November's Activities

-Kids workshops! We had 3 this month (first was in the St. George post). The last one we brought home to do since we had other things to get done.

-We got a little crazy and decided to trade our van in for a brand new one because the dealership was asking for our old one and they gave us a pretty good deal. Larry really wanted a blue one so it took a bit to get it in and it finally showed up this month. It's pretty nice and smells so clean!

-The new kitties are getting along so well with Otto and Charlie. They seem to REALLY be taken with Charlie

-This month, I started doing my Christmas shopping and I am so proud of myself for getting ahead! I figured I'd get everyone done before our family and then I could go crazy with ours if I have any leftover funds. I have been looking around for ideas and gotten a lot of good ones, then I picked a family a day (started with ones I'd have to ship out) and got one family done each day. I'm so excited to actually be ahead and I wrap things as they show up so I can be ahead on my wrapping as well haha.

-Poor Lucy lost her first tooth, but definitely not on purpose. Poor girl was standing on a swivel chair next to their computer chair. I heard a bang and then crying. I was worried she bit her lip and picked her up when i saw blood. Then I noticed she had a gaping hole where she didn't have one before. Luckily, she got over it quickly, but I feel SO bad for her!

We went out for ice cream for her 
Mouth ouchie.

-Cindy invited her to her annual Pie Night on the 23rd. She's always having shindigs and I was excited to get invited to one. There were a lot of yummy options and the girls had so much fun playing with Olivia. I caught up with Anna and Abby a little bit and stuffed my belly haha. It was a pretty fun night!

-If you did not catch the Cowboys V Commanders game on the 25th, you need to go find a way to watch it. That and the Packers great win made it the best football weekend. I love Football season!

-The girls have been asking to have a sleepover in the front room for a while and I kept telling them no. But after so many times I thought maybe I should let them do it once, and before Christmas, so we let them do that the night before Thanksgiving. They had a lot of fun with it and we even let them do it one more night, on Thanksgiving, just to really have fun with it. They were bummed when I told them that's all they get, but they are better of in their rooms.

-On the Friday after Thanksgiving I decided to take the girls out to see Moana 2. We loved the first one and I had the day off (Larry didn't) so I thought it would be a fun girls day with them. The movie wasn't the best for me, but the girls really liked it. I love being able to go to the theaters again, even if it is pricey haha.

The kids also had a lot of fun setting up Christmas stuff. I still don't love having it up and how cluttered it makes things feel (plus I really would love to chuck most of my décor and get new stuff, but I don't have the money for it right now)

-Of course we got our annual Santa picture at Cabela's. Lucy wasn't too into it at the time, but all the kids really loved telling him what they wanted and then making their lists.

-Kiddo pics:

When Cara steals your phone camera

Thanksgiving 2024

This year we were going to host Thanksgiving Dinner, but I really didn't feel like being forced to clean my house. So, when Mom reminded me I offered to host and heard my "ugh" sounds and offered to do it at her house, I jumped at that (maybe we'll do it in 2 years, next year is with Larry's mom).

I told mom the Packers and Cowboys were playing so we'd need to have the games on one of their TVs (they have a few on their main level). Unfortunately, when we got there, we realized she didn't have the right streaming packages. So I decided to just put it on my phone and have it turned down so we could check on it throughout the night.

This Thanksgiving was so nice. The food was good, it was nice visiting with Mom and Will. Andy and Rachel came by for dessert. The football games were REALLY good. The kids enjoyed playing with the dogs and outside (since it's still pretty warm-ish)

I really need to get better at taking pics with my mom, I hardly have any, so I don't have any from Thanksgiving.

Gwen is Six!

Our sweet, lovable, goofy, and oh so flexible, Gwen Gwen is now six years old. She's in full time school and so I got to do one of the funnest things and go to the school to have lunch with her! The school rounds up all the birthday in the month onto one day and parents can choose to bring them lunch and sit with them, a great tradition to do! She chose Chik Fil A so I ran and grabbed that and brought it to her. I can't tell if she was more excited that I was there or that I brought that food for her haha.

She had decided she wanted to do her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, mostly for the ticket blaster machine haha. I tried to encourage her to pick something new and different, but she was set. Truth be told it's one of the better party places and it's budget friendly so it wasn't a big deal (plus it's her birthday, who am I to tell her no?). So we booked that for the 16th.

Funny thing is, we talked all week up to her birthday about her party and she suddenly got SO shy when it came to saying hi, dancing with, or taking pictures with Chuck E  Cheese. She'd only do a photo if it was a group photo with the family (and some rando girl that photo bombed us haha). On the flip side, Lucy, who is usually our shy one, was so NOT shy and loved running up to him to give him a hug or high five, or even dance with him. She was all for it haha.

