All Rolled Into One

You're getting  a months worth of updates in one post.......

Thanksgiving Week:

 We've had a fairly easy going week with a lot of fun, a little bit of unexpected news, and a disappointment thrown in.

We put the Christmas tree up Monday. A little bit earlier than normal, but the little girls were so excited to have it up.  Myles thought we should have waited a couple of more days. However, he loves laying by it in the evening and letting the train make its circle around it.

We were going to wait until Thanksgiving day to actually decorate the tree except before I knew it half the tree was already done with ornaments on it no higher than Meg could reach. I had to laugh. Apparently, she found the ornaments and was taking them one at a time, going back and forth from my room to the living room, and hanging them on the tree. So, we just decided we might as well finish decorating it.

We played some card games together........Crazy 8's, War (with five people), Old Maid, and Go Fish. We also watched some movies together..........Suspicion (with Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant), Going My Way (with Bing Crosby), and The Awful Truth (with Irene Dunn and Cary Grant).

This past week I spent some time making flashcards for Elsa at her violin teacher's request. I'm so glad that both Elsa and Myles know how to read music because I don't. I questioned if I was doing it correctly and if Elsa would be able to look at the bars and notes on the front and know what it meant. I certainly had no clue myself, but Elsa rattled through the flashcards and got them all correct. I had to giggle because the kids were trying to help me understand, but it was like a foreign language to me.

Elsa sat and read to Meg from The Book of Virtues the other day. She had been explaining to Meg that there is a please that lives in your mouth, but you have to let it out. Meg was not understanding this new bit of information, so Elsa pulled out the book and read to her. The story she read was titled Please. After that they did some role playing where Elsa would say something and Meg was supposed to respond with a "Please" in order to let her Please out. It was so cute.

Thursday morning we spent getting food ready for Thanksgiving. We had dinner over at my best friend's parents' house. Everybody invited brought food items to contribute. I volunteered to bring  deviled eggs, which Elsa and Chris helped with, and I was asked to bring my sweet potatoes. I was thinking about the first year I was asked to find a recipe for sweet potatoes for the Thanksgiving feast. I wasn't sure it would be a  hit, but it was. I think for the past five or six years this is usually the only thing I'm requested to bring. This year I also decided to try something new. I found a recipe for stuffed mushrooms and tweaked it, taking ingredients out and adding others. I was very pleased at what a success they were. I will have to write my recipe down and stick it in my book because it is a keeper for sure.

Mushrooms going into the oven......

 

 All done............

 

 I also tried a new Chicken Parmesan recipe using no refined carbs. I thought it was just as good as Olive Garden with all their breading. Super yummy and another successful venture in the cooking department. The picture doesn't look too swell, but it really did taste good. The kids ate it, so that is a good sign!

Chris got to take Elsa and Myles to their music lessons and hear what they are working on for the upcoming recital. This is where our unexpected news comes in. Elsa has outgrow her violin and needs to move up to the next size. She came home from violin lessons a bit out of sorts and escorted me to my bedroom for a serious "talk." She explained to me that she had some bad news, and she was sorry that she had to break it to me. She broke the news to me gently 😂. She said that when her teacher told her the news she thought she was going to cry. First, because she worried about the price this would cost, and second, which caused her the most sadness, because she has named her violin and was really going to miss "Edward". I told her not to worry because Heavenly Father really blessed us with her current violin and to have faith that he would do the same again. I told her that this would be an exciting adventure for Edward because he'd get to have a new owner who was learning violin. He wouldn't be lonely, but well loved as he moves on.


 Friday afternoon Chris and Myles headed off to the temple. I love that Myles looks so forward to going.

The only Black Friday shopping I did was Friday evening after 4:30 pm. I wen to Craft Warehouse with my best friend.  We had fun perusing, getting ideas, and I talked her into a Christmas craft project and vowed to help her with it. I came across this cute little owl.

 

 

Our disappointing news for the week was learning that the Toyota Chris has been fixing in order to sell and pay for the girls' flight home will not be able to be sold after all. After finishing everything on it that he could, and was willing to, and having it ready to sell, he checked the oil one last time a week after putting new antifreeze in and found antifreeze in the oil. Needless to say he was quite disheartened. We are focusing on the positive, which is that the money he used was from his scrap metal and not family finances. He had to call the buyer that we had lined up to tell them it was a no go 😭.
Update as of December 14th: Chris did find someone who was willing to come get the Toyota for $100. I guess it isn't a complete loss.

Last Week of November:
Meg has asked twice to have straight hair. She looks so different with straight hair, and it amazes me how long her hair actually is when her curls are gone.

 Monday night we spent time making Christmas gift tags. It was fun to get creative.
Myles:
 

 Me:

 Elsa:

 

 Chris and Meg worked together on a reindeer and snowman.

 After finishing her schoolwork on Tuesday, Elsa went and sat on the front patio and did some drawings:

 In the past week Elsa's bow has come apart several times. Each time Chris has been able to put it back together. We are hoping it makes it until her recital is over.

Myles has been busy collecting empty paper towel and toilette paper rolls to make holiday crafts. 

 This is the song that Elsa is working on with her teacher for her recital. I can't remember if I had already posted this bit of info, but she really wanted to ask her teacher if he would play a duet with her. She thought that he wouldn't, but I told her that the worst he could say is "no." Anyway, she asked. He told her he had never had a student actually ask him to play a duet with them. This brought a smile to her face, and she told me how glad she was that she asked.

 Okay, here is where I start losing track of what exactly happened when, so I'm just going to throw a bunch of pictures at you with what I can remember. Here goes:

A trip to the craft store with Myles:

 A date with Chris. We went to see a movie. I can't even tell you the last time I actually went to see a movie in the movie theater. We even got a hamburger and milkshake afterwards.

