Thanksgiving

 

After the race we needed a little breakfast... so we had some turkey rolls with bacon.... yummy!

 

For lunch we headed over to Papa and Yaya's. The company was great and the food too!!

 

Theo Speedo had us cracking up with his stories about taking Yaya to the grocery store. We especially liked his passionate rendition of how she thoroughly searches the ice cream freezers for just the right type!

 

Another story, easily to picture in one's head was how he has given up at Wal-Mart. He just buys powdered hostess doughnuts and watches from a distance as Yaya tries to get her coupons to work!

 

Always fun to have Tobi! She had a game show marathon with my parents after the feast!! Very enjoyable!!

Dad's fake tired pose.

 

Elijah is always happy when there is delicious food.

 

Ella was in heaven too!! I think Yaya Sofia fed her for 30 minutes straight!!

 

Speedo: I need fresh air.

Eli: I need fresh air too.

They are buddies!!!!

 

It was a wonderful day!!! Thanks everyone!!

We are truly blessed by our loving Heavenly Father!!

Turkey Trot #2

 

Maria & Daddy ready for their run!!!!!

The race started at 8:30AM and was 2.2 miles.

They did a great job and we enjoyed cheering for them.

 

Joe is on a "healthy" kick. He is exercising and eating better. I'm proud of him. At the same time I am slightly annoyed because a few months ago when I made quinoa, he hated it.... but now supposedly it's his favorite food with kale. All I can say is I'm truly glad that he is getting healthy.

 

 

It was COLD!!!

When I wear flip flops and my feet are cold, then I know it's freezing.

 

Christina wanted to "park" our chairs by the no parking sign.

 

Here they come!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!

 

Thanks Yaya and Papa for sponsoring the runners!!!!!

November Art Farts 2014

Native American Dream Catchers at the museum of art

 

Sweet little pilgrim girls

Christina's Mayflower

Eli's tukey.... we cut up circles that he water colored and then he glued them on.

We've got a crawler on our hands.....

I love. Love. Love. LOVE!! That Eli cannot not be in a picture with Ella.

 

It makes my heart happy to see him ALWAYS in the background!

 

This little lady decided she was ready to start moving! (About 4 days ago)

She's all over the place now and quite proud of herself as she should be!

The Joys of 5th Grade Math

Tonight I was really looking forward to Jane Austin's Persuasion....

 

However, at 7PM (after swimming, dinner) it was time for homework.

It is now 10:00PM.

Christina was done at 9:15PM and it took me 45 minutes to check.

 

 

So this little gem of a Thanksgiving Math Worksheet is an application for a position as Satan's secretary.

We had to add up the ingredients, 20 cent off sales, so and so needs 3 times the ingredients... basically if you are even off by 1 penny it throws off a slew of other problems that were dependent on that answer.

 

Then.... sigh... this little jewel.

I immediately panicked. How do you find common denominators for prime numbers? Multiplication... but with such large numbers..... I was getting into the thousands. By problem 4 I felt like I was back in college, in the glory nights of getting things done until 4 in the morning.

However, Christina looked at me like I was mad and said, just make decimals.

Duh.

However, I wasn't sure if we could use calculators. But we did.

And when I say we, I mean me. I wrote all the decimals for her and then she ordered the fractions from least to great.

 

Because I want her to know how much I love and adore her and want her to succeed.

Does tediousness and rigor make a better student?
Perhaps.

In China.

 

She also had to finish up a creative math assignment. It was to create a village having to do with math.

Man. Was I proud.

She entitled it, "Angle Town - The biggest little math town in the world".

It was colorful, bright, and she used alliteration for all her labeling.

It was pretty fantastic.

 

She also had her current topic news review from cnnkids.com. She chose to further research on the internet about the supposed chocolate shortage. I couldn't believe it...  70% of our chocolate comes from cacao farms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Because of Ebola, they are worried there wont be enough migrant workers to farm, plus with the drought, they think there will be a shortage. Christina did a great job summarizing and ended with her opinion, "If there was a chocolate shortage, I would feel like there was a piece left out of me. Milky Ways are half of me. If they weren't to be, half of me would be gone. See's Candy!! My grandpa and I go there after my swimming and it's just something I like to do. There are other candies, but they're just "junk candy". Half of the candy we got for Halloween was chocolate- Milky Ways, Kit Kats, Reese's Pieces and much more. I would not have gotten so much candy if it weren't for chocolate."

