November 2011

Appaloosa Horse Museum

November started off with a day at the Appaloosa Horse Museum here in Moscow. I went with a few friends and their kids. The first thing they have you do is watch a little documentary movie about the Appaloosa Horse. That didn't last with Bailey for very long. Neither did the exhibit. But they have a play area for kids that they can dress up, color, play with plastic horses and a few other things. In the summer they actually have Appaloosa horses in the field. It actually turned out to be a really fun place.

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Pie, Pie, and More Pie

I kicked off the holiday (weight gaining) season with an apple pie every Sunday - from all that apple picking in October. I must say I got pretty good at these pies.

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Bailey Day

It started getting cold and rainy and snowy here quick, so Bailey and I needed to adapt to inside activities. This day I decided I would only do things with and for her - no cleaning, errands, jewelry or other things like that. It was a "Bailey Day". We ate breakfast, watched a movie and cuddled, she had a 30 minute bath, we colored, read books, played hide and seek, had lunch, made cookies, she napped and I caught up on Grey's Anatomy, then we colored again, painted for the 1st time, read more books, played hide and seek again, ate dinner, more books, chase and climb furniture, then bed. It was a fun day! And yes, she wanted boots on without pants so that's what we did.

 

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Park

This was the last time we went to the park before it got super cold out - super cold as in like 30* is the high, yuck. I love these photos of this little sweetie.

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Home

My mom got a new hip on Halloween. I will probably never be able to type that sentence again and have it be true. So my parents flew Bailey and I home so that I could help. My sister had come the first week my mom was home from the hospital and did a lot more helping than I did. By the time I got there my mom was able to walk with the walker and even go up and down the stairs a little. It was more of a fun trip for Bailey to play with my parents. The funny thing was that I didn't tell any of Mark's family that I would be in town. I just showed up to family dinner on Sunday and surprised everyone!

Bailey thought the walker was just a big toy for her.

One of the days I pulled out my old card table playhouse. I loved this growing up! I spent hours in there with my stuffed animals, and other little housey things. I found a website on Etsy a year ago that makes new and improved card table houses and have been dreaming of getting a new one for Bailey. Too bad they're really expensive, maybe I could attempt to make one? Probably not. here's the site.

I really don't know why Bailey has a binki in these photos. I guess she found one.

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Coeur d'Alene

Mark and I had talked about getting a hotel room and going on a mini vacation in Coeur d'Alene over the Thanksgiving break, but he later told me that he would take care of everything. So we left one morning, got to Coeur d'Alene and I said, "Let's eat, I think there's a Chili's or Olive Garden here." The next thing I know we pull straight up to Olive Garden. He had planned to go there all along. I thought how cute it was that he planned to go one of my favorite restaurants! We get inside and I go straight to the bathroom. Mark and Bailey had already been seated by the time I get out so I just went to find them. Well, I found them at a table with a bunch of other people. I didn't really look around for a bit and thought, "Oh, I guess we're sharing a table with another family." Then I realize it's two families and they're our good friends, the Stucki's and Puffpaffs! I was so surprised! It turns out that they had planned the whole thing and we were all going to stay in a condo on the lake for the night. I was REALLY surprised then, we never do things like that!

So we enjoyed the rest of our meal, went shopping at Target - yes, Target is a huge attraction since we don't have one in Moscow, then drove to the condo. After dinner we crammed 6 adults and 5 kids into an explorer and drove to the freezing-cold-indoor-"heated"-swimming pool. I took one step in and got out. The kids didn't seem to mind.

Miss Mylee and Miss Bailey in the tub after the pool.

After staying up way too late playing games and laughing ridiculously at things we had to do while playing Quelf, we ate breakfast and took a walk down to the docks. Bailey loved splashing in the puddles she found on the way. The docks were fun, but I was in a constant panic thinking Bailey would fall over the edge and I would have to jump in and save her, and of course she didn't want to be held. So we made it a quick walk for us and got a nice group shot of everyone.

While walking around Brad came up with a great idea to get Matt to swim out in the water and back for a 100 bucks. We all thought he was crazy but Matt actually did it! That water was seriously FREEZING cold. 

After warming up from our walk, and swim, we all went to Costco - the exciting things married couples with kids do while on vacation - then went home. I had such a great time with these people, they are some of the best I know.   

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Jewelry Night

A few times now I've taught a little "mini class" in my ward on how to make earrings. It always ends up being a really fun night! I show everyone how to make simple earrings, then everyone gets to make as many earrings as they want using my supplies for $2-$3 a pair. It's a great way for me to use up some of my extra supplies and the girls get to learn to something new and go home with new jewelry. Win-win.

This night I showed them how to make fabric covered bracelets out of popsicle sticks! And no, I don't wear all of them on my wrist at the same time.

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving here in Moscow has been really run the past two years because we get to spend it with friends! We see these people a lot during the week, but it's still fun to get together and spend a holiday with them. The week before Thanksgiving the girls of all the families got together and planned out the meal. I ended up bringing rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin dip, and pumkpin pie. Mmmm, my mouth is starting to water thinking about it! I think we had 9 families there and we had it at the church. We tried to set it up nice so it felt like a Thanksgiving at home.

My rolls, this is another recipe of mine that I've made so many times I may have perfected it.

3 Turkeys!

Of course we looked through the Black Friday ads! WalMart's sales on kid toys started at 10pm that night so most of us went and got a lot of our Christmas shopping done. It was PACKED. Then we headed over to Macy's at midnight.

The girls! Stripes were the theme :)

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Lights

I actually got out the Christmas decorations a few days after Thanksgiving this year. Last year I didn't even decoarate because Bailey and I went home to Utah really early. Bailey loved playing in the lights.

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Play

Like usual, I end the month with a few random photos of Bailey just playing - it's what we do everyday! The first photo is classic. She was extremely excited to have two sippies. Who wouldn't?