November Recap

(my fondest dream is to be caught up on my blogging so I don’t have to bore everyone with Thanksgiving in January…)

November 1st was cute Faith’s 4th birthday.  Every birthday with her makes me want to die.  I really hate the growing up thing so much. She had crepes for breakfast. She usually goes to preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays but her teacher asked if she could come on Thursday since it was her birthday and she was thrilled.  We picked her up and took her to McDonald’s for lunch which she’d been asking for, for weeks.  We made a strawberry cake (from Pioneer Woman’s cookbook and it was not that good) and invited her favorite friend Bea over (with family) for a tiny party.  It was a low-key day, but she seemed to love it.  Got lots of accoutrements for her doll house and some cash. 

                

We’d been talking about how four year olds don’t suck their thumbs and she was on board.  We didn’t have high hopes because she is seriously addicted to it.  On her birthday at naptime she said “I have an idea.  I’ll wear these:

and then I won’t suck my thumb”.  Good effort honey.  (2 months later, she tries—pretty unsuccessfully—to only suck her thumb at naptime, but we all don’t make too big of a deal over it.)

 

My maternal grandpa passed away the week of Halloween and so, with the help of a super generous uncle, I was able to fly to Utah and drive to Mt. Pleasant for the funeral.  I have only been to 4 funerals in my life and so I was so pleasantly surprised with the sweetness of the event.  I’ve decided that we should all view/talk about people like we would if we were at their funeral: focusing on the good and the positive things they brought to the world.  My grandpa was a sweet, generous, hard working man, who married my grandma when she had 4 teenage daughters and just took the whole package and treated them like his own.  It was such a lovely event and a privilege to pay my respects to a good grandpa.

All Hal’s sons and daughters:

We had lots of cousins and aunts in town that we don’t see much and I loved the whole weekend.  We had lots of laughing, sight-seeing, and eating (things our family is BIG on) and it was a joyful weekend.

A visit to Northern Utah is never complete without a little Sill’s scones:

My super fun cousin-in-law that I love and didn’t know was going to be coming too!:

 

 

Thanksgiving was small this year.  My mom came to visit.  It was the usual:  morning football and/or run, lots of kitchen time (but I’d so smartly pre-prepped about half the meal with Ryan and the kids, so it wasn’t bad), sling-shotting (shooting?) frozen cranberries at cans, super yummy-fattening food, and an after dinner walk. 

The rest of the weekend we spent shopping, playing games, watching the lights turn on at the Holiday Parade in Coeur d’Alene and a fun walking tour of Spokane’s old homes in the Browne’s Addition area.  We were sad to have Grandma leave after such a short visit…boo on working Grandmas!

Other random November things:

Ryan and Faith were matchy shirt wearers, so we took a picture:

Faith was besotted with Freeze Dancing so we did it a lot (dance for a while, then stop the music and everyone freezes)

Seth’s birthday is in August so his teacher had his “VIP week” be during November this year.  He wanted me to make mint brownies (a la Denae) and so I did.  Apparently I didn’t  comb his hair, though.  Priorities, people.

We also had a genius Family Home Evening:  I realized we had a bunch of little coupons/gift certificates for a free ice cream cone, or a free loaf of bread, or $5 off Baskin Robbins order, etc.  So I rounded everyone up and we drove all over getting our free stuff.  Everyone just shared a bite or two of each thing and we moved on to our next activity.  It was a fun night…we ended up with 1 free frozen yogurt, 1 McDonald’s sundae, 1 loaf of bread, 1 free cookie, 1 free pizza, 3 jamba juices, 2 ice cream cones…all for $5 total and quite a bit of gas. 

Next up…Instagrams from November!