Various Items - November Edition

 Henry had his first haircut - by Dad.

 I will sum up the day after Thanksgiving with this picture of Henry and my Facebook status update from that day:  "It's Christmas decorating day - Stanton is his most in love with me on this day every year.  *snort"  This is the day of a thousand arguments and eyerolls for Stanton and I...but it turns out so pretty when we're done...if you ignore the millions of piles it creates in its wake, so of which don't disappear till January...

 This is how Henry sleeps most of the time.  Left two middle fingers in his mouth and right hand covering his face.  It never stops being adorable.

 Nico Oakeson had another surgery and the kids wore their shirts to school to show him support. 

 The night before we left on our trip to Hawaii, we hosted a shower for April Allen (now Higham).  She married Michael Higham in December.  They're adorable and it was really fun to have this hot chocolate bar for the refreshments.  I will note, however, that the homemade hot chocolate I made was WAY chocolately and rich.  Too much so.  Next time I'll just stick with the cocoa mix from the church cannery -- it's better.  I dipped all of those marshmallows on the sticks (Chloe helped with some of them, too) and bought different things to mix in.  Jen Jensen brought the fun cookies from Pepperidge Farm.  Those Chessmen are making my mouth water.  :)  A super fun night and I didn't take one stinking picture of April and Michael!!!  Where is my brain????

Our friends from Buffalo years have a neat, successful Etsy business called Little Sapling Toys.  They make beautiful wood toys and teethers.  They sent this cute hippo, a few other teethers, and a beautiful engraved star ornament to us for Henry's birth.  I love them!

Stanton is already doing his trick with Henry.  Aack!

Cannon and Henry crashed out by each other.

Henry is adorable even when he's got his cry face on.

(back over to the left, middle row) Henry sat in the saucer for the first time in November - he kept me company while I sewed blankets for each of the kids.  His is stuffed around him in the saucer to help keep him upright.

Stanton reading a story to the kids.  Great face.

(left, bottom row) Henry rolled over and fell asleep in this position.

Lily's "Thankful For" list.  Lollipops, Indians, Letters, You!, the Allens, Learning, Love, Everything, North Pole

Brigham reading a book to Henry.  Love that!

Chloe's poem made it into their class newsletter:

SISTERS

Attractive, loving

Jumproping, singing, happy

Smart, creepy, skateboarding, snoring

Rocking, messy, playing, 

Funny, little

BROTHERS

Pretty cute!

November was a really busy month - I never really felt like I got my heart and mind wrapped around it.  That said, however, it was a lot of fun and we made some really good memories.  Next year I want to be totally done with teacher gifts, friend gifts (we did neither this year, but I stressed plenty about them anyway), and even kid shopping if at all possible.  I never felt like I got caught up this year which made my Thankful For posts non-existent and just made me feel less peaceful all around.  I know that part of that is just this phase of life we're in.  School is busy, piano and gymnastics are busy, church is busy, having a new baby is busy...it's all just new and I'm adjusting to it still, obviously.

The bottom line is this:  November was way more awesome than I ever fully let myself embrace.  I'm glad we took a few pictures so I could remember the good times we had!

Thanksgiving Celebrations

We celebrated Thanksgiving three different times, which was a treat.  :)

First, we went to Grandma Allen's care center, then Grandma Rose's, and finally to Promontory with all the Rose extended family.

We drove the motorhome to Promontory and it was wonderful.  Charlie came along and loved that he got to be with the family.  Poor guy - he's really taken second fiddle to Henry.

It was so nice to kick off the holiday season with so much extended family around.  I love them all so much - both sides.

 Grandma looked so pretty with her hair fixed and her pearls on.  Henry was a little charmer, as usual.

 Ah, these Grandma pictures are so precious to me.  They're all aging so much and I want to capture and enjoy every single moment with them.  I hope my kids always know how very blessed they are to have their great-grandmas so present in their lives.

 Chloe looked so pretty perched up on that horse.
Uncle Scott took the kids on a Rhino ride, horseback riding, you name it, they did it.  It was a lot of fun for the kids.
Brigham and Uncle B became fast friends this time, too.  B was asking him about his (very, very, embarrassingly awful) beat up sneakers.  He eventually gave Brigham a dollar to buy new ones.  They had a great time together.  Brigham went home and wrote him a thank you note and sent it off.  B wrote back and they're pen pals now.  :)
On the way out, I helped the kids make bonnets and head dresses.  It was a fun little time killer.  You can see the head dresses in the pictures above.  I didn't grab one of Lily's bonnet, but it turned out pretty clever and cute.

I actually made this for Caroline's blessing luncheon, but it's Thanksgiving themed, so into this post it goes.  Turned out pretty darn cute!

First Gymnastics Tournament

Chloe had her first meet for competitive gymnastics.  It was a pre-season meet - the season really begins in January.
It was a fantastic experience for her.  She was scored by professional judges, saw what the other gymnasts her age and level were able to do, and really learned a ton.

We drove all the way to Rock Springs, WY for this meet - in the first bad storm of the season.  Thankfully we made it there and back safely.  Wowza, though, the tournament itself almost killed us.  It was long.  And we were all there.  The whole time.  Yikes.

This was about Chloe, though.

She was last on bars (she's improved SO much on them since then), 5th? on beam, 4th? on floor, and 2nd on vault.  That was so thrilling for her - getting up on the podium!  A fun taste of what's to come for her.

Lucy's Blessing

The family got together again for Lucy's baby blessing.  We did it one more time for Caroline's, but I didn't snap a single picture at that one!  Drat.

These are the only ones we took at Lucy's.  I love them, though.

 Rachel & Caroline, Emily & Lucy, Me & Henry, Ann & Nathan

2012 cousins.  They'll have some fun together in the years to come!

Jeep Ride Above Hyde Park

We took advantage of the beautiful November warmth and went above Hyde Park in the Jeep.  We stopped and grabbed sandwiches, which we ate at the top. 

It was a gorgeous ride and the kids were so fun.  We don't make time for things like this very often (we want to- holy cow, life just crowds out the fun outings like this so often)...

 Isn't that a beautiful view?!

Stanton and I had differing opinions about how to best capture the steepness of the hill we were on.  It was kinda crazy.  Neither angle really does it justice.