Our November in pictures

Our November opened with snow and even a two hour school delay. I had to dig out the snow clothes earlier than anticipated. I learned, like I do every winter, just how much the boys have grown. Cole is now in the first pair of snow boots I bought for Grant. Grant outgrew his snow boots but still shoved into them to go outside. New ones have now been purchased. Their hands have grown too. Cole is wearing Grant's mittens and Grant had to get new mittens. Grant's coat from last year isn't going to make it through this winter if he keeps growing like he has been. Neither is Cole's coat. The boys didn't care though. They were in heaven. Grant still enjoys the cold and snow far more than Cole.

After picking up Grant from school the boys love to sit and watch Netflix for a bit. On this day, they had chosen to watch episodes of the old Super Mario Bros. show that was on a decade or so ago. All of a sudden I realized Grant had disappeared and when he reappeared he was dressed up in full Mario gear. He then just sat on the couch watching the show. It was hilarious.
One night we watched Captain America as a family. The boys interested ebbed and flowed throughout the move. We didn't think they really enjoyed it. However, the next day, Grant again disappeared for awhile and the reappeared dressed as Captain America. That sent Cole to the dress up box for his Spiderman costume so he could play superheros with his big brother. Being the good mom that I try to be I immediately jumped up and cut some shields out of Costco boxes then grabbed some rope to make some handles. Grant colored his but Cole just started playing with (and throwing it - we had to nix that). Grant often disappears from downstairs, only to reappear dressed as something other than himself. Lately, we've been seeing Puss in Boots (those new snowboots are coming in handy even on days without snow), Wolverine, Mario and Captain America. Cole takes inspiration from Grant and asks for Spiderman, Batman (one day he literally wore the costume all day long instead of regular clothes) or Optimus Prime.
I have been making an extra effort to create some sort of social life for Cole, given he isn't in preschool right now but really wants and needs to be. Reece Merrill is his favorite buddy to play with. He calls him Reecey and loves it when they get to play together. On this day we had Reece over for a few hours in the morning. They played upstairs, downstairs and outside periodically resting on the couch with apples or toast. Even now when we make toast for breakfast, Cole asks if he should put in a piece for Reece. Reece loves to play with Cole as much as Cole loves Reece. We went to lunch the other day at Taco Dons to celebrate Janice's (his mom's birthday). I had Cole bring several toys for the boys to play with at the restaurant. When we got there they sat on the same side of the booth and disappeared into their own little world. I have no idea what they were playing or doing but they were completely content and entertained the entire time and both bawled when we had to part ways. I ordered a giant cheese crisp for Cole to eat, thinking he wouldn't hardly touch it. He scarfed down almost the entire thing and the funniest part was that Reece kept sneaking pieces of it and then laughing. Janice and I were just cracking up the entire time while watching them.
Aunt Kitty was in town from Wednesday, November 9 through Sunday, November 13, 2011. I took Grant out of school on Thursday and we headed down to Phoenix for the weekend. Chad had to work Friday, which was Veterans Day so he had to stay behind. While killing time before picking up Grant from school, I took Cole to the mall to play at the play place. He loved standing on top of the giant checkers, having me count, "1-2-3. Jump!!," then jumping. We did it over and over and over. When we got to the valley we met up with Kristen and Shelli at Shelli's house for a bit of time before heading out to Oma's house.
On Friday, we took the boys to a big place full of blow up toys called Bounz House. We stayed for at least two hours and the boys were in tears when it was finally time to leave. Grant was red faced and sweaty. There were giant slides, a batting cage, several bouncy houses, an obstacle course and a big, basketball place.



We were hoping that on this trip we would also be seeing David and Melissa's new baby but all we got was a great view of Melissa's giant belly every day. It wasn't for another week that Andrew was born. Saturday, Papa came up from Tucson and we hung out at Shelli's house for the day. We made cookies and chocolate mousse, ate Carolina's for lunch and just relaxed. I had to make a run to the grocery store to buy a birthday cake and fixings for Chad's birthday dinner the next day.
Chad turned 35 on November 13, 2011. He had to work that day but after work we barbequed some delicious steaks for dinner and had a (not so delicious - in my opinion) birthday cake for him to celebrate. For his birthday, I arranged for a babysitter to come on Tuesday (his day off) so that we could go out to dinner and get pedicures. I also scheduled a 90 minute massage for that Tuesday. The massage didn't work out because the therapist, who works out of her house, forgot Chad was coming. The dinner and pedicures didn't work out for other reasons so everything I got him turned out to be a bust. We did go out to Dry Gulch a couple of weekends later but that was also disappointing. The kitchen was having a very off night so our food took forever and my steak was very underdone. He still gets a massage, I just have to find a good massage therapist.



It took many trips to various food stores to accomplish all of the shopping necessary for Thanksgiving dinner. At Costco, I didn't want to wear Tyler and I knew he wouldn't be very happy in his carseat so I took the Moby wrap and his blanket and propped him up in the cart next to Cole. He loved it. He was so happy and content until the very end when he started getting tired. I loved carts that hold two kids.

November also brought the end of soccer season for Grant. This year we were not as dedicated to the sport as last year. We probably missed about half the games but when he did play he had fun. He didn't love it as much this year as last either, but that could be because he didn't play every week. As with last year, all of the games had good weather except the last game of the season, which was freezing beyond belief. Grant was so excited to get his medal at the end of his last game.
In addition to helping Cole get a social life, I've also been making more of an effort to help him do things like paint, learn letters and other preschool type activities. He is painting a little wood birdhouse I bought for $1 ages ago at Joanne's. When he finished this, which didn't take long, he moved on to stamping with his Cars stamps Aunt Kitty bought them ages ago.