When it came to doing the Ticket Blaster, she did get excited and chose Cara to do it with her. They got quite a few tickets (some got stuck to their boots and hair even haha). We ended up with over 9,000 tickets so they LOADED up on prizes. All kids loved playing the games and Gwen kept asking me to go with her and play as many as we could do together.

We did pizza, cake, presents, and then the kids all got their dippin' dots ice cream, such a fun treat! We also made sure to give her the "wear" and "want" gifts (snow boots and a Claire's gift card), we saved the "need" and "read" ones for her actual birthday, to put on her table

Speaking of her birthday table, one other funny thing is when she woke up for her party day she mentioned how she didn't see her table was done, so I had to explain the table is for her birthday day, to make that day special and fun.

She said she wanted to spend her gift card on Sunday, so we went out to do that. I was still scrambling for a couple table items so we were running quite a few errands that day and a stop at Wal Mart (the closest Claire's to us) was a perfect excuse! She ended up getting a makeup case that she was so excited for.

For her actual birthday day we got her table (with the "need" and "read" gifts: a jewelry box for earrings and an Amelia Bedelia book set) and streamers set up. She chose eggs, donuts, and orange juice for breakfast. For school, she took 3 different kinds of hostess cupcakes for class treat. Unfortunately, sickness was starting in our home so I wasn't sure she'd end up going for her birthday, but she was good enough and too excited, so she went in.

At school, she got a sticker and a cute certificate with some birthday drawings. Tolleff (a cute boy in her class) made sure to wish her a happy birthday before they left for the day, she has a little crush on him so that put her on cloud 9. After they came home from pick up, we went out to Leatherby's for dinner and did "things we love about Gwen" (which she tried to hide from).

_________________

To Gwen, 

You are beyond the silliest kid I have ever known. When you ask things like "guess if I like this" or "guess what number I'm thinking of" or when I ask how your day was and you say "you know!" I think it's so funny (but awesome) how you just love to be naked all the time, you have NO shame in your game and I hope you stay that way...until you hit puberty, at least, then I want you to feel modest haha.

I love how you'll be friends with anyone. You are also very blunt when talking about things. You seem obsessed with death and will bring it up at random times (like the time we were driving and you said you know I'll die first because I'm the oldest haha). You like to copy your older sister, but you are learning to like/explore your own things. First it was space, now it seems to be pirates. Not sure where that came from, but it's fun.

I especially love how you are always asking questions and putting things together. You also have the most amazing recall of ANYONE I know. I think those things are what makes you so brilliant, but you are so very humble about it!

You LOVE to sleep and are still such a good sleeper. However, sometimes you want to sleep more than experiencing new things. I wonder if that'll stay or if you'll be more excited about things as you get older.

You still have only 2 teeth that you've lost, but I'll be excited to see you lose more and get your big teeth. You are taller than Cara was at 6 so apparently not being picky is working for you. I still love your curves and really hope they stay and you appreciate them as you get older.

Please keep being your silly, amazing, super smart self! Don't let anyone dim your light, ever! I hope you'll never be too old for our snuggles and telling me what's happening in your noggin and always finding things to laugh about. And I hope I always have a special place in your heart.

Love, Mom!

Gwen's 1:1s

So we Gwen got her 1:1s this month and I was excited to do them this month. 

On the 6th, I took her out to get her ears pierced because ever since Cara got hers, she's asked to have hers done before her birthday party. She wanted to show them off to everyone and so she was set. I took her to the same place I took Cara since it was so easy and smooth. She cried a bit with the piercings, but she handled it so well once it was over with. 

Afterwards, I took her to the nearby soda place (Quench It) to get some sodas and cookies. I enjoyed talking to her about her birthday coming up and what she wanted and was excited for. 

Tonight, Larry took her to the new trampoline park in SS (which was way too pricey). Since Cara got a big 1:1 with him I told them that they could do a big one, but it's the last big one and next year we're starting fresh and doing smaller ones. At theirs, Larry asked her the same question about what she wanted for her birthday and she told him "ugh! I already told mom all of this!" haha. She can be so sassy!

Either way, I think she had a lot of fun at both and I just love doing these with the kids.

Capital Christmas Tree Comes To (Through) Utah

So I was looking for things to do this weekend all week and while digging and digging through many pages of events, I finally found out the big tree that will be up at the Capital was going to be going through Utah (from Alaska) and thought it would be kind of cool to go check that out. 

I was hoping it wouldn't be too crowded since it took me SO long to see it, but it was more crowded than I expected. I was also hoping the tree would be up and decorated. It was decorated, but was still in the truck so a little different than I expected.

On the way there I was telling my mom about it and she thought it sounded fun so her and Will showed up as well.

We signed the truck sign with names and locations. We made bird feeders. We learned more about the trees that go to the capital and how they keep them fresh during transport (and more about different kinds of trees). We took pictures with some horse character. It was actually pretty nice. 

