November little things

It's quite the labor of love to put together the train set, but the payoff is pretty awesome watching Harvey get so excited. He shouts, "Go choo-choos!" or "Thomas wins" every time. It's so cute.

I don't remember the occasion now, but Monka came over and we had lunch at the school with Millie. 

Cute tennis lesson spectators on one of the only warm days we had for that round. Do you see Max waving to us?

Anytime we were in a store that had any toys, Max wanted to walk down he toy aisles and see what he might want for Christmas. We took pictures of anything he fancied. I have a lot of pictures of him with toys he doesn't own on my camera roll! Pretty funny.

We randomly got to see the Webb kids for a couple hours one Saturday afternoon, and clearly Max and Harvey were happy about it! 

Sunday selfie, all snuggled up on the couch watching a movie or something.

Millie wrote a note to Botz at school for Veteran's Day. I may or may not have teared up when she showed it to me. So sweet.

Harvey is very snuggly sometimes after naps and I love it!

A wrestling session with Dad. 

The kids were begging to get out the Christmas tree and decorations and we finally gave in towards the end of November. I was going to wait until after Thanksgiving but they were just too excited!

Cute preschool portrait of Max. 

Harvey went through a few days of wanting to take care of babies all the time and it was really sweet.

He climbed up there and then shouted, "Look, Mom! I'm a grownup!"

A little documenting of our annual thankful tree. We were pretty pitiful at it this year but I loved looking at it every time I walked by. 

We went to a fun wedding reception one night. Nana and Botz were there and it was their 61st anniversary! Love them so much.

They had cotton candy at the reception, which Max was initially very excited about. But then his little cone holder thing bent and the crazy humidity was basically eating it for him so he really didn't enjoy it very much. Pretty funny.

Dental drama

Millie had 3 teeth come out during November! The first she had me pull out one Sunday morning. Her third tooth lost.

The other two have more of a story. A few weeks before she had been monkeying around at Monka's house and fell and hit her teeth on a coffee table. One of her top front teeth started to go gray and we just figured it'd come out when it was ready. Then one night while brushing her teeth she complained that her gums hurt. I looked inside her mouth and there was a big red bump! Not what you want to see. Luckily we have an awesome pediatric dentist that was able to get her in the next day. I wasn't sure what to expect but they looked in her mouth and knew right away she had an abscess. They took an X-Ray and determined that she'd need both her top front teeth pulled out and the infection would go away without antibiotics. We were in and out in 30 minutes! Amazing. The dentist said Millie was so brave and held so still (the boys and I weren't allowed to be in the room for the procedure). Way to go Millie!

The dentist said no straws and to eat soft foods for a couple of days, so we took that seriously and went straight to the grocery store to load up on ice cream for this trooper girl!

Kind of awesome that she lost them right before Christmas. I showed her the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" and she thought it was hilarious! And we think her toothless smile  is adorable.

Thanksgiving (week) 2018

We had a great Thanksgiving week. We had more than half of my family together and spent lots of the week playing with the cousins who came to town!

The day everyone got together happened to be Grandpa's birthday, so the kids made a huge birthday banner for him.

Happy birthday to our dear old Dad/Grandpa!

The weather was pretty cold and rainy for most of the week, but we did manage to sneak in one trip to the arboretum. I took one picture (I was not great at taking pics all week, most of these are from other people). Tyler was so sweet to help Harvey up to see the crazy bugs.

That same day we got lunch at went to the park by Monka's house.

We also spent lots of time playing at the church building near their house. The kids brought scooters and balls and we all had fun playing and running around.

One particular game of missionary tag found these two cuties together.

There were one or two times where we were between activities with sleeping babies and needed to be quiet. I led the kids in a long game of Simon Says

And Uncle Jeff showed the kids his favorite nature show. They were all fascinated.

Harvey was particularly happy when Eva was holding him!

My cousin Charlotte and her family were so kind to have us over one day (they live about 30 minutes from us). They heated up their pool and the kids swam for a bit. It was still pretty cold outside so they didn't last long, but we had such a fun time playing at their house.

We wanted to go out the night before Thanksgiving (enough cooking!) so Tyler suggested Mia's, a place he used to go to for work occasionally. It was a big hit with everyone! We kind of took over the restaurant, especially when two of my cousins arrived with their kids too. Such a party.

Free soft serve for the win! Max and Lyla were sure happy about it.

On Thanksgiving Day we spent the first part of the day with the Juergens crew. Gigi was so nice to host everyone, and at a time where we could make plans with both sides. It was fun to catch up with Uncle Russell and Aunt Pam and their boys too.

We then met up with the Andersen side at Monka and Ampa's complex clubhouse. It was a good place to have so many of us fit!

We ate and played in and outside while everything digested. After dessert and cleanup the kids put on a little play for us, re-enacting the first Thanksgiving. 

Group picture outside of the family.

 Cute cousins watching a movie upstairs at the clubhouse.

 We ended the week with a few hours at Urban Air, where I only took this picture haha.

It was a wonderful week! We have so much to be thankful for and were happy to have some time off of work and school to spend together.

Harvey turns 2!

Our cute Harvey boy turned 2 on November 15th! His actual birthday wasn't super exciting, but luckily he is just 2 and doesn't understand or care. He came with me to a baby checkup while Max was at preschool. He sat there so quietly and ate pretzels like a champ. Harvey loves pretzels!

And in the afternoon the poor guy had to skip his nap and come to another doctor appointment, this one a last checkup for Max's eye. Luckily the office had a super cool fish tank.

Harvey received lots of love and FaceTime calls and in person visits too! I only happened to grab a screenshot of his visit with Nana and Botz and his visit with Monka.

A birthday bubble bath. I thought this would be fun for him and it was for a minute, but it turns out he doesn't like how bubbles stick to you easily! I sure love his smile.

The next day we had a family birthday dinner at McDonald's, clearly the only place we like to celebrate the kids' birthdays. For the record, we'd let them go anywhere they chose! They just always choose McDonald's. 

We had birthday cupcakes too. 

I took these two snaps from a video - he got so smiley and cute while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to him! It was adorable. And then he totally blew out all his candles on the first try, shocking us all. 

Gigi and Poppy came by with some fun gifts for him, including his very own scooter! He was so excited to try it out.

I can't believe Harvey is 2. Wasn't he just barely this little squishy baby with a crazy umbilical hernia and rolls and a cue ball head?? Time is such a thief. 

Some things about Harvey at 2 years old:

- He LOVES drinks. Give him some kind of special juice and he'll be your best friend. He's a pretty good eater too, but drinks are a sure-fire win for him.

- Harvey is so adventurous. He runs with abandon and loves to climb and jump off of anything he's allowed to, or not allowed to.

- He has followed his brother's footsteps and inherited a love for cars, dinosaurs, and trains. Cars the most though.

- He has the cutest little impish smile. It matches his personality so well!

- Harvey loves his big siblings and fancies himself one of the big kids. But he is no passive 3rd child - he will definitely make it known if there is any foul play or unfairness.

- He is the best snuggler. You wouldn't think he would be given how active he is, but if I'm sitting or lying on the couch he'll often wander over to me and ask to snuggle. Or ask to "hold you." 

We just love our Harvey boy so much!!