Twins!

Greg's twin brother Matt came to visit at the beginning of December. It was a true twin moment when Greg went to get him at the airport and they were dressed exactly the same...down to the shoes! Of course they hadn't planned it and didn't even know they had the same coat! :)

We had a really fun weekend - just doing normal life things like buying a dining room table then spending the afternoon putting it together! We were sorry Nikki and Olivia had to stay home this time!

I didn't get many pictures, but here are a couple Greg took...

The kids absolutely loved having Matt here...thanks for coming to visit!

November!

Ok, I'm almost caught up! (Sorry for the blurry pictures...we FINALLY got a new camera, so December's pictures will look better!)

On November 2 Maren turned 5!! She is such a wonderful girl and we are so blessed to have her. We had a very fun cupcake party, which she got to invite 5 friends to.

Waiting for her friends to arrive...

Yes, we had a craft! I figured since she was only inviting girls and only 5 of them, I could swing a craft. They each got one of these canvas tote bags and I ironed on a cupcake and their name, then they got to decorate them with jewels (using fabric glue)...

I think they had fun and they turned out really cute!

We also had a cupcake pinata!

And lots of fun opening presents :)

And finally...CUPCAKES! They got to decorate their own and then wait patiently while I snapped the picture.

This is really random, but Maren drew this picture and then took a picture of it. She LOVES coloring and drawing these days and has gotten so good. I believe this is on Uncle Matt and Aunt Nikki.

Her favorite toy from her birthday...the puppy walks and barks! Her name is Daisy Strawberry Nealon.

Thanks for the headband kit Aunt Christina!!

Dressing up for fun...this picture cracks me up.

October

Here's what our October looked like...

A quick afternoon/evening to Cascades camp for part of the pastor spouse retreat...wish we could have attended the whole thing but it's in the middle of the week! The kids had fun canoeing!

Cute girls on picture day.

Maren and Joel happened to dress alike on this day and then ran outside with an umbrella...I thought it was so cute!

And then Max & Sam came out...wait, I think someone forgot to tell them that summer is over! :)

A trip to the dentist...

Preschool trip to the pumpkin patch. Right after I took this picture Maren got stung by a bee so we went home . :(

Playing with leaves in the backyard...

Ok, enough playing...now get to work!

Greg had his 38th birthday! He got to spend a long weekend in SF with friends, so we just did a little family party on the day of. He liked his super Dad ice cream cake!

A visit to our favorite pumpkin patch...

And our first time carving pumpkins with the kids. Really we did most of the work, but it was fun anyway. :)

I could not get a nice smile from either one of them, so I went with the sillies.

Hee Hee Hee

Halloween at preschool.

Getting ready to trick or treat...Joel is a transformer, in case you couldn't tell. :)

We trick-or-treated around our neighborhood with Max & Sam (they are some kind of star wars guys...).

And then handed out candy...and ate some too. :)