Be sure to view our November family photos as well.

Hello Friends and Family,

Before it disappreared for the year, we went to see a giant pumpkin display in someone's front yard in nearby Griffith. The overall theme was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves so of course there was a pumpkin of each character (dwarves too) and also some scenes from the story on huge pumpkins. Many of the pumpkins were submissions from the various county and state fair contests, so there were some real big ones! The rest of the yard was filled in with the usual assortment of Hallowe'en, White Sox, and IU carvings. It was very impressive for just one yard. Next year we will bring a camera.

Shortly after returning home to Indiana, Grammie Poole joined us for a visit. She celebrated the boys' actual birthdays with us, and U.S. Thanksgiving as well. By the end of it all we decided that was our fill of turkey for the year. Well, maybe until Christmas.

Natasha went to a party with her co-worker Mable and had a great time being out on her own for a change. We both took advantage of free babysitting by Grammie to eat out at our favourite place in Whiting - Keith's Restaurant! It had been a while for us but the food was great as always. Another favourite revisited was the Premium Cinema where we ate and actually saw a movie (Harry Potter) in its opening weekend! We also made it to a Bears game - can anyone say Super Bowl?

November was filled with birthdays (in chronological order) of Keith, Luke, and Noah. This was Luke's FIRST birthday party, and he quite enjoyed all the attention. Noah's birthday fell on the US Thanksgiving weekend, so we had some days off to celebrate. Keith hunted Chicago for requested rocket toys (and found them) and Natasha made a fabulous rocket cake to complete the theme. Actually, Natasha had to work the day after Thanksgiving while Keith had it off so he and Grammie and the boys spent the day at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

A big congratulations to our good friends Laura and Denis, who welcomed Michael into the world on the 11th of this month as well!

Grammie's visit was also timed to give Natasha a hand while Keith was travelling for work. Keith had to repeat his whirlwind U.S. tour, covering three NAVTEQ offices in Atlanta, St. Louis, and Sacramento on consecutive days. This allowed Keith to accomplish the milestone step of ISO 9001:2000 certification for all North American field offices!

After returning from his trip, Keith took his mother to a special Clay Aiken Christmas show at the historic Chicago Theatre. She is a big fan of Clay Aiken (remember him from American Idol?) and while it was a bit early for Christmas, the show was actually pretty good.

Noah has an amazing memory, as he demonstrated to Keith this month. One day a Sarah McLachlan song came on the radio. We had gone to see her back in August 2004 (and had taken Noah due to a last-minute babysitter bailout) and so Keith asked Noah if he remembered going to see the "woman singing" as we had referred to her at the time. Predictably he said no - after all, it was 15 months ago and he had only been 21 months old at the time of the concert. Then, after a minute or so Noah asked, "What was that green stuff?" Keith was confused and asked him what he meant. "You know, the green stuff in my ears," he replied. Keith was totally floored when he realized Noah was referring to the green wax earplugs we had used to protect his hearing at the concert! Technically Luke had been at the concert as well (in the womb) but since he can not yet speak, Keith couldn't determine if he remembered it as well.

On the home front, Keith finally got some new, non-snowy pictures of the house exterior and posted them on the main home page of this site. No doubt it will snow soon. Keith also bravely ventured up into the attic to move around some insulation - the recessed lights in the kitchen were very drafty! Next job to tackle - finish the second bathroom in the basement.

Keep in Touch,

Love, Keith & Natasha

November Milestones

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