Wrapping Up November

 What???? It's almost December??

Time to relax and listen to Christmas music!

Whenever Meg hears a loud noise she usually makes her mouth into an "O" shape and then puts her hands up to her mouth or cheeks. It makes me smile.

I'm halfway done with this quilt top. I finally settled on how I wanted the pattern. I got started a bit on another top. I'm keeping my little sewing machine humming with four receiving blankets for a friend. She is going to donate them to the hospital, but has discovered that she has an allergy to the fuzz that comes off the flannel when she is sewing. So, I offered to finish them for her.

 

I bought some raspberries and blackberries at my favorite produce store. They were super cheap. Meg ended up eating all of the blackberries. They were huge! I assume they were good since she ate them so fast.

I got together with my best-friend two weeks ago. Football season is over at the high school, so her husband was home to watch the kids. We haven't gotten together in a while. It was so nice to catch up, and we had so much fun. We decided to go to the local mall because it was somewhere that we could be indoors to walk and do all our talking. We did stop and smell all the soap and candle scents at Bath and Body, and then we decided to pop into one store that we hadn't been in. She found a sweater she liked and had me be her model. I talked her into getting it, and then we decided just to have fun and try on a bunch of clothes. There was late 80's music playing which took us down memory lane. We started singing and dancing around in the dressing room. Oh my goodness, we laughed so hard!!! It was such a fun outing. Here is my favorite outfit that I tried on.

It's been pretty cold here. I turn the heater on for half an hour in the morning, and this is usually where I find at least one of the kids..............on the heater with a blanket.

This past Monday we decided to set the Christmas tree up. Normally we wait for Thanksgiving, but since we weren't going to be home for the holiday the kids wanted to do it beforehand. Myles has set up a train track around the tree which carries little wooden Christmas trees. I love, when it is dark in the morning and evening, having the tree lit up, the train going, and Christmas music playing.

We headed up to Ben and Stacey's for Thanksgiving this year. We had such a great time! It was so relaxing. Myles was super excited about the sunrise on Thanksgiving morning. With the frost, pink sky, and the full moon going down, it made for quite a beautiful sight.

 They have about six to seven dear that hang out on their property. You can get pretty close to them too. Chris and Ben went out to shoot and the noise didn't even seem to bother the dear.
 

 

Ben made the turkey breast. He and I worked on the potatoes together, and I lent moral support while  he made the cornbread stuffing and Stovetop  dressing for Chris.
 

 

 Thanksgiving pictures...........
 

 

 

 

 

 
Stacey and I had a fun girls afternoon on Friday. We went for pedicures and then out to dinner.
Afterwards we came home to make everyone special grilled cheese sandwiches.  Then Stacey and the kids played board games while the rest of us watched a Harry Potter movie.
 
 
Ben and Stacey were good to take some family photos for us while we were up at their place.
It was freezing out, and Myles was trying to warm up Aeva.

 

 

The night before we went home we all got to open ornaments. Ben and Stacey had picked out ones that were very unique to each of us, and we got to put them on Ben and Stacey's very first Christmas tree ever. That was a great memory made!

Myles thinks he got the coolest ornament. Stacey got a Lego Batcopter and put it together for his ornament.
And now that I have photos of the family I can do Christmas cards!

RETRACTION

It is with great apology to Rhaevyn that I make a correction of my previous post.

Apparently, this is her drawing and not Aeva's. She has wonderful artistic creativity!

Sorry, Rhaevyn :(

Hello Kitty

 

Aeva made her second hat. She did it all by herself. I didn't even sit next to her for moral support. It turned out really cute.

She's had a bit of a break from Japanese, but this last week she started her second semester of it. It's organized a bit differently than the last semester. It's getting a bit harder, but she's hoping for another A. She's still doing a lot of drawing. Here are two of her latest......                                           


 The girls walked into the kitchen this morning upon returning from Seminary, and I had to do a double take with Rhaevyn. She looked slightly different. That stinker cut her hair last night. It is up to her shoulders. It looks really cute though. I 'll have to see if I can be sneaky enough to get a picture of her.

Myles has been working on a light-saber made of legos. Unfortunately, Meg took off with it and hid it somewhere, but this is the picture he took of it before it was snatched.

I started another quilt this week. I haven't decided if I want to keep the squares random or make it more of a pattern. I just put down the squares randomly when I took the picture. I was one square short, but luckily had just enough to make one more. Now to just put the top together. I have another one with the same concept using white, black, and green material.

I have trained my children well.................
This little one can be in the back bedroom and hear when someone is using the whipcream. She comes racing down the hall and practically skids into the kitchen with her mouth wide open. Who am I kidding....................They all come running!

Chris and I had a really nice Saturday. We were invited by a sister in our ward to go to the temple with her. She has worked long and hard at coming back to church. Her daughter and Aeva are really good friends. I don't think I've ever changed so fast. Her session started at one, and we pulled into the parking lot at 10 minutes 'til one. What a wonderful experience! There were sisters there from our old ward. It was really like a bit of heaven. Such a wonderful reunion. Then at 7 that evening we went over to some friends' house (Tom and Darlene) for a surprise birthday party. Darlene was turning 50. So much fun visiting with great people.
Yesterday I gave a talk on the Sabbath pertaining to after the three hours of church. I told the bishop that I had just given a talk six months ago. Our last ward was so big that it took two years to rotate through the entire ward. I guess they have been counseled now not to just go through a rotating list. If they feel inspired that someone should speak on a subject they are to go with that. Apparently, several people in ward council thought I should speak on this topic. I think this is the first talk where I did not feel nervous at all! The bishop said that if he could have put together the perfect talk for that subject it would have been the talk I gave. I can't take credit for how it turned out. It was truly all the Spirit.
We have a lot of dancing going on here. I think we have some type of music going almost all day long. Here are Elsa and Meg dancing to one of Christopher's favorite DJ's who is LDS and was featured on Studio C lately. Christopher was pretty ecstatic!
In case you feel like jumping around too and getting some exercise :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qen7he4Y7c

Hope you all have a joyful week!