First Week of December

I have been really excited about December this year.  I feel like I am a little bit more on top of my game than in the past, and I had most of my presents done by the beginning of December.  There are of course a lot of last minute things, but it was nice to enjoy the season for at least a week.

For my Immunodeficiency and chronic fatigue I take about 30 supplements every night and I have been forcing myself to get 8 hours of sleep every night. I have also been taking it easy on the exercising, either walking, or very light exercise, and all of those things have seemed to help me feel a little bit more energetic and healthy.

I just really have wanted to be able to spend time in December enjoying being with my girls, doing fun Christmas stuff.

I love our playdates with Cate because Wembley is distracted.  Wembley has been pretty whiney, always wanting me all of the time, and it gets old.  But when Cate is around, she wants Cate.  A break for mom.  Hallelujah!  Wembley also doesn't seem to have the personal space issues with Cate.  I took them to the mall to walk around one morning and they were so cute holding hands everywhere.

It doesn't get much cuter than this.

Later in the week, I took the girls to see Blitzen, the reindeer.  Wembley was obsessed.  I could hardly pry her away from the cage.  Getting her to turn around for this picture was a feat.  We waited in line to pet the baby reindeer but right when we got to the front, they told us the reindeer was spent.  

We had a stake live nativity.  It is really well done and such a cool experience.  Briz and I sang in a choir for a little bit, and then we went to see the live nativity.  

It was such a great reminder of what December is all about.  I tend to get caught up in a lot of the excitement, which isn't a bad thing, but it can be a distraction.

On Saturday, we cleaned our ward building.  And this is how Nick kept Dubs occupied.  

We also pulled out the Elf on the Shelf.  We are LAME when it comes to Elf on the Shelf.  Mostly cause when Nick bought it last year without my permission I was irritated.  I don't need another thing to keep track of in December!  Hence, the lameness of our elf.  Most of the time she forgets to move, and I usually use that as an opportunity to try to motivate Briz to do her chores. "Oh hmmm Snowflake didn't move last night?  Well did you clean your room? No?  Oh well there you go . . . "  It really is cause I passed out at 10 p.m. reading my book and forgot about it.  

My girls are so excited about this month and I love it.

Thanksgiving

I am the worst.  Again.  I didn't take any pictures over Thanksgiving.  It was a fun few days with all of the Cottles coming into town.  I had 13 people at my house.  It was a new experience but we all survived it and no one got sick!

That week I took work off which was SO nice.  I felt like I had so much time.  I spent it prepping for Thanksgiving.  Braving the grocery stores, shopping, cleaning, etc.

The day before Thanksgiving and the day of I spent cooking and baking.  It was actually really enjoyable because my kids weren't bugging me.  I love cooking by myself!  It was my first time making homemade rolls and homemade cinnamon rolls.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I also did an 8 layer rainbow jello salad.  Thankfully I didn't have to do the turkey.  Turkeys scare me (in more ways than one) and it was nice to not have to worry about that.

I was sad I didn't take a picture of the food cause it was pretty.   We had a kids table where they got to color (and didn't eat much). 

After Thanksgiving, we spent some time playing outside at Nike and then went swimming at the Nike pool.

We went bowling and played arcade games where Pops won 25,000 tickets!!!!  They bought pom poms that shed over my house for 4 days.  

The big girls went to see The Good Dinosaur.  We visited Santa, ate at the local burger place, the Giant.  We played games with family, watched MockingJay and then went on a date with adults to see the last Mockingjay movie (dont remember the name).

Pops also helped the girls make fun of Nick with their fake mustaches.

I was tired, but I was particularly grateful for family this year that made the long trek out to Oregon to see us and spend time with us.

Week of Yard Work

November has flown by!  Not sure where the month went.

The week before Thanksgiving was a work week.  I had a lot of work, Nick started his new job at Nike, and we worked a ton in the yard since we had a few days of no rain.

That also means lots of frozen food for dinner.  I also needed to clear up refrigerator and freezer space for Thanksgiving.  So no cooking for me.  Wembley continues to be a disaster at every meal.  She hates sitting still, so sitting still at meals is a battle.  She whines and complains and wants to eat on the run.  It helps when Brizzy is home, because they entertain each other.  But usually Wembley tries to spread food all over Brizzy or poke her with her fork and Briz gets annoyed.

Mmm, peach juice shampoo.  Dubs is turning into such a little clown.

I started working in the yard on Friday.  I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and an immunodeficiency recently.  It's a weird thing because mostly I just feel wimpy, and I try to will myself to have more energy.  Sometimes I think I can handle than I actually can.  I started to rake leaves this day, but I felt like I was going to topple over after a little while.  I was still able to get about half of the front yard done, so I was proud of myself.

This is what the other side of the yard still looked like.

Briz has been learning a lot about the moon and stars recently and she loves it. Every few days she has to go outside and try to find the moon.  One day after school she sat in the backyard and just stared into the sky for about 30 minutes.  So sweet.  

Having Nicks help on Saturday was so nice!  And Briz thought it was fun to help for about 10 minutes.  

We had tumbling competitions into the leaves.  

And Briz and Wembley smashed leaves down into the garbage.  Nick is also sporting his Movember mustache.  Yes, just a mustache.  It was creepy.  And his mom kept making fun of him.

Wembley loves being outside, but it was pretty cold this day.  Her cheeks got all chapped and were red for a couple days.  We aren't used to this whole sunny cold thing!

This is what it looked like after we were done.

And oh yeah, 4 more bags on the side of the house.  We didn't even try to do the backyard.