a blessed November...

OK, feeling a little blah about the monthly posts, and also not feeling like taking a lot of time to do one for November, so I am going to change things up a little bit: 11 thoughts and 11 photos for the 11th month...in 11 minutes.

Thoughts'n'stuff:

1. C's dental surgery went very well at the beginning of the month, big thanks to Aahma B for coming up to help us out with the kids, and also big thanks to our church for providing meals that week - what a blessing!
2. G had a day off of school so the teacher's could work on quarterly report cards, and she was very put out about it. "Why do the teachers need a work day anyway!!!" She was mopy all morning and I finally took her and the kids to noodles for lunch to cheer her up! The girl still loves school.
3. We are still working on potty training with W. It is still going very slow. W still says he will go on the potty when he is 7. Sheesh.
4. We sold green car!!!! YAY! SOOOO happy to be back down to 2 cars. Thanks to S's sister M and brother-in-law C for passing along the information and our 8 billionth craigslist ad to C's co-worker, who purchased the car. Super nice lady who loves Honda's and will take good care of green car.
5. Little C still imitates his brother and sister constantly. Fun to see some of that - like wanting a kiss when he gets a bonk ("bonk.....head.....kiss?"). Not so fun to see some of it too - like fussing when turning off the tv after a video.
6. S turned 32 this month. His birthday was on Sunday (typically the busiest day for us with church and all the activities that go with it), and also right after C's dental stuff, so I wasn't sure we would have anything for his birthday! But we were able to find a gift, make a cake, come up with dinner, and even invite J&C and family last minute to come over making it a really nice day for S and all of us. (Random fact, S's birthday falls on the same day of the week as his brother J, and both G & W too!)
7. Had our first parent teacher conference for G this month. Also got G's first report card. Other than keeping focus, she is doing so well in school! We could tell that, but it was nice to hear that from her teacher Mrs. B too. Also found out that G is working in the challenge program with a few other classmates doing some creative writing - so excited about that!
8. S always asks G how her day was when he comes home in the evening, and has started asking W too. W is taking this seriously and is now thinking of things for us to do during the day to tell dadda later. =)
9. My brother M and pregnant sister-in-law A came to visit us over Thanksgiving. There was a big winter storm predicted for the day they were planning to drive up, so they decided to come the night before and just drive late into the night. We were all very glad they did, plus it felt like we got an extra bonus day to spend with them too! We had a great time with them - lots of visiting, card games, reading kids books, trip to Old Navy at midnight for the girls, and trip to IKEA for M&A to get a baby crib!
   
10. Hosted Thanksgiving for the first time (between that and the parent teacher conference, I was feeling way too grown up this month!). It really wasn't that scary being that I split the food with sister-in-law C (Thanks, C! Everything was delicious!!!). I did prepare and cook the free-range turkey, and freaked out only a little bit when trying to get it and the stuffing in the oven - why haven't I ever paid attention to mom or grandma when they were cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving????? Thanks to an oven bag, it was not hard at all and the turkey turned out great. We had such a lovely Thanksgiving. J&C and girls and Pippin joined M&A and us, as well as friend C from church. It was such a nice group and we had a very relaxing day with lots of food, fellowship, and laughter.
11. And we did take advantage of Black Friday this year. We have been using hand-me-down TV's almost since we have been married, and have talking about getting a new one for quite a while, but S said that when we did get the TV, we were going to get the TV and all accessories to go with it! We didn't do a speaker system, but we are set up now with a nice new big flat screen, blu ray, and lap top so we can stream internet to the TV as well. Felt a little crazy just buying all that stuff, but we had saved and found good deals, so we went for it!

Photos:

family photo - was hoping to take this on Thanksgiving, but didn't think about it, so this was the day after (the turkey remains are on the table ready to be thrown out, does that count as a holiday picture?).



silly faces!



squeezy happy faces!



reading books with Aahma B



I love it that the boys want to dress up with G yet



"ooooooo, look at that turkey!"



that turkey...=)



happy thanksgiving table

(and C was napping, we didn't just leave him out!)

Took some Christmas card pictures of these cute people while they were here. We got some great ones and then a few iffy ones (see preggo pic in A's post here) - the great ones were due to the cute model couple, and the iffy ones were due to the photographer. =)



the kids love doing silly faces for the camera



We got Christmas trees and decorations up on time this year! Makes the house look so festive and really puts us in the mood for December and the Christmas season.

So there you go. Something a little different. I don't know that it went any quicker (11 minutes? Are you kidding me?), but was nice for a change, at least for me! May you all have a great December and blessed Advent season!