November

In November our baby hit 4 months and Spencer hit 4 years!

he learned to roll over 

We celebrated by crashing our friends, the Jones', dinner at Texas Roadhouse! The boys got balloon animals and had too much fun playing.

Spencer loved the balloon dinosaur, Arlo.

For Spencer's 4th birthday on November 16, he wanted a party with "everyone" so we invited all his friends and cousins and even Oma and Opa and we let him have a dino party.

what he woke up to 

he wanted a white cake with chocolate frosting and green and dinosaurs.

so this is what we came up with.

Saturday was his birthday party with his friends. We played pin the tail on the T-Rex, we got a pinata, had cups of dirt with dinos on top.  

I was pretty pleased with this invitation I made

most of the party crew

For his party I bought a sparkler candle shaped as a 4. Immediately after blowing it out Spencer reached out and grabbed it burning the tip of his thumb and finger. They blistered pretty good and he spent the next 20 minutes like this with his hand under cold water (if you know Spencer at all you know he is a bit dramatic, I think he scared all of his friends with his shrieking).

My dad has a tradition the last few years of taking pictures at Kathryn Albertson park every Veteran's Day. Well we were a few days late this year but we still went on a nice sunny Sunday. I don't know why I never think to coordinate or at least dress nicely so we can have some decent family pictures!

I think this was these boys' dream pose

check out Opa's big smile!

I just like Spencer's face in this one.

all the cousins!

For Thanksgiving this year we drove to Roseburg, Oregon where Nate's sister lives. She had just had baby number 5 (on Spencer's birthday!) and wanted to host Thanksgiving a week later! She is a rockstar! Grandma and grandpa came up from Tucson and 4 of the 6 siblings were there so it was a full house and a non-stop party!

Roseburg is about an 8+ hour drive for us and none of it is straight or freeway. It's all windy mountain highway roads. We left about 4am so that our boys would sleep most of the way, and they did. When we were about an hour outside Roseburg, Spencer started telling us he was feeling sick and needed to puke. We stopped 3 times in about 20 minutes to let him get out and walk around. Luckily on the third stop he finally puked and could feel better and we made the rest of the drive in peace. Kade was an awesome traveler and slept the whole way, barely making a peep.

the babies, Zane and Kade.

Zane - a week old

Kade - 4 months

Spencer & Lizzy 

Kade's festive Thanksgiving onesie :)

One of the things Nate and I really wanted to do while we were there was go to the wild animal safari. Thankfully everyone else was up for it and the weather was beautiful! It was so fun and we saw all sorts of animals; lions, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, elephants, tigers, cheetahs, lots of different kinds of deer, elk, and other animals that I don't even know the names of. 

having a snack while checking out all the animals. 

the boys loved not having to be in car seats!

We also went with the Adams to pick out and cut down their Christmas tree from the tree farm. It was another beautiful day so we spent some time on the tire swing and taking pictures!

Spencer was refusing to be in a picture with us

so Lizzy happily stood in for him!

finally convinced him to be in one with us

the cousins (minus Kade)

Ella and Spencer having fun together

Spencer loved playing with Ella and was so sad when it was time to go home. He still talks about and asks when we'll get to see Ella again. I'm so glad she enjoyed playing with him too!

the only other cousin picture, minus Kade again.

On the way home Spencer again complained of feeling sick most of the drive. We stopped about 5 times within 45 minutes but he never did puke. Once we'd start driving again he'd immediately cry and say he felt sick. We told him we couldn't keep stopping every 5 minutes or we'd never make it home. I gave him a bag and told him if he was going to puke, do it in that. He whined and screamed saying he couldn't puke in that! So then I put his bubba on his lap telling him to puke in that if he needed too. Again he cried and cried that no he could do it. A few minutes later he starts puking everywhere. Didn't even try to catch/contain it with the bag or the blanket. It was so nasty, all over his face and shirt and car seat, and the blanket on his lap. We pulled over to clean him up and he's crying about being covered in puke and I finally said, "maybe next time you'll listen to your mom and puke in the bag!"

We finally made it home and the next day I scrubbed and scrubbed that car seat (in my opinion that is the grossest thing I have to do as a mom is clean out car seats!) and it will never be the same. The next time Spencer got in it he complained it smelled like barf.

Kade on the other hand, he did awesome! He slept the whole way home and I don't even think he cried once! I would way rather drive 8 hours with a 4-month-old than anywhere with a 4-year-old!
:)