More November

 I LOVE how Emily starts to read while we are at the library.  Reminds me so much of myself

 These two love swinging on the playground while we wait to pick up Emily from class

 Tree climbing

 This fell from our kitchen ceiling.  Thank the Lord I had just turned on Curious George and all the kids were in the other room.  How does a fixture just fall from the ceiling!

 This is what it looks like when you invite 4 couples over for dinner and they each have at least three kids.  We have such a great Ames family.

 

Parts of Novemeber

 We fried up a couple of these birds with 25 of our closest friends

 I love freezing my tush off with this guy

 Our latest hotel experience had fish, they even got to feed them (and that is juice in the coffee to go cups)

 Rob got a big delivery

These two get to share a bed during hotel fun

Dallas Family Party

 He requested a General Lee on his cake

 He wanted to eat his cake with a General Lee, we let him because it was his birthday

 Bo on Dallas birthday

Lego Mater

Church Christmas Program

Emily was a cow for the childrens church program.  She was a super cute animal.  Rob has video on his phone, I will try to get it loaded to youtube.



Dallas Birthday Party

Another first for Dallas, he had his first friend party.  He invited three friends and Emily got to come too!

 

This is his reaction to getting a Phin McMissle  car from Noelle

 No matter what activies I plan, every playdate ends up in the kids running around the house in circles.  In this case all three boys were on the stick horse.

Blowing out the candles

 I took masking tape and made "roads" all over the living room for the kids to drive their cars on.

This road was under construction.

We made Taffy

My best sister, my Dad and Barb all  trecked to Ames last Saturday to help me make Salt Water Taffy for a community church outreach event "The Perfect Gift"  Dad whipped through 7 batches in about 5 hours (we took a little over an hour break to watch Em in the childrens program).  We cooked in the equipment closet for the gym, to keep the heat away from the kids.  Dad pulled out so eveyone could see the fun part.  Almost 1700 people came through the Plex on Saturday.  We could have gotten rid of every piece, but we did save a little back for ourselves.

 

 

Dad's new cooling pan has a drain! -seriously this revolutionizes the process

wrapping

 pullilng

Em's first task of the day, holding the wax paper roll

Time for reading

 Emily would sit and read all day if Dallas would let her!

 

The library in Ames has re-opened.  We returned our books we had for the last 4 weeks, and the kids were happy to come home with a new load.  We also have out about 30 Christmas themed books that stay with the Christmas decor, so it has been fun to rediscover those. 

Bo the Dog

 A picture from the first week we owned Bo ~ 8 months

 One of his favorite spots in the house, looking out the window and sunbathing on the floor beneath the window

A recent picture of Bo from November ~ 7 yrs old

 

 

I found Bo dead Saturday evening after we returned home from spending the afternoon at a church event.  Rob and Dallas had just played football with Bo in the backyard fours hours earlier.  He had turned the corner with the Blastomycosis.  He had gained back about 10 lbs.  His blasto antigen level had dropped to a readable value on the scale, although still high, he was still on medication.  His outward symptoms were all gone.  Rob thinks he had a heart attack and went quickly, and that is reassuring to me.

 

Bo was a great dog.  He loved our kids, and loved other kids even more.  He rarely barked.  He was loyal.  His favorite activities were retrieving a football, eating sticks and chasing squirrels.  He loved getting treats from the kids and was great at cleaning up the floor.  I liked that he didn't lick and he didn't beg (although he would try to stare the food out of you!)  I always wondered what he was dreaming about, he was so animated when sleeping.  We were so thankful for the wonderful time he was apart of our family. 

I am so behind.  I have run out of free photo storage and can't decide what my next blog move will be.  In the meantime I have fallen out of practice blogging because it is so much more fun with pictures right?

 How many Kibbe's can you fit in a rocking chair?

 Emily performing her first disection.  She dove right in and took apart a crayfish.  Her partner was not quite as enamored.  I was proud of Emily, she removed the eyes, legs, claws, I helped her find the lungs, the stomach, and all sorts of muscles. 

Today I helped Rob drive and dontate the family RV to Teen Challange.  By "help" I mean drive behind Rob from CR to Des Moines. 

I have bunches of other pictures I want to share.  They are on Rob's phone and I have been having issues loading them on the computer. 
Sunday we took Aunt Lynne to the airport.  We then got to spend the afternoon with our besties that live in Des Moines.  The kids played wonderfully and we were able to chat and eat homemade sushi, it was fun and perfectly low key.  .  It was nice to have Robert home this week.  He arrived Friday night, and went to the football game with me and some friends on Saturday.  Monday we jumped back into life.

I can't make this stuff up

After polishing off a pint of (shared) blackberries Dallas asks for more.  I responded, "I think one box is enough, I don't want your poop to be funny" -- Dallas says "but I do want my poop to laugh at me!"

 The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

 What are living room looks like 15 minutes after breakfast

Earned her first pizza for meeting her October reading goals.  Pizza Hut Book It!

 To healthify Halloween, we had some green "monster" shakes.  Spinach, coconut milk, and some mixed berries. Noelle has to have hers in the high chair.  I modified a sippy cup lid so she could suck "chunks" through it.

 Minnie Mouse

 Dallas the race car driver

 Aunt Lynne and Minnie

 How many pumpkins are in this picture?

A big thanks to my sis.  She has helped me a lot in the last few weeks.  God keeps placing her in Ames at the right times.  Two Fridays ago, she thankfully needed to do laundry.  Rob was gone, and I had to take Bo to the vet, he was not well, and I was not sure I was going to be bringing him home.  Needless to say, I was not emotionally fit to haul three kids with me as well.  She stayed home with them and did her laundry.  And tonight, again she was in Ames.  She came T o T with us.  So much easier to have a helper.  She again stayed with the kids and handed out candy while I ran Emily out to Awana.  Love her so much!!!  I love how much she enjoys the kid too.  Thanks Lynne

 Don't text and fly...

 My friend Sara left this little cake for us

 a tiny 1/2 slice resulting in this

 Dallas requested race car driver.  So I whipped this up.  I think it is missing a little something, people kept asking if he was an astronuat.

 We went to see Butter Cy last Friday.  He was carved by the butter carver from the Iowas State Fair.  ISU celebrated 100 years of Homecoming.

I took these munchkins on a date prior to the Butter Cy outing.  Not a one of them ate their bread.  Jimmy Johns has the best bread!