November

Brynn's class earned a hot chocolate party.  I wasn't there but Brynn's teacher sent a picture via email.

Brynn's the cute one in the front group of desks, on the right.

We took dinner to the Grant's one Sunday and stayed and ate with them.  Brother Grant (Jason) has helped us with this house project-more than we could ever repay.  It was fun to visit with them and after dinner his boys took my little girls outside to ride their horse.

In order for me to hang a wreath in the window above the basement stairs, I would have to get a ladder out.  That's too much work so Brynn is usually a good sport to help out.  Eventually she'll get too big and I'll have to do it the hard way.

Ivy put Brother Grant's name on one of her thankful leaves so Justin took a picture and sent it to him.

Took the little girls up in my bed one night to snuggle for a minute.  Brynn was acting so tired and I figured she would fall asleep if she had a little downtime.  I was right.  I never had any hopes that Ivy would crash.  That is so not like her.  I was right in that area too.

Stockton wanted me to take a picture of this tower that he built one night.

Eric and Heidi brought their kids up three Saturdays in a row so they could help us with the ceiling.  They were so helpful.  I was grateful they were nice days so they could mostly be outside.  It was three chaotic days with all those kids running around with very little supervision but worth it since we got so much done on the house.  I only took pictures of Ivy and Eli (they are so cute together!) but the other kids were there too-mostly making war movies with Stockton.

Ivy and Eli

Eli and Ivy-different day, same dress up

Brett wasn't going to come one day because he wasn't sure what he could do to help.  Then I mentioned all the leaves that needed to be raked.  So he came up to do that.  I was planning on helping him but ended up helping on the ceiling so he raked the yard almost entirely on his own.  The kids helped here and there but they weren't always super reliable.  They definitely came out when it was time to play in the leaves!

Luke, Brynn, Stockton, Ivy, Molly

Ivy jumping off the trampoline

can you see Stockton?

Molly went to a birthday party for Regan Heywood, from her soccer team.  Regan goes to Rocky Mountain, unfortunately, so I don't think Molly knew the other girls at the party.  But she loves Regan and had a good time hanging out.

a bunch of girls I don't know-Regan and then Molly on the right end

As promised, here are some of the drawings Molly did this fall.  Just a small sampling.

You can tell when she started to get excited for Christmas

US Women's National soccer team

Alex Morgan and Rose Lavelle

Brynn's little friend, Audrey Stout, moved to Boise.  She was also one of my piano students so we both miss her!  We had her over to play a few days before she moved.

Audrey, Brynn, Ivy

Brynn's Santa beard in the tub.

Ivy wanted to dress herself for preschool one day.  I started with the shirt.  She came up with the rest.  I think she looked adorable.

We met up with our friends, the White's and the Henri's, for our annual dinner at the Mandarin in Bountiful.  We decided that we have been doing this dinner since 2008.  We will continue to do this as long as we all live in Utah and, since no one has any plans of moving away, for the future as far as we can see.  It's always a good night of catch-up and we are such good friends that there is no awkwardness involved.  I worked with Rich and Jason in Hyrum and then the three boys worked together.  They have remained good friends ever since so it's a good thing we wives are all good friends too!

Annie and Jason Henrie, Goodrich's, Serra and Rich White-it took us many years to figure out how to sit so that the girls could chat, the boys could chat, and we all could chat

Stockton became obsessed with WWI, WII, Revolutionary, and Civil War history after rereading Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales books on the same subjects.  He would spout random facts about soldiers, guns, battles, etc. all day and he became so single-minded on it that I had a hard time getting him to do anything else.  He made costumes for the different soldiers from different countries.  He made guns and bayonets and flags for countries.  He got Brynn and Ivy on board and they made up lots of war games.  It was so fun for me to see his focus and creativity and to see all he was soaking in and learning.

weapons from different countries

in their bunker

Here's a funny story relating to this: in preschool we did a Christmas around the world day.  Ivy's teacher told me later that when Ivy's class was getting ready to visit Germany, Ivy piped up and said, "but Germany's evil!"  I think some of this war play stuck in her mind.  We had a good laugh and then a little chat about why Germany is actually not evil.

Stake Conference.  I always pack a little more than I do for just regular sacrament meeting because it is long.  We try to get there early but we are always in the gym on uncomfortable folding chairs.  For November's conference, I threw in the paper dolls Brynn got for Christmas last year.  They are Little House on the Prairie dolls.  I loved paper dolls as a girl but Brynn has barely touched them so it made me happy when she came home and happily played with them all afternoon.

We got a jump start on Christmas lights and got them up before it got too cold and snowy.  We made it a family affair.  I laughed because we had a halfway finished house but made sure our Christmas lights were up.  We've never missed a year since it was just Justin and I in our one bedroom basement apartment in Logan.  Priorities.  We had an exciting moment when a stray mountain sheep ran down the road, into our yard, around the pasture, and back out to the street and into the mountains.

Stockton is legit scared of heights so he helped from the ground and only made it this far right as we were finishing up.

We must have been having something Asian for dinner that night.  I can tell because Justin always eats Asian dishes with chopsticks.  The kids like to try it out too and he often has to wrap an elastic around the top to keep them together.  That's how Koreans teach their kids to eat with chopsticks.  Our kids mostly think it's a game which explains the picture.

Ivy had my phone for 10 minutes while I rested on the couch one afternoon.  This is what I found when I looked at it later.  I am in the pre-grief stage when I think about her heading off to Kindergarten next year.

Brynn had to do a "disguise your turkey" assignment.  I remember Molly and Stockton bringing these home a few years ago and it was a huge project that left both Justin and I more than frazzled.  This one was a breeze.  I suggested that she use one of our many flower lei's that we have now and turn her turkey into a hula dancer.  She loved the idea and sat down at the counter and had it finished by the time I was done with piano lessons that afternoon.  Now that is a project I can handle!  And look how cute it is!

One Sunday morning the kids and I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for breakfast (with church at 12 you can do those things).  Stockton is my pumpkin boy.  He inhales anything pumpkin.  I have to keep pumpkin bread stocked in the freezer at all times-individually wrapped slices for his lunch.

The priests quorum is good at doing monthly trips to the temple.  They are an exceptional group of boys and Justin enjoys his time with them immensely.

Andrew Chappell, Weston Grant, Maddox Knowles, Justin (we also have a lot of tall priests!)

Jason Grant, Justin, Andrew, Maddox

The younger group of Young Women were planning on attending the opening night of The Forgotten Carols.  Michael McLean always opens the show at Wasatch High School for the community since he lives in Heber.  One of the leaders was sick but they had an extra ticket and needed another mom so I volunteered myself and got to go with Molly.  I hadn't been since my freshman year of college.  I had just started dating Justin and it was the first time he went anywhere with my family.  I remember being kind of embarrassed because it is cheesy in many parts.  Justin also will tell you about a really good USU basketball game that he missed that night.  Anyway, it was fun to be with Molly and fun to see the show again.  Yes, there were cheesy parts but I really did enjoy the music and the message.

On the night before Thanksgiving, Molly's coaches put together a last-minute "open play" at the rec center.  Molly had missed practice the night before to go to The Forgotten Carols so was happy she was able to go to this.  I think only one other girl showed up and her coaches had some friends that were there so they just started scrimmaging.  When I went to go get her, she wanted to stay a little longer so I sat down and watched.  That girl really is amazing when she can be loose and relaxed and not feel like there is any pressure on her.  I watched her take on older boys over and over and hold her own.  When we got in the car I told her she needed to be like that all the time!