November

Brynn and Ivy helped me with a craft at our RS's Super Saturday.  We picked a Valentine craft since that's what I have the least of already. It was super fun and the craft turned out super cute! (See what I did there.)

We left a little early from that to head down to Josie's baptism.  The last one of the Moyes cousins!  I played the piano, like I have for 95% of the baptisms-I loved playing primary songs the most.  The baptism was great and we had a delicious lunch at Ali's house after.  (Molly had a game and Justin had to work so they were both MIA.)

Molly had her first game with her new club team.  It was just a scrimmage but she had no idea what to expect.  I think she was pleasantly surprised-they seemed better than what she had in her mind.  We'll see how the season goes next spring.  Her team played Finley and Allie's team, two Wasatch teammates.

Allie Woolley, Molly, Finley Tolbert

Molly joined her friend, Carol, for the Sabrina Carpenter concert that night at the Delta Center.  They look so cute and Molly had a great time.  She said it was girly and cute and that everyone was dancing.

Molly, Carolyn Ritchie

Brynn and I attended a baby shower for one of the other cheer moms.  She is having a surprise baby 13 years after her last baby!  We are super excited for her to enter the world of boy, since she has two girls.  It was a fun day for Brynn because those girls decided to spend the entire day together, mostly at our house where they did a lot of stunting, jumping on the tramp, and other things.

Ella Wilson, Abby Hansen, Aviana Blanco, Brook Moore, Claire Winsor, Jill Winsor, Evan Schuler, Brynn

haha, silly girls...Abby, Brook, Claire, Brynn, Evan, Aviana

our vaulted ceiling in the living room lends well to this kind of "play"

Molly went to Sadie Hawkin's with Jett Rhees.  It was a costume party and their group did "dynamic duos"-Molly and Jett went as Charlie Brown and Lucy.  Molly borrowed a dress from a friend, yay.  They went to Boondocks and got dinner on Friday night and on Saturday they did pictures, dinner at the Locke's, the dance, and then they hung out at Georgia's house after the dance.  Molly had a lot of fun and told me her "faith in dances has been restored" which is funny because all of her dances have been pretty great, outside of the very first two which were fine but not great.

I'll name the girls, left to right: Libbie Locke, Kiley Bishop, Sophia Locke, Molly, Georgia Rinquest, Amberly Howe

It's become a tradition that putting the Christmas lights on the house is a family affair, usually done on the Sunday afternoon of Stake Conference since Justin doesn't have meetings.  Even Stockton got up on the roof this year which is a big deal since he does not like heights.  It goes pretty quick when we all pitch in!

I took Molly to Price to tour the USU Eastern campus and play with their women's soccer team.  They held a scrimmage and had a bunch of recruits come and play.  Then we toured the campus and met one-on-one with the coach.  Molly loved the campus, had a really fun time playing with the team, liked the coach, and left feeling so happy-such a difference from leaving Casper when she just cried and cried from being so overwhelmed.  We also liked the drive much better.  Molly wanted me to stop at our old town home in Spanish Fork and take this picture.  Justin and Molly spent hours playing soccer on this patch of grass and she wanted to memorialize it on what was possibly the cusp of a college career.

Anyway, Molly was really hoping USUE would extend an offer to her (they didn't make any offers that day) for many reasons.  She knew she would accept if they did and decline the Casper offer, even if they couldn't offer her as much money.  Fortunately, they must have really liked what they saw from the video she sent them and from the scrimmage that day and she only had to wait four days for word that they wanted her on their team.  She was so happy and so relieved and she literally cried tears of joy.  It was a moment I probably won't forget.  They are paying for her housing while she is there plus she is able to get some academic scholarships so that's pretty awesome.  She took a couple of days to think it over before sending them her verbal commitment but really she had already made up her mind.  She is so excited and Justin and I are so happy to keep watching her play soccer!

Ivy got to go to a friend's house and participate in an American Girl doll service project.  Each girl got to pick a refurbished AG doll, dress her in a "meet" outfit, then pack a kit of 15 additional outfits, doll brush, book, and quilt.  Then all the dolls were donated to refugee children in West Valley.  We have done this once before, we have a lady in our ward who is heavily involved in this charity and makes a lot of the doll clothes, so she puts these parties together.  It's always so much fun.  And Ivy even made it into the Wasatch Wave newspaper this time around!

