December 23, 2016

November

November was a busy month! We started out the month with Chico getting a big gash in his arm while playing on a chain swing. We had to take him to the ER and that story is on Instagram.  Sad part of the story is he didn't get to participate in swim team that month.  He didn't seem devastated by that at all but it bummed me out.
Griz did the swim meet solo that weekend and he did awesome.  He's so funny, he can swim really fast if properly motivated but often lacks the motivation.  He's only 6 so that's okay I guess. Ha ha.  I had to go to that meet by myself so I didn't take the nice camera so that is on Instagram as well.
I tried to keep up with homeschool with the kids during the month.  I was quite stressed with packing for the move so it wasn't happening quite as much as I'd like and when we DID do it I wasn't a very good/nice teacher so it was better that we skipped days than force it.
We had one of Brent's classmates, Rachel, staying with us for the month.  She was really fun to have around. The kids loved her and she even tended for us occasionally.  It was nice especially because Brent was gone for long hours again on this cardiology rotation. 
We went on a lot of walks at the park where the boys were on their bikes and I was pushing Sanna in the stroller.  Those were the really good days of November and kept us going through the stressful month.  It's amazing how being outside and using your body positively can do that for you!

If I could describe MY November in a few words it would be:  packing, working out, and eating healthy.
If the kids could describe it in a few words it would be: playing, snapchat, playing with Rachel, and staying out of mom's radar 
If Brent could describe it in a few words it would be: Cardiology, Studying, and Driving

These pictures are from a particular day that Brent had off. I was packing up the game cabinet and the kids wanted to play with the puzzles. They were being really cute so Brent got out the camera.


Then a little later they started a fire in the grill.  They love doing that.



The day before Thanksgiving the kids decided they wanted to do some lego building tutorials. There are a bunch of videos they created but they and I took a few stills too. Cute kids.




Thanksgiving day came! Brent went and played some football with the boys.  They had a lot of fun.  Chico got into the game halfway through and helped out his team a lot.  They won the game! The Branch members that were playing were really fun with the kids.  I wished I could have gone and played but somebody had to make the turkey! :)
I hate dealing with raw meat but I'm willing to do it occasionally when the need arises.  Wrapping bacon around a turkey is so very delicious.  The oven isn't the best but it all worked out in the end.
I made brussel sprouts, asperagues, sweet potatoes (my favorite), and homemade cranberry sauce.  I also made super delicious rolls.  Only thing I didn't make this year was the pies.  I didn't have the energy and I didn't want to be tempted by them.

 We had the Taylors over for our Thanskgiving feast and that was fun.

 Brent had the boys do ALL the dishes.  It was amazing to sit back and relax after cooking all morning.

The day after Thanksgiving is one of our most favorite days of the year. This years was no exception!!! Our friend from church Chad agreed to tend for us from 2:00-9:30 or so.  He was so awesome to do that for us. It's such an important day for us, remembering all the feelings of falling in love and the goofy fun we had on our first date is so good for us.  Especially good for me to remember how I was before I had children and became a stressed out mommy. (Pics on Instagram) Since we couldn't recreate it exactly like we did it in Salt Lake we did the best we could in Nashville! We saw an art museum at the Parthenon.  The Parthenon was cool but there were only a handful of paintings that I would consider gallery worthy, kinda disappointing but still a fun time.  Next we went to the Cheesecake Factory which was really yummy.... I got Salmon on this really awesome salad, and then we got a chocolate hazelnut slice of cheesecake, oh man it was good.  Next we drove up to the Cumberland river in Clarksville and walked along the river looking at the lights.  That was really fun.
Then we went to Cold Stone in Clarksville and shared a little ice cream (since we had already had cheesecake).  We couldn't skip Cold Stone though, it was such a fun part of the original date 10 years ago.  It was a wonderful 10th anniversary.

The end of the month was busy with packing but Sanna forced me to slow down a bit here and there for cuddles.  She wasn't feeling well on the night Rachel was going to take us out to dinner to Jasmines up in Murray so Rachel and I took the boys and Brent stayed home with Sanna, though we took him a sushi roll home at the end.  Rachel was great to have at our house, I was worried it would be a little extra stressful having someone stay with us the month that we were getting ready to move but it really turned out to be great.  She is so laid back and non judgmental about the state of our house that it made it nice.  She was also fun to talk to for me, ha ha, probably should have let her study more.
Anyway, that was November! It was a beautiful month which made it harder knowing we were about to say goodbye to this home that we had of our own (not that we owned it but you know what I mean, we weren't in an apartment).  It was also hard to say goodbye to our friends we have loved and grown so close to out here.

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