I have a lot of random pictures on my phone, so it seems like it's time for a camera dump...

Andy and Ellie went on a date night to Red Robin. They signed up for some promotional deal and got this free stack of onion rings! 

Hannah and I were at a friend's birthday party, but we were jealous when we saw these pictures!

After the onion ring tower and unlimited refills on root beer floats, they didn't eat much of their actual meal. 

Andy really isn't a fan of our cats or their snuggles, but that doesn't stop the cats, especially Millie!

Somehow the topic of McGriddles came up. Andy decided the girls needed to try them, so they had breakfast at McDonald's one Saturday morning.

Then the girls convinced Andy to go thrifting with them at their favorite place. Joey had recently gone thrifting in Grove City and bought a tennis racquet, so the girls took this picture for him.

Andy was pretty pumped about a brand new shirt he found until he tried it on when he got home and realized it was actually a women's shirt. He still wore it the rest of the day.

Ellie helped me make "kindness clips" in honor of our friend Rosie, who passed away this summer. Her mom had the idea to send out 4,000 kindness clips to twenty middle schools all across the country in Rosie's name. #Bearosie

The first Sunday of every month, we host the youth group at our church after evening service. The kids always enjoy playing outside before dinner. It's fun having a beach volleyball court across the street from our house!

With Joey gone, Andy has turned into quite the girl dad. You'll often find him on the couch with one or more of his girls watching Hallmark mystery movies.

The cats love when our chairs are stacked on the table for "Family Cleaning Day."

It's their favorite place to be on Saturdays.

It's not always easy to schedule with all five of us, but we try to FaceTime with Joey about once a week or so. He is living his best life in college! 

These cuties went to Knott's Berry Farm with the middle school youth group at Emmanuel Faith.

While Ellie was at Knott's, Hannah and I had a date at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We happened to run into our sweet Cameron on her way to Homecoming at her school.

Sometimes Millie gets in silly moods, like when she stole my slipper right off my foot.

Ellie made these delicious Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins.

Sometimes we find the cats in the weirdest positions.

Even with Joey and Abigail away at college, these three get along so well. We love listening to them playing games and cracking up.

Hannah and I drove to a volleyball game down in El Cajon. We drove right past the house my mom grew up in, so we had to stop by for a picture.

Snuggling is Millie's love language. 

Ellie's teacher, Ms. Tunnell, gave Ellie an "Above and Beyond" award at school. This is what she said: "As her Skills Lab teacher, I selected Ellie for this award for exemplifying our CAMS Key of Excellence in Balance. She has many different commitments across her academic, personal, and social life including ASB which often takes her out of my class early. Despite her busy schedule this year she has been able to prioritize and balance every single item on the agenda --she reminds me when she will be leaving early, follows up on make-up work, consistently turns in high-quality work, and is kind/respectful to every single one of her tablemates whenever she is in class.

Naptime snuggles.

Andy snapped this quick picture in our Sunday school class. We only have two kids right now, but they are some of our very favorites we've ever had. So. much. sweetness.

Timmy and Jill came in town for a couples baby shower. Jill is due with their first child January 28, 2026!

Second cousins, Kai and Ellie, hanging out during the shower.

A lot of Timmy and Jill's friends from UCLA were there with a lot of babies!

We had unseasonably warm weather in November, so Ellie and I took advantage of an 80 degree day.

My sweet friend Nicky passed away in April from Multiple Systems Atrophy. These ladies and I were part of "Team Nicky" that helped take care of her for the last couple of years. 

Nicky's daughter, Ruby, is a senior and had her final color guard performance at her high school, so we went to support her. It was bittersweet to see her perform. Her mom would have been so proud!

Again, the cats always find ways to make me laugh. They looked so funny on top of each other here.

On Veteran's Day, Ellie had some friends over. If the volume level was any indication, they had a great time.

 I'm convinced that sometimes Millie just likes to bug Milo.

Ellie built a nest for herself.

Even Milo can get some good snuggles in!

We finally got some cooler, rainy weather in November. Double rainbow all the way!

On one of our rainy days, I got a text from my friend asking if I had heard from Ellie at school. She said that her daughter texted her and said that a lot of kids were going home early because of the rain. I thought that was ridiculous. We're so wimpy in California! Ellie did finally text me and asked if she could come home early because they weren't doing anything in class except watch movies since a lot of the eighth graders were on the East Coast trip. That I was fine with. Apparently a bunch of her friends all arranged to get called out early, and I picked them all up and brought them to our house for a playdate during school hours. It was so random and funny, but better than being stuck at school watching movies. 

The church gave us money to buy groceries for our annual Seminary Food Drive. It's always quite the adventure buying $1,000+ of groceries!

You guessed it, more snuggles with Millie. Millie and I actually have a standing snuggle date every night on the couch. It's always the time I love her most.

These two sent me this picture as they checked in on how Hannah's basketball game was going. They were "shocked" to find out that I didn't know exactly how many points she had scored (they know I'm terrible at paying attention to sports games).

As our fall sports are ending and winter sports are gearing up, I thought I would do a quick recap on our fall season.

Hannah played on the JV team for her second season.

She had the best time on the team!

She really loved the coach and the other girls.

There was always a lot of smiling and laughing on the court, and they were undefeated in their league games. It was a great season!

Ellie and pretty much all of her best friends played for the middle school volleyball team. It's their third and last year playing. They are such an athletic and competitive group. They are a lot of fun to watch, but sadly this is the only picture I got.

Speaking of her athletic group of friends, most of them also signed up to play Friday Night Lights this fall. 

Ellie was our main quarterback, but also enjoyed being a receiver and a defender. In high school, flag football and volleyball are both fall sports, so while she's leaning towards playing volleyball, she's still undecided.

The middle school sports seasons are super short, so volleyball has already ended and soccer has started. Ellie's goal for the season is to make at least one goal in every game. Three games in and she's succeeded so far. This will be her last chance to play soccer since she won't play in high school, so I'm glad she's having a good last season.