To start off the month, Daniel’s brother and his wife went on a trip and we got to watch their little boy, Maximus, for almost a week while they were gone. He was almost one when he stayed with us, so he fell in line perfectly right after Cindy, and I got to pretend I had seven kids for awhile, which was fun (crazy, but fun).
Maximus is a stud, and all the kids loved hanging out with him and taking care of him.
Here he is helping me make bread:
And joyfully riding a horse, unaware that he is about to be attacked by a wild beast named Cynthia:
We all were a little bit sad when it was time for Maximus to go home. I was glad that my kids had a chance to get to know him better.
Here is Henry pulling some weeds in our backyard. We had an embarrassing amount of weeds sprout up in the fall, and Henry loved working in the yard with me. I guess he prefers to do his yard work without a shirt on, just as he prefers to do pretty much everything else in his life. (After I posted the September and October pictures, I was looking through them and realized that Henry is hardly ever wearing a shirt. I’m not sure why – he does start out with one every morning.)
Here is Rachel and a rainbow:
And some puzzle work being done:
And Cindy riding her strider around the kitchen:
At the end of October we had some really big rainstorms, and there was a lot of flooding around Austin. Daniel took Tristan and Oliver with him to participate in a service project to help get things cleaned up in one of the neighborhoods that was hit the worst. I think it was a good experience for them.
Here is Henry doing a little reading in what has to be the least cozy reading fort every built. I don’t even know what to say about how uncomfortable this looks:
Cynthia loves helping me make bread by grinding the wheat into flour. She gets to be in charge of adding the wheat to the grinder when it’s ready. I remember doing the same thing for my mom when I was little.
Here are Lizza and Rachel on the last day of their fall session gymnastics class at the rec center.
Their friend Danica was in the class with them, which made it even more fun:
Also in November, Daniel and I went to a Pearl Jam concert up in Dallas. We drove up, went to the concert, and drove back that same night.
The concert was maybe the best I’ve ever been to. I guess that’s what happens when you have a band that’s been around as long as Pearl Jam has. We were up in the balcony, but right in the front row, so we had a good view.
Eddie Vedder and I go way back, since the time Oliver and I got to go up on stage with him at a concert in Chicago. I kind of still can’t believe that happened.
And here are a few more November pictures:
At the park:
We met some friends at an awesome park in Round Rock that we had never been to before; I had heard about it since we moved here (almost 8 years ago), but sometimes it takes me awhile to venture out and try new things.
There was a little make-believe town with a doctor’s office and stoplights and everything; Cindy loved cruising around on her strider and pretending she was all grown up:
She loves pretending she is all grown up.
That, and dressing up like a pirate.
