November

Making pizzas! We cooked up some Moose pizza sausage as one of our toppings this time.  The kids like helping, and of course, love the pizza!

Clint made red rock candy.  His grew so well, it was stuck in the mason jar we used.  We ended up using a lot of elbow grease to get some big chunks out.

We studied crystals in science, and thought it would be fun to grow our own in the form of 'rock candy'.  Ours' didn't turn out just as we'd hoped, but they definitely did grow really big!

Preston made orange rock candy.  His grew mostly on the stick-which for us was a wooden spoon- and the kind of result we were looking for.

Cara made purple rock candy.  Her's grew well on the stick too, but she had a lot on the inside of her jar also.  And of course, the most fun part of this experiment- after you wait and observe your crystal growth for a week, you get to EAT it!

All my kids love helping in the kitchen.  Preston has recently been very interested in pancake flipping.  He does a good job!

Clintaroo is a super driven swimmer.

The boys swim team traveled to Fairbanks for a swim meet the beginning of November.  It took 3 different flights to get all the swimmers out.  Chris, Preston, and Clint were on different flights and the boys thought it was very cool to be flying with friends and a coach instead of mom and dad.  They've been practicing hard this fall, and the results showed in their improved times of all of their individual races.  Good job boys!  This time I stayed home with Cara, and Chris got to watch the action.  The boys swam well, they had fun with their team, and Cara and I had fun too.

Cara baked and decorated cupcakes for potluck at church.

red velvet and cream cheese icing

all smiles after their races

Preston showing his ribbons from placing in his races.

Clint's ribbons from placing in his races

This year we had a nice crowd for Thanksgiving.  We invited friends Nicola and Mark Faires and their two kids from Fairbanks, Liz Schababerly from Tanana, Ruth Ross and her son, and Doug and Heidi who live next door.  Doug and Heidi returned to Galena the day before Thanksgiving with their son, Nakita, that they are in the process of adopting.

Chris made his delicious bacon stuffed turkey, and we had so many yummy sides and desserts!

Clint and Owen get mistaken for each other quite a lot.  When Clint wears his regular glasses, its even more obvious how similar these two guys are.

Owen, Clint, Preston, Nakita

Cara holding Evelyn Faires

Cara had a great time playing with Evelyn Faires.  Evelyn is very easy going, and Cara enjoyed being able to hold her.  She said it was good practice for when our Evelyn gets here.

decorating the kid tree

love these three!