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: