November little things

I would never remember that had I not whipped out my iPhone.  (I love my iPhone.)  Do I really need to remember a pretty blue sky when the sky is blue in the desert practically 361 days a year (ha).

No, I’d be just fine forgetting…but I like that I can remember that day just from that picture:  I was with Dave and we were walking and talking together and I was so glad I got to work out with that handsome guy.  And I was also glad that our bodies work …I was so sore from a previous workout and it made me appreciate how my body normally works quite well.

Yes, lots of thoughts but that’s what pictures do for me.

And this next one?

We made scrunchies for young women one night in the beginning of November.  See the candy corn at the top?  That was my “treat of choice” I brought to share because I love candy corn.

I love that these pictures bring back the whir of my Grandma’s sewing machine I brought as I sewed up the fabric the girls got all pinned up and ready for me. 

I love to remember how many girls I got to work with and to see those faces makes me miss them!

Claire and Grace bought tickets forever before this concert and were SO excited in anticipation.

And I was personally excited I didn’t have to go.  How’s that for awful?  I’m just happy my friends were going and were happy to take all these girls. 

I did make them promise to send me pictures though.  This is all I got but at least it’s something! :

They were really late re-planting winter grass this year.  They didn’t start on the neighborhood strips of grass until November (usually they do it in October), so it was brown and dry for a while.  This is how they scalp it all down…before they get rid of all that dead grass and replant new rye grass:

Yes, they really do do that every Fall here in the desert.  Different grasses grow in the summer than they do in the winter so every year it’s the big re-plant season and I still find it fascinatingly crazy.  And a little on the annoying side that there’s not one kind of grass that lasts all year!

Claire was a busy girl in November.  She had sports-mania…well we all did since we had to drive her everywhere!  Here’s a tennis class with her cousins:

Here’s volleyball club tryouts:

Here’s a volleyball game with her rec team:

All about the nutty sea of sports we’ve found ourselves in back HERE.

They sky looked like this late, late one night when we drove into the driveway I couldn’t help but take a picture:

The moon was so bright it lit up all those clouds.  It may not seem so cool in the picture but trust me, it was surreally beautiful.

I got this text from Elle one day:

Motherhood pay-off 🙂

Lucy isn’t drawing nearly as much any more which breaks my heart.  I’m on the search to find her an art teacher who can keep her going.  She LOVES to write though.  This was her little list she came up with at church one day:

(She never actually got to the “fun facts” because she was too busy decorating the letters, but I’d like to know what she was going to write…)

Cute matching girls at church:

Our friends who were baptized last year were preparing to go to the temple.  This was a really special day when the dad got a special blessing to hold the priesthood:

Loved that we got to share in that along with our Stake President and his wife below:

Lu and I finished the Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

It takes us so long to read those books not because we don’t like them…she just only likes to read those ones together so she reads all kinds of other stuff until we can read together.  I loved that page I had turned down up there above.

So much symbolism and beauty in those books.  Lucy refers to those books a lot when we talk about anything spiritual. 

I love C.S. Lewis.

Bo has a love/hate relationship with Claire. 

Claire’s the one who gives her the most attention, which she loves, but a lot of the time that attention involves all kinds of shenanigans that Bo mostly just puts up with.

Lucy thinks Bo is the best thing since sliced bread right along with Claire.

Lots more about Bo Jangles in November back HERE.

The Thankful Tree made it’s debut:

(All about that back HERE.)

Worked on finishing off some things in the living room:

We had a really, really good meeting with that good lady (along with Lucy’s Braille teacher who came with us and who we adore).  But despite how great that doctor was, there are no easy parts of having your daughter’s world blur.  I wrote all about some feelings on that back HERE.

Just want to help anyone out there out…you won’t be sorry to have tried it.  And also you can do half applesauce instead of all the oil and it is so delicious with way less fat. 

Just saying.

For some reason I always have to document most trips to the post office:

Because really I don’t go there unless I’m sending Max or Elle a package…and sending packages is kind of stressful to me.  I never know what to include.  But they seem pretty happy so I guess I’m doing ok…

One night for a church youth activity we went to an outdoor mall and split into teams to find four different people from our ward (congregation) who were dressed up.  The first team to find them all and get pictures with them would be the winner.  It was near Christmas time so this Olaf wasn’t overly out of place, but the kids went up to him and found out he was the Bishop:

Here’s one of his counselors dressed up as one of the youth…ha! 

I don’t have pictures of the others but they were all pretty good! 

I had to leave early because our friend Tim was in town:

He’s the guy who contacted me right after I wrote my first post on here about Lucy being diagnosed with BBS (back HERE)…he knew a lot about BBS because his son is a year older and has it as well, and he is so dang smart he knows and understands all the intricacies of the disease.  He is the president of the BBS association and I served as the Vice President with him a few years ago….we’ve been friends ever since that first phone call.
 
