This month of November has just flown by! I can't believe Thanksgiving is just two days away, and then Advent begins on Sunday. It was nice to have some warmer days where the kids didn't need jackets when playing outside. And it is just so cute seeing them interact!


Michael was playing right outside which drew Colleen to the door. When Michael saw her, he started gathering leaves, then letting them fall, as if they were falling on Colleen! She loved it, and I think Michael likes the attention...most of the time.

It even got so warm we had lunch on the patio one day! And as you see in the background, I use the little pool to drag piles of leaves to the curb. Growing up, we always had to put leaves in bags on the curb. Here in St. Louis, we just have to rake them to the curb and a big truck comes and sucks them all up!
Colleen is growing up faster than I like. It's hard to imagine she's practically 10 months!

She won't drink out of her own cup, but crawls pretty fast when she sees Michael's cup on the floor!

Though she has started to pull herself up, Tim stood her against the chair. She happily played there for awhile! She can also get herself into a sitting position. I couldn't believe it when I noticed! She's popped out two bottom teeth about a month ago, and now her top four teeth are about to show! And all at once! The poor thing. Her gums are so swollen. But she has done very well with teething. Thankfully, Colleen hasn't been too fussy because of them.
I recently received an early Christmas gift - a new vacuum! I'm so excited about it! It's the Bissell Healthy Home, which has airtight Hepa filtration, purifies the air, and actually sucks amazingly well! It's great for those who suffer from allergies. 2 out of 4 of us have allergies in the house, so I'm hoping it helps. In the next pictures, the kids are having fun with box it came in!

You can just make out Colleen's little foot going in!

This thing provided hours of entertainment!

We also celebrated Michael 3rd birthday on the 17th! Here are some pictures from that morning.

He's very happy with his gifts. 
The weekend before his birthday we were in KS for a friend's wedding. While there, we took the kids to Union Station for a train display that Michael just LOVED! It was rather difficult at first to get him to leave.

We took a ton of pictures, but these show his pure enjoyment. 
On Saturday morning, my parents took Michael to Kalidescope. It's an activity center for grade school kids where they can paint, color, and create to their hearts content.

This is Michael's coloring face!

My parents then took him to a restaurant called Fritz's where your food is delivered to you by train!
There's 'train' out front, in which my mom wanted to get a picture of him in. He didn't quite enjoy that, but once inside with his train hat on, he was happy again!



And since his birthday was only two days away, we had to have a little party.



When we got home, his enjoyment of trains grew, if that was even possible.

Had to through another picture in of my sweet girl from that weekend.


And finally, we gave Michael one last birthday party with the Turntine family this past Sunday. Since he loves Thomas, that's the cake he got! It wasn't as difficult to decorate as I originally thought.

The kid loves cheese balls (gag!), which his grandma gave him. And she just had to give it in a Spongebob bag,
though I'm sure Monica picked it out. I said it was too bad we didn't have a fireplace - it'd make good tender! 



Singing Happy Birthday and licking the icing off the candle!


Except for Thanksgiving, that about wraps up November for us!

I am starting to dislike very much Daylight Savings and the affect it has on my children.

We are starting to paint the back room today. My father in law gave us some primer to use, but since we're painting over wood paneling, I'm not quite sure how it will work since we want to avoid sanding the walls. It's being tested out right now in the corner. I'll give it about half an hour or so to dry, then check on it. As I was putting it on the wall, it didn't seem like it was adhering to the wall properly - it looks like little puddles on the wall. I know for certain that Lowes has primer we can use without having to sand the walls, but if the primer I'm using now works, we can save at least $40, possibly more depending how much we need. When we're all done, I'll definitely put up pictures!
I think we have had a straight week now of cloudy, rainy days. I do enjoy this kind of weather, but only for so long! And all my leaves are dropping, creating something akin to a marsh on my lawn. If the weatherman is correct, starting tomorrow we're suppose to get a week of sun with no rain; please God, let it be so! I can't wait to rake my leaves, making huge piles for Michael to play in!