Onto November and possibly getting my blog up to date before November of 2018 comes around… maybe? Summer gets so busy for us and I have let it snowball a bit. So enjoy the post and the look back at way cooler temperatures. A head’s up… December is already up and posted along with seasonal links HERE.

Ken spoiled me with a new tea mug!

Anyway, November… the month of chinchilla and workout pictures… wait that is much of my life the past year. I do love the Fluffy Overlord and working out has become second nature with me now.

Talking about chinchillas, November marks Neko-chan turning 1 year old!!! check out that post HERE

Emanuel went through a bit of an image change with a fancy new hair cut.

As did Echo. We have some rather spiffy looking kids!

The 3 younger kids went to Home Depot for the craft and even convinced Dad that PAINT should be involved.

I crocheted up a storm and we blocked this year’s special mom and grandma gifts… shawls! Plus matching hats for all 3 of us girls.

The kids dressed up in their finery for Santa. We went with the Schwartz family to their mall Santa of choice since our traditional one no longer exists after a store closing.  You can read all about that HERE.

I found winter boots in the children’s section of Target – something that made Ken laugh and entertained him and a few other people for days!

We had dinner with our wee niece Maevowyn… and her parents too, but we all know who the star of the show was!!!

I may be biased.. . but that face just makes me melt.

Echo LOVES her cousin

With Mom, and Dad photo bombing in the back

I also got in some quality kitty time, and pictures.

Silly Snoopy

We had school time.

Themed crafting continued.

A whole set of Halloween themed cupcakes that were out past the date.

Gavin made all of our cards this year.

Christmas Art

A Christmas mouse

Gavin the solemn crafter

Christmas mug cozy

Really all the babies babies were seen.

A poppy was worn, sent straight from Canada for Remembrance Day.

And I photographed my chinchilla from pretty well ALL possible angles…

All the junk in that glorious trunk!

Close up with lighting!

Yup that was November in a quick scan through images… hope you enjoyed!

We baked!

Whole family!

Well, you can already see pictures from Halloween HERE, as usually it was a fun time.

Neko-Chan and her Halloween prop

Echo’s wedding dress photos are HERE.

October was also Ken’s birthday… his 40th if you can believe it! We kept it low key, just as the birthday boy requested. He is not a big party animal. But he also was given an award for his hard work involved in getting his mental health under control and advocating for the association that helped him. We got to dress up and everything!

New outfit and all

It was a fun sort of duo season month with time to jump in leaves (and rake them up, slightly less fun)…

Gavin

And a bit of snow to toy with as well.

We even had TWO foreign visitors, Jeff flew down from Canada to hang out. Never a bad thing, friends and family flying down when we still can’t return ourselves.

With Jeff there is ALWAYS yummy curry.

And Karyn!!! A shorter visit than her normal yearly visit but we packed in the fun and hugs and … shopping of course!

UNO

So we may enable each other… just a little… and we like it that way!

We had our yearly pumpkin patch trip with our friend Trish and her two kids. Always fun and thankfully on a day when the weather mostly cooperated.

I am so grateful that Trish is willing to embrace our loud and crazy family.

Ken made pumpkin pie from scratch.

The twins took on acolyting at church.

We worked on all sorts of school stuff from crafts to book work and more.

We had the Novaks over for VR fun.

I continued my obsession with Neko-Chan pictures.

We had a bonfire with the Schwartz family and I got my cat fix.

I worked my buns off at the YMCA, with the family in tow, of course.

Emanuel and Trinity even got their YELLOW belts!!

And I crafted, my sanity is very closely tied to crafting it seems.

Seasonal!

Of course more images to enjoy. Fall really was pretty last year!

Face painting!

…asleep

Two of my kids made some image changes these past 2 months. Echo, for the first time ever, was absolutely sure that she wanted her hair cut. So off to the hair dresser’s suggested by Darcy we went for a change.

She found her own style and made her own decision and it totally suits her!

Emanuel, after a summer of growing his hair out and some rather frustrating pony tail issues decided he too wanted to cut his hair. Ken took him to Sport Clips where he used an old picture of Anthony Novak as a reference and snip snip off it went.

I am so pleased with the final look. Very grown up and easy to manage. It is hard to believe how something so simple can make such a big change.

I guess in the spring I am next. My hair was damaged when I dyed it blue (over bleached in some spots I assume) so I have been wearing it up in buns and growing it out so that when I do take the plunge it won’t have to be scary short.

These two are definitely growing into their own identities, it is fun to watch it happen.