November

Besides the normal busy-ness of life, I’ve been working on getting Christmas presents ready and also trying to get together all the coordinated clothes for our annual family portraits coming up soon (that’s my excuse for not updating the blog lately). But we are doing well, other than the fact that it’s starting to get a little cold, and I’m having summer-withdrawals already. But instead of getting gloomy about the rapid approach of winter, I’ve decided to make the best of it. So we decorated for Christmas a week or so ago (yes, I know we’re crazy – but I did feel a little validated when we saw two different houses with their Christmas decorations up in our neighborhood yesterday). We haven’t put the tree up yet, since we’re planning on continuing our new tradition of cutting down a fresh tree, so we’re waiting at least a few more weeks for that since we don’t want the tree to die before Christmas. But we got up the stockings, the garland, my miniature Christmas tree with all the annual family portrait ornaments, and the nativities. The boys have been especially excited about playing with their “Little People” nativity, which plays “Away in a Manger” with the push of a button, and both Kolby and Eli requested to play that song this week at their last piano lesson (but different versions in their own piano books, of course). Although my scans for Christmas radio stations in the car have been in vane so far, we have enjoyed reading a few of our Christmas books and listening to my Christmas station on Pandora. To bad Christmas isn’t at the end of winter – maybe I’d enjoy winter if that were the case: just imagine, months to enjoy the decorations and music, looking forward to the best holiday of the year. Oh well, at least we’re going to get as much time as possible out of the decorations this year (yes, I did wait until after Halloween, and even until after Kolby’s birthday party a week later before decorating).

Anyways, now we’re starting to make plans for Thanksgiving (no, I don’t really have any Thanksgiving decorations). We’re going to be getting together with a couple of other families from church for Thanksgiving dinner, and we’ve invited a few friends over to our house for desserts the night before Thanksgiving too. And I’ll have to make our traditional Thanksgiving side dishes, of course: Mamaw’s fruit salad with the little marshmallows in it; my mom’s layered green salad with the red onions, peas, and bacon; and my favorite: Grandma Moore’s lemon jello with 7-up, pineapples, and bananas. Yum. Michael said that he doesn’t mind not having the responsibility to cook the turkey this year, too.

So, Halloween was fun. (I think the last time we wrote was just before then). The boys dressed up in a Wizard of Oz theme, with two wonderful costumes made by Nana: the tin man for Kolby and the scarecrow for Eli – they were both absolutely adorable, and better quality than you could get in any store. Courtland wore the lion costume that Nana made for Kolby when he turned one; Camden was excited to be a “winged monkey,” so we found him a monkey costume, a little vest, and some big black bat wings and I think the costume turned out well; and after a few small alterations I converted a costume of a puppy with long, floppy ears into a Toto costume for Isaac (that’s the extent of my sewing abilities). Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, so the boys were a little disappointed at first when we told them we wouldn’t be trick-or-treating on Halloween night, but they were ok when we told them they’d still have a chance to trick-or-treat. So, that week the boys got to dress up several times: for the story time/baby play date at the library, the playgroup Halloween party, for school on Friday and Kolby’s Halloween parade, and for the big party at church. It was fun: the teenagers all manned the booths and the kids had lots of fun doing all the carnival games, followed by a Halloween parade, and concluding with the “trunk-or-treating,” where all the parents parked their cars in the parking lot and the kids trick-or-treated from trunk to trunk. I would say our boys didn’t miss out by not trick-or-treating on Halloween night: we came home with 5 plastic pumpkin buckets full to the brim with candy (the other day I finally dumped the remainder of the candy in a bag and put it in Michael’s car so I wouldn’t snack on it throughout the day).

