November 2011

Here is Henry at the beginning of November, sorting through his remaining Halloween treats.  He decided to pretend that he could read the labels, and he was telling me what each treat was called.  He was coming up with really crazy names, like chicken-ogg and treater-cook.  I might not ever teach him to read, because the words he makes up are so much more fun.

We finally started getting some rain in November.  Henry and Lizza were pretty excited about it.  They love going out on the back porch and trying to catch the rain and then make wet handprints all over the porch.

Here they are getting all cozy and warm on the couch after their rain adventures. 

The next time it rained they went out again, but this time in what was their idea of suitable rain gear:

Daniel teaches the Gospel Essentials class at church, and he had the opportunity to baptize an investigator who had been coming to his class.  It was a neat experience for all the kids to be able to see.

This is why I cannot do yoga when Cynthia is awake:

I taught Tristan how to make a funny head out of a plastic medical glove.  My mom used to make them for us when I was little, and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever.  I don’t remember ever doing this with them, though:                                                               

Cynthia thought it was super funny:

Lizza’s attempt:                                                           

Cynthia has become such a girly-girl.  She loves purses, but the funny thing is that she calls them backpacks.  Nobody even taught her the word “backpack”, but I guess she must have learned it from hearing me tell the kids to put away their backpacks so many times.  

She can usually be found with various necklaces, or “pretties” as she calls them, draped over her neck:

Rachel tries to stay up and read like the big kids, but she usually ends up like this:

In a moment of bravery I made some homemade play-dough for Lizza and Henry.  They loved it so much, and it wasn’t even that much of a mess, so I guess I shouldn’t have waited so long. 

This is Henry being a fighter-guy/realtor.  Seriously.  He was walking around all morning saying that he was really good at fighting animals who were about to get people, and also finding homes for people (because those two skills obviously come hand-in-hand.)                                        

Here he is explaining how it all works.  I love how when he talks about the binoculars he makes sure to point out that he uses them when finding homes “just the same as fighting.” 

One of Henry’s other talents is eating spicy foods.  He just ate a whole bowl of salsa here:

He is also learning how to be a nice older brother to Cynthia. 

Rachel and Lizza had all their dreams come true when I signed them up for a little 10-week “intro to gymnastics” class at the rec. center.  They loved everything about it.

Cynthia loves helping Tristan with the vacuuming every night.

Sometimes she is less of a help than she thinks:         

The rest of November was spent in Arizona where we went for Thanksgiving with Daniel’s family, but I’ll do a separate post for that.

Here’s a little preview – you can tell from Rachel’s face that it was a fabulous trip:

October 2011

Now that it is almost Christmas I am finally getting around to posting pictures from October.  I am still in denial that it is really December because we don’t have snow here, so I would like to think that I am not that far behind. 

There was still a lot of football going on in October.  The boys always had to be at their games an hour early to practice, so it was nice when there was a park nearby for the other kids to play at while we waited.  They loved this park in Austin:

Cynthia discovered sliding for the first time (we don’t really go to the park much in the summer here because everything is too hot, so this was her first real park experience).

She loved it.

Lizza striking a pose:                                                 

Oliver’s homecoming game:

All the players were announced at halftime and escorted across the field by a little cheerleader.  Oliver was of course embarrassed about having to hold onto a girl’s arm, so he let go of her as soon as he could and ran the opposite direction. 

Look how old and tough and handsome he is getting!                           

But not too old to get rabbit ears from Dad.  I love this picture.                                

Tristan tackling various football players. He plays with no concern for his personal safety, which I know is how you are supposed to play football, but when you are a mom it makes you nervous, and it is also why I could never play football (among other reasons, like lack of any skill).  Sometimes when I’m watching football and I see players leaping into the air and then getting knocked to the ground by other huge players I think that if that happened to me I would probably want to go to the hospital and then lay in bed for a week instead of getting right back up to play some more.  

                                       

Here we are at Oliver’s last game of the season:               

Cynthia had a blow-out and then had to wear Lizza’s jacket as her pants because it was freezing.  She was a good sport and fell asleep.                                            

That’s the end of the football pictures from October.

Here is a picture of 1)General Conference, 2) Daniel and Tristan playing chess, and 3) a Cynthia barricade (the kitchen bench).

Daniel and I both had birthdays in October (along with Cynthia, which I already posted about).

Daniel turned 34:

And I turned 31.  I’ve never worried that much about my age, but after this birthday I decided I would rather just stay 30, instead of having the numbers keep getting closer to 40.  At least I have these six great kids.

Lizza and Henry digging for dinosaur bones in the backyard.

When Oliver got home from school and saw what they were up to, he went out and buried some little toy dinosaur skeletons for them to find, and now Henry thinks they actually found real live dinosaur bones.  Of tiny baby dinosaurs. 

Cynthia showing me how excited she is about finding a picture of a baby and a dog, two of her favorite things:

She also loves walking around holding trains:  

       

And trying to be pretty.  She went through a stage where she thought if she put anything on top of her head it was extra fancy and pretty, so she would walk around like this, saying “pretty,pretty” and being pleased with herself. 

Maybe it runs in the family:                                      

Henry (with more appropriate headgear) and Lizza having what they think is called a “pignic” on the back porch:

And in case you think it was just a normal little pignic, it wasn’t.  It involved monsters and talking snacks:

Tristan made this poster for his DARE program contest at school, and won 1st place.  I thought he did a great job, but mostly I can’t believe I have a kid old enough to be in DARE.

Here we are at a neighborhood “fall festival” type thing, with a petting zoo:

Pony rides:

Caramel apples:

And sack races:

Henry was a fan of everything but the sack races.  I love the look of disgust on his face when he realizes that he is clearly not cut out for hopping around in a potato sack:

Elizabeth and Rachel, the night before crazy hair day at school:

Four crazy-haired kids the next morning.  I told Oliver that his was barely crazy, and that people really do wear their hair like that, and I thought he would look cute/handsome if he did his hair like that every day.  He didn’t like that idea, though – he likes his hair to lay flat on his head, so this was definitely going out of his comfort zone for him.  I guess my favorite thing about this picture is Lizza’s face, though.  And is she trying to do the peace sign? 

At the end of October Daniel drove up to Dallas with Tristan and Oliver to go to the BYU/TCU football game.  They had a lot of fun, but it would have been even better if BYU had won the game.

Then our friends threw a huge carnival birthday party for their little boy.  Oliver and Rachel got to help out with the party.  Rachel and her friend Addie were in charge of the candy store.  Rachel thought it was about the most fun and important thing she’d ever done.

Oliver also had various assignments throughout the party, but he still managed to find plenty of time to do this:

More carnival party fun:

And to finish off October, here is a frightening picture of Henry.  I’m not sure what he is supposed to be, but I think it’s scary.                                                              

The end.