November all in one

 Lots of pictures...all in November.  Here's what we did that month:

Lots of time at the park.  The weather here is perfect now.  We deserve it and are outside as much as possible enjoying it.  Remmy loved the swing her first time.  I love that happy gummy smile of hers.

fell asleep on the couch during quiet time.  Why does she always take her clothes off?

 We started Remmy on rice cereal and veggie.  She has taken awhile to like them, but slowly she is.  I just need to stay consistent with it.

John hates this picture, but it cracks me up.  Brooklyn is frequently coming out of her bedroom in her swimming suit, and this night they managed one on Jake too.  I couldn't stop laughing. 

My old college basketball team was in Arizona for a tournament one weekend.  We met the team at Castles and Coasters, a mini theme park, and my coach paid for the kids to do a few rides.  Jake wasn't tall enough for these go-carts, but Brooklyn was and LOVED it. 

Jake was however tall enough for the boats.  He was a little unsure about it and I think nervous to do it with my coach.  He didn't move the entire time.

a little mini golfing too

We got to watch them play twice - they won both games.  The kids had fun watching the games and it made me realize how out of shape I am and how in shape I used to be! 

more park time with friends

For FHE we made  a "thankful tree" and wrote what we were thankful for.  The kids had fun coming up with things they were thankful for.  Brooklyn was thankful for preschool and diet coke and Jake was thankful for food. 

John had a 3 week break in November which was awesome.  We took advantage and got out as much as we could.  We went to the outlets to shop and also saw the tallest Christmas tree in the nation.  It was massive and pretty impressive.

I got my wisdom teeth out.  Not fun.  My dentist growing up had told me I wouldn't need them out, so I never did.  The last few months I had noticed one of my back wisdom teeth was coming in and they were starting to ache.  My good friend down here's husband is a dentist and he got me in quickly to get x-rayed.  Sure enough, they were bad and needed out.  One of the bottom ones was coming in horizontally, not vertical, so they had to do a bone graph on that one.  I couldn't have had them out if John hadn't been on break. 

The recovery wasn't too bad.  The worst part was waking up with nasty morning breath and the swelling.  I was able to start eating normal again about after a week.  Thankful that it is over and done with!

cute sisters - Brooklyn loves helping me feed Remmy

We bought a new kitchen table (well new to us!).  We scored and got it for $50 from our friends.  I wanted a bigger table with more chairs now that Remmy can sit in the booster seat.  I love it.

We took B and J to the new Disney movie, Big Hero 6.  We all loved it and thought it was super cute.  It was Jake's first movie in the theater and he did not move the entire time.  We even bought popcorn and he didn't touch it. 

We drove to Utah the second week of John's break and stopped in St. George for a few days to stay and visit with John's parents. We went to the St. George temple and visitors center with Marc, finally tried Swig cookies and a dirty diet coke, went to the park, and just relaxed. 

Remmy is such a good sport and lets her siblings do a lot to her.

We drove the rest of the way to Salt Lake and stayed for another week with my parents.  We visited some of our best friends, Raf and Claudia.  Carmyn and Brooklyn hit it right off and had a blast playing together.  Brooklyn kept calling her Lauren for some reason, but Carmyn didn't seem to mind.

We watched Lindsey's futsol game and spent lots of time playing with the Bowen's.

She was asleep and smiling - so cute!

Naughty  - she got my mascara out and told me she wanted to be a cat.  To her credit, she did a decent job.

My cousin Paul, who is the nicest guy ever, offered us 10 Jazz tickets!  It was so much fun and I hadn't been to a game forever.  We invited John's sister Heather and their whole family.  We had great seats and it was a really good game - the Jazz lost at the very end, but still exciting.  We saw my cousin Aiden on the big screen too.

Story - the Jazz bear was throwing out mini Jazz balls to the crowd.  I told Brooklyn to wave her arms and maybe we'd catch one.  Well when we didn't get one she was really sad.  I quickly text Paul and asked if he could get us one.  He showed up within minutes with a ball for Brooklyn who was so excited.  She even fell asleep that night with it.

The kids and I went with my mom to visit my Grandma.  I hadn't seen her for awhile and didn't recognize her at first.  She is the cutest little lady there ever was.  At one point I was holding her hand and she picked up my hand and moved it and said "your hands are cold."  I love her!  So glad I got to see her. 

dinner with John's sisters and families

Hire's with my mom and dad, Cowden's, Esco's, Bowen's, Graf's, and Bruce and Claudia the night before Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving morning John and Remmy slept in and Brooklyn, Jake, and I ran/walked the turkey trot with Rich and Misty.  Rich ran and pushed his kids in the stroller and I ran/walked with my kids.  Brooklyn was really excited to run and did a really good job.  I let her lead and she can run surprisingly for a long time.  At the end we met back up together and let all the kids out to run.

my cute dad carving the turkey

these two finally woke up

We had a great day - dinner at the Bowen's and then snacks and games that night at my parents.  My gave all the grand kids pj's, a lot of them matching. 

The next morning - love this bunch.

I made Brooklyn and Jake Christmas blankets this year - one of my favorite traditions growing up.  We get them out Thanksgiving night and put them away New Years Day.  This was Brooklyn's - love how it turned out.

Jake's - I love his too...very boyish.

We were able to watch John's nephew Cameron open his mission call, which was really exciting.  Before we did that we stopped at Brideveil Falls - where we had our first kiss - and showed the kids.  They weren't that excited, but it is a really pretty place.