November add on...

I forgot to post that Nathan and I went to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Virginia. Oops.

When we walked inside the museum a worker asked us for our proof of purchase into the building. That took us by surprise.  We thought the presidential libraries were free to the public.  Apparently that is not the case for some of the libraries.  Who knew?  But for us to tour Woodrow Wilson's stomping grounds it would have cost us $15 -- EACH!  Yeah.  Maybe next time.

Instead, we took a few pictures outside, grabbed a brochure, and got back on the road.

Nice in November

November was awesome!  We had great weather.  We had a great time.  We got to see family.  What more could you ask?  Here's our re-cap of the month.


FPU

Back in September, I posted that Nathan and I were taking the Financial Peace University class.  The course was 9 weeks and it was awe-inspiring.  The class is life changing and we loved it. In fact, we loved it so much that we are going to be hosting a FPU class come January.

Before we would go to our class, I would pick Nathan and up work and we'd head over to the church and eat dinner (our class was just down the street from our church).  One of the weeks, we found the sister missionaries at the church and they had a blast playing with Hannah.  We probably spent 45 minutes rolling a ball down the hallway.  Hannah loves the sister missionaries.

Pikes

We got to go and visit the Pikes.  It was fun as always.

We also got to see the boys in a very superb recital.  This was a very talented youth orchestra.

The Pikes also watched Hannah for us a few days as well, and Hannah was more than thrilled. One of the reasons for her excitement: she got to sleep in her tent.

We're not sure who had more fun -- the Pikes or Hannah.

When Nathan and I arrived back at the Pikes house, Hannah was so excited to see us, especially Daddy, that she literally hugged Nathan for several minutes.

We also got to spend Thanksgiving with them as well.  It was delicious, relaxing, and nice to be with family.

Danny was able to come down too and it was so good to see him again.

We also got to celebrate the December birthdays while we were there.

Miscellaneous fun

One day Hannah came into the guest room where I was working on the computer.  She asked if she could "watch Hannah's."  That's code for "I want to watch videos of me!"  So we pulled up a few and she saw a video of her being thrown on the bed with daddy a few years back.  Well when Daddy came home that day from work she wanted him to throw her into the air and land on the bed.  He lovingly obliged.

Here's a shot of her being tossed into the air.

We had some extra -- FREE -- blinds (long story on how we got them) that we installed around the house.  Hannah, of course, loved helping daddy.  And I love having these blinds in our windows.  It makes such a difference in so many ways.

Hannah got an umbrella at the end of October and she got to use it for the first time this month!  She was elated.  She often asks now before we leave home "is it raining outside? I need my umbrella." I remember saying things like that when I was her age.

Some brief guests

We had some friends stay with us one night as well.  They were in Northern New York doing some sight seeing and they needed a place to crash one night.  I wouldn't let them stay anywhere else!  It was great to see our Iowa friends again.

Hannah enjoyed playing with her friend Oakley as well, and often asks when she gets to play with Oakley again.

Christmas season is here!

Christmas is alive in Hannah.  She has definitely grasped everything that comes with this holiday. That being said, she has a new found, bouncing off the walls energy inside her and it can be hard to keep up with.

Our family has an Elf on the Shelf (named Jasper) that comes every year, and he likes to keep an eye on the munchkin.  Hannah noticed that Jasper was in our car when we drove back up from the Pikes. She LOVES this little elf.  She tells us all the time "we can't touch him.  If we touch him he looses his powers."

Hannah was excited to decorate her little tree again.  She loves turning it on and looking at the lights. Christmas really does come alive when you have a little one at home.

Outings in October

We had several outings for our family in October.


Washington D.C.

Right at the beginning of the month we made a small trip to the D.C. area, and we got to stay with some friends from Iowa.  It was great to catch up and see them, and we did many things while visiting.

Hannah got a little bored when we hit the D.C. traffic.

Hannah woke up really early one morning and she enjoyed playing dress up before the other kids woke up.

We went to one of the Air & Space Museums, and that was SUPER COOL!  There were airplanes EVERYWHERE!  Nathan and I will definitely have to go sometime by ourselves without a 4 year old.  Poor Hannah.  She got bored pretty quickly.  She did enjoy driving a plane with her friends though.

