November happenings part I

It's already time to report on another month!  And I think I will just write a really long post...

We couldn't see the super moon the night of, because of cloud cover, but here it was the next morning:

November had the best weather, warm and enjoyable, clear up until after Thanksgiving! There were some beautiful sun sets:

And while we're on the subject of nature, I will mention this owl that was apparently turned around for most of the month, and sat in this tree in our yard for the better part of every DAY.  Fun to watch:

This was more of an end of October thing, but I thought it was cute.  And she had to leave it at school, so she made another one to leave at home just for me.  She's pretty sweet like that:)

There is a disabled girl, Gracie, that is in Isabelle's primary class.  All of the kids LOVE to help take care of her during primary.  One of my friends sent me this picture of Isabelle braiding her hair:)

Isabelle takes lots of selfies of herself and leaves them on my phone:

This girl is way busier than I would prefer:(  She is in an advanced class at school and always has plenty of homework.  She plays violin in orchestra and has to practice daily for that.  She takes piano lessons; again, daily practice. She's in ballroom - practice twice per week. She is going to a speech therapist once a week after school to try to work on her R's, which still need help, and needs to practice that as well.  It just feels way to busy for a 6th grader.  I have vowed to never let my kids take those advanced classes again, for one thing...

Kami sent me this picture from college:

Something caught her eye as she was studying on her bed in her apt.  Turns out it was a black widow spider sitting right beside her.  Yuck!  I told her to tell the management, and luckily she did and they said they would spray, because later she found three more!  They must have been trying to finda warm place to spend the winter. Makes me shudder and made her feel like she couldn't sleep in her bed for a night or two.

Eli had another birthday and we invited him over for some cake and ice cream:

I repainted the bonus room:

Lots of walls suddenly need patched and painted and I am going to slowly repaint the whole house - I need to keep up on things just in case we move!

Pace is Captain America for the better party of every day:

 On his way to speech:

...and during family prayer:

When he isn't captain America he is a tough cowboy...who carries a gun and brass knuckles while he watches the neighbor's dog...

I enjoy watching him all day long, but of course, there's just something beautiful about sleeping kids:

He also had his first x-ray in November.  Glad everything is okay with that:

He looked so long lying on that table - actually he is looking long all of the time these days:(

He and I had our last picnic and play time at the park in the middle of November. We ran around without coats on!:

Then we went to help in Abe's classroom and Pace got to participate in music time.  We go help in the classroom once a week and Abram LOVES when we come to his school.  These were pics from another day:

Abram lost his two front teeth!! He wears the look very well:

I overheard him telling Kami all about it on the phone. "One was really wiggly. I could point it up to the sky!  I look kind-of weird when I make my scary faces..."

Nolan really feels like it's important to rack up the AR points at school.  When I went to parent teacher conference, his picture was on the wall for having 250 points.

His mean parents have since slowed him down a bit because we will only let him read in the evenings now.  He was reading every second of every day, and we told him that we felt like it was important to live his own adventures once in awhile and not always be living in a fantasy world!

He really does have a great vocabulary, though, and keeps us laughing with the words he *accurately* uses. It's just funny because people really don't talk this way!  I do have a few examples, remembered because we have all quoted him so many times:)  "It smells acrid out here" "Caden has tufts of hair in his armpits" and "stop prodding the cheese sticks" - when one of the little boys was poking at them.

Maddie got braces!

Her teeth weren't even that crooked, but her jaw kept locking into place and the dentist told us that was the only way to cure it.  Luckily, since it's not just cosmetic reasons for getting them, insurance paid a big chunk of the money.

Also, I took these pics of her at a YW  in excellence because I thought she looked astoundingly beautiful:

Man I love her hair!

A Sunday afternoon pile-up when I couldn't resist having someone take this pic of Pace with his arm around Abram,who was reading to him:

Abram came home from school all excited about starting wrestling, and then his enthusiasm rubbed off on Nolan, so they both joined up!  It's been fun watching them at their tournaments!

Here we are watching Nolan:

Abram has taken first place at both of his tournaments!:

Nolan took last place his first tournament and second place his second tournament.  He had to wrestle a really good wrestler that Shawn said was doing moves they do in highschool.  We are super proud  of him because even though he was super scared to wrestle the kid at the second tournament, he did it and wrestled him better than he did the first time!

The kid that always beats him:

Nolan after a win:

And lastly, I am posting some of my weight lifting pics.  I LOVE lifting weights and a girl at the gym took some pics of me while I lifted. Those little muscles are coming along.  And oh my- what determined faces!:)