Friday November 30

I felt a bit better this morning.

Cassi woke up not feelin good, so she went back to bed.

But then went back to school after lunch.

She just needed to get some sleep.

Dad fixed the tree and made a new stand.

So I got that all put back together.

Then I took a shower and that was nice.

I felt like a real human :)

Then Sherrie called and asked if we wanted to go out to the movies tonight.

So we did.

It was nice to get out and a movie isn't hard to do :)

We went and saw Robin Hood.

Madi hung out with the kids at home.

She had Elsie and Porter, Koy, Titan and Everly and then Kyra and Cannon.

We have the Morgans here tonight.

Paul and Stacia get home tomorrow....we have them tonight so they don't need to pay the babysitter for another night.

And our kids get to have a fun sleepover.

Madi got Eves to sleep......and she had many awkward sleeping positions :)

Love that girl!!!!!

Thursday November 29

Well, I was worthless today.

Didn't get anything done.

I still felt lousy this morning.

I got the kids off to school and went back to bed.

I didn't wake up until 1:00!!!!!!

I guess I needed sleep!

Anyway.

I thought I could at least put stuff on the tree.

I kept hearing a creaking sound......and then.....plop.

The tree fell over!

One of the legs on the tree holder busted.

So......I started taking ornaments off.

Dad will help out with a new stand tomorrow.

I did actually make some dinner for the kids, which I didn't do yesterday :)

I made some homemade mac and cheese....but only because I didn't have the easy stuff.

I am heading off to bed now, hoping more sleep with help me magically wake up feeling good.

It could be worse.

The other Beehive leader that was with me at our activity Tuesday night is also feeling sick, but she is throwing up.

At least I am not doing that!

But I am only living on rice chex at the moment...….

Anyway.

Porter rode the bus home from school today, his first time ever!!!!

He is pretty excited about it.

Porter was very entertaining today....

He made a robot with a dish scrubber......and also dressed up like karate kid when he found a couple red Christmas ribbons :)

Kid cracks me up!

Wednesdsay November 28

I helped in the office this morning and got things going on Porter's bus stop.

There used to be a bus pickup at the end of Mary lane.

But since Cassi was in elementary, there hasn't been anyone to pick up.

Well, with the weather staring to turn cold...the boys might not want to keep biking to school very much longer!

So I got it set up for him to ride the bus :)

I ran to Hobby Lobby for a few things.

The rest of my day was spent finishing up our Christmas cards and getting them ordered.

I have spent way too much time on these but I think they turned out kind of fun.

We will see when I get the cards if they turned out how I want....

I also put up some more decorations.

Madi worked.

Cassi spent time playing guitar and she is really wanting to try and start teaching guitar lessons!

Which would work our perfect to do when the art studio is done downstairs.

Art/music studio!!!!

Cannon came over after school and the boys stayed busy with inventions and messes...…..

Madi got a stack of magazines from the neighbors to do an art project with.

Elsie spent a lot of time going through them and ready articles out of them.

She read to Madi when she got home from work :)

I kind of started feeling kind of lousy this evening...….maybe something I ate.

So I am looking forward to some sleep!

Tuesday November 27

I had a rough time sleeping last night.

So once I sent the kids off to school, I took a quick little nap :)

Then I went for a run when I woke up.

Dad and I met up with Drew and Heather for lunch today.

That was fun,.

It doesn't happen often enough!!!!!

After lunch, we went grocery shopping!

Poor kids had lousy lunches today because I had nothing fresh to pack for them!!!!!!

But now we are all stocked up on veggies!

We got home and got groceries put away just in time for the kiddos to get home.

Today turned into a crazy day.....

Scouts and YW got changed to today instead of tomorrow.

So I took Elsie and Porter to piano.

Picked Porter up and took him to scouts.

Went back and picked up Elsie.

Took her home.

I stopped at Vern's for a minute to get a run down on the animal care instructions we have for the next few days while they are in Florida.

Left again to pick Porter up from scouts and took him to basketball.

Picked up Avery on the way hoe for mutual.

We left for mutual at 6:30.

Dad was I charge of getting Porter picked up from basketball.

It was a crazy runaround afternoon!

Plus it has been wet and rainy!

For YW, we were combined with the YM and we went to DI for service.

We had groups of kids putting together Christmas trees.

We had groups of kids sorting toys, other's going through clothes making sure they were in the right sizes and color spots.

I think all the youth had a good time and I think we were at least a little helpful to the workers there :)

It was funny, I put Elsie in a group with me, and she turned and told me she didn't want to be in my group :(

Silly goose!

She knows she is growing up and doesn't always want her mommy around!

It is probably better that way, she might behave better than she would for me :)

Monday November 26

I got the lights on the tree after I went for a run.

I told the kids I would have that done so we could put on ornaments for FHE tonight :)

Putting on lights always takes longer than I think it will...…

But I just can't bring myself to buy a new pre-lit tree.

Plus, I feel like people with pre-lit trees always have some kind of problem with them anyway :)

Well, I got a shower and then went and picked Elsie up from school for Speech and PT.

Dad worked out in the shop.

He is working to replace his garage door opener mechanism out there.

Elsie was great at Speech and PT.

While I was gone Cassi did a good job cleaning the kitchen and also recorded some songs.

She is making more of an effort to play her guitar, play the piano and sing.

I love it.

We came home and dad made tacos for dinner.

Madi came home from work....Porter left for Basketball.

Finally at 7:30, we were ALL home!

So we put on the picture ornaments from the past years.

I still have stuff to add to the tree.

