November Reflections

 As part of Kasen's A.L.L. class this year, he was required to enter Reflections and ended up being a winner at his school this year for the literature category! He received the Award of Excellence and is moving on to the council level now. We're so proud of how hard he worked to write his story!

He wrote a short story about this years theme: I Am Hopeful Because... All the participants got a prize that included free treats at a bunch of restaurants. So the next day we drove around and collected some of them, like the freeloaders we are! Haha He got a brownie from Chick-fil-a, a Fiiz drink, and an Arctic Circle ice cream cone, while the other kids used their free Jr. Frosty coupons at Wendy's!

The day after that I took Tai on a date to use her free Zupas kids meal and to the library. She picked out 3 Easter books and wants to have an Easter birthday. Poor girl was born in the wrong season.

Kasen finished reading the 5th Harry Potter book before we finished listening to it in the car so that he could watch the movie. He was so excited to see it! He also started Chess Club this month.

This month Kohen went with Kyle to the dermatologist to get the 5 bumps on his belly looked at. They are like warts, but are not warts so they put some medicine on them to eat them off. Which makes them even more contagious until they heal. So we put bandaids on them and Kohen lets everyone know, "If you touch my belly you have to wash your hands!"

One day this month I told Kohen that he wasn't allowed to watch any of his shows and we spent the whole day putting together every train and car track that we have. We found batteries for all of them and had a whole city set up. The OCD in me can't stop once we start!

One week this month we got to go to 3 temples within 6 days! 

The Orem Temple Openhouse was going on, then the next day Kyle and I got to go do an endowment session at the Saratoga Springs Temple. That weekend we went to the very last day of the St. George Temple open house too. I loved being able to take our kids inside with us for a couple temple dates.

We moved from Spanish Fork before the Payson Temple was finished. Then we moved from Cedar City before the Cedar City Temple was finished. I'm glad we have stayed in Eagle Mountain long enough to see the Saratoga Springs Temple finished!

We went to $5 Zoo day and it was the perfect weather! Kohen's favorite animal to see was the tiger, even though they were both sleeping.

Grateful that he makes me laugh more than he makes me want to cry cause I'd almost want to give him away then! Luckily he does my most favorite impression of a crab!

Just grateful for this life- so perfectly full.

Survived 7M

I am feeling fairly accomplished that Kolt has made it to 7 Months old considering how many times a day Kohen smashes him with his whole body or pulls him across the floor, how often the baby gate gets left open, and that he has choked on garbage 3x in the last couple weeks.

He's been loving running around the kitchen in his walker though and Kohen also loves playing bumper cars with him or giving him a real big push across the floor.

Right now he has a scratch right under his nose that we don't know for certain where it came from, but have a good guess...

Praying that Kolt survives being the baby brother!

I love this picture Kohen took, mostly cause his cute little toes are in it with Kolt.

Turkey and Trots

2 days before Thanksgiving I asked Kasen if we should to do the Turkey Trot and he was stoked! It was all he could talk about and he went outside to practice running on Tuesday and Wednesday to get ready. So Thursday morning we got up and went to run in the freezing cold. And it was probably my favorite race ever. Kasen both ran AND talked to me the entire time! I was so impressed. And people around us got some good laughs too. Someone in a cow costume had a sign that said 'Eat More Turkee' and Kasen told me how he's eaten turkey and chicken, but not cow. I told him hamburger is cow... "What..."

"Mom, let's run faster! Can you run a little bit faster? Let's hold hands and then it will combine our speeds so that we can win! I'm not even moving my arms and I am still running faster than you. We are definitely not going to win, but we are definitely not going to lose. I don't want to lose! I'm so glad there are police blocking the road for us or this would be a fatal race."

Race #22 is now a core memory. And since I hadn't run for a month, my legs were actually sore this time.

At the end of the race Kasen got his long awaited donut that he earned, some hot chocolate and a pair of turkey socks! We also ran into Sister Hart! It was a perfect day to see her, since we spent Thanksgiving together 14 years ago in the MTC!

It was Grammy Tammy's turn for Thanksgiving this year and Emma hosted it at her new house in Stansbury Park. Grandma Sandy and Kent came too.

My contribution was an apple pie, homemade rolls and sweet potato casserole. I doubled the recipe and made 6lbs of it. Kyle's family would have eaten all of it, but luckily for me I got to bring most of it home. Kyle and I almost have it finished though!

I loved having Tai help me in the kitchen. She brought up all her pretend baking supplies and did everything I did with me. All the kids had turns to roll out pie crust too.

Wednesday morning I went to Heidi's house and she taught me how to make her yummy rolls and sent me home with 4 dozen. AND a pumpkin roll. I am so blessed to have good friends to make rolls with and good family to eat rolls with and a million other things in between.

My mom even made a homemade pumpkin pie from a pumpkin she grew in her garden this year! I'd never had homemade pumpkin pie before so that was neat!

Guess What, Turkey BUTT!!

Kolt's first Thanksgiving, so we gave him a tiny piece of bread, but he has no idea how to eat it. Haha

Tai threw up in the car on the way back home, but she seemed to be feeling much better after that.

I also found a Thankful tree that I liked enough to buy. I have wanted to find one for the last few years. I love seeing what the kids decided to put on the tree that they are thankful for too.

Gratitude really is the key to happiness!

The day after Thanksgiving we had the first snow and it was perfectly magical!

Kohen came running to our room, "It noed! It's Christmas now!"

And then all the kids went outside to make our snowman family like they planned. Usually we're making snowmen in the spring right after aerating the lawn, so this is new! And Kohen rolling his little baby snowball is the cutest thing I have seen all week long.

Good thing Kyle was home to lift the snowballs! And then he made us all some yummy hot chocolate and we watched a movie by the fire. Then we got out Christmas decorations! Only 3 got broken during that time. lol

We just need to work with Kohen on the S sound so that he says he needs sticks for his snowman, instead of "dicks" for his "noman". Haha

Yesterday we went to help clean the church and then took the kids to see Wish. It wasn't my favorite movie, but it got me thinking about how prayer is such a gift. We don't have to wish on stars because we can pray to the creator of them all and He is ready and willing to bless each of us. He is so good.

Later that night the Days came over for dinner and games and Kyle made some wicked good fried chicken sandwiches! I sure have loved having him home for the whole holiday weekend.

He's my favorite.