November 2015 in Review

It sure doesn't feel like we got out much in November, but looking back it appears that we had a lot of fun adventures throughout the month!

Kids had fun playing with their friends while I taught piano lessons each week.

We took advantage of Kids Morning Out. And while it was more geared towards older kids, I think that Lily still had a bit of fun!

We bumped into some of our favorite people while shopping!

And bumped into them again at Doctors appointments!

And had play dates with them at Chick-fil-a and our lovely home. 

Of course, we had some run ins with other friends as well. 

Lily loved being a big helper and pushing Kaitlyn (Brown) around and holding Keira (Hayasaka). 

She tried to show her love to Tanner (Dunn) for letting her play with him, and she loved the attention she received from Cynthia (Sweeney). Every time we go over to her house I'm so afraid Lily will break something, but she is really sweet and charming with my children it helps to put me at ease.

While the weather turned colder and colder, it made it more challenging to play outside. 

In November I was able to sneak away from children twice. TWICE! Once I went to book-club and the other time I went to a Super Saturday hosted at our local church. They had all sorts of crafts and fun projects to do, but I only participated in Glass Etching. I've always wanted to etch my name onto my Pyrex pans, but didn't quite know what to do. Now that I've done it, it seems easier than I anticipated and next time I buy a Pyrex pan I'll be sure to put my new skills to test!

When friends were busy, and it was too cold to play outside - we went SHOPPING!

November is a month to give thanks... and I would be selfish and rude if I didn't show gratitude to two wonderful families who had us over for family dinner! The Dazey family and the Marsh Family. We are indebted to them and they have such a special place in our hearts!

Meanwhile...

Kids kept growing.

Marco won't fall asleep on Mommy. I don't know why. I don't know what I did. But Daddy has the magic touch and he falls asleep within minutes in Daddy's arms! During Church, Daddy sneaks away and five minutes later he comes back with a sleeping boy in his arms. Daddy is so good with Marco and I'm so grateful that he is able to put him to sleep so that we can get something out of Sacrament meeting!

Marco is a skinny little boy and had to have another weight check in November. He progressed from the 4th percentile to the 6th percentile. We decided that with him achieving 17 pounds it was time to put away the sink bath-tub and start bathing with Lily in the real tub. He did not want to give it up, he loved his little tub - so we got one last picture of him in his pink bathtub!

While Marco continues to grow, so do his messes. He finds a way to get into everything and create a lot more work for Mommy. It's amazing how much destruction can happen in a mere matter of minutes.

But we love our little boy and would do anything to catch a glimpse of one of those smiles!

On the other hand, Lily has become quite passionate about several new things!

Like crazy sleeping positions in her bed!

Her New night-light, Sulley. She puts him right next to her to read her stories, which happen to be another passion. She loves reading stories and at night, after she falls asleep - I have found up to one hundred books with her in bed. She reads them all to her monsters before falling asleep.

One night after putting Marco to sleep, Lily came up to me we had the following conversation.

Lily: "Mom, I need five ponytails in my hair."

Me: "Okay. Why do you need five ponytails in your hair?"

Lily: "Because I need five ponytails to be a lady."

Me: "Well, okay."

She is now obsessed with dressing up - which she refers to as "being a lady."

And for the first time, I've finally gotten Lily to lay on her back for bath time. She has discovered underwater noises and often immerses one ear and plugs the other and makes weird noises to see what they sound like underwater. She calls it, "being a mermaid."

She is still pretty passionate about her favorite Garbage Truck and about going on walks to see the Cows.

... and nursery and preschool.

... and organizing her favorite figurines. We tried a new thing this month - putting her hair in an Elsa braid. We wanted to see if we could find a new way to do her hair instead of "Boo Pigtails." But, the braid lasted a total of eight minutes, so for now - we continue to put her hair in pigtails to keep the hair off and out of her face. 

Besides her new and continuous passions - Lily has found new ways to be "helpful" or into everything. She has made messes with the flowerpots, the dish soap, her toys, food, you name it... but when she earnestly wants to help - it's so hard to be upset at all the messes. My favorite time she helped was when we made guacamole. She wanted to "help" by eating the lime. I don't know what she was expecting, but the faces she made showed me it was not at all what she had in mind. 

She thinks that she's helping by taking all my gift cards, punch cards, credit cards, etc. out of my wallet and "organizing them" into piles... according to color.

And cleaning up after all of her dress-ups can be quite exhausting.

But she is an ingenious little girl that keeps me busy, wondering what she will come up with next, and laughing as I'm able to look back at all these photos.

At the end of the day, when she's calm, and we are reading stories together... I can't help but feel I am so lucky that she is a part of my life!


But my favorite part of this month was playing with both of the kids and watching them play together.

For all the times that I may complain about Lily's "help", it just melts my heart when she truly yearns and wants to help her little brother. She is the best big sister and Marco is lucky to have her to look up to!

November was a great month. I love looking back and seeing how much we accomplished and how much time we got to spend together. I love seeing the crazy personality quirks that are emerging in my two children. And I love my little family.