Rocky Crane, Lydia Evans, Ivy, London Mathis, Joanna and Alina Quinn, Mia H, ? Kallie Gehring, ?, ?

Ivy in the middle

Ivy on far right

It was time for cheer showcase for Brynn, the kick-off to the competition season for her.  They always do a showcase for families to "showcase" what they've been working on and to get the girls back in the habit of performing in front of an audience.  It's pretty fun.  Showcase is sometimes bumpy as they are still working out kinks in their routines but this year was different.  Brynn's team has a hard routine but they nailed it.  I was actually surprised and impressed by what they put together-it moves fast and has a fairly high technical difficulty level and they were awesome. I'm so excited for them to put that routine out on the mat at comps this year and to cheer on my favorite little flyer!

right flyer

solo flyer

these girls came to support the team, they cheered with Brynn for years and are cheering at the high school now...Brook, Brynn, Abby, Ari Apostol

Brynn made this ferris wheel in Stem class out of popsicle sticks with bead people. We put it in the loft with the toys for now since it won't fit in her keepsake binder.

Brynn used her own baby-sitting money to buy a Christmas tree and ornaments.  She set it up as soon as it came and has no regrets.  It is very cute. She also spent a lot of time wrapping some LEGO boxes from her closet to put under the tree as decor.

Since it was an off-year for a Goodrich Thanksgiving, April hosted a mini-Thanksgiving a couple of Sundays before the actual holiday.  We were in charge of a veggie tray, fruit tray, pumpkin pie, and Oreo pie.  Brynn and Ivy helped me make a turkey fruit tray.  Everything else was normal.  I had never made a pumpkin pie and was a little nervous about making a good one since it's kind of the main event of the dessert table.  I was determined to make it from scratch (minus canned pumpkin) and it turned out wonderfully delicious.

The whole meal was wonderful.  April hung up some posters for everyone to write down what they were thankful for and that turned out to be a fun activity.  After dessert, the kids and adults were given their Amazon cards and instructed to start doing their Christmas shopping and send their gifts to Grandma.

Ivy and Evie

the best listener...Ivy and Grandma

We also put up the fake tree that weekend.  Justin set it up Saturday and I had it decorated by Monday night.  It's getting a little easier now that we've done it for a few years.

We usually try to get the leaves raked on the first Saturday of November but it didn't work out that way.  We had Josie's baptism, Stockton's baseball tournament, and then snow on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Saturdays of the month.  I was worried we wouldn't get around to it this year and would be raking dead leaves in March, which is not a pleasant task.  Luckily, we woke up on the 4th Saturday to decent leaf-raking weather and nothing on the calendar so we headed out to get the job done.  Stockton was our driver, driving all the leaves to the pasture to dump, Brynn and Ivy were his willing helpers, and Justin and I raked and raked and raked.  I really do not like raking leaves.  (Molly was excused because of a surgery she had earlier that week.) Everyone was so good to help out and we were able to get it all finished that day, whew!

We got out the villages and the rest of Christmas on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  I don't know...do you think these girls still fit in the bookcases?  They do!  They were also fabulous helpers with the village and we had it all up in not very long.  I did the rest of the Christmas bins over the next few days and we had everything put back into the crawl space the night before Thanksgiving which was wonderful.  We came home from Thanksgiving celebrations to a clean house, ready to decorate our real tree.

Ivy was super excited for the 4th grade rendezvous, held on the last day before Thanksgiving break.  She was busy all weekend and Monday making stuff to trade.  She ended up braiding boondoggle for key chains and we made some homemade playdough as well.  She had a great day at the rendezvous!

Molly wanted to make a craft that involved dehydrating oranges so she took Ivy to the store to get all the supplies she would need.

Brynn was old enough this year to apply to be an elf on the train.  They had tons and tons of applicants but, lucky for her, she has a big sister who works at the train and that's kind of a shoe-in for younger siblings.  Brynn has loved working as an elf so far.  Her elf name is Glory and she has to be the cutest one there.

Molly continues to work as a host and the Christmas season is her favorite on the train.  She looks forward to Christmas trains all year and it makes her Christmas season a little more magical.