First Part of November

 So at least I'm back again before 2 months went by. Here is a pic of Katie Potter "holding" Mark. She is around 18 months (but super tiny) and thinks she is big enough to hold Mark and be one of the big kids! She loves Mark so much, it's adorable to see how excited she gets around him!

 Mark had his 4 month check-up and the Dr. gave me a little rebuking because he doesn't spend much time on the floor and thus hasn't started to roll yet. So we went home and I put him on the floor and left him there for a while. He screamed and cried until he finally just gave up the fight and fell asleep. Not my favorite thing about being a parent - tough love.

 Sam showing me his creation with the cardboard from the new set of sheets I had to get for our bed (does anyone else have the problem of sheets only lasting a year before shredding? Even 500 count sheets!) He decided to make himself a weapon belt with hand granades and such drawn on. He was so devastated when I finally made him throw it away. Oh the joys of recycling!

 And one night I decided to try to make more of an effort to play with my kids, so we made a fort in the front room using the flat sheets we never use on our bed and chairs. Sad to say this is our first fort ever. Robert's mom made Sam a tepee for Christmas one year, so if they ever want one, we just set that one up. But now my kids can check that off their childhood bucket list :)

 Watching TV one day and I look down to see Sam holding Mark's hand to his face. I just love how tender and sweet Sam is with his baby brother. And Mark just adores him, too!

 For kindergarten, the kids brought home a turkey that they had to disguise however they wanted so their turkeys (named Tom) wouldn't get eaten for Thanksgiving. Since Sam was doing this for his Spanish class, we decided to do Vaquero Tom (or Cowboy Tom). He was pretty thrilled and I am learning just how little artistic skill I have (see later on for further affirmation of this)

 (not here necessarily) In planning for Christmas, I decided to try out an idea I found on Pinterest a while back to pay out Q-tips in a design and then spray paint on top. It looks pretty cool, but not quite what I wanted, so this idea is nixed for other people, but I think I will put these up in the kids' rooms

 And apparently this is what I look like when I am feeding Mark, because Amy told me she was feeding her baby just like Mommy. I guess I better work on my posture.

 And a couple pic's of the kids hold Mark. Sam can barely carry Mark, but he can do it. It just doesn't happen very often.

 If anyone has suggestions on how to keep Amy from picking at this sore on her nose, PLEASE HELP ME! We have tried bandaids (cute and regular), gloves, rewards, threats, etc. and we can not keep her from messing with it both when she is awake and asleep. It has been over a month now and is driving me nuts!!!!

 And the pic of the day I finally got our Gratitude Tree up. This is the further affirmation of my non-artistic abilities. But now there are many, many more leaves on our tree and it doesn't look so terrible. This year I wanted to start more of the traditions I see other people do with their kids because Sam is old enough to understand and Amy is old enough to be excited about whatever we are doing.

 A sweet little pic of how those mesh bumper pads don't always quite do their job. I have a pic of Amy asleep with her arm slung over it, too!

 We got our first snowfall and the kids were super excited to go out and play in it. The wind was blowing like crazy so I thought they would only be out for five minutes, but those crazy kids stayed out for over half an hour! When I finally made them come inside their hands and faces were so red!! But they had fun and every day Amy asks if she can go out and play in the snow. Soon enough, sweetie!

 When we were doing our shopping at Winco, Amy saw a little boy who had slumped over and fallen asleep on his mom's purse. So she wanted to give it a try and pretended to be sleeping. Hey, whatever keeps her happy, right?

My sweet little guy! He has been teething (at least the bottom two, possibly more), so has been fussy and sleepy and now has a little bit of a cold. So he has also been snuffly and sometimes chokes on the drainage, causing him to gag and choke until he empties his tummy all over me and the couch. Lots of fun.