give me an O give me an H give me an I give me an O!

i know I've said this in the past, but this may be the longest post ever. just a warning.

our drive to ohio for thanksgiving break was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing! it looked like this for the majority of the time:

 we did make a stop in indianapolis at a "soul food" restaurant that had really good reviews. we were literally the only white people in the place, which you'd think was a good sign that the food would be really great. well, the food was so-so, but our waiter was awesome. Owen even ended up holding the owners hand at one point.

we were all very glad to get out of the car once we arrived at marc and delauna's place saturday night. the kids were especially excited to see the pups.

poor ladybug is probably still recovering from all the attention.

we spent a ton of time playing in the basement at marc's. the kids loved playing darts and ping pong and we watched the hobbit and youtube videos in their theater. it was fantastic. went out to a couple tasty places to eat while in Powell too. one was called Thurmans and it had some seriously scrumptious burgers and killer fried pickles. my mouth is watering as i think back on those pickles :) the burgers were ginormous and so fun to watch each other try to eat!

grandma and grandpa took us out to a place called bibibop. it was kinda like an asian version of chipotle... but better, or at least, we liked it better.

owen especially loved bibibop... or maybe it was the special attention from aunt delauna :)

owen had a double ear infection during our trip, so it goes without saying that he didn't sleep too well. one afternoon while owen and i napped, chris took the kids to play at a big warehouse filled with playground equipment displays and trampolines (genius idea!) and then to get some ice cream at graeters.

and just for comparison, we also tried jeni's splendid ice cream again while we were there. we really really really enjoyed them both, but i think the overall winner was graeters, mostly because the flavors are more basic and because you get more for the money... not to mention the huge chunks of soft chocolate in the ice cream ;)

charlie takes his ice cream seriously. its either straight up, unadulterated chocolate, or rocky road. he picked jeni's darkest chocolate ice cream and sat by himself as he savored each spoonful.

owen also enjoyed it, but he's no respecter of flavors. he'll eat any and all and enjoyed my brown butter almond brittle and salty caramel.

ok, so i guess charlie isn't all seriousness when it comes to ice cream. he asked to take a serious picture "to make it funny" afterwards.

our next stop on the ohio-brower-train was in Pickerington to visit amy, tyler and the kids!

sleepovers with cousins are The. Best. Ever.

(unless you have a horrible cough and stay up half the night, charlie. try not to do that next time dude, ok?)

we visited Slate Run with amy, denise, and all the kids one morning while chris, grandpa, and cousin hunter went golfing. I'm sure that chris would appreciate if i mentioned that he had a particularly good round too!

slate run is a living historical farm and it is pretty amazing! we would have stayed all day if it hadn't been so cold, not to mention we got hungry. the kids absolutely loved it and it made me wish we lived somewhere with a lot of land so they can spend their days outside adventuring. we saw so many animals, the kids got to check the chicken coop for eggs, they shucked corn and made corn meal, they carried wood for the stove, they played with toys from the 1800's, and best of all, they got to do it all with their cousins.

charlie discovered the "marble machines" as he called them and is now obsessed. 

christmas = check 

evan kissing a piglet

kate, hadley, and madeline washing up

collecting the fire wood

jack and maylee on stilts

frisky pig!

ellie and mason

madeline on the stilts 

charlie and blake

we brought a picnic lunch and climbed some trees to end our visit.

owen suckin' on a pine cone

thanksgiving was one of the best days of the trip. how could it not be with such wonderful loved ones gathered together and some of the most delicious food ever?!? marc and delauna were the best hosts ever, going above and beyond to make the day relaxing and wonderful. we had appetizers for an early lunch and then dinner and then dessert. three rounds of glorious goodness.

here's the whole ohio gang!

