St. Louis Trip, Wednesday and Thursday

On Wednesday we went over to Dana's house to hang out. The kids loved playing together so much. Lexi and Elaine fell in love with Christopher's hamster, who was very tolerant of them.  Uncle Michael had ordered each of the kids a special Thanksgiving cake so that's what we had for lunch!  The kids thought that was pretty spectacular :) 

Later in the afternoon, we went to a nearby park, then got Imo's pizza for dinner one last time before leaving St. Louis.

When we got back to the hotel that night, I started the process of packing the van.  I'm always amazed at the amount of stuff we can fit in that van, especially with half of the way-back filled up with Janney's crate!

 We left the hotel at 6am on Thanksgiving Day, picked up Janney from Dave's mom's house, and hit the road. In order to avoid the carsickness on the way home, we got Dramamine while we were in St. Louis and ground it up on a spoonful of peanut butter for each kid at lunch. We had no sickness through the mountains this time and lots of napping!  We were hard-pressed to find anywhere open to eat on the way home--thank goodness we had smart phones to look up the nearest coffee shops and call around to find one open!  We had Steak n Shake for our Thanksgiving lunch on the way home, then pushed through till we got home at 7pm and ate cereal for dinner. 

St. Louis Trip, Tuesday

On Tuesday, we went to the Magic House. It was a hair-raising good time :)



Rebecca enjoyed a long nap with Aunt Kelli

The girls loved the baby nursery

St. Louis Trip, Monday

On Monday in St. Louis, we went to the St. Louis Zoo.  Uncle Michael met us there, as did Kelli, Rachael, Whitney, Connor, and Christopher.

Daniel and Uncle Michael on the carousel

Emily and Whitney at the penguins







Cute lion cubs :)

Daniel took off the penguin hat shortly after this, when he became afraid that the penguins would think he was one of them and come after him!





Cousins



Silly monkey :)

St. Louis trip, Sunday

For Thanksgiving this year, we drove to St. Louis to celebrate with Dave's family.  It took us 13 hours to get there, with several vomit stops for Daniel, who was carsick. Poor kid, those mountains are rough!  We arrived the Saturday before Thanksgiving and went to Imo's for dinner.
Sunday morning we went to the park.

Rebecca loved all of the people holding her. Here she is meeting her cousin Whitney and Dave's mom, Nana. :)

Sunday afternoon we went to Uncle Michael's house for the Thanksgiving meal.  He cooked an amazing, elaborate meal that was delicious!  Dave's grandma, Grandma W, was able to visit with all 13 of her great-grandchildren. We attempted a photo with all 13 but you know how that goes :)  Emily really loved hanging out with her cousins Rachael and Whitney, who are "real teenagers!".  :)

Rebecca met her cousin Connor, who is about a year older than her. 



Rachael, Kelli, Emily, Elaine



Grandma W with 12 of her 13 Great-Grandkids

Dave and Rebecca with his mom and Grandma



Rebecca with cousin Rachael

lots of cousins!



Rebecca meeting her great grandma

Our New Fall

After 6 years in our house with no fall leaves, we are back to a "real" fall here in the woods. The leaves are beautiful and fun, and lots of work. Dave spends about 4-5 hours each Saturday raking, but they sure do look pretty! This is my favorite tree in the yard:


Rebecca loves going for walks enjoying the fall weather.  That's been a really fun part of having a baby again!
Emily and Lexi have helped Dave rake for money.  Of course they enjoyed that.

Halloween 2012

This Halloween we quickly carved the pumpkins when we got home from school. We at least bought them before Halloween this year, but forgot to carve them till the last minute.  Lexi carved hers all by herself, which was a first! (with Rebecca's help, of course :))

While waiting for Dave to get home from work, I fed the kids dinner and let them get dressed. Elaine went as a Snow Queen.  

Lexi was a pirate

Daniel was Spiderman


Rebecca was a strawberry.  The pumpkin on the right with the crazy mouth was Daniel's.  He insisted on that face :)








Emily dressed as a veterinarian, but she wouldn't wear the scrubs because she didn't like how they looked. Then she didn't like how she looked at all and decided to stay home with Dave and Rebecca all night. I told her that she would miss out on all of the candy, but she said "Oh, the rest of them will get plenty to share with me." And of course she was right. Smart girl. Sit in the warm house watching TV and let your little siblings gather the candy for you.  




The 3 middle kids LOVED trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood! We walked around with several neighbor kids and of course they got way too much candy, which we then donated at Earthfare.  It was a fun night for all. :)