--Don't forget the rest of the blog circle! After you read my letter, click the link to see Tiffany's letter to her children.--

My sweet kids,

Last month was a little bit less busy than the past few months have been. We enjoyed being home for a lot of it. The month started with a presidential election, and I'm glad that you were too young to see much of what went on throughout that whole process. Thankfully you were young enough to miss out on how people were acting, yet old enough to learn about voting. Daddy's birthday was a few days later, so we went to Pennsylvania for the weekend. Elli, you had your two month check-up and followed in your brothers' footsteps, being in the 4th percentile for weight. Nana visited us for a couple days this month too. One night I was going to take the three of you to the circus at the last minute, but then we got there and it was way more expensive than I thought.....so we went to Chick fil-A instead, where you played in the "play place" and I ended up with a free milkshake after they forgot about me for half an hour. It was a good trade off for the circus. We had one Andy Griffith pizza night together in the living room that you boys were really excited about too.

Last week was Thanksgiving, which started with our annual Turkey Trot tradition. Mason, you represented our family in the one mile (except really it was only about .6 of a mile) Gobbler Trot; Daddy and Poppy ran with you. Then Nonni and Poppy ran the 5k. You actually won the prize of being the youngest runner- for the second year in the row! Our Thanksgiving dinner was smaller again this year. We had 16 people at Nonni and Poppy's house, and we also Skyped with Aunt Heidi's family and later with Uncle Tony.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to cut down our tree. Daddy and I agree that our favorite part is going to get the tree and cutting it down. Our least favorite part is having the tree and dealing with it at home. Ha... I think we (and by "we" I'm looking at you, boys) have broken an average of 3 ornaments a day since we got the Christmas decorations out. I hope no one ever gives us another nice glass ornament, because I'm certain that it will not last more than a year. But at least you're having fun decorating the tree! That process in itself took several days since 3 strands of lights wouldn't light up, and we had to go buy more. Rylan, you really love all the lights. Every time that it's dark outside and you see Christmas lights outside of a house or inside on a tree, you say in a really sweet, excited voice, "I see CHRISTMAS!!!!" You were really confused when we first put our Christmas tree up and it didn't have lights on it yet. You came downstairs and said, "Mommy! Our twee isn't wighting up!!"

Elli,

You have been slowly getting bigger and finally filling out your 0-3 months clothes. You coo and smile a lot, especially at your big brothers. You spend most of your time being cute, sleeping, and making other people smile.

Rylan,

You say adorable things every day. You almost always refer to Elli as "my sister," and it's very cute. "I want to see my sister. My sister is cwying? Where is my sister??" Since Mason started having good manners and saying "yes ma'am", you have tried to pick up on it too; so when you're trying to be good you say, "yes, manners!" When pronouncing the word hospital, you say "hosta-bittle." When you're checking on whether something is ok, you say, "Little bit good?" You also make up things and act like they're true (Mason really never did this). You had a scratch on your face the other day, and when I asked you what happened, you said, "Daddy cut it with a chainsaw. He really did." One of your favorite hobbies is biting the wheels off of little trucks and cars....it's strange and obsessive. You take off your clothes at all opportunities. Every time I ask you why, you say, "Uh....cause Ry Ry's too hot." One day I tried putting a shirt on you in the middle of the day, even though it seems like a pointless thing to do, and you said, "Ry's going to sleep?" Apparently the need to wear clothes is just confusing to you. Whenever you get mad, and I ask why you're acting so mad, you say, "Cause RY RY'S. TOO. TIRED!" You also seem to do your best to make yourself sick. The best example for this month was dipping your toothbrush in the toilet where Mason had just peed (and not flushed) and then continuing to brush your teeth.

Mason,

You are very cute and smart, and you impress us with your memory and logic all the time. You have still been climbing trees and figuring out things to do with towing ropes. You're a little less likely to drive your Gator when it's cold, but you still enjoy doing that. You love looking at mirrors (or anything where you can see your reflection) and watching yourself talk or make silly faces in them. You're pretty bossy with Rylan, acting like you're his parent, and most of the time he responds like you are actually in charge of him. One of your favorite things to do during rest time is go through all of the clothes in your closet- I have a box of things that are too small and a box of things that are too big in there, and you like to put them all on. One day you got really mad and said, "I wish I was still three, because then I could wear all the small shirts in my closet!" Rylan repeats a lot of things that you say, including how you spin around in circles and then sit down and say "the house is falling down!"