Remember Remember the Month of November

I know, I know, it's January.  But here's what we did in November.  I'm trying to catch up, I really am!

First up, a series of pictures from Tuesday, November 1st.  Mary was at art and gym class, and Joey and Lily and I explored the river and played in the park.

 

After her class Mary joined us and we drove to a nearby place on the river where you could climb around on the rocks.  It was a really beautiful day.

 

November 4th - Lily eating banana

November 6 - Our roses are still blooming!  I know a while ago I said they were done blooming, but Joe cut them back a bunch and they went right back at it.  So pretty!

Also on the 6th, we all went over to the farm to help Joe's parents and aunt and uncle fix up their rental property for some new renters.  Mary and Joey had a good time playing around the yard.  There was a cool pile of old stumps to climb on...

 ...and roll around!

They also found an awesome climbing tree!

And they climbed around on some of the old building foundations too.  Plus they helped with sweeping and cleaning up the apartments!

On November 14th, Joey said he wanted cookies for breakfast.  We didn't have any cookies, but I looked up a recipe for whole wheat cut-out cookies and we made some.  They actually tasted super yummy, and were a pretty good breakfast too.  

Mary rolling out the dough

Joey takes a turn too

Pushing in cookie cutters

Decorating with raisins and chocolate chips before baking

Ready to eat!

Yum!  (Lily is smiling in the background)

Lily was very encouraging during cookie baking

Cookie spelling - the best kind of spelling!

 Lily's first time climbing up the stairs - November 16th!

That same day, Joe and I learned how to make our own frappes!  We've been enjoying the McDonald's frappes lately (it all started with some buy-one-get-one coupons, and then we were hooked!).  We figured we could make our own for much cheaper, so we looked up some recipes online and tried it. Success!

On November 19th, Joey made this fabulous drawing.  He said it was a smiling tree. 

 

Lily posing for her eight month photo on the 21st.  We decided to go for the cute cloth diaper look this time around.  She's such a happy, smiling baby!

Lily with two of her cousins at Thanksgiving dinner.  It is very difficult to get three babies to look in the same direction and smile at the same time, but I still think they look pretty cute.

 November 30th - Lily pulls up to standing in the crib for the first time! Ta-dah!  (Also, time to drop the mattress down to the lowest setting.)

So that finishes up all my November photos.  Coming soon - December!

Late October 2011 (Not a creative title, but accurate!)

A collection of happenings from late October 2011.  Enjoy!

On Monday, October 24 we went to the zoo with Grandma Terri, Aunt Carli, Uncle Steve, and cousin Cayden.  It was a beautiful fall day - the leaves were spectacularly colorful!  Unfortunately I don't really have any good pictures of those.

I do have this nice picture of Joey balancing on one leg like a flamingo though.

And this one of Mary and Joey putting on a show for us.  They were doing all kinds of dancing on that stage!

On Tuesday the 25th Mary had home school art and gym class, and Joey and I explored the riverbank outside while we waited for her to finish.  He found a really cool shell in the dirt.

And we saw lots of ducks!

On Thursday the 27th Joey made this.  It is a picture of a man wearing "a glue jacket."  I love all of his little drawings - it is so cool to see them take the shape of things I can recognize!

Later that day, we had strawberry milk.  Joey added bubbles.

On Friday, the 28th we went to the Big Backyard for their free anniversary celebration.  It was super crowded and crazy, so Joey didn't really enjoy it very much.  He kept saying, "It's too noisy!"  And it was very loud.  They did have free cupcakes that you got to frost and decorate yourself though, so that was a definite plus.  Mary was having a good time too, and we were there with some friends.  She got her face painted, and it wasn't your typical average girl with some paints - it was a professional face painter.  Mary kept that awesome butterfly on her face for days.  Which ended up working out well, because by the time trick-or-treating came around pretty much all that was left was a yellow-green tinge around her eyes, which went perfectly with her mummy costume!

Happy Halloween 2011

We had a lot of fun making and wearing Halloween costumes this year, and eating lots of candy.  I know it's been a couple of months since Halloween, but I hope the wait was worth it.  Here are Halloween pictures!

Joe and I went as Wall-E and Eve from the Pixar movie Wall-E.  Joe's costume was made mostly out of cardboard, and mine was made mostly from a garbage can.  I think the costumes turned out pretty awesome.

 

For those of you who aren't familiar with the movie Wall-E, here is a picture of what we were trying to look like.

My brother Alan dressed up as Wilson from the TV show Home Improvement.  I thought it was pretty hilarious.

Mary had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be this year.  She was changing her mind so frequently that I was hesitant to spend a lot of time on a costume if she changed her mind again and wouldn't wear it.  Finally the morning of Trick-or-Treat she declared that she was going to be a mummy and asked me to wrap her in toilet paper.  I tore an old mummy-colored bed sheet into strips instead and sewed her a mummy outfit crazy quick and this is how it turned out.  I must say I was rather impressed.

Joe dressed up as Woody from the Toy Story movies.  Adorable.

Lily didn't wear a costume, but I put her in Halloween-ish colors with her sweater that has pointy ears.  She seemed pretty happy about it.

Happy Halloween!