Sam was so excited this morning to see snow on the ground. He kept begging me to get dressed so he could go out and play in it. So he got all bundled up and spent quite a bit longer than I thought he would out trying to make snowballs. He keeps trying to get his brother to go out and play with him in it. Gabe could do without the snow and in fact when it does snow he is ready to go back to California. 
We had a great Thanksgiving. We went down the street to mom's house and enjoyed a wonderful feast and the missionaries even stopped by to share the meal with us. It was so nice to be with family and enjoy their company. Here are some fun pictures of the kids enjoying their meal. Our kids love turkey legs for some reason and they were so excited to eat.
Okay I have to say that miracles do happen. The quarter for school has ended and I went in to look at my grades. I was pretty sure I got an A in my English Comp class which I did and then the grade posted for my philosophy class was a Z. I thought, "what the heck?" I knew I wasn't doing well in that class but my goodness it couldn't have been that bad. When I checked the Z meant that the instructor hadn't posted any grade yet. So I sat and sweated for two whole days hoping and praying that I at least got a C in the class. Before I submitted my final paper I had a D but was very close to a C so I figured if I didn't totally stink on my paper I would get the C. You all know how much I have struggled in that class and how highly I thought of the class. Well, yesterday I checked my grade and I am not kidding I got an A. Oh my gosh!! There is no way. I would have had to get every possible point on my final paper or he graded on a very serious curve. Either way I got an A and I am jumping up and down in astonishment and joy!! Happy Thanksgiving to me. I am very blessed to have a Heavenly Father who knows that I tried my best and softened that teachers heart. That is what I like to think anyway.
We would like to introduce you all to the newest member of our family, Jake. We went to the Humane Society today to look at dogs and actually took one home with us. He is seven months old and is a really great dog. He does really well with the kids and loves to play with tennis balls. His name was Julian but Sierra didn't like that name so we call him Jake. He actually responds better to that than to the former. I don't know why the pictures are a little fuzzy. Hopefully you can still see them well enough. Jake seems to like to follow me around everywhere and is now laying on my feet under the desk. We are so excited (Greg is warming up to it, he wasn't there when we picked out the dog, oops.)
Like I said, he doesn't mind when the kids lay all over him.
Zach was over spending the night, so he got to experience the fun.
Gabe was eligible to test for his red belt today. He was very excited and did a very good job. We are very impressed with how far he has come with his movement and skill. Here are some fun pictures from today. The post before this one has a video of him breaking his board.
Gabe doing his form
The end result. Look at that smile.
Of course Uncle Paul was there cheering him on.For Red belt it is required to break a board. Gabe gets to pick whatever strike he wants to do. He chose to do the elbow. Here is some video of him breaking his board.
I love Halloween because it is the start of all the great Holidays. This time of year is the best. We did Halloween at our house this year and had a lot of awesome soups and company. The kids all looked great. Maddie was so cute with her Abby Cadaby costume from sesame street. We had the devil, Gabriella from High School Musical, two Indiana Jones, two ninjas, and ninja turtel and a witch princess. They all had a great time trick-or-treating and Taylor and Sierra stayed out so long we almost had to go get them. 
My crew in their costumes. 
Sam just looks so mean!
