Thanksgiving

We had a fun week. It was pretty busy, and we bought a car! We got a Honda Pilot, and we love it. I think it will last us a really long time. The kids really like it too. We also had a really good Thanksgiving. It was neat to write down things that we were thankful for all month. We had our Thanksgiving tree, and every day we wrote on a new leaf what we are thankful for. I also wrote down what I'm thankful to Andy for about him, and gave it to him on Thanksgiving. It's so important to focus our hearts on gratitude and being thankful to God for everything instead of focusing on ourselves and what we want.

I think Reid is finally starting to get his second set of molars. He has been chewing on his finger in the back, so we'll see. He has been waking up two to three times a night still, which is not great. But we're all surviving. I'm trying to start night weaning him so he sleeps longer. We really don't like to have our kids cry it out, especially when he shares a room with Ruby. That would just keep them both up. So gentle weaning is the way we're doing it. He has been sleeping all the way through his nap most days now. He used to (and still does sometimes) wake up in the middle of his nap and need to be rocked back to sleep. It's so sweet to rock him though, he's such a snuggly little guy. And he loves cuddling when he wakes up, not like Ruby when she was little (or now). She wakes up ready to go.

 Reid watched me water the plants, and then got the pitcher and tried to fill it with water to do it too. He loves to copy everything we do!

 Doing his work in the laundry basket.

 Daddy made the kids a castle out of this thing from our steam mop box.

 Our new car! It's a 2004 Honda Pilot with only 80,000 miles on it. It's in great condition! The color is Sage Brush Pearl (a dark green/blue), and it has grey leather and heated seats. So nice. :)

 Ruby was taking our picture and wanted us to make a silly face. And then she kept saying it wasn't silly enough. Haha!

 Our cutie boy!

 They like to build this cozy spot. It's so nice when they play well together.

 She was driving us to San Francisco to watch Go Giants.

 It's so nice when they play (or read) together nicely. It doesn't usually last too long though. I think after this photo Ruby stole Reid's book and he put up a big fuss. But it was a precious moment.

 Making some soup.

 We met our friends at the zoo on Wednesday. It was cold!! Ruby put her zoo key down on a rock, and then forgot to pick it back up. We didn't realize we were missing it until the polar bears. Then we went back and it wasn't there. So we went to the lost and found, and they didn't have her zoo key, but they had a bunch of other ones and gave us one with the elephant on it that they don't make any more! Ruby was pretty excited about that.

 Bundled boy. He got tired of the stroller after a while. But he does pretty good in it.

 She found this cute little kids door in the gift shop and played with it for a long time!

 Our friends gave us a new Giants shirt!

 Ruby and Quinn at the zoo.

 We made a fire in our fireplace and had a lovely evening. Reid was amazed at the fire and kept saying "fifow." 

 They put on their tutus and stood over the vent. Haha!

 I love my boy.

 I didn't take many pictures on Thanksgiving. We had dinner at Tony and Courtney's house with Andy's family. Patty is in Uganda so she wasn't there, but everyone else was. Ruby and I made this turkey for the kids to play pin the feather on the turkey. It was a big hit. And the food was pretty good too! I made food all morning, pumpkin pie, pecan tart, apple pie, cranberry sauce, and two-potato gratin. It was all delicious!

My two favorite kids when we got home on Thanksgiving. They are so special to us.

Rain!

It's been raining a lot the last week. We've been trying to find fun indoor activities to do. Our house is feeling the effects of it though, it's so hard to keep it clean!

Reid hasn't been sleeping well, which makes for a pretty tired mommy. The other night I put him in some full body footie pajamas, and he kept waking up and screaming! And he was really hard to get back to sleep. Andy suggested that it might be his jammies, so I changed them and he slept much better after that. This boy LOVES to rub his tummy when he sleeps, silly boy. It's his security blanket.

 They love dancing around the living room! And sometimes half dressed.

