November

Our November was filled with a lot of little moments.  I don't feel like I took pictures of a lot of our activities.  To start off November we had a small party to celebrate all things pumpkin.  We had various pumpkin foods and enjoyed spending time with some of our friends from church and school. 

Edie with her friend at our Pumpkin Appreciation Night

The big kids wanted to have the little ones "sleep over" in their rooms so on the weekend Lincoln and Annika would sleep in Kimball's and Rebecah's rooms.  Here Annika and Rebecah are looking at books together on Annika's bed.

Edie had some big moments this month.  She finally transitioned to a cup so she is no longer nursing.  She also now pulls to a stand and started crawling!  I know those really aren't big accomplishments, especially when you are 13 months, but she finally has interest in being more mobile.  She'll walk here eventually, maybe by the time she is 18 months?  Look at her sweet face, don't you just love her?

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  Joseph was on call Thursday and Friday, but he lucked out and he was able to answer pages from home and didn't have to go in to the hospital at all.  It helped that the Orthopedic doctor who was on call wasn't a doctor in the SOS practice. 

I forgot to take pictures on Thanksgiving, aside from the above 2.  The pie is my first, and probably only, apple pie.  I promised Joseph last year if I got new pie plates I would make him an apple pie for Thanksgiving.  I really don't understand the appeal of an apple pie.  I know I used a tried and true recipe, but it just tasted mediocre to me.  There are so many other pies out there that taste SO MUCH BETTER!  Joseph said it was a good pie, but the caramel pecan pie and the pumpkin pie with the gingersnap crust were both eaten long before the apple pie.  

The other picture is Kimball eating his turkey leg.  He really wanted a turkey leg so we humored him.  And just for the record, that was a turkey leg from our 27.82 pound turkey.  I always buy the biggest bird I can find and this year I found a big one.  It didn't seem like there was that much more meat compared to my usual 22 lb turkey so I probably won't worry about getting such a big bird next year.

I told Lincoln to pose for a picture so he quickly stuck his pretzel rod in his mouth!  

Edie loves to swing so she still uses the baby swing sometimes.  Annika and Lincoln enjoy swinging in it too.  I figure the weight limit on the swing is probably 30 lbs so I let them swing, too since they are under that limit.

 Ever since we moved to Syracuse--5 years ago--Joseph has been encouraging--bugging--me to take some adult education cooking classes.  Not because I need the extra help but because he knows I would enjoy it.  I signed up for 3 classes and my first class, in October, was cancelled due to low enrollment, but in November I went to my Mexican cooking class.  I took Grandma Bev with me because this kind of thing is always more fun with a friend.  We had a great time even though we didn't really learn anything new.  We made dishes we hadn't made before, but we just followed the recipes.  My last class is in February and it will be French food.

Churros that I made and fried.

We made rice, fish tacos, chicken enchiladas with a green chili sauce, cheese stuffed poblano peppers, and churros.  It was all really good.  I love spicy food!

Grandma Bev and me in the kitchen.

This last picture shows how much mischief two little ones can make in a matter of minutes.  I had just checked on them and the next thing I hear is "It's snowing, it's snowing!" and we suddenly had styrofoam "snow" all over the floor.  

October

October was a busy month for our family.  I love how we were able to cram a wide variety into the month.  The weather was beautiful and stayed warm a lot longer than usual.  Here are some highlights:

We enjoyed General Conference.  We spent some quality time together making this tie General Conference banner.

Yard work buddies.

October is a busy month for birthdays in our family.  It's actually just 1 week...we have 4 birthdays within 6 days.  It's a lot, but it makes for a really fun week.  My birthday was the first one.  I turned 38. I had a French Silk pie for my dessert and it was delicious.  Lincoln did a great job blowing out my candles.  I took a breath to blow them out but before I could exhale he had all of the candles out but 1!  Edie, Lincoln and Annika also had birthdays, but I won't go in to detail since I made separate posts about their birthdays. 