But, it always makes me happy :)

Madi got to put the star on this year.

We decided that next year we need to make sure to put the tree up during Thanksgiving break while Madi is home from college, so she can be a part of the decorating!

So crazy to think about how soon that will be!!!!!

Sunday November 25

We had a nice Sunday today.

The three youngest went to choir.

Got to church.

Things went good until Elsie figured out that Sierra wasn't there, then she didn't want to go to class.

We tried to explain to her that it was silly, she goes to school without Sierra

Anyway....a meltdown ensued and I ended up taking her home.

She thrives on routine......and having the weird sleep schedule and no real routine the last few days played a big part.

But it was still pretty silly for her to act like that.

I went back and picked up Dad and brought him home to hang with her.

I had planned to leave her home alone, but she was throwing stuff and hitting stuff and I didn't feel good about leaving her alone for an hour and a half.

So I went back for YW.

I really enjoyed the lesson Sister Beaufort taught the Beehives.

She talked about how we can find solutions to our problems.

One of the girls told us about a talk she listened to at 'Time out for Girls'.

She said that she learned that cows, when they see a storm coming, they run away.

But they don't run fast and the storm catches up with them and follows them, making then stay in the storm for a long time.

But Buffalo, yes BUFFALO, they see the storm coming and they head right towards it.

They run through the storm and make it out on the other end faster.

I totally love that, not only because it is about buffalo, but what it teaches.

We can't run away when things get hard.

We use all the tools we have (prayer, strength, parents, leaders, etc) and we run head on towards the storm heading our way.

I told Elsie about it.

I asked her how that could apply to how her day went.

Yes, it stinks that Sierra wasn't there.

BUT, instead of not going to class, she could have gone and had a great time with her other friends and had the great lesson in YW.

Anyway....I just loved it.

Dad made some great country fried steak for dinner, with our recently butchered cow :)

Then we put the Christmas tree together.

I will put lights on while they are at school, then we will decorate for FHE :)

Saturday November 24

The kids got their laundry put away.

We got some house work done.

Madi worked.

Dad and Porter went to the feed store to get stuff for the animals.

Cassi went with some friends to the basketball game, and that's what Madi did when she got work.

Port and Elsie went to Gus and Lucia's house.

Then Dad and I had our own little date night here at home, since everyone was gone out of the house.

We ate leftovers for dinner and sat on the couch and watched TV :)

Not an overly exciting day, and I am okay with that.

I am ready to get back to the normal routine thought!

Friday November 23 (add pictures of kiddos with Emmy)

I kind of want to sleep for a week!!!!

I am so tired!

It is probably from eating too much food and pies!!!!!!

Today I did get a run.

Emmy headed for home a little after 12.

It was so fun having her here :)

We will be missing her now that she is gone!

I took Elsie to her friend, Malia's, house for a while.

Port had Max and Graham over.

Madi worked.

Cassi cleaned her room and upstairs because she wanted friends over.....which is what is going on now.

All the friends are upstairs and these little ones need to get to bed :)

Anyway.

I finished painting the basement walls.

Hopefully we can get the floors painted soon and the tables made.

Port and I decided to take a break on the 1000 piece puzzle.

We were doing it less and less because it wasn't as fun.....when you aren't very successful with finding pieces!

Plus, he got some fun new puzzles for his birthday.....

So we took the bear one apart in big chunks and we will give it a try another time :)

We will stick with 500 piece puzzles for now!!!

Thursday November 22

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

We all slept in and took it kind of easy today.

I got the ham in the oven.

Port did some pillow stacking on the couch and then it turned into a mile high fort :)

I wanted to take some more senior pictures of Madi and also some pictures of the kiddos.

I thought I had a few more pictures left on my film camera, so I wanted to get one of each of the kids.

So we went downtown Meridian.

The weather was pretty nice.

And then it started raining on us :)

We even got some hail!

But it wasn't for very long.

So got some cute pictures....but only ended up getting a picture of Porter with the film camera before I finished up the roll :)

Oh well, gotta try it again with another roll!

I am excited to get it developed!!!!!

Well, I really want to develop it myself....but I need to get some gear for it first.

Anyway, we got home and the ham was ready.

We loaded up the pies and ham and headed to the fire station.

Porter also made sure to get his Boise fire shirt and hat on before we left.

There was a good turnout of people for our Thanksgiving feast.

We had a fun time.

When we got home, Emmy and Porter put away the giant fort and then we watched a Christmas movie on Netflix.

Bring on all the Christmas movies now!!!!!!!

Wednesday November 21 (add pictures)

Happy 10th birthday to my baby boy ❤️

This boy brings me so much joy!

Ya, he's a bit of a Mama's boy and I have no problem with that!

'm so excited to see what he becomes.

Porter is a thinker.

He asks good questions and always wants to know more.

He's creative, inventive, and curious.

He's good at figuring out how things work.

He's a hard worker and has the most fun when he's working with his dad.

I love this boy and I'm so thankful he was sent to our family.

We woke up and got ready then headed to The Griddle for breakfast.

That was a lot of fun.

The we watched Everly, Koy and Titan for a little bit.

Got working on making more pies and stuff for the dinner.

Then we watched a movie, Alpha, and Max and Graham watched it with us as well.

After the movie we finished getting food ready.

We ate our Thanksgiving dinner about 5.

It all turned out pretty perfect.

After dinner we went to the movie theatre and watched "Ralph Wrecks the Internet".

It was so good!

Then we came home and ate pie.

I think Port had a pretty fun birthday.

It was nice of him to share his day with celebrating Thanksgiving too :)