Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was very low key this year. We headed up to Oroville to have dinner with Patrick's parents. It was just us and them. The food was good:





The nap was divine:



The entertainment was easy listening:





And the highlight was looking at old photos that we need to scan into the computer someday because pictures of pictures are not all that great:

Super awesome pics in 1997:








I seriously hate the snow! I'm so glad I don't live in it anymore!

1999 and 2002:















And of course, we love the Grandma cuddling!



I really enjoyed the low key celebrating this year. It was a nice treat! Happy Thanksgiving!

Time Slips Into the Future...

As I write this post, I keep singing the song "Fly Like an Eagle" by Steve Miller in my head. In particular, the part of the lyrics that say "Time keeps on slipping slipping slipping, into the future". I'm pretty sure I'm singing that because it's been like 2 months since my last post. Honestly, I cannot believe it's been that long and time really has been slipping away. With that being wrote, the Durlings have been up to a lot of normal busy-ness. I am grateful for my trusty phone and its camera capabilities. Seriously, there is no excuse these days to capture life as it happens...

We just finished one of the most hectic and crazy months of our year...October. October consists of Soccer, Volleyball, and everyone in the world wanting to start pictures for the holiday season.

Most of our October's kid schedule looked like this:

Monday: Raya Volleyball Practice 2:30pm-4:15pm and Raya Soccer Practice: 4:30pm-6pm
Malia and Carly gymnastics 5:30-6:30
Tuesday: Raya Volleyball game 20 minutes away
Wednesday: Raya Volleyball Practice/Soccer Practice and then Young Women's at 7pm,
Malia Activity Days 3:30-4:30
Thursday: Raya Volleyball game 20 minutes away
Friday: Ethan Gymnastics
Saturday: Soccer games

This was just the set schedule. There were many many other things on my calendar besides these things. Looking back, I don't know how I even breathed. It was CRAZY! I do know that I couldn't have done it without the help of my dad and a few friends who helped me get kids to places when I couldn't...I'm taking a deep breath now...grateful it has slowed down a bit.

I know I posted recently about Raya and her volleyball, but it seems so long ago. I have to say that it was quite painful to watch her team lose match after match and game after game, until one day, her team won a match...and then, the game...Check out Raya serving up some win (her teams only win), in the video below:



Here's a few more pictures I took with my phone: Not the best, but totally action packed:







When Raya wasn't on the volleyball court, she was rockin' it on the soccer field. Her team came in 3rd place out of 30 teams. I say that is definitely a step up from being dead last, last year. Check out some of the pictures I caught of her...it's totally hard core stuff!























I just love the above picture. I am not quite sure why, but I love the team feeling I get from it. The girls were so awesome. Every single one of these girls were kind and friendly to each other and every single one of them were friends which made for an awesome season...especially since our team scored the most goals out of all of the teams this season...again, a huge difference then dead last, last year. We ended the season with a fun dessert party including the annual photo presentation that I put together. The girls loved seeing all their awesome faces that I captured throughout the season on a huge screen with One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" playing in the background. I'm sure the parents were cringing at having to hear that song...one more time.

The coach gave a little speech and talked about each girl individually and when it came time to talk about Raya, he had mentioned that Raya was by far the best juggler on the team. Every practice, they would do drills and compete with each other and one of the drills was juggling. You could use anything except your hands to keep the ball in the air. He said that Raya would repeatedly get 9-10 juggles where as the other girls would get 2 or 3. Raya even beat the coach several time during these drills. I witnessed it a few times.



The last game was played and watched in non stopping rain and high winds. I am grateful to the dad who held a huge umbrella for the entire game keeping me somewhat dry...actually, I may as well of just stood in the rain the entire time. By the time I got back to the car, you wouldn't have known I had been under an umbrella while the girls played.



These girls played awesome...even in the cold wind and rain:



The girls got sweatshirts instead of trophies this year. Sure it cost probably $10 more than a trophy would but at least the sweatshirt is useful...Raya seems to think so, I am not sure she has taken it off since.



Fall season approached and the family made our annual trip to Apple Hill. We just love paying triple in price for pumpkins...NOT!



















Don't worry, no one was harmed in the making of the above photo.

Our family also went to the biggest corn maze in the world (according to the Guiness Book of World Records). Unfortunately, there had been a wind storm that blew more than half of it over. It really wasn't as fun as we thought it would be but we enjoyed hanging out with some long time friends (the Seymours) and Patrick's brother Dennis and his family.







Halloween came next.



Ethan got to dress up for school...Something none of my kids have ever gotten to experience. This was just one of the benefits of switching him to a new school.







We had a little party after school with Raya and Malia's friends. I had got a bunch of Haunted Ginger Mansions that I thought would be fun to put together...it was a BIG flop and by flop, I mean the true meaning of the word flop:











Malia was the only one able to get her house standing...She did a really good job and even though the other kids couldn't get their house up, they still had fun...even if their hands and teeth were black from the frosting...

The kids were all told that no money would be spent on Halloween costumes this year. So we raided the dress up box and put our creative minds together and created success! These pictures were taken the day of our church's Trunk or Treat. Ethan and Raya changed up their costumes on actual Halloween.









Raya was Louis Tomlinson's wife. He's a member of the band One Direction. He wears red pants and a striped shirt, so she dressed like him. It kind of reminds me when I was Christine Daae for Halloween one year (probably close to her age). I had to tell virtually everyone who I was, but unlike me with not very many people knowing who Christine Daae was (Phantom of the Opera), everyone knows who Louis Tomlinson is... She decided that before she headed out to go trick or treating with her friends, she would change her costume up:



She had fun trick or treating with her friends...I can't believe I just let her go...all by herself... I remember trick or treating with my friends without adults at her age, but it's so weird that she is at an age that I can remember clear and vivid memories and even feelings I had. My babies are growing up.

On our adventure out trick or treating, Ethan, Carly and I found a really cool house. There were 4 guys running a haunted grave yard. One guy in particular had a body suit on with a mask. He was tall and lanky and was crawling around the ground. It really was super creepy but my little Ethan was so interested in the makeup of their little haunted graveyard, that these guys eventually gave up being scary and showed him around. Here's Ethan having a stare down with one of the guys:



and another:



And then, at the end, the guy was talking to him and we got a picture:



I do have to say that I screamed as something grabbed my feet at the door when we were getting candy... of course, a few minutes later, Ethan was behind the scenes scaring another kid...hahaha. That was just one of the few fun houses we went through. I drove by later and wanted Raya to go through and watched grown men, freaking out and not even entering the grounds...it was hilarious!

Malia got to go trick or treating with a friend from school and probably brought home the most candy of all the kids.

The kids came home with a huge chocolate loot which was gone after a week of breakfast, lunch, and dinners that consisted of candy. Of course, Patrick and I collected our mommy and daddy tax first:





Other happenings consisted of Raya's first choir concert:





It's amazing the difference in a choir when the kids actually take a class every single day of school. A huge difference and improvement from elementary school choir for sure!

We also played a lot!















even in the hot November weather:





Did gymnastics too:



We had movie nights with friends:





And watched beautiful things happen in the sky:





We are gearing up for Thanksgiving which happens tomorrow and of course Christmas which is only a few short weeks away. Pretty soon, Ethan will turn 8 and Carly 5 years old and we will enter into the year of 2013...Time really does keep slipping, slipping, slipping...into the future *sigh*.