November 30

I finished December! It only took a month and a half of almost daily blogging! On a roll!

Lexi and Cade came home for Thanksgiving this year. They had more time off over T-day than over Christmas, and we loved having them visit. 

Their flight home left at some ridiculously early hour. 

But I somehow convinced Laura to come with us and then hit the temple with me. Just kidding, I don’t ever have to convince Laura to do anything, she’s always down!

Sad to send these kids home. Will we ever live close again? With Cade going into the Air Force, I don’t know. And that makes me sad to think about. So I won’t. One day at a time!

Goodbye to the Finlayson’s. It’s so cool that after being the mom for so long, now we’re more friends than mother-daughter. What a wonderful plan!

Does this look familiar? We repeated today and I even wore the same sweater. 😂 Different shirt and skirt though. 

I’d found a kindness rock when I cleaned out the junk drawer (cause that seems like a perfect place to put that) and I left it at the temple for the girls. Kindness rocks are so fun. 

Another fun thing is Maker Space. 

Addie loves it. This was some kind of pumpkin stand, trying to get it as tall as possible. 

Today

I still get a kick out of seeing Amish buggies on the road. 

Today was a good day. I stopped by the paint store after tutoring to try to choose a color to go along with our Grant Beige in the formal dining room. It’s proving to be more difficult that I thought it would be, and why did that surprise me?

Also, Lexi and Cade sent me flowers and chocolates for Valentine’s Day. 💕

Matt was off today. We chatted and puttered, and before we knew it, it was 1! We wanted to get lunch and run errands and it was way too late to do all we wanted to. So we settled for lunch and half the errands. Marriage is a roller coaster of ups and downs. we’re on an up right now and I’m enjoying it so much. 

In cleaning out the computer desk I found an old Disney gift card that still had money on it. I fixed that real quick, and one of the things I bought was this Halloween costume for $15! #villians2018

It felt warm today since it wasn’t rainy or gray. Matt and I walked up to get the girls and did our second a day. 

Matt works this weekend, so he couldn’t come to the temple tonight. I hitched a ride with the McCombs and we found the Dorn’s there, so that was fun. After, I 5th wheeled it to Red Ginger with them for some yummy pad Thai. It’s 11 and we’re halfway home. Still better than Philadelphia and we only have 25 more days till the DC temple closes. 

And looking back - they had future Missionaries march around primary one day, and apparently D got right up and joined them. 

I love that so much. 

That’s my little feminist, women’s advocate, and missionary. 😍

Breakfast with Santa

The Breakfast with Santa committee at school knocked it out of the park again. We stayed after school on Friday to help set up and the girls ran around playing with indoor snowballs. 

Our Girl Scouts Caroled again this year. 

They do a full breakfast and really go all out. 

The committee doesn’t even decorate their homes until after the event, they bring all their decorations for that morning. 

Goofy’Smiles’R’Us. 

Addie had fun helping collect tickets. 

Orthodontics are in our future. 

First year Daisey’s first time caroling. 

Santa!

We are so cray-cray. 

The girls did all the cute crafts. Twice. 

I love all the cute photo ops. And all the cute faces. 

Delaney had pouted when her friends took a picture here. Not sure why cause they wanted her in the pic, but she did. So finally at the end of the breakfast she decided she wanted a pic. She drives me crazy. But she’s adorable, sooo. 

Wonder

We read Wonder for our mother daughter book club in December. It was so sweet and I cried bunches. 

Emily hosted a Saturday lunch and I’m still thinking about her sliders!

These silly girls! I hope they are learning the value of girlfriends and that women can boost each other and work and learn together. 

After the book club we went to see the movie. 

It was well done but lots of things were changed, seemingly unnecessarily. Why do they do that when they make movies off of books? It makes book readers sad. 

More Rainbow Ellie Sparkles fun. 

She brought advent calendars on her first day back. 

I love this quote, and illustration of Emmeline B. Wells - “I believe in women. Especially thinking women.” 💕💕💕 Emmeline was a journalist, editor, poet, women’s rights advocate, and the 5th General Relief Society President of the church. 

Darlaina helped with the Giving Tree for our ward again. She left me this lovely board so I should be set for a few more years. 🤗

I think I have one more December post, and then November shouldn’t be as dense as the never ending last month of the year. Plus also, if I didn’t think to take a picture, and when I’m not on my blogging game, i often don’t, then it’s pretty much gone from memory. But there was more, always more. We are blessed with busy, fun, and purposeful lives. 💕💕💕

Never ending December

Only the white lights in the middle of our tree work. Not sure what to do about that, but I’m glad to not have to worry about it for another 9 months. And Addie put on the angel this year. That’s important info cause you know no one will remember this year. 

Feels like I’ve written this before, but maybe it was just a nighttime walk epiphany. This picture sums up so much in my life. Pretty ok. There’s some effort there, even, dare i say, a good deal of effort. But there’s always a fair amount of hot messedness. Like a strand of lights in the middle of the house that is not working. Or 2/3 of the lights on a cheksmas tree out. But hot mess or not, I’ll keep trying. And someday I’ll get it right. Until then, I’m keeping it real. Real, real. 

Michelle fact that everyone knows - I’ve got a thing for sleeping babies. And I guess big kids, because really. 

But doesn’t everyone have a thing for kids when they’re sleeping? I think so. 

I don’t remember but it’s pretty. 

So, I think Relief Society President husbands are unsung heroes. Matt does so much, so much alone, he’s so understanding and literally never complains about me being gone. So this is all in fun. But when I saw Delaney come to church, I just couldn’t. 😂 I do appreciate that matt gets 3 girls to church at 9am by himself. Thats no small task. I took this picture and shared it on a Relief Society Presidency fb page that I follow. Messy hair. Wrong shirt underneath the dress. Unmatching pink tights. And gold shoes to really bring it all together. Bless her happy little heart, she’s a hot mess. This pic got a lot of laughs and a whole lot of me too’s. I’ve come a long way as well because, while I can’t say this doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as it used to. And I do hope everyone knows that I wasn’t actually there to help this action come together. 

Anyhow, leaving for ward council at 7:15 in the morning has its perks. 

Addie’s for the best primary teacher and activity day leader. Brenda loves them so much and she showers them with gifts. I know some people disagree with treats and gifts, but you know what, those kids love her and know that she loves them, and I love that. We can never have too many good adult influences on our kids, and I am so grateful for her. And this little sleigh was so cute. 

I think this picture was at the ainas? I don’t know why or what though. 

But Delaney kept requesting pictures and she was doing all diffieeent funny faces. Love her!