But of course, different websites dispute whether there will really be a shortage.... so who do you believe?

It was a good reminder that no matter what, the only truth that matters will come from Heavenly Father!

9 months old

Oh how time flies when you are having fun!!!

This little beauty is developing into such a fun character. She desperately wants to move!! This month she started waving, is on the verge of crawling, can get to a sitting position from lying on her back, scoots, rolls.

She loves sticking out her tongue.

She dances to music and loves the eensy weensy spider.

She loves her Eli. This morning she had a little booger and Eli was getting a soft tissue and wiping her. He throws away her diapers without me having to ask.

He loves his copella.

Ella loves her sisters too. She is always full of smiles when they are around.

She likes sticking her finger in my nose or mouth.

She takes 1 nap in the afternoon for about 2-3 hours and goes down for bed at 6PM ish. She usually wakes up 2 times a night now and then is up by 7AMish.

She's in 18M clothes.

I can't get enough of the frilly dresses!!! It's so fun to remember Christina and Maria in those dresses!

Pinterest....

So I saw this idea about journaling with some prompts that I liked... today I want to focus on, "My favorite prophet & why".

I really love Elijah from the Old Testament. I love the fire from heaven, the chariot of fire.... maybe I'm just a pyro.

I love the humility of Saul, the dedication of Peter. I always feel the spirit reading the words of Abinadi. I love Joseph Smith and his persistence.

But Jonah is my favorite. I relate most to him. The people of Nineveh were annoying, wicked, and he wanted them destroyed. I tend towards unrighteous judging. I have a strong sense of justice. I can see why he wouldn't want to go there. Love is something I need to work on. I selectively love, and I know that's not right.

I love that he was brave enough to sacrifice his life for those of the sailors. He knew he made a mistake and he took it like a man.

But go figure, it's the story of the gourd that really strikes a chord with me. Why is it always the plants!!!
Jonah 4:10-11, "Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

  And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand."

 

I know that God knows what is best. One of my many short comings is to see the bad in people instead of the good. I love Jonah because I want to be more like him. Able to talk with God honestly, to be humble and teachable, and to do what's right.

Maria gets her ears pierced

 

Ever since Christina got her ears pierced Maria has been looking forward to doing the same.

Since she is just a few months shy of 8, we told her she could go for it!

 

She asked if it hurt and Christina said yes.

So Maria changed her mind.

 

Fast forward a week later, no pressure from us because it's not a big deal...

Christina offers Maria a piece of gum if she gets her ears pierced.

So......

we headed to Claire's.

When the really nice lady asked her who she wanted to hold hands with, immediately she reached for Christina. I don't think she even looked my way or Jody's.

Eli saw them holding hands and went over to grab Maria's other hand.
It was sweet.

 

She really wasn't too nervous, they pricked her and she gave this look... but didn't cry or anything.

 

And voila....

 

They were having an awesome sale so she got to pick out a couple things.
Thanks Joe for bankrolling the party.

 

2 young ladies on our hands!!!

Thank you Veterans and all those currently serving our country!

 

I think my love for veterans started with Stiners. I just remember thinking how amazing she was. What a sacrifice they made as her husband was away for such long amounts of time.

 

It really made me think about life and realize how privileged

and grateful I am. Since that time, I consider myself a Veteran hunter. I don't want a single Veteran to walk by without saying thanks.

 

The kids asked me what my favorite part of the parade was and it was definitely when I shouted at man- You're our hero!!! and he smiled.

I get so emotional.

 

Sacrifice.

Sometimes I feel like I truly have no clue what that word means.

It is so humbling to think of all the things these men, women, and their families have done... for us.

 

Our sweet cuddle puff. She loves to be out enjoying all the action.

 

Why is he dressed like this? Because "it's fun mom". He was way excited for the cars, sirens and CANDY!!

 

This year there were more people!! Still not what it should be though.

 

We loved this little robot bus!!

 

We got a request to remember the soldiers in our prayers.

Will do!!

 

It was a great parade.
Thanks Veterans!!! Thanks to all who serve!!!