Thanksgiving week

 Monkey Joes jumping place

 Splashing in the rain puddles!

 Evie loves her shows, haha

 Evie loves the thomas tent we have. She goes crazy in there

We had a great Thanksgiving week! Brandon's family came to visit for the week so it was really fun to have them here. Andrew can say everyone's name now. He was Bryce's little shadow the whole week, haha. We had rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, berry pie, and pudding pie for Thanksgiving. It was great! Brandon and I went to see Catching fire and went out to dinner at olive garden to celebrate my birthday so that was fun! We also went to the beach. Andrew actually played in the water with me for about a half hour so that was an improvement. Andrew was very sad when everyone had to go home. He kept asking for Bryce and Ellie and Grandma and Grandpa over and over. His memory is getting a lot better now.

Finally getting better over being sick!

 I put Andrew's alphabet flashcards on the wall and he loves it! He can find a lot of the letters if I ask him too and can say A B E U and M. He likes to sing along with the alphabet song. I think his speech is improving quite a bit.

 Andrew likes making collages, though he gets frustrated when the pictures don't come back off of the sticky paper.

 Andrew likes to say cheese for the camera now and then look at his picture

 I opened a few of the tables from Andrews Christmas train track box. He has been very creative with them and I don't know how we ever got a long without them now. He loves to put all his cars up there and puzzles and anything.

 Evie climbs on everything now and just wants to stand up. She is such a trouble maker! She especially loves to pull books down and get in to any electrical cord she can find. And of course loves to be anywhere Andrew is stealing his toys, haha. She doesn't want it unless he has it. She just started taking some steps while holding on to my hands. Can't believe she is already 9 months old! It has gone by so fast. She is such a sweet happy little busy girl.

This week we are finally starting to feel better. Brandon went to the E.R with a bowel obstruction and is still not feeling well though. He can't eat anything without getting sick :( And he still has to make it through his long days at the hospital. Hopefully he heals soon! We had the little neighbor boy come over yesterday for the first time. He is just a few months younger than Andrew. Andrew loves to have a friend! Although after the first hour he started getting very frustrated that he had to share so much with him, but it's a good learning experience for him. Andrew has been very sweet lately. He likes to hold doors open for me now like a little gentlemen, haha. At night when it is bedtime he turns into the sweetest kid I have ever seen. The other day he just wanted to snuggle with Brandon and me and he kept grabbing Brandon's hand and making him rub his head, haha, it was cute. He knows how to turn on the charm when it is time for bed so he gets to stay up later. 

children's museum

We went to the children's museum in Boynton beach today for something different to do :) We had a good time. They had a big wooden train table that was by far Andrew's favorite, he played with it for an hour! We are almost to the end of Brandon's really hard rotation. He has been going in at 5 and coming home around 6 for the past 3 weeks so it has been tough! But this is the last week and then it should get back to a more normal schedule again. The kids are still have stuffy noses but they are a lot better.

Yesterday we met our neighbor, a stay at home dad, who has a little boy Andrew's age. We had him come over and play and then Andrew went over to his house to play. They have a cat so Andrew was super excited, haha. Nice to have another little guy around for him to play with. They are 7th day Adventists so it was interesting to learn about their religion. I have never really learned much about it but it sounds a lot like our religion with a few little differences. He really wanted to talk religion so I got to correct some of the misconceptions he has about mormon's being polygamists and racists. It was an interesting conversation. He was just curious and respectful about it so it was a good experience for me to be able to share a little about our religion with someone else. I haven't had that opportunity very often. He was really good at explaining his religion and I am not as eloquent at explaining ours but hopefully I can be better prepared next time!

 My hair doesn't quite rival Polamalu but pretty close, haha

Andrew got to go to the ward trunk or treat this year. He learned how to say trick or treat very fast, haha. He loved getting candy. Unfortunately now he has a nasty cold virus again so we have had a crazy couple of days. He spent the whole night waking up every 20  minutes. Last night he finally slept but Evie had her turn of waking up a lot so we are pretty worn out now. Hopefully it passes quickly. i took them to the doctor and they don't have ear infections and their lungs sound fine so I don't think it will be as bad as last time.

Halloween outfits

It's been very fun having Grandma here for the week! The kids have loved having her to play with. Today we went to the zoo. Everyone though Evie was the cutest little thing in her strawberry outfit. The weather has finally cooled off too so it was perfect for today.

Boo at the Zoo, bath paint

 This is his new face he makes when he says cheese, haha

Today we went to the Boo at the Zoo. They had trick or treating and lots of fun decorations everywhere so Andrew had a good time. He even left his cape and mask on the whole time! It was really hot though, hopefully it starts cooling off soon. Andrew loves painting in the bath tub now as well. I have to hide all pencils and pens becuase he loves to draw on anything so the fact that I actually let him paint on the walls and tub is probably why he likes it so much haha.

science museum, dancing

Brandon taught Andrew how to shake his booty, haha, pretty cute

    This week we went to the zoo and the science museum. I bought a year pass to the science museum and Andrew love it! The first thing he asks me when he wakes up is to see the fish. He really loves fish and sharks right now. I got him some shark books from the library and he loves reading about them. They have a little touch tank at the museum so Andrew and Evie got to touch starfish, urchins, and crabs. Evie goes crazy for it, haha, they all think she is really funny. We saw a planetarium show about space that they really liked too. We have been there every day except Sunday since we got the pass. At least we are getting our money's worth out of it!
    Evie is getting 2 more teeth in on the top so she will have 4 on top and 2 on bottom. She is going to have a whole mouthful soon! She has started pulling herself up to standing position as well. She is quite a little troublemaker, haha. She loves to have anything Andrew is playing with so she crawls over to him and touches whatever he has and makes him so mad! No matter how many times she gets shoved out of the way or tackled by him she keeps coming back for more, haha.

Crawling, new teeth, nature center

 Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

 Andrew likes to make messes!

 Evie is so serious when I give her new things to touch. I can't get one smile.

 Andrew loves to help "cook". Sprinkles are his favorite.

     Last week was a tough week. Brandon did an anesthesiology rotation so he had to be at the hospital by 6:00 which meant he had to take the car every day so we were stuck at home. We all go a little crazy being in the house for too long. I walked to the park and everywhere we could but it's still not the same as going somewhere fun! Brandon also went to a poster conference in Tampa to present his case. It is about a 4 hour drive there so I stayed home with the kids while he went. The presentation went pretty well and we are all back together again. The kids definitely missed Brandon even though it was just one day. We are a lot happier now that he is back!
     Evie is 7 1/2 months old now and learned how to crawl in the last couple days! She crawls all over the place now and grabs every little thing she can find on the floor. Paper is her favorite thing to chew on so I have vacuumed multiple times and moved all papers that are close to the floor. She also has her 2 top teeth just starting to poke through the gums now. She is getting so big!
     We found a new nature center in Boca Raton that has turtles and big fish tanks with little sharks in them. It is Andrews new favorite place on the planet. He asks me the minute he wakes up for the fish and sharks, haha. He is starting to talk a lot better. He will now point out things to me and say them. The other day he saw something shaped like a circle and was able to tell me circle, so that is great! He also somehow learned the word rainbow without me teaching him, haha. He has a noah's flood book with a rainbow in it and he clearly can say rainbow. Evie's new crawling is making him a little crazy too because she crawls over and touches his toys and boy that makes him mad! He is going to have to learn how to share better soon. They are pretty cute when they play together though. Evie puts up with quite a bit of rough housing so it's good she is a tough little thing. They just keep getting cuter and sweeter each day. So fun to be their mom! :)