November 2016

They say time flies when your having fun, so we must be having a lot of fun. I don't know where the time goes. Here is what November looked liked for us. 

We didn't have a ton of success with our first garden. Better luck next year I guess. We did get plenty of squash and a few cherry tomatoes. Our tomatoes finally started to take off in November and then while we were out of town one weekend it froze and we lost them all. At least we have a few ideas on how to improve! 

We walked over to the park one day to enjoy the nice weather and for the boys to kick some field goals. We have a little field goal in our back yard that Dan built for Cason but they wanted to try out the big one. On Cason's very first kick Dan put him way far back and told him he would give him $100 if he made it, thinking  was no way he could kick it that far or high (this picture is taken later when they moved closer FYI), and of course Cason nailed it! I wasn't close by when it happened but I heard Dan and Cason yell and was able to watch the celebration from the side of the field. It was so cute to see Cason so excited. He didn't even come close to making it from that far again. Dan later clarified that he meant $100 worth of Christmas presents haha!

The girls and I had lunch with Grandma at the restaurant. It is never easy taking the kids to eat at Cliffside because they are super comfortable there and I worry about bothering the other guests, but luckily on this day we ate in the private dining room so we did have to worry about how rambunctious they were. Usually when we go for lunch Dan comes and joins us for a bit if he can and if he doesn't order his own lunch he eats our leftovers. We love getting to visit him at work. 

They are getting too big. too fast. I sure like having them around to keep me company while Cason is at school. It's funny because I always think how nice it would be to just have some time to myself and whenever it happens I get bored so fast. If I ever get time alone its because Dan takes them on an adventure to give me a break and after about 15 minutes I just want the them to come home or to go join them wherever they went. 

Our house has become the neighborhood hangout after school. On most days of the week you can find our backyard filled with kids. 

Cason had parent teacher conference in November. I gave the phone to Ellie to try and keep her quiet and instead she took pictures of Cason's teachers while they were talking to me. This is his Chinese teacher, CoCo Zhang. He has two teachers and they are both amazing. I was so proud of him when I left. He is doing so well in school. I was amazed at how far he has come in Chinese. His Chinese teacher had him show me what he has learned. I was blown away. She only speaks to him in Chinese and he understood everything she asked him to do and did it flawlessly. He read me a book in Chinese and got every vocabulary word she asked him correct. It was crazy to see him and his teacher talk back and forth in Chinese. I am so proud of that boy! His English teacher, Mrs. Davis, told me as I was leaving that I should feel very, VERY lucky to be his mom... and I do!

We always have projects going around here. This is our current one. We are turning the shop in the garage into an office. So Dan knocked out and opening in the dining room wall to connect it to the house. Then he dry-walled it and had someone come mud, tape, and texture it for us. I sent this pic to him while he was at work so he could see it when the guy finished.      

Cason is a fantastic big brother to his sisters. He does his fair share of picking on them but he also takes really good care of them. It makes my heart melt when I see moments like, I don't know if you can tell that good from the picture but they are holding hands as we walk home from the park. 

The week before Thanksgiving, we all flew to Casper to spend the weekend with Dan's dad. Cason and Kami were excellent on the airplane rides... and Ellie... wasn't. We kept saying its a good thing she's still free. Because of the kids, Dan and I had to sit on opposite sides of the isle and Ellie always wanted whoever she wasn't with. It was kind of funny and kind of miserable haha. It was really fun to go an see Tony. The kids absolutely love him and are so happy any chance we get to see him. We also got to spend a lot of time with Matt, Darcy and Broox. We had a great time while we were there. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at taking pictures while we were there and this is the only picture I have to represent our trip.  

While we were there we went to a trampoline place with Matt and Darcy and Broox. We have never been to one of these kinds of places before and it was really fun for the kids. It is basically a big warehouse full of trampolines and foam pits, whats not to love. Dan took turns throwing all the kids in over and over and over and over again.  

Cason favorite thing in life is to play pick up football in the backyard with his buddies. It is pretty cute to watch them out there. 

So it turns out I didn't do a very good job documenting Thanksgiving with pictures this years. Brooke and Jason and Rylan were in town for a Thanksgiving get together with her side of the family but they were able to stay with us the night before Thanksgiving. It is always fun to have family in town. On Thanksgiving day we didn't have plans with family because my parents were going to be at the restaurant, so we had our first ever Thanksgiving dinner at home. I bought a little turkey and made the whole meal, which was a fun first for me. Usually, we are with family so I only make one or two things. My parents ended up being done at the restaurant early so they did join us for dinner which was nice. I wish I had taken a picture, but I obviously forgot. This picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving. We decided to go on an adventure out to the desert and go see Fort Pierce. Brooke and Jason came with us and then we went and shot guns, I didn't shoot because I wasn't sure if that is okay to do pregnant or not, so we decided better safe than sorry, but it was still fun. 

Kami loves to have her toenails painted but decided that she wanted to do the painting this time, so I let her paint my toenails. I think she did a pretty good job and she loved every second of it. 

She also had a dress rehearsal for her ballet program. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.