November

Drew: learning Christmas songs at Sunday School and he's not a fan, but enjoys church; more 'friend' problems at school, but adults are intervening and it's getting better, lots of fun with games that he or Daddy create, lost 2 teeth this month, had our first playdate with school friends.

Drew got new shoes that tie and ended up having a memory foam type insole. Well, he loves this aspect and tells us it makes him run faster and jump better. So he was running down our entry hall and launching himself over the couch armrest and onto the couch...it was pretty hilarious to watch some of his landings!

Noah: loves going to Sunday School, but not a big fan of church; loves playing games with Daddy and Drew that aren't competitive, had lots of fun with marble run toys and building toys this month. Enjoys school, but asks to stay with Mommy lots - even said one time this month, "I want to go to Mommy's school".

Noah has been wanting to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed more and more for the last few months and then while in Florida, with all 5 of us sleeping in 1 room most of the time, he ended up being in bed with one of us every night. So coming back home and getting back to sleeping in his own room and bed was a SERIOUS challenge. I honestly love the snuggle time, but Noah is a SERIOUS snuggler in bed. We are talking, he shares the pillow with me and squeezes in TIGHT...and I have a really small pillow! So my sleep is horrible when he sleeps with me most of the time. I try to be firm and not let him stay when he comes down in the middle of the night, but it's so hard because it's the Middle of the NIGHT and I don't want to get out of bed to walk him back to his room. But we finally put our foot down and then bribed him! HA! To break the cycle, I promised him a movie night (me and him watching a movie in my bed) so we could get our snuggle time in, but then when the movie was over, he had to go sleep in his bed. But he had to stay in his bed the whole night for the week leading up to the movie night...it worked! We broke the cycle! He still filters in every now and then, but it's not near as bad as it was!!!

Kate...still really loves her Mommy! We are hard to separate...she doesn't even like it when I walk to another room without her...and she wants me to hold her, ALOT! She'll push her way to right in front of my legs and reach up and cry at any time - when I'm doing laundry, dishes, trying to clean something...oh goodness, it's alot!

She still loves being silly with her brothers. She loves to play with balls - kicking and chasing them around. We also have indoor snowballs (super soft balls that are totally safe to throw at each other and in the house!) and she gets a kick out of it all when we play with them! She also loves the boys' bean bag chairs and loves sitting in them - she looks like she's being swallowed up by the chair! :)

She finally has her first word - "Hi". I think we were harder on her to qualify her first word, because we needed to know she meant it every time she said it, versus with the boys, I think we were more lenient and anxious to cross off the "first word". But Hi it is - and that's just perfect because she's a social creature - always wants to be where the action is! But she communicates just fine - pointing, grunting, walking us over to the fridge or pantry or whatever toy she wants help with! She is blowing kisses more, and will sometimes blow kissed FOR us - putting her hand to our mouth and making the "mmmmaa" sound for us! She sometimes covers her mouth with her hands when she laughs, which just cracks me up. And she's definitely being influenced by her brothers...she burped pretty loud one night at dinner and just started laughing and then purposefully made a fake burp noise to keep the fun going - oh goodness!

We went to Florida for a week this month...that deserves a whole separate post to tell about and chronicle all the craziness! Both boys had the week of Thanksgiving off from school with Mommy. To be honest, after just being with them for a crazy week in Florida, Mommy wasn't exactly looking forward to all this time together. The first day was rough because Kate wasn't feeling so great, so all of Mommy's time and energy and patience went to Kate and had none left for the boys. Then the next 2 days Kate went to daycare so we were able to do more things and be more flexible - went to the park, did some science experiments (that the boys loved!) and able to play around more.

Check out Noah's "Indian" name he picked..."Walking Moose" kid cracks us up!

All the kids enjoyed watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and then had a great time with the Palmer family over at Grandma and Papa's house.

We spent the rest of the week/end decorating the house for Christmas, which they all enjoyed the end result of, but were less than helpful. Kate LOVES the Christmas lights and all the dancing and singing toys - it will be a fun Christmas season for sure with her!