These girls think he’s pretty great.

We talked over a bunch of stuff that’s happening…research and the conference coming up and discussed all kinds of things that we’re doing with our kids to help them and possibilities for the future.  He explained to Lucy how his son uses his white cane all the time and loves it.

I think that was a pretty great catalyst to help Lucy feel more comfortable to give that white cane a chance when it was introduced after her low-vision specialist meeting a week or so before.

In other much less important news, I replanted this cactus for my living room…

(back HERE.)

Grace practiced her photography skills on these girls:

Lots more about Grace in the month of November back HERE.

Took these little girls out on a dinner date while Grace was off with the student council:

Bo ate Lucy’s piano music:

But that plucky girl could still read through that just fine.

Lots of walking to school with these two:

First hike of Fall with my friend Tonia:

Activity Days mother/daughter cake decorating with Lu:

A little lunch with Max’s missionary friend’s moms, who are my friends 🙂

More packing and delivering at BrainFood:

I got to sit in on one of these guys’ temple prep classes with the best teachers…loved it.

The sky is such a beautiful thing:

Birthday lunch for one of these lady’s birthdays…

Film photos from Elle…

I thought they were pretty beautiful.

More volleyball…

A date with a cute boy for Grace:

Lego mania for Lucy:

Home project…I’ll have to post the final product soon.

And the initial arrival of the cousins for Thanksgiving.  Claire’s face tells it all…we were excited!

All kinds of Turkey Trot prep too…

Much more about that back HERE.

Lots of hikes…

Gorgeous sunsets (Grace took these ones from her tennis class).

Then on to the Turkey Trot.  My favorite note from Lucy:

HA!

This was my favorite night, all bundled up laughing our guts out on this ranger thing putting up BBS signs.

That and all the Turkey Trot hoopla HERE.

A trip to the lake:

Last of the visitors:

Claire and I were out on a walk with Bo one day in November talking about her birthday coming up and she said “Watch me turn 14 and you get released from teaching young women” (I taught the age group she would be moving up to) and we laughed because that’s just how life works out sometimes.

We both sure hoped not!  The age group I worked with were the 14-15 year olds and Grace had moved up to the next group back in June and Claire was excited to come in.  But sure enough, I got a call a couple weeks later telling me I was being released.  Then I got a calling to start working in Primary teaching the 6-year-olds.  Claire and I were kind of sad about that crazy timing, but I had been in there for a long time and in our church you just switch around and learn all kinds of new things from every calling.  Claire has some pretty awesome leaders and I have some pretty awesome (and rambunctious!) 6-year-olds and all is well although I do miss those wonderful girls and all the other leaders for sure.  Now to figure out my new assignment…if anyone has great teaching-six-year-olds-and-keep-them-from-bouncing-off-the-walls ideas send them on over!  I’ve only taught Primary one time and that was our short stint in China so I feel like I have a lot to learn!  The kids are pretty darn darling though…I think I’m going to love it.

Last birthday heart-attack for the Mia Maids before everything got switched up:

Planning out our Children for Children concert that was to take place the beginning of December:

We sent him a paper Christmas tree with envelopes filled out with our hand-written feelings about hte gospel and our Savior as well.

Sent that sucker off and we were on to Christmas and pulling out all that paraphernalia:

A little post-Thanksgiving gathering with my sister-in-laws celebrating that Carol Lynn (that one on the right) was in town:

A sweet heart attack from my Young Women class telling me they’ll miss me:

Aw…love them!

My nephew’s birthday is the same day as Dave’s:  November 29th.

Claire got to celebrate with all of these great cousins:

…as well as celebrating her good old Dad 🙂

I love how excited Dave was about that.  Ha!

He tried to help Lucy learn to blow…we do with every cake because she has trouble with that but I love this fatherhood.

That cake has a story of it’s own as well…he wanted German chocolate cake and Claire and I found a recipe on the internet that had rave reviews so we whipped it up speedy-quick in between something or other (we were hustling) and something went awry…

…not sure what, but that frosting was kinda watery and it was a pretty funny cake…which made for a pretty funny memory 🙂

I snuck Dave off on a little over-nighter to celebrate.  He had been stressed about a lot of things, lots on his plate and it was the perfect little distraction.

I only got that picture, dumb I know, but I’m glad I got at least that one because I want to remember sitting in the hot tub late into the night, we were the only ones on that starry night and talking through life and all that’s going on and future and everything under the sun (stars).

I’m so grateful for that man.

Our Christmas party with the women (Relief Society) at church…pretty funny games.

And let’s just go ahead and close with Bo. 

Because we love her.

And that’s a November wrap.