November

 I finally hired someone to do our family photos. I hated my hair and makeup in those so I redid them a week later. Thank you mr. tripod and my favorite cousins Alex and Megan

 Who knows what they said to get these amazing faces... The real pictures will be coming in another post.

Jeff is getting so inventive with his play that I just had to document it.

 When Alex and Megan came to visit we went to go see the Texas Memorial and Battleship Texas. This is the site of the battle where Texas declared it's independence from Mexico. Because everything's bigger in Texas, this is supposedly bigger than the one in Washington DC. It was fun to go up to the top and watch the Ships go in and out of the Houston Port.

 It was freezing freezing cold this day. But it was such a fun adventure.

 The view of Battleship Texas from the top of the monument

 They have the history of the site written on the outside of the building. It was so fun to read all about it and get a little more familiar with Texas history before I have to help my child get through 4th grade.. :)

 We stopped outside our car and had some snacks.. and the kids loved running up and down this hill. It was kind of fun to see the battleship look like it was just coming out of the ground.

 It's definitely an impressive ship.

 It is the only battleship still in existence that served in both world wars. The guns on this thing were amazing.

 

 The shells were about the size of Aria but weighed WAY more than she did. In order to run fire one gun it would take 80 men. from start to finish.

 Jeff loved all of it. This was totally his cup of tea...

 Totally my little sailor. He is so sweet.

 You could actually aim this gun. It was pretty impressive to think about.

 Felt like we were in the 1920s everything was preserved so well.

 Because our favorite cousin Alex asks such good questions, this volunteer demonstrated how the biggest guns worked for us. This was considered a part of the hard hat tour, but it was amazing to see how it actually worked.

 The kids liked climbing in the beds. It was so interactive. That's what made it so fun.

 Nate just had to pose in front of the dental office on board.

 This boat is a lot bigger than it looks. It housed basically an entire city.

 We had a wonderful time celebrating Texas

Jeff was so done by the time we were done he wouldn't even look at the camera...

This year we decorated the Christmas tree before we left for Thanksgiving. It's definitely one of my favorite things we do as a family every year.

This year we tried different sized light bulbs. and I think it turned out beautifully.

We finally got to put our new car to use and we took it on a roadtrip to see Uncle Ben and his family. The kids' favorite part was staying in a hotel. seriously though, you'd think they'd never seen waffles before.

The ozarks are absolutely beautiful and it was fun to see a different kind of mountain.

 We couldn't have asked for better weather while we were there so we spent a lot of time raking leaves and jumping in them... raking leaves and jumping in them.

 Or Myla just preferred to walk around in my heels.

 We may have had an argument or two over bikes........

 We are so glad we got to spend such fun times with them. The kids had a blast.

 We went to one of their parks and fed the ducks.

 I just adore my hubby when he smiles like this... I've never seen him happier than when he's with his brothers.

 Jeff can melt me everytime with his grayish hazel eyes.

 I thought Michaila had some particularly fun traditions surrounding Thanksgiving.
The morning of thanksgiving they made this amazing turkey. I love it so much I think we'll start doing it. The kids listed all the things they were thankful for.

 They also make and effort to do some sort of service project the day after Thanksgiving. A way of giving back so we went and raked leaves at one of their elderly neighbors home and hauled them off to the dump while we were there..

She is so good with kids.

We had a family exercising morning where everyone went out and got healthier before we chowed down on pie and turkey.

The kids did a really fun puppet show for us ... over and over... and over...
And I loved how they all piled up on one couch for story time. It was so fun to spend time with them I'm so glad we went.

All in all, I couldn't have imagined a better Thanksgiving or November. It was fabulous.