We saw an awesome spy plane called the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.  This plane was by far Nathan's favorite in the entire museum.  It looks so cool and slick, and it's the first thing you see when entering the floor.

We saw THE Enola Gay.  This is the airplane that dropped the A-bomb.  I'll admit, it was pretty cool to see this airplane knowing the history behind it.  Not to mention, this plane was HUGE!  I couldn't get a full picture of the beast.

We also saw a Concorde plane.  Who wouldn't want to travel from Europe to the US in about 3 hours?!

Hannah saw this airplane and said: "Mommy, that airplane is mad."  Kids.

My favorite plane we saw was the Discover Space Shuttle.  When I saw that my heart skipped a few beats.  

You can see how enormous this shuttle is.  I'm standing right smack in the middle of this picture.

After the museum the kids took a nap in the car while we drove to our next destination.

When they woke up they found out we were at a trampoline park.  Hannah loved it.

We also went to visit the grounds of the Washington D.C. temple.  Hannah really liked the Angel Moroni.

Hannah loved playing at the visitors center.  They have a whole section there dedicated for little kids. She was in heaven because we got to "color" on the i-pads.

After visiting the temple grounds we met up with our friends and went to the National Zoo.  We thought Hannah would enjoy it more than we had imagined, but she was so tired.  She liked seeing the animals, but she was so gassed from walking that after a few hours we decided to go home. Within minutes of getting into the car, she was out.

A few more random pictures of visiting with our Iowa friends.

General Conference

General Conference was wonderful as usual.

I won the conference song pool, but only by one song.  Here was the score:

• Rachel: 14 / 32
• Nathan: 13 / 32

I had 3 favorite talks:

1. Elder Hales' on Meeting the Challenges of Today's World
2. Elder Holland's on Behold Thy Mother
3. President Nelson's A Plea to My Sisters

Pikes

We also went down to visit the Pikes and we played a lot.  It's great because it wears Hannah out.  It's so rare that we get to see Hannah sleeping that we couldn't pass up this photo opportunity.

We played with the cat and dog.  Hannah enjoys feeding them their favorite treat -- string cheese.

We went to a pumpkin patch.

We came home and carved/drew on pumpkins (that we didn't buy at the pumpkin patch because they were WAY over priced).

This is Hannah's pumpkin.  She used every color of marker available.

Nathan made his a mechanical pumpkin.

We then went and had dinner at Homeplace.  The scenery was gorgeous, yet a little chili.  

I guess Hannah's coat doesn't fit Mason.

We also took a ride in the old 1948 dodge car (and I just realized I never got a picture of the full car.  Oops).

Nathan was excited to drive it.  Hannah, well she liked playing with the suicide doors.

In fact, Hannah had so much fun on the trip that she slept in the car for about 2.5 hours on our way home.

Stuff back home

We installed some blinds in the master bedroom, and Hannah helped by wearing her tool belt.

We played at the "wood park" several times.

We got our first frost of the season.

Nathan got sick (poor guy).

Hannah enjoyed her Halloween cards she got in the mail.

And we have enjoyed the fall colors.  This is one of our favorite things about Pennsylvania.  I wish there was a way we could capture the true scenery in a photo.  Pictures just don't do things justice.

Halloween

Hannah has been so excited about Halloween.  She and Nathan carved a pumpkin.

This year, Hannah was a fish.  I got this costume about 2 years ago from a friend at church, but I put it in a box downstairs and forgot about it.  When we were cleaning stuff out this summer, I re-discovered the costume so I asked Hannah if she would like to be a fish for Halloween.  Her reply was an enthusiastic "YES!"  Score for me. 

Here is Hannah demonstrating what a fish does.  I love her face,

This kid loves Halloween.  She doubled the amount of homes she trick-or-treated this year.  Yes folks, we went down the hill and worked the adjacent street.  It surprised us both.  Hannah also enjoys coming home and seeing what goodies she acquired.

And that, my friends, wraps up our outings in October.

General Conference Ensign picture courtesy of lds.org