November 2024

 Happy Birthday Clara and Benson!

Clara turned 10 on November 13th and Benson turned 4 on November 21st. My brother Nathan and his family were in town so we celebrated at the same time with strawberry shortcake ice cream cake and coconut cream pie (birthday kids requests).

Dad and Nathan snuck in some raquetball while they were here.

Birthday girl asked for bangs and pierced ears for her birthday. Isn't she beautiful?! She could not be happier.

Clara snuck my phone and I found these selfies on it. I laughed so hard!

The other thing Clara asked for was her first pair of high heels (I had to talk her down from the stilettos she initially chose...heaven help me). Grandma Beutler also had her pick out a nice Sunday dress as a gift.

We celebrated even more with a big friend party this year. She chose a puppy and kitty adoption theme and we ran with it. The girls adopted a pet, named them and filled out an adoption certificate, decorated a kennel for them, and chose a leash and toys for them. Clara still loves everything furry, and makes friends with everyone around her.

Her friends know all about her obsession with squish mallows and gifted her squish mallow jammies, bracelet kits, and games, as well as several stuffed animals. One happy girl.

Benson received some money from Grandma Crockett and had a blast shopping for cars and candy with it. That is one happy 4 yr old.

Jennifer gifted him a dinosaur egg that he had to excavate to get the dinosaur out of. He could not wait to dig into it!

Aunt Melissa and Liz also gifted him several Hess trucks and a helicopter. I'm not sure if him or his older siblings played with them more.

Love this kid to the moon and back!

Las Vegas, baby!

Dave and I were able to sneak away for a few days with a group of our friends to Las Vegas. My good friend, Melissa Rich, rented this over-the-top compound of a house for all of us to celebrate her 50th birthday, and it was so fun!!! I almost forgot what it was like to spend any significant amount of time with friends and it was much needed for both Dave and I.

We all went to a magic show together - so fun!

Melissa and Ryan organized devotionals every night and made a big dinner for everyone on Sunday - they are so fantastic.

One of Melissa's birthday requests was playing Murder in the Dark in this massive house. We took it seriously and had so much fun.

Another night we went to see Cirque Du Soleil together and the clown had fun with our group. 

Sushi night!

Most of our friends that were there with us are very intelligent, successful, competitive people who are not used to loosing. Danielle and I were the only girls playing a game with this table of guys, and we completely dominated them! Let's just say they're not used to playing with women of our caliber. ;-)

We found a herd of wild burros while we were on a hike.

Dave went canyoneering with some of the group on one day - it was quite the adventure! After starting down the wrong trail, they figured it out and made it down the canyon to the river. Adventuring with Monte is not for the faint of heart!

We spent our last morning there in the temple, which was perfect.

We went straight from sunny skies to snow in Colorado. Both are so beautiful.

Sledding with the young women and young men.

Happy Thanksgiving! Unfortunately it was so crazy that we forgot to take pictures...here are some of the cute appetizers and yummy pies we had though. We celebrated with my parents and grandma, Russ and Katie and their family, and Katie's sister and her family. Always a full house!

We have had so much fun gathering eggs from our chickens. Aren't the colors from our Easter Eggers and Copper Marans beautiful?!

Clara had "Renaissance Day" at school. Fortunately her vampire costume could double as a renaissance costume. No blood on the face this time though.

Lexi had a blast making Sushi with Jennifer.

These two are so cute together. Benson just adores Macy and she's pretty good about reciprocating the love.

Cole has been blessed with an amazing deacon's quorum at church. So grateful for these sweet boys!

We took the girls to see the high school's production of "Singing in the Rain". It was impressive! I have no idea how they taught so many high school kids to sing and tap dance, but we loved it.

Lexi supporting her friend, Annika, at her solo violin recital.

Time for Christmas lights!