November is here.

 November ... the month when the leaves finish showing off color and then fall to the ground.  The month of Thanksgiving and pumpkins and mums.  The month where we get closer to Christmas and it's hard to know if you are into pumpkins still or ready for a Christmas tree in the living room?  Radios begin playing all the Christmas songs!  I CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT!!!!  November finishes up a busy volleyball season but then basketball begins.  This helps pass the long, dark evenings faster and it's so fun!  November is one last month of any warm tempts left for the year.  It just gets colder from here on out.  Welcome November.

We had a crazy, busy day of half day at school, teacher conferences, packing for the cabin, a volleyball game to attend by 5 PM and life!!!!  I loved the little note from Austin that his teacher passed on for me.  I'm so happy that fifth grade is going well for him!  He really loves his teacher!

And we made it time to watch the volleyball game and cheered our hearts out for the girls!  They won!!!!!  Another win!  Another banner!  Another tough game against Ephrata Mennonite!  I'm so proud of how Hadassah is able to coach and lets us love on Gunnar when she needs help!  Good job girls!

These freshmen girls were asked to be on the team bench to help if any Varsity girls get hurt!  It's been a privilege for them!  Olivia does play on the Varsity girls team all the time and we are so proud of her skills!  This is such a fun memory!

  

After the game, we went straight to the cabin!  This is the weekend that my entire is up together!  The guys helped with something by the new pickle ball court and then the games began!!!  This is gonna be such a fun space for the kids and to play!

The girls took some photos!  

And we took some photos of Gunnar once again!  Darling!

The guys hunted.  No kills this weekend but they saw some big deer!  Hopefully more good shots coming up!  The weather was nice and Dad started up the camp fire one night!

With the World Series still going, it got late and most of the kids were sleeping till the end but it was fun to cheer and watch these games.  We also played lots of Panic (a card game) and ate great food and the kids played in the teepee once again!  This cabin has held so many great memories for my family!  What a blessing!

And time change happened.

We came Sunday night from the cabin in time to watch the Chiefs and chill out at home.  The kids do not have school on Monday, so we will be sleeping in and relaxing here at home!

With it getting dark earlier now in the evenings, I bought some paint by number art a few weeks ago thinking that when the nights get long, we can sit and paint!  The idea went over great and we are started!  The kids loved it and the finished product will be a fun piece to keep!  Austin also put up some Christmas decorations in his room!  He loves Christmas trees and Mike pulled this one from the cabin, so it's now in Austin's room with lights strung and a happy young boy!

I started my painting a few weeks ago and it took longer than I thought it would but it turned out so pretty!  I finished up my painting while the kids started theirs!

Expectations get me sometimes.  You know ... you picture us all sitting around the dining room table paining and listening to Christmas music and chatting about life.  Just enjoying the moment!  Well, this time this expectation happened!  It was so peaceful to paint together and listen to our favorite Christmas music!!!!!  These are gonna turn out great!!!!!

And this tree at the park is turning into beauty once again!  I love watching this tree go from green leaves to beautiful golden yellow!!!!!  

November is sure to be another busy month of sports, prepping for the holidays ahead and school but I really do hope it will also be filled with many nights around the dining room table painting, going slow in the evenings and just enjoying being at home!!!!

Pumpkin Patch!

Gunnar is six months old!  He's so cute!  So fun!  Such a happy little guy!  We can't imagine life without him!  He loves his grandpa!  Sometimes we call Mike "Daudy".  I call him grandpa.  We shall see what Gunnar calls him when he starts talking!  This is such a sweet life! 

I'm learning and reminded that the closer we get to God, the closer He comes to us.  Jesus is always near and wants us to pull him closer to our hearts!  It's up to us if we let Him in and seeing the light on the path of my park walking, I was reminded of His presence!

Austin finished up another book report!  Well done dude!  And the dahlia tubers got dug out of the garden and stored away for next spring!

AND .... AUSTIN SHOT A DEER!  This is his first deer!  A spike!  He used his uncle Ritchies crossbow and shot it.  They couldn't find it that night but looked for it again the next morning.  They found it!  He was so happy.  Sadly we can't use the meat because another animal found it during the night and was eating it but he saved the horns and wears a smile of his fine hunting skills!

It was a big kill weekend!  Many other deer were killed!  It's so fun for the younger boys to be a part of the action now!

Mike gifted all us girls with a dozen of roses!  They are beautiful!

I hope I never take this view for granted!  We are surrounded by the most beautiful farm land and the crisp air and morning light is so pretty!!!!!

And look at this little cutie!!!!!  Hadassah dressed him up and we took him to a pumpkin patch where he made all our photograph wishes come true!  This hat I pulled out of Matthew's baby bin.  He wore it years ago and it's still so cute!!!!  We love this baby so much!!!!

We got to the pumpkin patch and asked the farmer if we could take some pictures in the field.  He said go ahead and we sure did!  We found a little wagon out there and used it for a prop!  These turned out darling!  Gunnar is the happiest baby and so adorable!

XOXOXOXOXOXO!

And the girls and baby dear!!!!  This is so precious!

The guys were hunting, so we went thrifting!  Goodwill had some fun finds!  Then we grabbed pizza  from a food truck vendor in Strasburg!  Delicious!!!!!  We went to Gracies to eat on Friday night and invited my mom and Jody and her girls along!  So fun!  Hadassah and Gunnar slept over and we watched a Hallmark Christmas movie!  Then on Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch, Goodwill, grabbed pizza and shopped Fashion Cents.  So, so fun!!!!

After thrifting and pizza, we came back home and watched movie two of a Hallmark Christmas movie.  

So relaxing!  So much fun!