We didn't stay long, but it was still really cool to learn all about it and know the tree was going all across the country and we got to see it for a tiny moment.

St. George for Thriller!

O.M.G! I have been SO excited for this trip, it's not even funny! So backstory: Thriller is one of my favorite Halloween time traditions. I've gone pretty much every year (minus when I was very sick and pregnant with Cara and maybe one or two other ones that I had whatever reason - probably financial - to miss it) and it really just brings the Halloween Spirit out! A couple years ago I made plans to go with Stace and noticed there was a sign on the stage saying it was the very last performance and they wouldn't be continuing. I was SO sad because I had been telling Larry I was excited for the year I could take all our kids and make it part of their tradition, so seeing this sign broke my heart! The two years we didn't go after that felt so weird. Every time I heard the Michael Jackson song my heart strings tugged a bit. It was never the same.

Queue to this year when I got an email from Odyssey Dance Theater saying they were bringing it back. I thought it was spam or a joke because it had only  been a couple years, why all of a sudden? Then I saw a sign or an ad saying it was going to be playing in St. George. I immediately went to the Tuacahn website and saw it was real and bought tickets. I was unsure about it being after Halloween, but I'll take what I can get. Plus I wondered if that one did well enough, maybe they'd bring it back all over. Of course, it was later that I saw they WERE bringing it back all over, but I had already booked the Airbnb and got our tickets and didn't want to go through the trouble of cancelling everything. Plus, I thought it would be fun to have another mini getaway this year before I'm out of commission for my surgery in a couple months.

I had hoped it would be warm enough we could even swim while we were down here, but checking the weather as I got closer I realized that was probably not going to happen. I looked up some fun parks/hikes/places to go before we left and made a list for when we had down time (I didn't want to fill the whole trip with stuff, but wanted a list for when we didn't have anything to do). Luckily, the Home Depot workshop was this weekend so I signed us up for that at the very least. 

The drive down went pretty smoothly, we left a little later than I had hoped, but we made sure to do bathroom runs before we left (a must when traveling with young kids). We stopped at Carl's Jr for dinner, where Cara lost another tooth! When we got to the home, the kids loved running around it (they love being in new homes and exploring everything and this one had a little room under the stairs that they were obsessed with).

Saturday, we were able to do the workshop (a man who looked like Santa even gave us an extra kit for Pierce, who was actually hammering all on his own!). We then hit up Denny's for breakfast (that place continues to disappoint though). We went back to the house and did puzzles, played card games, and they played in the "yard", so it was some real fun family down time. During nap time, I took the girls to a playground (that ended up being way smaller than I thought/hoped when I looked it up) and then we also stopped by the cutest little mom and pop candy shop (and spent WAY too much money). 

After nap time, we decided to check out a hike I had found on one of my Utah pages. We got there and hiked about  half way up when I realized we still needed to eat dinner and get ready for the dance. So we took a picture next to a rock that looked like a turtle head, I told the kids "let's pretend that's what we came to see" (rather than the petroglyphs I had originally wanted to show the kids). We hiked back down and realized the easiest plan was head back to the Airbnb, eat our leftover pizza, then have Larry take me and the girls to the theater and him and Pierce could go do something fun and they'd come pick us up after. He ended up taking Pierce to an arcade, but, unfortunately, that place closed down when we were just at our intermission. So, they went out for ice cream to kill time and then headed to the theater and put on Bluey on the tv for him to watch (poor Pierce was so exhausted, we didn't get out until 10 PM...WAY past any of their bed times).

Lucy is clearly thrilled haha

As for the performance, for one it was outside and VERY cold. Luckily I had the kids bring their coats, but I totally left mine in the car and only had a hoodie. Luckily, Lucy is very sensitive to scary things so I had her sit on my lap to help keep me warm (it even started cold raining while we were there, so I was very glad we had hoods!). I was nervous she'd be too scared of the performances or the girls would get bored quickly, but to my very happy surprise, they handled it all so well. No one was scared, Gwen got a little antsy about it being so long, but they all lasted and they LOVED it. I teared up at the opening performance just because it was so exciting finally being there with most of my kids and getting to show them this cool dance event. They laughed at Bubbles the clown and really ooh'd and aah'd at the dances. Lucy kept pointing out the ballet-type ones. We all were amazed at the aerial ones (we agreed they were the favorite ones). And THEN they ended with fireworks and it was the most amazing way to end it. It did start a tiny fire on the mountain that the girls became obsessed over, haha. 

Overall, I'm SO excited we got this chance and I so look forward to taking them again next year (but much closer to home) and, one day, bringing Pierce and having us all go as a family! So, once again, happy end of Halloween time, onto just regular Fall time!