November

 The boys watched a Wild Krats show about termites. Heath was helping me make some Christmas things and created this termite costume for himself with some of our supplies.  Right now he wants to be a termite for Halloween next year.

 On Nov 8th, Hannah's 8 month birthday she figured out how to pull herself up in her bed.  She was mighty proud of her self! and now pulls up on everything. 

 She's getting to be a pretty good little eater.  It's fun to have her at the dinner table with all of us.

 Daddy had to write a paper for his geriatrics class.  This is him 'writing his paper' He said that he never realized how much he likes studying until he had to write a paper. I guess it's a good thing they only have to write one.

 Houston went by Furn Freeves for a few days, I have absolutely no idea where the name came from. He would not answer to Houston.

 "Mom Buzz Yeart (Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear) and Life (A Bug's Life) are almost the same movie. They look like the same thing."
- Houston

 Houston while we're eating Pizza, a couple days after I had blood drawn:

"Mom, Pizza's blood isn't under their skin like yours, it's under their cheese."

  We got to have these sweet friends come play one day.  Hannah had such a fun time following Bean around.  It was so cute to watch them interact together, and they were surprisingly soft to one another. 

 This isn't the best picture, it was taken with our point and shoot, and I usually don't photograph food, but this was SO good it had to be documented. Eddie taught us how to make Borscht after his mission in Russia. I haven't made it since, but had access to some beets so I thought it'd give it a whirl. After starting, I realized we didn't have any potatoes, so I used sweet potatoes instead.  It was a great decision! SO GOOD! I told the boys it was princess soup because it was pink, Matt told them it was blood soup because it was read.  Regardless of what you call it, it was delicious! Thanks Eddie.

 Matt served in Argentina and we have some friends in our ward who also served or lived down in South America.  Once a month we get together and make delicious SA food together.  This month we made Chorizos and for desert dulce de leche cookies. We had some left over dulce de leche which Houston helped himself to the next morning on a hot dog bun.  He was not ashamed of his decision.

 Hannah is a motor baby in her walker, but she often gets under the table and can't get back out.

 I made Hannah a cabbage patch hat for the winter.  It's pretty cute!

Houston brought me a picture he had drawn of our family. There were a couple extra people in it so I asked him who the people were.  He said, This is you and Daddy and Heath and Hannah and Houston and Uncle Doug and Aunt Lily.  We're so glad Uncle Doug and Aunt Lillian moved to St Louis! 

 Houston had snuck a crayon into the living room. I took it away and said, "There are no crayons allowed in our living room."  "Yes there are Mom. We can have pretend crayons!" (as he holds up his pretend crayon)

 Heath is really into cells right now. He asks quite frequently to watch a youtube video showing a cell split. He also really likes viruses.  He likes to watch them attacking cells in videos too.

He drew this picture and said, "Look mom, this is a cell that just split and this is a virus coming to invade it."

 Here's Houston's cell.  One must not be left out.

 Hannah loves to twinkle on the piano.  She's just tall enough.

 Houston is addicted to Egg Nog, just like his Daddy.   He asks for it several times a day.

The other day he was asking again, and I answered that we didn't have any. (we more often don't have it) He said, well Mom, you just need to go to the store and get some for me.

 Heath was telling me the other day that his friend had asked him what he had written to Santa saying he wanted for Christmas. Heath said, "I told her we  make each other presents and Santa likes to bring us yummy candy in our stocking. Why does Santa take them presents? Then they can't make them for each other?"   We had never really discussed this Santa thing before.  Each Christmas up until this point it hasn't come up. On Christmas morning we don't make a huge deal about Santa, and we do usually make each others presents, so I guess that's just what he picked up on.  I remember as a kid when I learned about Santa I was so shocked that my parents had lied to me. I was so concerned that they may be lying about so many other things, like if they told me Santa was real and he's not, maybe God isn't either. It kinda shocked my world.  So at our house I think Santa will fill our stockings and we will keep making gifts for each other.

 While we were making dinner Heath asked me, "Mom when you were a little girl how did you cook anything?"
"Just like we do now, what do you mean?" 
"Well when you were a little girl they didn't have pots or pans did they? Then how did you cook your food?"

I don't know where this idea came from but I am OLD in Heath's mind apparently.  (cookwear has been found dating back to 19,000BC)

 Hannah's new favorite trick is standing alone.  She loves to stand up then let go and see how long she can last.  She seems so much more daring than the boys were.  She will just flop over. Good thing she has a helmet. She first stood alone on Nov 25th.

Heath loves to help her practice walking, and she loves it too.

 My hair is finally long enough to put into a ponytail and braid.   Houston wanted to document my 'Princess hair'

  "Mom, we are little wolvies!"

Houston also loves to pretend there are monsters in the house now.  He is very very sneaky when there is a monster afoot. 

