Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to do the long drive to Texas. We drove to Kansas on Friday when Jeff got off work (got there at 1 AM), drove to Texas on Monday, drove back to Kansas the Friday after Thanksgiving, and drove home on Sunday. We were all done with being in the car by the time we got home. The kids actually did pretty good, and we all had lots of fun.

On a side note, Alyssa got her second tooth the Tuesday we were in Texas, so she wasn't the most pleasant baby in the world. She did however sleep through the night every night but the first 3 while we were gone!!!

They both were awake A LOT in the car, but every now and then the kids took a nap.
Dallin had fun riding Great Grandpa's bike. Jeff had fun too...:)

Alyssa and Aunt Tori


Alyssa and Uncle Eric

Alyssa and Uncle Ryan
The kids had a blast playing with balloons at Grandpa's new house.
We went to a couple of parks while we were there. It was a little too hot and humid :)
On the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, 30 of my family members went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant!! It was yummy and fun to see everyone. We had a whole room for the family! Poor Uncle Ryan helped keep Dallin in control.
Then we took some family pictures.
Me and my siblings

On Thanksgiving all the men went and played golf on the golf course my dad's cousin owns. Then we joined them and had dinner at the cottage there. Before dinner was ready we took the kids out. Dallin got to hit a few balls, but his favorite thing to do was DRIVE the golf cart. He could even drive by himself if he stood up.
After the yummy dinner and before the big Texas and A&M game, we had our own bonfire. It was actually pretty chilly for Texas Thanksgiving night.
When we went back to Kansas, Jeff's sister and her family were there. Dallin loves playing with Kendra, and although they are loud, they get along great! Alyssa and Ella are so cute together too!

Fun in the Leaves!

On Friday I put all the leaves in a big pile for Dallin and his neighbor friends to jump in. They had fun.
Alyssa thought it was ok for a second until Dallin jumped on her...
Dallin has been obsessed with wearing ties lately. Today at church he wore one of Jeff's real ties. Thankfully it was under his vest so you couldn't see the huge red/green tie on him. His dogs got ready for church and had to wear ties too!
ISn't she getting so big?!

Kind of Walking?

Alyssa has been able to take a step or two for awhile now. She is gradually taking more. If she would learn to walk slower and try not to run, she would be able to walk more :)

Silly Dallin

Last night on the way to the store, Jeff and I were talking about Dallin trying to dominate something. Very angry with us, Dallin shouted, "Hey I'm not dumb!!" It made us laugh.

Getting better...

Alyssa is very slowly getting better at eating real food. She now eats spaghetti, lasagna, pancakes (which she has just plain every morning), grilled cheese, corn dogs sometimes, yogurt, cottage cheese, taquitos, bread, peaches, bananas, pizza and snacks like graham crackers and cookies. Alyssa has a very big sweet tooth that she gets from her mom...She still has to be in the mood to eat, but we can get her to eat one of these things most of the time. It has been so frustrating since Dallin ate everything, but I'm glad she is getting better and gaining weight!

Finally a Tooth!

Alyssa finally got her first tooth on October 30th just shy of turning 11 months old! We have been able to see her teeth moving up and down for a long time. We could tell they really bothered her, so I'm glad one finally popped through. We can see the one next to it, but it might take forever too come through too :)

Fun at playgroup

We went to an open gym for playgroup today. The kids had a blast. Alyssa pushed the shopping cart around a lot. Dallin rode the bikes a lot with his buddies, climbed on all the foam shapes, and ran all over!

Joliet

We found out yesterday that Jeff's next rotation (supervision) will be in Joliet, which is just outside of Chicago. It wasn't one of our 4 picks, but such is life :) He talked to the person in the rotation now before we put in our picks and decided he didn't want it because the guy works 12+ hour days and most Saturday and Sundays. Hopefully Jeff can be much more efficient and not have to work so much:) So I guess we need to start the whole move process...we will move in December or January.