November 2012

Since I haven't posted anything after Halloween of last year, I am now catching up! So this will be the first of many posts to record our recent events. 

Let's begin at the beginning with November.  I'm going to lump a lot of things in one mass post cuz it's easier that way, and hopefully will get me caught up sooner!

Claire reading stories to her sisters right after bathtime.

Cute sisters!

This is when Shaelyn started rolling and scooting, so we got a new addition.  This was right at the beginning of November when our Halloween decorations were still up :)

Hanging out with Dad

My first attempt at homemade bread.  It was a huge success! Since then, I have been trying to make bread for our family instead of buying it, because it's cheaper and tastes better. 

Hallie lost her second tooth--one of the bottom middle ones, and really wanted to keep her tooth, so she wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking her to "keep my tooth there".

Hallie's first attempt at braiding hair.  It's nice to have a little sister to experiment on. Not too bad for six years old!

Shaelyn was sick for the first time, and so lethargic and cuddly.  It was sweet and sad at the same time.  Poor baby.

All better! Back to her usual happy, smiley self.  She is getting better at sitting up at this point, but not completely trustworthy yet.

 One morning in early November, we woke up to find our apartment freezing. Our apartment is heated using high-output space heaters, since there is no furnace.  Well, one of the space heaters stopped working during the night.  It was the first time it had been really cold, and we had been using the heaters a lot more than usual.  Without the heat from that one space heater, the large great room was freezing.  So we decided to drive to Lowe's and get ourselves an alternate heat source: a new fireplace.  It is a vent-free gas fireplace, and I absolutely LOVE it! It puts out tons of heat and can easily heat the entire great room (approximately 1600 sq ft) easily.  I was worried about it getting too hot and the kids getting burned on it, but even when the fire is going, the grate only gets warm, not hot.  The only place that is hot is right where the air blows out at the top, and even then it isn't hotter than a normal heating vent.  I was worried about gas fumes/carbon monoxide, but it burns so clean that it isn't an issue.  It also has a safety shutoff if there is too much carbon monoxide in the air.  We have carbon monoxide detectors, too (which we recently checked) and they've never detected a problem.  Plus, it's pretty! And so cozy to glance over and see the fire crackling merrily.  It does such a good job that we often feel hot up here during this freezing cold winter!  I cannot tell you enough how much I love this fireplace!

Evie modeling the fireplace for me

We had a fun trip to Ikea one weekend:

When I saw this, I fell in love. Someday I will have one of these.

In the kids section

After walking all the way through Ikea, we took a break.  The girls are watching Finding Nemo right next to the cafe.

New circus tent from Ikea.  The girls primarily use it as a changing room when they are playing dress up.

 More miscellaneous pictures:

In Walmart, she wouldn't put this kitty pillow down until I took a picture of her with it.

Grandma and Papa's black lab, Chloe Jo, had puppies in October.  They were SO cute!

On our way to Evanston one afternoon to mail in Hallie and Shaelyn's passports for our upcoming trip to Cancun.

Dressing up at Walmart.  She chose this hat and purse herself.

Evie zonked out on the bathroom floor.

A pretty frosty morning

I love finding my children asleep in places other than their beds--even when they're six years old!

The girls playing "mothers".

Hallie wanted to make ice cream pizzas: the crust is a cookie, the sauce is ice cream, and the toppings are white chocolate chips.  Yum!

Other events in November:
-we voted.  Although Mitt didn't win, we fulfilled our civic duty :)

 -Our stake had a new ward added to it, and therefore the boundaries of all the wards were changed.  A good chunk of the new ward came from our ward.  Our ward feels like it got cut in half compared to how many people were in it before.  Although we had only been in Bridger Valley for about a month, I felt like there were quite a few of my new friends who were no longer in my ward.  Sad.  But it's still a great ward, and I'm still friends with the ones that aren't in my ward, so it's all good.  Now there are nine wards in our little valley! Pretty amazing to witness that growth. 

-we spent Thanksgiving at Rob's parents' house this year, and it was everything a Thanksgiving should be: good food, good family, and fun cousin time.  Scott also joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was nice to have him.  

And there's November! But that was the easy part...next up, the holidays!