spray adhesive and hot glue gun. I thought it turned out rather adorable!

 Emma also had a preschool field trip to the local pumpkin patch. This will be the last field trip I take to the pumpkin patch for a few years. I'll have to wait til Ellie is old enough for preschool. Kind of a sad realization I just had. They are growing up.

Here we are going for a hayride to the field to pick out the perfect Emma sized pumpkin.

She found it!

We had to take picture in every hole there was. But her favorite was the horse.

We even got to feed the animals carrots. Emma wasn't quite sure about it but she finally got up the courage to hand the carrot to this lamb. But boy did that animal have to stretch for it!

There is never a dull moment with my little red headed Ellie. Even a trip to Costco is entertaining. She took my Costco Membership card from me after I showed it to the person at the door and used it as her telephone for the remainder of our shopping trip. 

The leaves just keep on falling. We spent another evening with the kids raking and picking up leaves. We even got all the neighborhood kids to join in and turned it into a service project. We cleaned every yard in cul de sac.

All the happy helpers at work

And the best part of October finally arrived. Halloween! Here are all the kids dressed up for our ward Trunk-or-Treat activity. I went as Lucille Ball from "I Love Lucy" and Dan went as my #1 fan.

Just a few days later my brother came up for a surprise visit and he and Dan took the kids and one of Kiera's best friends (Shelby) along for Halloween night trick-or-treating.

Me and my brother Nathan. Was fun to visit with him.

Here are just a few random Shenanigans from October as well.

Our Glenn Family Crafting business continues to grow and do well. In October we made Family B-day Calendars, and for November we plan on making hurricane lanterns. And then in December we plan on doing a canvas painting class where I will be teaching people how to paint the Santa Canvas that I did in the next photograph.  I love having a craft night every month at the house. It is a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun and a great way to meet new people in our community. 

Aside from the business keeping me busy I also have a little someone who also keeps me on my toes.

Ellie stays busy these days keeping mommy busy with the trails of books she scatters over the house. Emptying the bookshelf has become a daily ritual for her.

Here is what my mantle looks like this month. I love having one to dress up with the changing seasons.

Ellie isn't the only one getting into mischief these days either. In fact I am sure she picked it up from her sister Emma. This is a picture of the two of them emptying the towel and bib drawer in the kitchen. Making a mess is so much more fun with two isn't it?