 Reid went to the cupboard and got out a jar of baby food. Then he said "poon" to me until I got him a spoon and got it open for him at the table. Then he proceeded to eat almost all of it. This boy knows what he wants. :)

 Hanging out at Costco. I love it when she makes this face.

 Trying out the keys.

 Sometimes she naps like this, or makes a cozy spot with the pillows and sleeps on it. Hah!

 He loves to read cook books and says, "Mmmm." And then he started saying, "Hot."

 We went on a family walk the other night, and on our way back the neighbor pointed out two raccoons up in a tree. Yikes!

 She likes to work out in her leotard.

 I love her ringlets!

 They love to run around in their towels after a bath. Reid gets mad if he doesn't get to.

We had our first hair cut incident... Ruby felt the need to trim her own hair. 

At least it wasn't too bad! Kind of like long bangs. 

 And this boy likes to make messes.

 But he's so cute! This is one of his super early mornings, we had fun making faces at ourselves on the couch at about 5:30am.

Snuggle time with Daddy.

 They were playing that they were sick, and then Reid kept saying, "sick" and wanting us to wrap him up in a blanket.

 On Saturday we went to a DIY Christmas fair at our church. The kids loved it!

 Ruby and I found all of the nativity figurines around the rom. She wrote the "X's" on the paper herself.

This is our family photo from the photo booth.

She loves to run down the hills at church!

 Little Woody.

 He loves to climb up in the chair and read.

 They make pillow piles and play on them almost daily.

 I love rocking my baby to sleep.

 Ruby has been loving "dark dinners"with a candle and low light.

 The kids took their first shower! They had fun.

 Helping scrub Reid.

 Since Halloween, Ruby has been playing that her blocks are candy. She went and got sandwich baggies and twisty ties and made them into packages for later. Haha!

 She loves drinking some of my Shakeology every day.

 Painting!

 We went on a fun almost free date on Monday. We got coffee and window shopped at Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma. It was lovely.

 He likes to take out all of the silverware. It's really hard right now, because Ruby LOVES to help me cook. But then Reid wants to climb up on the chair and help too, and that is not as easy. So a lot of the time I just have to say no to Ruby. :( Poor kids.

 Ruby was reading this Berenstain Bears book and said that there was no last page. So she decided to make one.

 She drew the bear family, cut it out into a square, and wanted me to tape it inside of the book to finish the story. Haha!

 Reading together at nap time.

 Ruby has been doing so good at pooping in the potty *finally*!!! So she got all of the stickers on her second chart, and we went out for ice cream. YAY!!!!!

 Yesterday the kids and I got out of the house at 7 to drive down to Stayton. We got to watch the sunrise, and it was beautiful. It blew Ruby's mind.

 We met a friend at Panezanellie. There was another little girl with a drink that had whipped cream and sprinkles on it, and Ruby really wanted one too. So the lady came to ask how we were doing and Ruby said, "Can I get a steamer?" So the lady went to make it and I gave Ruby some money. And then she went up to the front all by herself and paid for it. It was the cutest thing.

 We went to see Janna and got hair cuts. Reid was super chill for his, he didn't mind the clippers at all.

 And Ruby really wanted her hair washed. Then she helped Janna wash mine when it was my turn. I brought Reid's high chair so he wouldn't be running around while I was getting mine cut, and that worked out really well.

We both got our hair straightened, and it was almost identical. Just a little bit of a different shade. But it was pretty much exactly the same length and style. She's definitely my girl. <3

 Then we went to see Cassie, Aiden and Addison. They all sang "Let it go" about 100 times. It was so nice to see them. Ruby and Aiden are besties.

  And these two are going to be good friends too, I'm sure. Little Addison is getting so big!

 Ruby got this white dress on, and she has my heels on under it. And then she asked me to get out my "wedding topper" (meaning my veil). 

 They like to play that this rug is a sleeping bag for some reason. Silly kids!