A Little catch up...November

Its been a while since we updated so here it goes...

November was a great month (really, November is my most favorite month out of the whole year :) ) We had lots going on last month.  We got our family photos taken for the the first time ever since we were married. We figured two kids later, it was about time. Here are a few we really like...

Merrilee and I also got our photos taken for the local newspaper for an article about how literacy can save a child from all sorts of unfortunate life circumstances. Here is a link to the story if you are interested. It is a 3 part story. This is the first part. My amazing neighbor is featured in the 3rd part and I am in a picture in the background with Alice in the third part of the story. (if you want to see the pics bigger, click on the "images" tab  at the top of the story.) It was fun to talk about how much Merrilee loves to read and to advocate for reading to children.

In mid-November, Alice had her 6 month checkup. She is still just a tiny peanut in the 9% for weight at 13.8 lbs. She did great with her shots! She only cried when the needle was actually poking her, but after it was all over with, she started giggling uncontrollably and smiling! What a silly girl. Alice has also been continuing with physical therapy for her torticollis and we just got her a helmet last week to help fix her head shape. I must say it is a little hard to nurse her with that big hard helmet, but other than that, she's been doing really well with it and she is really CUTE in it too! Ben has dubbed her "Tron baby".

We also celebrated my birthday in November. Ben got me a sewing machine which I have been wanting ever since Song taught me how to sew when we were living in Virginia with them. I am so excited! I went to JoAnn fabrics on black friday and waited in crazy long lines to get some good deals and stock up on some fabric! I've already started a few projects. For the birthday celebration, Ben and the girls took me out to lunch and then we had some cake and ice cream at home with my sister's family. We also got out the Christmas decorations on my birthday (a few days before Thanksgiving). Since we will be gone for actual Christmas, we decided to put our stuff up a little early so we could enjoy it in our home a little longer before Christmas.

We had a nice small Thanksgiving here with my sister and family. My sister and I split up the food responsibilities and just had a great time cooking and eating together! All the kids thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Merrilee had fun eating

My awesome nephews

My cute niece Ellie

This is how Alice enjoyed the meal...watching everyone stuff their faces.

Adam and Kylie hung out with us a couple days after Thanksgiving and did some black Friday shopping with us. It was fun to see them. We look forward to them being on the same flight to WA with us for Christmas so we can all help out with each others babies. :) During the Thanksgiving break, Ben and I also took the girls to the nicklecade and redeemed our tickets for a cute little doggy piggy bank for Merrilee. It was genuinely very fun to just do this fun little activity with our little family.

Another fun thing I started in November is singing in the Orem Chorale (Local community choir). Its been way too long since I've sung in a choir. We've been preparing for a Christmas concert that we will perform this week. Its been great to sing again! It really just brings my heart so much joy to be able to sing with a decent choir.

Well, that about sums up November. We feel very grateful for all of our blessings and look forward to spending the Christmas holiday with family in the Northwest!