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We had a busy day today with a Boise Parks & Rec Holiday Crafts class for Gavin this morning, then preschool, then Activity Days this afternoon. It started snowing just after noon and didn't stop until the next day! This was taken around 9:00 pm.

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The iPhone provides unlimited entertainment whenever it's needed.

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This was about average for our drive home today. Some areas were worse, some better. The windshield is especially dirty because our wiper fluid was frozen. It took us 10 hours total, including two stops to eat & let the kids play a bit. We got home to a few new inches of snow on our driveway, but otherwise all was well! I thought it wasn't supposed to snow that much in Boise... It's not even December yet, and we've had to shovel twice already--I think we were duped!

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These two were doing some reading after breakfast. Tessa chose a Christmas book, and Gavin was going for a little positive affirmation. Darin & Ben got back tonight--they got it all done! I'm so grateful to Ben for helping us out with yet another "move!" It's good to have a friend like Ben.

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Darin & Ben left this morning for Las Vegas to move out of our remaining storage unit. The kids had a great time playing together, and Becky and I reminisced about life four years ago, when we were watching babies Gavin & Tessa together. We all loved meeting Drew--he is a sweetheart and a good sleeper! Amazing that Ellie was his size just a year ago...

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Thanksgiving day. We enjoyed our turkey dinner at Cracker Barrel--it was really good!

Then we hit the road to Orem, arriving at the Williams house just before the kids' bedtime.
We have a lot to be thankful for this year!

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Darin brought home a new batch of finished pottery, including my requested pie plate and this fun little bunny bowl for Gavin. Darin's having fun experimenting... and he's not done yet!

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New mantel art. We'd gotten a Groupon awhile back for Canvas on Demand, and Darin just ordered this 16x20 canvas of one of our favorites. It goes perfectly with our life-size Batman Gavin figurine.

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Ellie would not keep mittens on... and she lasted about a minute in the snow--can't blame her.

We stayed & watched Gavin play for a few more minutes before we all decided it was just too cold!

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More snow today--it snowed lightly all morning & afternoon, but never stuck to the road. Another first for Ellie today--she's never been snowed on before, but it was coming down on us when we left church, and she noticed! She'd point up to the sky & say, "oooooooohhhh!"

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We woke up to a little bit of snow this morning! It had all melted by noon or so. This is the view outside our bedroom window on the back of the house... until all the leaves fell, we never knew there was an old school bus right on the other side of our back fence!

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We went to the mall's playplace again tonight--it might just become a Friday night winter tradition--and followed it up with an ice cream cone at the McDonalds in the mall. Gavin wanted a drink of water, so we told him to go up to the counter & ask for it himself... he marched right up there, asked for it & got it.

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Current fridge art. The fish was from our visit to the wastewater treatment plant awhile back, the heart from Gavin's Sunbeam class, and the photo magnet was from Gavin's nursery teacher in Colorado. Gavin just brought the turkey home from preschool this week. The feathers say, "Food to eat. 'I love all of the food,' I have two bathrooms upstairs and one downstairs, trees to climb, Ellie and me, I love my family, A zebra named Moke (he made it up), I want to play guitar."

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It was 4:30pm, probably about 50 degrees and already getting dark. But Gavin got the hankering to swing... so he did for about 5 minutes. Then we picked up sticks--the yard was covered with long skinny branches and leaves from the weeping willow tree, thanks mostly to a very strong wind the other night.

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When we got home from taking Gavin to preschool, I set Ellie down with some toys in the living room & went to the bathroom... came back a minute later to see her chowing down! Gavin had been munching on the popcorn before we left, and apparently we left it on the couch. Only 5 teeth? No problem!

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We're exactly halfway through BEARDVEMBER--a concocted celebration/competition with official written rules and regulations. 13 guys in Darin's area at work are vying for unknown prizes at the end of the month. Actually, one guy shaved over the weekend, so they're down to 12. Darin is responsible for taking pictures of all contestants each Monday to track their progress. We'll see how far Darin can go in the competition... but let it be known: Darin is receiving fewer kisses than usual as of late.

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Ellie has sucked Gavin into her cabinet obsession... and taken it to a whole new level!

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Here she is! Ellie was in a giddy mood tonight & just kept going back & forth across the room.

We had a great Saturday. I went to the Temple this morning while Darin had some Daddy-son-daughter time. We'll have to switch off & do that more often... or break down & get a babysitter!

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We went to an ill-fated storytime today at the library--Ellie was ready for a nap from the start, and Gavin just wanted to follow an irritable Ellie around in the back of the room. The whole thing was followed by a meltdown by Gavin at the gas station. Thankfully, the day got much better after a long nap, some quiet time & some sewing time. Ellie's really starting to get around--sporadically. She'll take off walking when we least expect it, and sometimes she still prefers to crawl. We had a fun night with dinner at Fuddruckers, then watched the kids play at the new play place in the mall. Ellie is fearless!

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Gavin's preschool art project of the day. He told us, "I want to eat it, but I can't. It's for the table."
Gavin loves his preschool class and teacher, Miss Cindy. Sometimes, when it's time to go, Miss Cindy & the kids will come out & perform a new song they learned--so fun! I also love that she posts on a blog the things they did that week. It really helps to read it back to Gavin, and have him tell me more!

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We've been slacking on writing practice--hadn't done it since 10/25! Gavin sat down to do it this afternoon wearing Ellie's cat costume. Actually, he wore it most of the day!

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Last night was the first frost. Our tomato plants took a beating--we knew it was inevitable.
Gavin had the guessing can at preschool today (he had to bring something that started with the letter of the week, "V," and give clues to the other kids). He brought a toy VAN & came up with his own clues:
"It has wheels, you drive it, and it holds a lot of people." He was so excited.

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When the Target TOY SALE catalog came in the mail today, Gavin went through it & circled his favorites with a pencil, so he'd have a reference when it was time to write Santa... then Ellie got a turn!

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We love these guys...

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We went down to the greenbelt by the Boise River this morning to try & get some family pictures for our Christmas card. It's supposed to be almost 20 degrees colder next week, so we thought we'd take advantage of the nice weather & pretty fall leaves while we still could. We got some good photos...

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Gavin woke up at 9:30 and asked for chocolate milk, threw it up at 10:00, then got progressively better throughout the day! He took it easy and watched a lot of shows (with a bucket nearby just in case), which gave me lots of time to work on my latest quilting project. No one else has caught Gav's bug yet!

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Gavin was a little under the weather today. His voice was a little lower and a little slower, he had a brief fever this afternoon, but mostly just chilled out all day. He's sick so rarely--probably about once a year. Tonight he said, "Mom, remember when I was sick when I was 3? It was a Sunday, and you had to miss church." (all true!) By tonight he seemed to be back to normal, so we'll see what tomorrow holds.

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I had grabbed the camera to get a shot of Ellie's bangs while these guys were in the bath (to trim or not to trim?). As I was trying to get her to smile, Gavin kept popping into the viewfinder! What a cutie.

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Ellie gets SO into her walking practice! She'll walk to you (6-7 steps), then turn around & walk back to the couch, then turn around and walk back to you, etc., and if she falls down, she wants to get right back up, until finally, her little legs just can't go any more. We're going to have to up her calorie intake to offset all this exercise! We went to storytime this morning (it had been awhile) and she was into that too!

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Happy November! Gavin was having fun throwing leaves up in the air & yelling, "Leaves are falling!"

The weather, while cooler, has still been nice, and our grape tomato plant is still producing like crazy.