Thanksgiving Break

 We got to spend a glorious week home with our families for the week of Thanksgiving. 

Sterling & Dallin pulled out the old Nentendo64 so Heath & Houston could play some good old Banjo Kazooie, Wave Racer, & Mario Cart.  Since this was the first time they've ever played video games they were pretty stoked!

 Our boys love watching their Uncles do their hair, and always want 'cool hair' while we're at my parent's house.  Dallin is always so good to help them out.

 One little Indian Girl.

 Grandpa and Matt did them some Black Friday deal hunting.  We were able to get the boys their Christmas Presents for free!

 Heath & Hannah Indians.  Houston wanted NO part of this... and he let us know it.  : )

 What Thanksgiving trip would be complete without some hunting and shooting.  Matt was able to sit out and hunt 3 days. Sadly he didn't see anything, but he had a good time none the less. 
The boy took Dallin's pellet gun out and shot a target in the pond.  I think Houston was more excited about putting the pellets into the gun, than actually shooting it.

 Ahh, Sunshine!

 We enjoyed some glorious weather while we were there! Hannah loved running around in her walker on the big black top.  We still aren't 100% sure what color her eyes are...

 Every time we go home I remember how much I miss being away from the city.

 Hannah was pretty fast.

 All Lilly wants for Christmas this year is her two front teeth.

 Lily, Houston, Bertie, Heath

 Hannah & Bertie

 Now this was Matt's kind of vacation.  He doesn't love so much doing nothing for a break, but this break he got to hunt, work on the tractor, help winterize the garden, and do some plowing. I'm sure he worked on other things too that I wasn't aware of. He kept busy.  : )

 Sweet little Hazel was just barely 2 weeks old. I just love her sweet little squishy face! Such a sweetheart. Amy is such an amazing Mother, so patient and loving.  I'm so glad that I get to learn from her.

Look at those cute lips!

 The sun was going down. The light was so beautiful, there was almost a pink glow in the air.

We had such a wonderful time.

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.