Grandpa Lindsay sent Myles a solar plane. Chris worked with Myles to put it together. Myles loves it!!We just need more sunny days.

 

Meg and I worked on more gift tags together:

 Meg's is the really colorful snowman.

 We were at Fred Meyer and the girls said they needed a picture with these big stuffed animals.

 Elsa got a new violin!! Chris found one violin on sale, but when he went to order it it had already been sold. He contacted the company, and they arranged for another violin for us to purchase and gave us the sale price, plus we got 25% off for the Thanksgiving sale they were running. Then a couple days later he received another $5 off. We feel pretty blessed, and so does Elsa. Her violin arrived just in time to get some practice with it before the recital. This was a blessing because I don't think Chris could have fixed her bow any more on the old violin. She will not have any fingering tape with her new violin. She does really well memorizing and playing by ear, as well as reading the music. She felt a bit nervous about this. Myles assured her that she didn't need it, and he joked that fingering tape is only good for the first two weeks as a beginner.

 

 The kids and I, along with my best friend and three of her children, attended our pediatric dentist's Christmas party. They hold one every year, but this is the first time we've gone. It was so much fun! The theme this year was Peter Pan and Neverland.

 Face Painting:

 

Yummy Cookies:

 There were different stations along with goodies and face painting. The kids could build with Legos, make an ornament, play games, look at Christmas lights through special glasses, get their picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus,  and at the end they could enter into a raffle for a prize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Myles spotted this Red Breasted Sap Sucker in our backyard. Then he kept watch for any hummingbirds, as they usually come to suck sap out of the  holes the woodpecker makes. Sure enough, two days in a row we spotted a hummingbird.

 Meg had her birthday. I've never seen someone so excited over underwear as a present.

 

 Elsa made her an ornament for her birthday. It is made out of glue, cinnamon, and applesauce.

Oma and Opa got Meg a Playmobile glass bottom boat. She has been playing with it nonstop and loves to take it in the tub too. In the video the boat appears to be going backwards, but we had put the batteries in wrong. So, it really does propel forward.

I found Meg some cute clothes for her birthday at a second hand shop. They were having 50%-70%  off a good chunk of their items. I was so thrilled to find her a brand new pair of pajamas for $2.75, a pretty pink skirt and brown sweater for under $6, and this awesome heavy quilted name brand jacket, which ended up being my big splurge at the shop.

Myles was sweet to pay for pizza for Meg's birthday, and Meg picked out a chocolate fudge cake at our favorite store, Chuck's, where she had to stop and hug every snowman that was in the store.

Friday night I took Meg to get her free Red Robin birthday burger, and we split a milkshake.

I found this hat at a local shop called Urban Basics. They have about 50 individual stalls where people can sell their repurposed items or new items, clothes, and crafts that they make. I saw this hat and practically drooled over it. Doesn't it look divine??? Too bad it was so expensive.

Myles has been busy adding to his plant collection. He has been reading books about plants from the library. He is gaining quite the knowledge about house plants. Here are two of his new additions:

I was going through two of my photo boxes the other night looking for past family Christmas pictures for our Ward Christmas Program.I came across several pictures of my sister, Cullen, in her Scottish Dance attire. Elsa was so excited and asked if she could have them. I found that she had put them all up on her board in her room.

I decided to make some earrings for Christmas presents. The nice lady at the craft store gave me 10 minutes of her time teaching me, walking me through, and letting me try my hand at making a few. I felt confident I could do it. Myles helped me pick out the beads. I came home and got them half done, and then Chris was kind enough to step in and finish them all up for me. This is one of the pairs he helped me make. I have one pair for myself that I am saving to wear next Sunday.

 Elsa made a chain a couple of weeks ago to countdown when the girls will be home.

 

 Meg was thrilled she made the letter Y out of her phonics cards. She said "It's like BYU where the girls go!"

 

 Saturday night was our ward Christmas Program. It was such a nice evening. The program was held in the chapel where ward members played various Christmas songs on instruments, or sang, and some did readings of stories.
Myles had asked a brother in our ward to accompany him on the piano while Myles played his cello. He played O Holy Night. I didn't get the actual performance, but Chris did get this video of him at one of their practices together. Just click on the link below:

https://youtu.be/dIVCR_ENdVI

 Click on this link to see his recital piece that he was practicing with his teacher. Both Myles's teacher and Elsa's teacher like to take them into the music shop to play in front of others to help them get more comfortable performing in front of people.

https://youtu.be/j5znPiXDFzI

Back to the Ward Christmas Party: There was a slide show in the middle of the program made up of pictures of Christmas pictures that everyone contributed. Afterwards we went into the cultural hall for refreshments and to socialize. The kids got to get pictures with Santa.

 Meg got in to see Santa first with her buddy.

 

 

 

Aeva sent me pictures of her last two projects. She says she absolutely loves sewing, but she will like it even more when there are no deadlines or grades on her projects. The  TA in her sewing class pointed out that all her projects had blue in them.

 

 

 Rectial Day!!!!
Elsa practiced tirelessly on her song. She memorized it quickly, and I think she surprised her teacher with that. She saw a dress at Walmart that she really liked, and so I got it for her so she'd have something nice and new for her recital. She even got to pick out heavy cable knit tights to go with it. She wanted her nails  painted red, and her hair done up too.

 Both she and Myles did splendidly. They do a group photo at the end of each recital.

 Elsa playing her duet with her teacher: Mozart Serenade

 Myles playing his duet with his teacher: O Holy Night
Click on the link:

https://youtu.be/fjwvsYxy2t0

And finally after a month I am up to date! Hooray!! And the older girls come home Saturday night....yippee!!