NOVEMBER

We ended November with pictures with Santa at Seth's work.  Silas and Millie were in pajamas due to pajama day...Phin ironically begged to change into clothes after school.  Lou was very curious about Santa's jingle bells and willingly sat on his lap.

Before the pictures the kids colored pictures and wrote letters to Santa.  Millie asked for a stuffie (aka giant squish mallow).  Phin asked for a snowball gun and Silas asked for a snowball cannon.

Lou has the best staff working at her school.  Mrs. Jillian told me about how when they lay down for a nap that Lou insists on putting her arm under Mrs. Jillian's neck.  She sent me this picture was proof.  Here are all of Lou's school pictures from November. I love getting photo updates when I am at work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nona made the girls the most beautiful matching dresses.  Lou insisted on having a Marilyn Monroe moment.

 

We spent the Saturday after Thanksgiving up in Cache Valley.  We opened one of our family gifts early and took a set of hand bells.  It was fun for the kids to play the hand bells with with extended family. 

 

Grandma Jo made candy trains with the kids.

 

Seth and Phin went to Jamie and Jotham's for shotgun shooting.  Phin loved shooting and using the clay pigeon thrower. 

 

 

 

 

 

On Black Friday we used our PBS Adventure Passes to visit Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.  We don't visit very often so it was a special treat.

 

There were Elves on the shelf hidden throughout the aquarium.

 

The kids also loved the Festival of the Seas decorations outside of the aquarium.

 

We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving lunch at Nona and Papa's.  Lou is absolutely spoiled by her older cousins. We got their Christmas card this day and she has loved pointing and naming all of them.

 

 

I made a couple of sourdough loaves for the dinner.  This pumpkin shaped loaf was my favorite to make in October and November.  It is so simple to make but looks so impressive and festive.

 

I also attempted a turkey shaped loaf.

We also used our PBS Adventure passes to visit Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.  Lou loved playing at all of the exhibits.  This was really the first time she was big enough to really get into everything.

 They had a new Ruby Snap cookie shop that was so cute.

They had also revamped their construction area since our last visit.

Lou sometimes tries to ride in the bottom of her stroller rather than the top.

Phin pretended he was making pizzas one day with our kinetic sand.

Lou is a lover of berries.

 

 The kids all loved playing in the leaves in our yard.  They spent so much time out their raking the leaves into piles and them jumping. swinging and burying themselves in the piles.  Our favorite babysitter was sweet enough to bring her leaf blower on one of her visits to make all of the leaf dreams come true.

 Lou trying on Millie's glasses.  This little one wants to be just like her sister.

 Here is a photo of the giant pumpkins we grew in our front garden bed this year.  We loved watching them grown and decided we will need to plant pumpkins in the same spot next year.

 Lou was so excited when I was pulling out new winter clothes.  It is pretty wild to see her in all of the things that Millie used to wear.

We met friends at the park on Friday afternoon to play and to decorate sugar cookies.

 

 

Phin loved being on a basketball team with three boys from his school. He was so excited when they got to go as a team to a Jazz game.  His coach offered to coach again and Phin will have many of the same boys on his team again in January.

 

2 YEARS OLD

In my last post I talked about an Anne of Green Gables quote that says "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."  I would change that to say "I am so glad I live in a world where there is Lou."  Lou turned 2 in October.  Our Little Lou weighs 26.45 pounds (46th percentile) and is 36.61 inches tall (97th percentile). She is wearing size 2 and 3 clothes, size 6 shoes and is in pull-ups.  When Mom remembers to get her to the potty she has been doing great.  

She is obsessed with books these days and often falls asleep with books in her hands.  For her birthday she got a new paint with water book.  We chose a farm themed one for her because she loves animals.  When you ask her what an animal says she almost always gets it right.  Dogs seem to be her favorite animal...probably because she sees them most often out and about.  She calls dogs "woof."

She loves treats and continues to love M&Ms for going on the potty.

She can't quite get her fingers to do a good "two," so this is what she does when we ask her how old she is.

She is talking more and more these days.  On our trip down to the cabin I realized she was saying "ashes."  She plays ring around the posies at school and loves to repeat the rhyme.

She adores her siblings.  When we pick them up from school she watches for them from the car and screams their names when they finally make it to the car.  I love this photo with her holding Silas' hand.

She has been fighting a nap but almost always takes one...if I can just get her to hold still.  So we take lots of afternoon walks or she falls asleep in the late afternoon when we pick the kids up from school.

She loves sand and was so happy to find sand on our hike.

She also loves to play peek-a-boo.

 

Lou is obsessed with drawing and with scissors.  If the kids leave any kind of writing utensil or the scissors down, Lou is immediately coloring away or cutting.

This is the same spot that I took Lou's one-year old pictures...man time flies.

 Lou had her face painted this month.  It was fun to see her reaction once she saw herself in the mirror.

She held so still...

Lou is definitely at outside girl.  If one of the kids opens the front door she is out in a flash.  She loves playing on the trampoline with her siblings.

She is my little shopping buddy in the afternoons.  She will often shout "hey" at the people around us until they say hello to her.

She has the biggest "cheese" smile.

 She is LOVING school.  She loves all of the art activities and she loves playing with friends.

 

In the past few weeks I have been overcome with gratitude that Lou made it to us.  She is the perfect little caboose. Happy Birthday to my sweet 2 year old!