A week after Halloween, Kolby had his 7th birthday party. He had an “Emperor’s New Groove” party, and I was much more pleased with the results of my llama birthday cake than with how the Wall-e cake turned out for the last party at our house – I figured out that instead of using the store-bought frosting-dispenser, if I put the frosting in a ziplock bag and cut a little hole in the corner to squeeze it out, I had much more control and it turned out a lot better, I think. Anyways, the party was a success: it was simple and fun. After playing a little in the basement playroom, the kids enjoyed cake and ice cream sandwiches, Kolby opened presents, and then we watched the Emperor’ New Groove movie while the kids quickly emptied a large stock pot full of popcorn. We had 7 kids show up, plus our 4 boys (Courtland fell asleep in his high chair eating birthday cake and he was so tired that he didn’t even wake up when Michael was washing his face off). But the party went well and we had several parents comment about how calm and well-behaved that many kids were – I think the key is the movie (I’m just wondering what movies to do at the next big-kid parties, since we only have 2 or 3 movies like that that are fun for kids that age, but are not as long as most movies). Eli is having a Dr. Seuss party this year, and since he started kindergarten it will be his first time to have a kid party (when they kids are young, we invite their families too, so it doesn’t turn into babysitting a bunch of 3 year olds for a couple hours), so I was thinking we need to get a copy of that new Horton Hears a Who movie and preview it to see if it would work (as long as it’s not too long). We’ll see.

Other than holidays and birthdays, life has been pretty normal. Michael has continued to work with the young men at church on introducing the new “Duty to God” award requirements. And I’ve been doing Activity Days (teaching a class to the girls ages 8 to 11 every other week). This school year the other teacher and I combined our two classes, and I think it’s actually been good for me to teach with her, because she’s more relaxed and doesn’t worry so much about fitting so much into every activity (the girls have a number of requirements that they are supposed to work on, and we are supposed to do one each time we meet, but last year there were several girls who were aging out of the program and hadn’t completed enough of their requirements yet, so I was trying to get in as many as possible to help them finish). So, this year has been nice, since it’s been a little more relaxed so far, at least from a teaching standpoint. I’ve also been working at the local family history library every other week, which I enjoy (although the weeks when I have my shift at the family history center on Tuesday, activity days on Wednesday, and the Book of Mormon study class we’ve been attending on Thursday do feel a little too busy sometimes – but they’re all good things to do). Anyways, along with Tuesday nights at the family history center, I’ve been teaching an 8 week class on Sundays and on my Tuesday nights about how to compile a family ‘Book of Remembrance,’ which can include a number of different things, but is mostly made up of a written ‘life story’ and a written testimony or spiritual experiences. My biggest priority with this class is to have minimal teaching time and to give them the most time possible to actually sit and write, since getting motivated and making time to write your life history can be the hardest thing. I handed out a number of outlines and sample questions to get people thinking, and they could choose what and how much to write – either just writing a very basic history, or getting into more details. So far, the class has gone really, really well. And I’ve also been taking advantage of the time when they are writing to work on writing a more detailed history of my own.

Oh, a couple weeks ago I was able to go to the temple with my friend, Melissa, and it was exciting because it was her first time going since she was baptized. And to make it even better, she did the genealogy research to be able to do some work for her ancestors, so that made it even more meaningful. We had a few other friends come along, and it was a really great Saturday afternoon.

We’ve also had doctor’s check-ups (Kolby is 50th percentile for both height and weight – I think that’s the first time ever that one of my kids hasn’t been above average for height, but he’s one of the older ones in his class at school, so he’s still one of the tallest). We voted in the elections, and the boys enjoyed going with us to do that (and eating the cookies that they served after leaving the polls). We had Ladies Night Out, which has turned out to be a fun little monthly night off. We’ve enjoyed a couple of great phone calls with the Kearls and Hedgecocks, which is always lots of fun. And Courtland got his second haircut -- although it was more than a trim than a cut -- I just trimmed the hair enough so it wasn't in his eyes anymore.  Michael was starting to make comments about a haircut for Courtland, so I just did a trim to appease him: I don't know when I'll be able to bring myself to cut his curls.  And last Sunday Camden gave his first talk in primary at church about service (it seems like the older boys were a lot older than Camden is when they first gave talks at church, but I guess it’s just that our younger ones are starting to get older). And this last week I was able to find a shirt for Kolby and for Courtland that matched for our family pictures. (There was this adorable vest and shirt that I wanted for Courtland, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay $25 for something that would only fit him for a few more months – I’m so used to clothes being used by multiple children over years, I guess. But I was able to find something for Courtland, so we’re all set for family pictures next week. Oh, and the sister missionaries lent me their straightener for my hair this week, and I love it! I always thought that those people who had perfectly straight hair all styled cute were just really lucky (or that they spent hours styling it), because when I tried to get my hair straight it never really worked, but now I realize that most of ‘those people’ probably use straighteners. I was surprised at how well it worked, and pleased with the results. So one of the sister missionaries happens to be a hair dresser and said she could get me one of my own at a discounted price, plus they happened to see them for a really good sale recently, so they’re going to pick one up for me – I can’t wait (and I hope it gets here before family picture day).