An Awesome week of Halloween

 My brother Nile, my sister in law Brittany, and sweet little Ambellina left cold ND to come to the MO zone for a week.  Matt couldn't leave school so we bid him farewell and drove home to spend some time with them.






Isn't she just SO cute!

  The weather was fabulous, so we were able to spend a lot of time outside.

Beautiful Brittany.  We had such a great time chatting and playing with cuties.

 Since it was so warm some of Mum's plants started blooming. 

 They were spectacular. No color filter on this baby.

 Ambellina is 6months and Hannah 7months.  Just 5 weeks apart.

 These boys insisted on underwear pictures too.

Ambellina and Hannah weigh about the same weight.  Ambellina's head is a bit bigger, and Hannah is a bit taller.

 These girls were SO fun.  They played so well together. They would suck on each others toes, grab ears,

 squeal, laugh,

 and Hannah was ALWAYS trying to eat Ambellina.

 Not so sure about things anymore.

 Ambellina couldn't quite crawl yet, so Hannah was making circles around her while she would sit and watch.

 Hannah was quite a bit crazier than Ambellina. 

 Nile brought down some of Aunt Cindy's delicious jam.  Houston LOVED it! (as we all did!)

 Grandma and her little twins.

 I love this face.

 Getting a little tired...

 Houston found a new game. He would lay down in front of Hannah when she was on a mission to get to something.

 Once she would make her way over him, he'd move in front of her to do it again, and she would always do it again.  He loved it!

 The 4 FO Cousins.

 These kids are SO cute!

 Our sweet little Hannah Pumpkin.

 Happy first Halloween.

 Ambellina was the cutest little Cabbage Patch Doll I've ever seen.

 It's so fun to see Nile be a Daddy.  He loves that little girl SO much!

 Heath had changed his mind on costumes almost daily up until we left on our trip.  He had talked about being a ninja, a knight, Peter Pan, and a construction worker.  The last day Peter Pan won out, so he was a super cute little Peter again. (It made the costume super easy since he was Peter Pan 2 years ago.)

 Hannah was our little Tinker Bell. (I forgot to put her wings on for pictures.. oops) Mary had given us a little angel costume, so I dyed it green.  Super easy costume too.  : )

 Houston wanted to be "Capin Hook!" He looked SO cute in his little mustache.

 When we picked Nile &CO up from the airport we drove strait to SDC.  It was SO much fun. Matt was a bit concerned about me going with all 3 kids alone.  I had reassured him my family would help, but he talked me into taking Houston's "backpack" in the end.  I was SO glad I did.  Even with Mom's constant help, he would split at a moment's notice.  He's just so independent. Doesn't worry to stay close like Heath does at all.  

 We took a ride on the steam engine train.  The boys loved it.  Hannah didn't quite so much, each time the train would toot she would scream and cry.  Mom had brought a giant pickle onto the train.  Hannah loved it. She sucked on that thing as long as we would let her.

On Tuesday we went to eat lunch with Mom at her school.  It was really fun.

 Photo courtesy of Houston, who refused to be in the picture.

 After lunch we went to Sequota park, where Nile and I had played all the time as kids.

 It was such a beautiful day.  The sky was so bright and blue.

 Grandpa and Hannah.

 Nile and the boys playing 'don't touch the hot lava'

I love this guy.

(don't mind our squinty eyes)

 One of Nile's favorite places to eat in Mexican Villa, so we all helped him eat some.

 They gave Hannah and Ambellina lemons.  Hannah LOVED it. Cried when we took it away. Ambellina, not so much.

 We took an afternoon to go visit our other cousins.  We had SO much fun chatting and running and playing.

 We also went to eat at 'Lamberts: home of the throwed rolls' Our boys just love to catch the rolls.

Nice hat Dallin : )

 My parents ward had a fun Trunk or Treat.  Nile was DJing and Houston wanted so badly to be up in the spotlight with him.  We had so much fun eating, trunk or treating, and dancing. It was a super night.  We were only missing Kayla.

 Johnny and Penny came up for trick or treating on Halloween night.  The boys had so much fun together. It was wonderful to see them again.

 Houston refused to go trick or treating on Halloween night. He wanted to "Stay home awone with Grandpa!" So he did. When we got home (we just went up and down mom&dad's street) he cried and cried, so sad that we had gone without him. Heath was super nice and shared all his candy with Houston without me asking.

 Hannah even got in on the action.  She loved sucking on that wrapper.

The boys and I carved pumpkins Halloween day while everyone else was out doing other things.  We had had plans to all carve them together earlier in the week, but it just never happened.  Since I was alone I wimped out and used a drill gun. It was seriously the easiest pumpkin carving I've ever done. The boys were even able to help quite a lot. I may never use a knife again.
Houston's pumpkin is on the left, and Heath's on the right.  Thanks for coming Nile & Britt, we had SO much fun with you guys!