Poor Annika had a hard time waiting for her birthday.  One of my sisters sent a card in a pink envelope and she was devastated that the card wasn't for her.  I let her open it so she would stop crying and then I was just lucky that I could quickly read the card before Annika took it away. In the above picture you can see Annika holding "our" card.  You can also see that her face is still red from crying.

Joseph and I attended a Halloween party.  My good friend Mari knows how to host the best parties and she never seems stressed about it.  We were supposed to come in couple costumes so Joseph and I were lucky we bought coordinating Egyptian costumes at the end of the year last Halloween.

We got a lot of compliments on our costumes. It was nice to feel like we had something to wear for the party.

Here are a few fun Annika pictures.  She loves to help "cook" and I try to let her unless I'm really in a time crunch.  She loves to just put water in the mixing bowls and make a mess.  Rebecah made her this paper crown so Annika was "Queen for a day".

Here is Lincoln wearing Joseph's tool belt.  Lincoln loves to be a "hard working man" with his daddy.

We took a Fall foliage trip to Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca.  We did this hike 3 1/2 years ago when I was pregnant with Lincoln and Annika.  It was March then so we could only hike the rim trail because the gorge trail was still covered in ice.  This time we did the gorge trail and it was much prettier.  I feel like I really missed out on our experience the first time.  The hike was almost like a mini Watkins Glen.  The Gorge Trail had a lot of stairs, but the little ones did really well with all of the climbing.  There was some complaining about being tired and I had to trade off carrying Lincoln and Annika the last half of the return hike.  One of these days Joseph and I are going to do a hiking trip on our own so we can go as far as we want without having to worry about carrying someone.  Round trip the hike was about a mile and a half.

We borrowed this hiking carrier for Edie and she did great.  

z

Come visit us!  I promise we'll take you on fun adventures. There is so much more to New York than just the City.

The soccer season finished up in October.  Kimball's team had a great year.  They only lost 1 game Spring and Fall season combined.  Kimball always plays goalie half of the game and then forward or mid-field the other half.  We always try to go as a family to watch his games unless it's raining.  We missed one game because it was raining.

"Booting" the ball away from the goal.

With Kimball's friend Caden after their last game.

How the kids spend the time at the game.

Please note Annika's outfit...a dress with her pajama shirt inside out and backwards on over the dress. Yes, I took her out in public that way.  I don't care anymore.  She is too strong willed and we would constantly have power struggles if I had her looking presentable 100% of the time we left the house.

Leaping over the goalie!

Smiling for the camera.

I was holding Edie up in the air by her legs for this picture. 

Such a happy guy as long as he can dig, explore and get dirty.

Edie and I were playing peek-a-boo one day and I thought she looked so cute!

 Halloween Fun

Lincoln and Annika went to a Halloween Play Group with a group from church.  These were their costumes.

We also attended our Ward Trunk or Treat.  The weather was iffy so we just went around the church classrooms collecting candy.  I love that so much more because I don't have to worry about my kids wandering off in the dark or getting hit by a car.  If it were up to me we would always do it inside.

Halloween night the big kids went out with friends while I took the little ones out.

Cleopatra

Scary face guy.  I really don't like scary costumes so this was a huge stretch for me. Why do boys think it's cool to dress up and scare people? Halloween should be about fun not scaring people.

Kimball with his friend Ryan.

Annika put this costume together at the last minute.  She had planned on being a giraffe all day until about 5:30.  She would have been much warmer as a giraffe!

Our friends, the Olsons went out with us.  Lincoln and Annika love to get together with Porter and play.

Kimball was out collecting candy about 2 hours.  He came back with a lot of candy.  I think his stash alone weighed over 8 pounds.  His school is collecting candy to send to service men and women so I was glad that he donated some of his candy to that cause.

On the 31st we finally had to turn our furnace on.  We made it almost the entire month without running the heat.  It has been such a warm fall.  We are ready to see a few snowflakes here in the next few weeks.  Joseph is very eager to start skiing again.