Thanksgiving was a great time. We stayed home to celebrate and Papa Steve came over for the week to join us. The girls had their annual Thanksgiving feast at school on Wednesday and it was fun. The kids all sang songs and then we ate a good meal of turkey, corn, and stuffing. Molly is the youngest one at school and was so cute during the singing. She stood up and twirled and even rocked a bit with all the other kids during the "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble Song." Clare did a great job with the singing and the eating. On Thursday we had dinner at our house and our friends Joel, Crystal, Connor, and Calla came over and brought their Grammy. We had a great meal and played games. When I was a kid Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday and I think it still might be.

Clare turns 4!

Clare turned 4 on November 19th! We had a chef party and had some friends over to top their own pizzas and eat cake and ice cream. Nana came over from Spokane and was a HUGE help. She did most of the cooking and the dishes and helped watch over Molly...who is a menace in her cast. Tad, Nana, Clare and I all helped with the cake which was a giant cupcake (we had a special pan to bake it in). It turned out great. With two birthdays this month it feels like we have already had Christmas. Tad has already begun to bargain which toys we can get rid of now that we have a whole new batch and some more on the way from the North Pole.

Molly's first trip to the ER

As I shared below, I fell down the stairs while holding Molly. We were at my mom's and she has hard wood stairs. I am still not quite sure what happened...I just slipped. My sister was right behind us and also isn't sure what happened. I was/am traumatized by the whole event and so is she as she could see us falling, but we were just out of her reach. Anyway, Molly had a bloody nose and wouldn't stop crying so we took her to the ER. They said her nose wasn't broken (mostly because it is all cartilage still) but they did find an ear infection. A few days later she was still walking a bit gingerly so we took her to her doctor at home. He ordered an x-ray of her foot and found a cracked bone. The next day we headed to the orthopedist who put a cast on her foot. I chose purple for the color and now that I am almost over the trauma I can admit that her cast really is quite cute. It hasn't slowed her down at all and she really hasn't complained. She gets it off on Wednesday and we are all looking forward to her having a really good bath.

Molly's 1st Birthday

Molly turned 1 on November 7th! We headed to Spokane to celebrate with a Polka Dot party at Nana's house. Clare, Tad and I made the cake...it was a 3 tiered cake with polka dots (of course). Everyone came over for dinner and a celebration. We got started a little later than we planned however because as I was coming downstairs with Molly I slipped and fell. Which prompted another first...Molly's first visit to the ER...see later post. Even with all the excitement she enjoyed her cake and her presents.

A busy November and a broken computer....

We have certainly had a busy November, but I haven't been able to post any of it to the blog because our computer was broken. Lucky for us it was under warranty and Dell had a service guy come to our house and install a new motherboard and "viola!" our computer works just like brand new. Anyway I will post a few items about our November including Molly's 1st birthday and 1st trip to the ER, Clare's 4th birthday, and Thanksgiving!

Halloween

To celebrate the holiday of costumes and candy we went to a party at our friend's Joel and Crystal's. There were lots of kids there...at least as many kids as adults. We tried to take a group picture, but only some of the little ones cooperated. We ate pizza, went trick-or-treating and ate candy. It was a fun night. Clare was a bride (although she ditched her veil after a few houses). Molly was a Halloween girl, essentially she wore her Halloween shirt and tights. I thought they were both so cute. Thankfully after some morning rain it was dry and almost warm once trick-or-treat time came around. Clare got the hang of trick-or-treating and I think will be ready to go next year!

A trip to Spokane

Last Saturday, Clare, Molly and I went to Spokane for a long weekend. I went to conference on Monday and Tuesday, so we went early to visit with everyone. We played at the Brooks' house and surprised Grandma for dessert on her birthday.

My Birthday!

I turned the big 3-5 on October 15th and it was one of my best birthdays ever. To surprise me my mom came over! She was here when I got home from work and had dinner all made...what a great gift. Clare helped put the candles on the cake and everyone sang.