(minus our missionaries dayton and caiden, and morgan who's in rexburg with her hubby chris)

while the adults cooked, talked, and took naps upstairs, the kids played downstairs. all except for jack. jack had the flu. he spent all of thanksgiving sleeping and puking in the bathroom. poor kid. he was really scared of passing on sick germs, so he quarantined himself to the bathroom.

but the next day he was feeling better. so much better that he went hunting with chris and uncle doug down in Chillicothe. 

with about 15 minutes left of daylight and legal hunting time, a buck meandered into sight, munching on some corn feed. jack aimed the crossbow and...

 surprisingly, ellie was the one that was fascinated by the cleaning and butchering process. she really enjoyed it... strange.

we spent our time just hanging out, watching football, shooting guns, and playing apples to apples. the girls all went out to lunch and got our nails done too! luckily, no one was sick during our visit to chillicothe, hooray!

even with some sick kids, our trip to ohio was so wonderful! so thankful for this beautiful family that we have been blessed with and love them all so so much!!!

we tried to get back to fort smith as quick as we could, stopping only in nashville and then staying the night in memphis. we stopped in nashville because 

A) its an awesome city and 

B) we HAD to grab a grilled cheese sandwich from the grilled cheeserie (as an appetizer!) and then lunch at the old spaghetti factory and 

C) publix. they have a publix. 

 the spaghetti factory is a special restaurant to chris because it was his family's favorite place to visit in SLC when he was a kid. our kids loved it too!

in memphis we visited this huge bass pro shops to let the kids run around and stretch a bit. while here, owen had a massive blowout which caused us to buy a hideous onsie that will forever make us laugh. 

when all was said and done, we were glad to be home again.

life is going too fast!

it seems like every time i blink, another month has come and gone. if only time could pause for half an hour once a week so i could keep up with this doggone blog!

november flew by.

the most exciting part of the month was that on the 7th we celebrated our little owen man turning 1! he's the best little dude and we love him more and more with each passing day (all except for the fact that he is STILL NOT SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. but i try to forget that each morning when the alarm goes off :) 

he started walking on his birthday, which was a gift to both himself and to his siblings because it made them all so happy!

this is the only video we took during his celebration thats small enough to upload

and here's a little snippet of him walking. its not on his birthday, but he is in his birthday suit, so it counts!

owen boy, you came into this world in a hurry and you hit the ground running, always trying to keep up with the rest of us. you are such a ham and love to make your siblings laugh and they love to make you laugh too. you are the runt of the four kids, weighing the least and are the shortest, but you'd never be able to tell with your loud personality and long legs. you are the pickiest eater and the worst sleeper of the 4 kids, and most definitely stubborn when you want to be, but thats ok, we'll keep you anyways. dancing is your favorite, especially to "i like to move it move it", you say mama, dada, and ba for both ball and bottle and you have a whopping 10 teeth. you're favorite toys are balls and spoons. you always have one or the other, if not both, in your hands. we love you O! and just for memories sake...

and as a side note, with his 1 year mark being met, i stopped breastfeeding!!! we made it! nursing is not something that i enjoy. its hard for me physically and even more so emotionally. but we made it! and within 2 weeks i gained almost 10 lbs :( it didn't help that it coincided with our road trip and thanksgiving. but, i'll work hard and get that weight back off. I'm so thankful to have been able to do that for little O and that i have some freedom again! 

jack also hit an exciting milestone at the beginning of the month. he received his Wolf advancement in cub scouts! thats right folks, this kid keeps getting more and more awesome!

chris and jack made a quick weekend trip up to kansas city to visit the carpenters and go to the BYU vs Mizzou game. they had a blast, despite BYU's pathetic game.

they even saw the weasley's car outside of taco bell on their drive ;)

also this month, i put chris' carpenter skills to the test. i was in charge of decorating for our wards Young Women in Excellence Awards night. our theme was The Celestial Awards (like the academy awards, but better!) i had chris cut out this gigantic outline of a temple and then we painted it gold. it was at the end of our red carpet and was the backdrop for our evening. the pictures are pathetic, but you get the idea.

the evening was wonderful and an absolutely perfect way to recognize the girls and all they've accomplished throughout the year for personal progress. I'm so grateful to work with these ladies. 

 also this month, i got my hair cut. this is worth recording because it had been almost 1.5 years since my last cut... yikes.

this month we branched out and did something a little weird for our family. we had our pictures taken by a professional. we've never done this before because we've never needed to with our dear rik being so capable. but since she's too far and we wanted to send out a picture with our christmas cards, we decided to take the plunge. and it wasn't too bad!

this was one of our faves:

at the end of the month we made our last trip of the year. we drove to OH to visit for thanksgiving and had a fantastic time. what a great month it was to remember and be aware of all that we have been blessed with!