Novemeber

The rest of November was busy, too. It was fun getting ready for the holidays! Gabrielle had her band concert- early in December Madison's concert got cancelled due to snow and freezing temps (even though they still had school that day!) Gabrielle was recognized for making it into the honorable mention district band - 4th chair with all high school kids!

 Thanksgiving was nice- just us here in Columbia. To assure it's success, Gabrielle made the chocolate pie this year- her favorite.

 Everyone was in the Holiday Spirit to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade- Here's pilgrim Mia in her hat:

 Sydney didn't enjoy her hat so much- "If I wear this will I get turkey?"

 I think I am going on the naughty list!

 Oh yeah! Turkey! That's what I'm talking about! See how good I am?

Jared smoked this awesome bird for us- yum!

And then he got right on the light display in our yard! He created this tree and it was really cool!

Other November activities included hosting a dinner group from church (with Jared smoking chicken!) and seeing Jim Brickman kick off his Holiday Concert Tour in Saint Louis the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The following Sunday we had a farewell open house for our bishop and his family. Over 90 people came to eat cookies and snacks and wish them well. He got another news job in Utah, so Jared and the other counselor held down the fort until our new bishop was called. Jared was calling-less for a couple of weeks, then was called as our new bishop's executive secretary. It back to meetings for him now! Ready for December!

Falling for You

I do this every year- it comes time for Daylight Saving Time to end and I say, "what happened to October??" It really did fly by for us this year. From football to family visits and everything in between, here's a re-cap of October!
Our first NFL football game- St Louis Rams v Washington Redskins: We went with some friends of our the first weekend in October. Even though the Rams lost, it was fun watching Sam Bradford! It was breast cancer awareness day at the game so they had pink everywhere! 

  

We planted beautiful Fall flowers and I got a little crafty with these beribboned pumpkins!

  

i love orange!

Highlight of October was a visit from Brycen and Lisa and Adycen!  At 7 months, Adycen was crawling everywhere! Especially pulling herself up on the hearth! 

Eating lunch and getting very messy!

Teeth would be nice!

Yum Yum Strawberry! Modeling her Halloween costume.

Grandpa's lawn is so nice!

Leaves are crunchy!

Bath time!

Toasting by the fire- Fall is so fun!

Of course we had lots of high school football and Madison had marching competitions and festivals to attend (she's been everywhere, man!) The Kewpies ended their season with a miraculous win at home against the #1 Jefferson Jays. That took them to the play-offs! Here is a shot from that game, which was Senior Night.

That's Madison next to one of the drum majors (the one saluting)

 The girls and I got into the Halloween spirit and "dressed up' as the three little kittens for the Trunk or Treat at church the Wednesday night before Halloween. Meow!

Um, yes, I'd like to report some missing mittens!

And yes, another birthday- this is the pumpkin cake I made for my birthday. It is 2 bundt cakes- one red velvet and one pumpkin chocolate chip, all coated in cream cheese frosting. The stem is fondant. It was fun to make. My sweet friends know what I like because I was also showered with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin cupcakes. Fall birthdays are the best! And my cute secretary brought me Diet Coke with a very special mug (that says "Queen of Everything!") My mom gave me Martha Stewart's Body and Soul magazine, the girls gave me a Coca-cola scrabble tile necklace and Jared took me shopping at the lake for the day. I may be old, but I am loved!

The last Saturday of October we had a youth temple trip in St. Louis- such a nice way to spend the day together!

The last night of the month was Halloween and we had tickets to the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast at Jesse Auditorium at MU. Beautiful music and a wonderful performance. So much fun! The girls really enjoyed it and it was fun seeing all the kiddos that came dressed in costume. All in all, a very busy and very fun filled Fall so far. I will try not to do these month at a time posts- it takes forever! There went my extra hour I got back! Oh well- Let's try not to forget that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas! At our house we are trying to "respect the bird" Watch this video http://respectthebird.com/p/about-respect-bird.html

Happy Fall Everyone!

FLOTUS

Michelle shops at Target just like me! Only I don't go along with my plain-clothed secret service men. It looks like she bought Febreeze and anti-bacterial wipes. What? Is the residence covered with germs or something? Can't be too careful, I suppose. Love the hat, too!

Gold and Green Wedding

See her amazing dress! and yummy baklava!

I got to create a cake for a very unique wedding this week. The groom is from Algeria and the bride is from the U.S. and they are going to live in CHINA! She inspired me by showing me the skirt of the dress he had made for her-- a beautiful pistachio green with sequins, beading and gold embroidery. They chose a marble cake in three tiers, a 6, 10 and 12inch. I found the perfect ribbon to match her dress and went from there. The flowers I used in the topper were pale green hydrangeas and ivory roses and the flowers accenting the tiers were pale green roses. It was really wonderful to be a part of such a special day! Here's some photos:

15

 Gabrielle has turned 15! Poor Gabrielle always has to go to school on her birthday, it seems. She had lessons that afternoon and so Madison and their teacher played a flute duet of happy birthday for her! The next day they did have school off for a teacher work day, so we made her requested cake. It was a chocolate mosaic cake. Two square tiers, covered in a whipped ganache and dark chocolate mosaic "tiles". This is crazy chocolate! I should have done a border on it but at 5:00pm, I ran out of ganache and energy! The cake itself was triple chocolate including chocolate chunks and fudge swirled in as well. Got milk?

Dinnertime Chat

Full and ready for a bath!

I "heart" face chat! Ok, so this is not the best picture, but just so you get the idea! Yesterday Lisa called  to face chat with us while Adycen was trying baby food for the first time! It was so cute! She was a real mess, but very interested in her carrots, taking a break every once in a while to stare at us on the computer! I am so glad we got to share that with her! We face chat on the ipad, so this is just a shot of the screen during the chat. We also got to see Lisa's craftiness- she made Adycen an OU hair bow and matching tutu! Both were adorable! (She of course was not wearing them during dinner!) We also got to see Lisa's cute new hair cut and highlight, courtesy of Brycen's sister. So all around a fun chat- way better than talking on the phone.

Marching Band

Hickman's mascot - the Kewpies! Woot Woot!

Here's a few photos of Madison in her new marching band uniform. They worked hard in band camp for 2 weeks in August and even harder once school started - 6:30am practices and also 1 evening a week until dark. Last Friday was their first performance - a big one too- the Providence Bowl- played at Faurot Field at the University of Missouri. Both Rock Bridge and Hickman played the National Anthem together, and both performed a halftime show. They performed the pre-show and the first movement of their show which is called "Unstoppable" We took some video too-- but I think it's too big to post on here. It was fun to watch- such an exciting atmosphere and experience. 

Even though we lost…

It was a fantastic start to marching band season!