mixed up thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving we went up to the cabin where there was snow! Grandma bought Zola a winter coat because she didn't own anything warm enough for the 7 degree weather we were having. Thank you, Grandma. 

 We loved riding on the hay ride. Randy loves making paths through the woods for the tractor. It was so beautiful, quiet, and magical. It was even snowing! You could hear the jingle of the chains on the tires and it reminded me of sleigh bells. I was in heaven. I love the cold. I love winter. I love snow. I love my family.

 My parents friends, Holly and Dave came up and had so much fun sledding with Dennis. They would start up by the garage door and go down the driveway then down the little hill toward the cabin, make the turn and head all the way down to the lake.

 Then, Randy pulled Dave and Dennis behind the tractor on the sled.

 They had so much fun! We didn't want to leave the cabin.

 In Minneapolis for Thanksgiving....

 ....after eating too much turkey we all went on a walk down by the river before it started to snow.

 I love James.

 and I love Dennis.

 Zola and Owen are so cute together. They are going to be great friends. It is funny watching them eat, they couldn't be any more different. Owen could probably eat constantly, he loves it so much. He takes handfuls and shoves them in his mouth. Zola never NEEDS to eat. She will use her pincer grip to pick up a piece and bit it daintily with her front teeth.

 During our trip, Zola mastered pulling up to a stand.

 I love Owen. He is so cute and lovable.

Moose brownie! Yum. 

We also got to see the Dayton's eighth floor exhibit and see Santa!

growing up

Check out all of those teeth!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

crawling and columbia

 Here is a picture of Daddy. He has hairy legs and hair that goes all the way around his face. The blue people are Emily, Brad, Eloise and Jude. The tall brown one is me and the short brown one is Dennis and  the baby brown one in the bottom right corner is Zola and the blue blob above her is a squid.

 my parents came through missouri again. I sure love it.

 We took trip to Columbia, Missouri for a couple of days while Ryan was on nights. We visited one of my old roomies, Marie and another old roomie Katie came with me. Here are our cute kids... minus Winston. L to R: Dennis, Madison, Zola, Lizzie, Jake, Grace

Dennis showing Dan his BIG muscles.

 Here we are... all grown up.

 This is what we do for fun... walk around with kids. haha

I'm so glad that we were able to do the trip before everyone moves.

9 months and moving

Zola turned nine months. It is crazy how fast that went by. She is still a sweet heart. Today at church some guy that I had never seen before came up to me and told me that my daughter was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. That was quite the compliment. She still loves people. She loves to eat paper. She loves whatever her brother is doing. She doesn't sleep through the night anymore. I see her about once every three hours again... totally out of habit... I know. I just can't seem to let her cry... and neither can Ryan. He is usually the backbone with crying. She is just SO GOOD that it pains us to hear her cry. It seems she only does it when something is really wrong. Often times I will go in and pick her up and she burps a huge burp and then she is fine. Of course this isn't the reason every three hours... another reason could be because she got 3 new teeth this week! She still won't let me look at them. She won't let me anywhere near her mouth... not even to eat (this week). She has been able to scoot backwards for a while now and she started scooting on her bottom going forwards. I thought maybe she would skip the crawling and just scoot. But, this morning she had enough motivation! UNO! She loves cards. Check out the videos. She is pretty cute.





We went to the Doctor for her check up and she weighs 17 1/2 lbs... that's all I remember.

the first... dum dum

So, I remember not giving any sugar to Dennis before he was one years old. Or, at least I tried. Zola has had some ice cream and cake already. I was trying to at least keep her away from candy for a while. But the cashier at Schnuck's gave her one and was so excited about it that I decided not to burst her bubble I  wouldn't unwrap it and no harm would be done. Well, Dennis did the honors while I was checking out and voila... the first dum dum. Big brothers are the best. 

oh tricky treats

In case you don't know, my mom loves to make Halloween costumes. She mad this awesome Buzz Light year for Dennis with wings that flip out when you pull a string. 

Saturday we had a trunk or treat at our church and everyone LOVED Dennis' costume. Some of his favorite people gave him handfuls of candy. He was so happy! Even the missionaries wanted to pose with him for a picture. 

 My favorite costume is the nun. She is adorable. That is Stella's family.

 Zola made her rounds with Herb Pyne. They are buddies.

 Dennis was a little bit more active in the cleaning out stage of pumpkins. He still wouldn't touch it with his hands but he got a lot of seeds out with his spoon.

Daddy helped with the actual carving. 

 And when it came to be October 31st... Dennis was SICK!!! He had croup and could barely breath.

 Nothing was going to stop him from going out.

 This is what our front porch looked like.

 Dennis had to go see Mary and tell her the joke that she taught him. Knock knock- who's there?- boo- boo who?- Why are you crying?

 He had a pretty good time and ended up going all the way around the block. He would have gone further if I had let him.

It was a great holiday. As soon as we got home Dennis decided that he wanted to be a King next year because King's have swords.

suomi

My Finnish cousin, Teppo, came to the US and drove down to Florida with my parents. It was nice to see him again. (Notice our pumpkins in the window) We plan to go to Finland to visit all our cousins there in a couple of years. 

We took him everywhere important in St. Louis. Here is Zola and Grandpa in the museum at the Arch. 

 Everyone needs a best friend. Who is yours?

 Who doesn't love baby fat? Zola loves wet wash clothes. If I don't give it to her after I wipe her down she throws a fit.