Random pictures from last month...

Ok, so isn't this the funniest picture?! It's actually a pretty common expression around here lately. Is he showing off his teeth? Growling to get more cheerios? Who knows!

So Thanksgiving was pretty interesting this year. Our oven broke earlier in the week, so we weren't sure if we were going to be able to make our own dinner or if we were going to have to go to a restaurant. At 8pm the night before we got a replacement oven and I started cooking! Caroline was excited and made a centerpiece and name cards for us all.

I made some homemade cranberry sauce and decided to give some to Miles in his little self-feeder (those are so cool by the way) and he loved it - and then he got a bath!

So when it rains outside, I move the dinner table out of the dining room and let the boys I babysit run around and race cars. Sometimes they like the dining room more than going to the park!

Look at my handsome men!

Visiting Santa!

I couldn't wait to post these! Every year we go to the library for a special pajama night storytime and Santa makes a visit at the end. They have hot chocolate and cookies and tables set up to write Santa a letter. We never miss it because this Santa is the best! He takes time to talk to the kids and his beard and rosy cheeks and nose are real :)

I almost didn't put Miles on Santa's lap because I thought he would freak out and I hate seeing frightened screaming babies forced onto a strange man's lap just so their parents can laugh and take pictures. It's just not right!

But I gave him a shot and I'm glad I did! Miles was mostly just curious and then Caroline kept making him smile, so he stayed on Santa's lap for a minute or two before he wanted Mommy.

So cute!

The Nutcracker

A neighbor told us that their dance studio needed extra dancers for their production of The Nutcracker ballet this year and asked if Caroline was interested. Um... YES!

So Caroline has been going to practices for a little over a month and has really enjoyed it. The performance was this weekend.

Here's our Heavenly Angel:

She was SO excited to wear make-up. She was probably just as excited for the make-up as the dancing!

Of course she made some friends at dance class. After our first night-time rehearsal where we sat around for hours waiting for her turn on stage, we got smart and started bringing crayons, coloring books, and board games to keep them entertained backstage!

It was great for Caroline to experience being on stage and taking some classes, but we also learned about the cost and time that can be poured into these kinds of things. So I'm glad she was able to do this temporary trial-run just for fun :)

Birthday Week 2011

We celebrated some big birthdays this month. Caroline turned 6 and Dave turned 30!

Caroline asked for a Hello Kitty cake and Dave asked for pies. So we invited some friends over to celebrate.

We played the usual party games like...

Feed the Baby Icecream,

Stuff the Friends in the Exersaucer,

and Try to Understand the Teenager's Weird Jokes.

It was a great time and our friends spoiled the birthday honorees with cards, gifts, hugs and laughs.

November is always a fun month for us. Dave said, "Wow, it was a good year for birthday cards!" So thanks to everyone that remembered him on his big day ;)

Caroline is getting so mature so fast. She is a lot of help and she is learning so much. She is the best big sister EVER and no one makes Miles laugh like she does. Dave is one good-looking 30-year old and the best Dad I could ask for our kids. I love these two SO much and I love that they have back-to-back birthdays!

Rest of Oct. + Month of sickness

Well, Caroline is home sick again today. This time it's Bronchitis! Poor girl. Our family has been so healthy this year and it sure seems like we're making up for it this last month.

Last week Miles ended up in the ER when his fever reached 105. It was a long, scary night, but they pretty much said it was just a virus. For days afterward he had low-fevers that we treated at home, but now he's back to himself - thank goodness.

Except now I believe he has an egg allergy.

I suspected it a while ago, when I let him lick the beater after making a cake. He got red spots all over his mouth. Then a little while later we were having scrambled eggs and I gave him a taste, and yep, red spots.

So this morning we were enjoying some delicious muffins (some of us more messily than others) and...

The red spots again. Hives? Great.

But other than stomach flus, allergies, fevers, and bronchitis - October was pretty great!

The weather has been beautiful and the scenery even more so,

Caroline had "spirit week" at school and some of her outfits were pretty fun. Here she is on Wacky Tacky Day (she came up with this one all by herself)

And on Hippie Day:

And here is Caroline creating tithing and savings banks as we have just started giving her an allowance! She pays her tithing and then half goes to savings and half is spending. We have been doing this for 6 weeks now and she hasn't spent a dime :)

Halloween 2011

We started celebrating Halloween this year long before Oct. 31st

During Caroline's fall break, Dave's car broke down and he had to take mine to work. It was a bummer because we had made plans to go do lots of fun things, but we spent a whole day making sugar cookies, so it turned out all right. :)

Our annual pumpkin painting

Caroline wanted to be Hermione this year, which I thought was great! I made her robe, we borrowed the dress shirt and pants and Dave made the wand from a branch off our tree in the backyard! It turned out perfect. Caroline said Miles should be Ron Weasley, so that was pretty easy to put together too. And now he has a tie onesie that will work for Christmas time too!

I ordered Caroline a Gryffindor tie on ebay, but they sent me a tie from each of the houses! So we all decided to be Hogwarts students! Dave is a Slytherin and I'm a Hufflepuff!

I thought Caroline looked just like Hermione (circa Sorcerer's Stone era :)

Crawling

With a mixture of pride and dread, I can say we officially have ourselves a crawler!

This means lots of floor cleaning and baby-proofing. But look how happy and proud he is!

The weather is turning colder here, so sadly, our baby will start having to wear clothes around the house.

Thankfully, Miles did not get the stomach flu that the rest of us got yesterday. We're thinking that it must have been some kind of food poisoning because only Dave, Caroline, and I got it, and it was BAD. I threw up more in one day than I did in my entire pregnancy. It's so not fair to be sick when you're a mom. I felt so bad - I just didn't have the strength/energy to give him the attention he's accustomed to. Usually I stand in front of his crib and sway with him for a few minutes to put him to sleep, but yesterday I just couldn't. So there was lots of crying on top of the rest of us moaning in misery. It was one rough day, but it didn't last long and here we are the next day, quite recovered. We had our home teachers come give us blessings and another kind friend brought us sick-day essentials (saltines, sprite, coloring books, etc). Maybe sometimes you need to have a sick day to remind you of just how blessed you are to have your health the other 364 days of the year.

Fun Times

We've been having some great weather here lately. A couple of weeks ago, we decided to go to downtown Memphis. We had a picnic lunch by the Mississippi River and flew some kites.

Then we had a great time strolling down Beale St. - which we haven't done in a long while.

We bought Caroline this fan at A Schwab, and she had it in front of her face for the rest of the day! Miles loved all the live music. We got a video of him groovin' to the blues. He even got a shout-out from one of the singers which was pretty fun!

Caroline and The King (and the fan)

My Sweethearts ( and the fan)

This photo is unrelated - I just wanted to post a picture of the bowtie/suspenders onesie I made for Miles. I'm glad I snapped this picture real quick before church, because shortly thereafter it started to fall apart. So much for my sewing skills!

Last weekend we had a great ward activity (no really, it was actually a fun ward party - they exist!) Caroline (and I) made a caramel apple crisp pie for the pie contest.

They had outdoor movies, BBQ, a cotton candy machine and a bonfire. You could tell who had cotton candy because they had blue mouths. Including Miles, who thought it was the best stuff ever!

I love Autumn, I wish it lasted longer!