Anyways, Thursday was Veteran’s Day so the boys didn’t have school. We were going to babysit for a friend all day, but that got cancelled, and the piano teacher called and rescheduled for the next day, and our Book of Mormon class happened to be cancelled too. We enjoyed a relaxing day at home. The boys played in the back yard (we’ve had a few warmer days now and a little break from the rain, so it was nice for them to get outside), and the older 3 boys had fun painting while their brothers napped. Then they watched the Miracle on 34th Street movie (the new version). That reminds me, all the boys still believe in Santa – I figure that once they get to the point when they ask us if he’s real or not, we’ll just tell them he’s not. I think Michael is more into keeping up the idea that Santa’s real than I am, but I think it’s a fun thing for them to believe in and I’m not going to ruin it for them while they still believe it or anything. So, yesterday I was reading a Christmas book to Kolby and Eli. It’s a book that I found at a garage sale that is the same as one I grew up with – it’s all about Santa and his work shops, but it has these really cool old pictures. Anyways, we were reading the book, and Kolby asked if elves were real. I immediately answered “no,” then I realized what I’d said and just changed the subject and kept reading. He didn’t seem to catch it. The thing is, Kolby is always asking me if movies and books are real stories or not, and I was just so in the habit of answering that question that I didn’t really think about it. We’ll see how long it is before Kolby seriously wants to know if Santa is real or not – I’m pretty sure he’s already older than I was when I found out. But it sure is fun for him right now.

On Saturday we had a really fun hike at a nature preserve area off of Gurnsey Road (Michael knew about it because he volunteered to help one of the young men with his Eagle scout project of putting up trail markers with information about the different kinds of trees along the trail there). So the boys were really excited to see which sign posts Daddy had helped to dig the holes for. And we could tell Brax was excited too to get out and go on a hike, since the cold and rain have made that impossible lately. Michael was on call this weekend, and although he got a number of calls, luckily he only had to go into the hospital to see a patient once, early Sunday morning (so fortunately he got home in plenty of time to help get the boys ready and go to church). My class at church went well, and Michael’s roast, carrots, potatoes, and onions turned out great, and then we enjoyed dessert at the St. Cyr’s house last night before coming home to put the boys in bed and enjoy a phone call with the Kearls and Hedgecocks.

And today has been nice so far. I was glad when I looked at the calendar that there wasn’t much going on today – sometimes you just need a day to recover after the weekend (even if the weekend was fun). Michael had to go in early to work, because Dr. Brown called a Monday night journal meeting over the weekend, and Michael was supposed to read a bunch of articles to prepare for the meeting but his journals were all at work over the weekend. I woke up to find that Courtland’s diaper had fallen down around one of his feet in the leg of his overalls – that was fun to clean up. But other than that the day has run pretty smoothly. It was rainy this morning, but cleared up enough for the boys to play outside this afternoon. And I learned that I can’t leave Courtland alone with Brax while Courtland is wearing his new winter hat. I was at Good Will the other day and found this adorable Baby Gap hat for $2 – it’s a big old hat with faux fur, and I had to go outside two different times to get the hat away from Brax, who was just having a ball running around and swinging that hat through the air, he probably thought it was a furry animal or something. And now the boys have gotten up from naps and home from school, and had their snacks. Kolby and Eli already practiced the piano and Kolby read his scriptures before school – I think he’s up to about chapter 13 in the Book of Mormon, he’s such a great reader! So Kolby is now playing at Rafaela’s house, while Eli, Camden, and Isaac are playing Legos in the study after they picked up all the books that Courtland put on the floor earlier, and Courtland is sitting next to me having lots of fun playing with a toy catalog that came in the mail. Michael has his meeting tonight, so he’ll get home late and we’ll have to do family night tomorrow, but at least we had a roast for dinner last night so I already prepared the BBQ pork last night for dinner tonight.

Well, after that long update, I’m sure you’d be glad if I waited another 3 weeks before writing again.  :)