***WARNING: Very long blog entry. Brace yourself.
November...where did you go???
I am not exactly sure where the month of November went. It was gone before I knew it was here. The month started off with a very busy weekend. We had our annual Veterans' Day Parade here in our little Moapa Valley. It is a pretty big deal here and Ansley marched in it with the middle school dance team. After the parade, we drove to St. George to meet up with my sister, Kathy and her family and my brother, Kris and his son, Kody. We all got hotel rooms and spent the weekend hanging out. It was a lot of fun.
Kyle and the kids waiting for the parade to start.
A lovely November day in southern Nevada.
These are the veterans from the valley. They take great pride in their veteran uniforms and carrying the flag. They do all the flag ceremonies in the valley. They are such great men. Most of them served in World War II.
A big dump truck from our local gravel pit. Notice how small the buildings look in the back when compared to the truck. This was Eli's favorite entry in the parade.
One of the many tractors in the parade. We liked this one because it was red. And believe it or not...this antique tractor was made by Porsche. Interesting.
The W. Mack Lyon Middle School dance team, marching band, and cheerleaders making the turn onto the main route.
Cute dance team.
Ansley trying not to look at us because we were about 5 feet away and cheering for her at the tops of our lungs. She was humiliated. Good times.
Kyle and Eli taking a quick nap before we went to dinner.
Part of the party of 13 that went to dinner at Ruby River Steak House. 
Claire and Kody are the other end of the table. All the kids were pretty good. Well....Eli did make a HUGE mess with the free peanuts that were on the table. He tried to shell them and ended up getting pieces of shell everywhere including in Ansley's hair. He was a handful, but he always is.
All the kids (minus Kody...they left early) before we left St. George. The kids had a lot of fun swimming, playing football (including when Nate threw the football onto the balcony of the room above us), playing board games, and just being with their cousins. Hopefully, we can do it again soon!*Thanksgiving 2007*
We spent Thanksgiving at Kyle's parents' house in Orem, Utah, like we do every year. The kids love it. They love playing with their aunts, uncles, and cousins. The weather was freezing, but that didn't stop the kids from playing outside. Besides the usual Thanksgiving feast, we also got a bit of Christmas shopping done, Kyle and his brother-in-law Dave went to the BYU-Utah football game, the girls in the family had our usual "Girls Night Out" but this time we did it twice, plus lots of movies, games, and FUN! We wish we could have stayed longer but it was nice to come home and get out of the cold!
Some of the women in family preparing Thanksgiving Dinner. (L to R - LaNeace, Ansley, Rhonda, little Elle, and Janna)
The table all set for dinner. Although everyone gives her a hard time about it, Rhonda insists on using her nice dishes for Thanksgiving. Tradition. The kids also had a table set up, but I forgot to take a picture of it.
2 on 2 football in the backyard while waiting for the feast. Uncle Andy and Josh vs. Uncle Dave and Nate. Nate and Josh were in heaven! 
Uncle Andy and Josh discussing strategy.
Grandpa and Claire. A-dorable.
Kyle and his sisters, LaNeace and Janna. Janna announced at Thanksgiving dinner that she is expecting her first baby in May. We are SO excited for her and Andy. They will be great parents.
Kyle preparing the mashed potatoes. This is his only contribution to the meal, but he makes a mean mashed potato. Everyone raves about them...if they only knew how much butter it takes to make them taste like that. Ignorance is bliss!!
Aaaaah. Eli confined to a high chair. A few short minutes of peace...for me.
The day after Thanksgiving, Kyle's parents had a party for all the grandkids. It started out with everyone getting a goody bag full of stuff from Grandma and Grandpa. Nate played Santa for the event. 
Eli and Claire checking out what was in their goody bags. Grandma and Grandpa gave each grandchild some money to use to buy food and toys for local charities. They took the kids to the store to buy the donations and then to McDonald's. After their outing, they came home and ate treats and played games. They had a great party with Grandma and Grandpa!!
Ansley at the grandkid party. She was TOTALLY wasted after shopping until 3:00AM with her Aunt LaNeace. The went to the big "Day After Thanksgiving" sale at a mall that opened it's doors at midnight. They shopped for a few hours and then went back to LaNeace's house to crash for a couple of hours before Ansley had to be back to Grandma's for the party. It took her several days to catch up on her sleep after that night. She loved every second of it.
Late one night, Kyle decided to make Dave and LaNeace's lives harder. He started out by sneaking Elle (she's 2) a bunch of cookies and candy at 11:00PM. After those treats, Uncle Kyle convinced her to drink some of his (very caffeinated) Diet Pepsi. She enjoyed that and then he moved on to giving her chocolate. Needless to say, she went CRAZY! By midnight, she had lost her mind completely. This picture is of her "shaking her booty" at Uncle Kyle.
This is Elle eating her imaginary ice cream that Uncle Kyle promised her that her parents would get her on the way home that night...at 1:00AM. They didn't, but Elle didn't forget. She continued asking for ice cream, fries, and Coke all the way home.
Elle with the evidence of chocolate consumption on her face. At this point, she was functioning purely on caffeine and sugar. After years of Uncle Dave's funny, funny antics involving our kids...a bit of payback is fitting!
Well, that was some events in our lives in the month of November. Hopefully, I will not wait until the end of December and cram that whole month into one entry. We shall see.
*Garage Update
Progress continues on the garage. The stucco process has started, but it has been slow-going because of the weather. It has been windy and rainy ever since the first of three coats was put on. We now have a second coat, but the third has to wait until the weather is better. So much for having it done by Christmas. It is coming along. The garage doors should be on before Christmas and hopefully the concrete will be poured shortly after the stucco is finished.
Kyle's good friend, Kaluna (aka Tuna) dresses up as Santa every year and he is a great Santa! (He even wears white makeup on his face because he says Santa can't be brown! Dork!) He makes house calls, so we don't even have to leave the house with our brood. Eli thinks that Tuna IS Santa. He kept asking if Tuna was going to bring him his big boy bike. He is very confused. Claire wasn't a huge fan of Santa even after Tuna took off the hat and wig. I love the picture of Josh. He is the least photogenic of all our kids and I love when I can capture the real Josh in a picture. Thanks Tuna...for saving us a trip to the mall to see a crappy Santa. 
We bought Ansley and Claire matching Christmas dresses. What a treat for a mom who has had nothing but baby boys for the past 10 years!!! I still can't get over how adorable Claire was in her dress. Ansley was beautiful, too and the two of the together...it is too much cute-ness!!
Ansley is in the orchestra at her middle school and she plays the viola (she is following in her dad's footsteps). The orchestra had a Christmas concert and they did a great job! Ansley was so nervous, even though Kyle assured her that no one would know if she messed up because there are so many instruments. She is really learning quickly and she and Kyle have already played together a little. I have convinced them to work on a duet together. So cute! 
Kyle took this picture of Ansley and I sleeping. Like mother, like daughter.
While Kyle was hanging the Christmas lights on the house, I put Claire in the Little Tikes car. She LOVED it. I had to sit her in her Bumbo in the car so she could stay put and it worked like a charm. She sat in it for an hour. 
