A Spiel Visit

Cousins in pajamas! Ready for bed!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we were treated to a visit from David's sister Annie and her beautiful family. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. And David and I had so much fun playing with Annie and Adam. We were dying to play some basketball! We played a game two on two, girls vs. boys and Annie and I won! Of course! But it was a supper close game :). It was so great, we wish they lived close so we could play ball all the time.

We went to Springfield where we played at Jordan Valley Park and at Bass Pro.

Already friends :)

We put leaves on our thankful tree, sang together, prayed together, learned together, laughed together, played together; it was truly a treat to have the Spiel's in our home.

First Snow of the Season

Snow, snow, snow! We love snow! The first snow came early this year. It came before Thanksgiving! The kids sure loved playing in it. Too much fun!

A Trip to the Temple

Because David's sister Kate is so amazing, we were able to attend the temple together while she watched our kids. The kids LOVE their Aunt Kate.

The following day we took a drive up to St. Joseph to see where David will be working come January and to scope out good neighborhoods as we searched for a home. St. Josheph is a fun town. We are excited to live there for three months.

After our trip to St, Joseph we had dinner with Rob and Paige. The kids love to play with their KC cousins! We stayed the night and went to church with them. That Sunday was the Primary Program, what a treat! We enjoyed watching our little niece sing and speak her part. It was great!

All ready for church :)

Halloween Fun

Our Halloween lasted about 2 weeks! First we attended a Fall Festival at the local library. The kids and I made different decorations to hang around the house, inside and out! Some of the decorations were made at the Library's Story-time (we attend story-time every Tuesday) and the rest we made here at home. We made bats, scarecrows, and lots of ghosts!

We went to a pumpkin patch...

Then we had a church Halloween party. We took three of our neighbor kids with us. The kids had so much fun. Our ward decided to do the party out at the Bishops family ranch. There was so much for the kids to see and do.

"Hello! I know I'm cute."

We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween. David had a great idea! He drew several different types of eyes, noses, and mouths on a piece of paper and had Peter and Evelyn pick separately, at different times, what features they wanted on their pumpkin. Peter wanted his to be scary and mean looking and Evelyn wanted her pumpkin to be nice. See if you can tell which one is Peter's and which one is Evelyn's.

Then on Halloween Day, I made all sorts of fun Halloween snacks with the kids

Banana Spiders

Mandarin Orange & Peach Pumpkins

Witches Brooms

Mini Mummy Pizzas

and we handed out several of our witch hat cupcakes.

Witch Hat Cupcakes

Then, Halloween night we made a special visit to one of my favorite older ladies from our church and then we went to another friend of mine's home. My friend had all sorts of goodies for the kids! She made their Halloween with glow-sticks! We hit a few houses on her street for candy and headed home. Too much fun for the littles! They were exhausted come bedtime :).

 So, Peter designed his costume! He told us what he wanted and mom and dad figured out how to make his dream come to life. He requested lasers on his arms, he wanted buttons that were red and green circles... We had so much fun putting this together for him. And it was worth it! Peter loved his robot costume!

Shooting his lasers to destroy the asteroids in outer space.

The Kids and I Visit KC

Towards the end of David's eight weeks in St. Louis. The kids and I escaped Bolivar and visited family in Kansas City. We always love to visit Paige and Robert and their beautiful kids. Peter and Evelyn had been wanting to see their KC cousins for sometime. A visit was over due.

We are so grateful for Paige and her hospitality. She is an awesome gal. I am sure glad she is my sister-in-law. I guess I like Bob too ;).

Paige took us to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. They have so many neat things to see and do. The kids loved it! We had a good few days with the KC Reynders before we came back to our life here in Bolivar.

We stopped for a snack :)

Peter had fun using all of hid cousin's chalk. Sorry Paige. We will replace :)

A Quick Trip to Illinois

While we were living in St. Louis during David's clinical rotation, we made a quick trip to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Belleville, IL. I don't know many of my extended family members on my dad's side (the Murphy side) of the family. We didn't do a whole lot with them growing up. In fact I can only remember meeting this particular uncle (my dad's brother) and my aunt along with their youngest daughter once before this. They are awesome thought! I am so glad we took the time to go out and see them and their beautiful home. I hope we can stop by again while we are out here in the Midwest.

Their backyard is a lake! It is beautiful! They also have some chickens. It was a fun place to visit. I wish we could have stayed longer. We had a fun time playing outside. The kid threw acorns into the lake with their Uncle Bill and Peter "went fishing" with cousin Cassie. He mostly just got the line tangled in the sticks and leafs... but he had fun. Uncle Bill joked that he caught a fish stick!

Then Peter had fun playing with my cousin Breezy's son. And we enjoyed a delicious meal together.

Family is wonderful. I am grateful for the instant love and connection you feel with family.