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.