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.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was with Brent's side of the family this year and we made it into somewhat of a marathon party. It was really fun!  Not a lot of pictures of all the activities unfortunately, took me a while to finally pull out the camera.

Okay, first we went swimming with the Maynes on Thanksgiving Eve. We have done this every year that we share Thanksgiving with them. So the first one was back when Chico was a newborn, the next time was when Griz was a newborn.  This year there was no newborn for us... moments like that always get me feeling sad but then I just have to remind myself that the Lord gives us these sweet blessings according to his own timetable and that I need to be patient. Anyway, it was a lot of fun swimming, the boys loved it! I really feel bad that I didn't take them at all this summer.  We invested in a family pass this time around though so we're going to start going a lot. The boys are gonna love it! (I have started swimming laps in the morning, that's why we bought it) :)
Anyway,  the kids got to play with Christa's kids for about an hour which was fun for them.  I sure had a good laugh at a rather embarrassing thing that happened to Brent (and he doesn't embarrass very easily).  Brent saw Chico and Chico's cousin, "N", across the pool and had the brilliant idea to sneak up on them and scare them there in the public swimming pool. About thirty feet away, he locked in on his target, went underwater and swam towards the unsuspecting prey. Brent can't see very clearly underwater, but his taste for adventure overcame his sense of logic. When he got to the target, he grabbed one ankle from each of the two pairs of four very skinny legs. He didn't hear any screams from the boys, so, discouraged, he squeezed a little bit harder and started to shake them a little bit. By this point, it was too late for me to warn him that it was actually a very thin woman and her son, and I had no idea what to do. Brent's pretend shark grasp, still unfruitful, was finally starting to annoy the woman whose leg he had grabbed. He finally let go, still under the water, when he heard a woman say, "WHAT THE HECK?" From under the water, I guess the voice was a little muffled and he mistook the voice for mine or Christa's, so he still hadn't quite figured out what was going on. Finally, after lifting his head out of the water, he met his unsuspecting prey, and I think was just as surprised as she was at what had just happened. Before you think I'm an awful wife for letting this all happen, I didn't notice this was happening until right before he finally pulled his head out so I couldn't stop him and I was like 20 or 30 feet away. But I did get to see the look on his face as he came out of the water. I couldn't stop laughing. Oh my gosh it was SO funny.  I will remember that one for a long time. I was glad Christa was there so I could have a good laugh about it with her!

Thanksgiving morning started out at 10:30ish with football! Heidi and her boyfriend John came, and Steve, Nate, and two of the oldest Maynes kids. We were bummed that Christa couldn't come. Brent and I were a bit sluggish at first. My excuse is I was so sore from all the baking I had done for the last 24 hours and probably a little bit from swimming, but probably mostly the baking. I made a LOT of pies which is a workout in and of itself! (Banana Cream, Chocolate Cream, Apple, Pumpkin, and Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake). Brent had a more impressive excuse though. He had already gone for a LONG run that morning. Not a race or anything, he just got up at 5:30 and started running. Think that sounds crazy?  Two days before that he ran another LONG one.  One of those runs per week normally goes just fine, but it was apparently a little unwise to do it twice in 48 hours.  Brent was sore like I've never seen him before.  He still played football though and impressed me with his quarter back skills. He has never played on a team, but man he can throw it beautifully. He probably wants me to stop talking about him now. :) Everyone else was really good and we were all grateful for the kids who added some much needed youthful energy to the game. They did most of the running of the ball.  Griz really wanted to play and was whining about not getting to hold the ball for a lot of the time. That made it a little bit hard because Brent and I had to take turns holding him to comfort him.  I got so fed up at one point though that at the hike I set him down and ran to an open spot and got the QB's attention, caught it, and scored a touchdown.  I felt like a terrible mom as everyone looked at me and then to my crying two year old standing there by himself.  Woops.  Chico and "L" had a lot of fun playing on the playground together the whole time. That was pretty cool how well they played together.

Well after the game was over we went home and got ready to head to the Maynes' for the turkey dinner.  We all sat in their front room at a big long table.  The turkey, made by Nate, was super-delicious, again. His recipe and technique are amazing! It is so flavorful that it would be a sin to put gravy on it and mask that fabulous taste. Everything was really yummy.  I don't know if the kids ate much, they were so busy playing.  Chico and Griz would love to move in with the Maynes I think.  It's just constant fun for them there.

After we ate we all went downstairs and watched Pure Luck while we digested. All the laughing helped burn some calories too I'm sure. ;) After the movie we hung out, ate pies, and hung out some more.  Then Christa got to work pulling out all the candy and graham crackers for gingerbread houses! This year she put them together with a hot glue gun and then the kids decorated them with the frosting and candy.  Totally worked SOOOO well (thank you pinterest!).  And here is where the camera finally came out!

I guess Iron Man needs a house too right?


Every time he saw me pointing the camera at him he'd cutely say, "deeez!"


He was scooping the sprinkles straight from the container into his mouth, we finally had to take it away from him because of how many sprinkles he was eating. :)


I made Chico and "N" pose with their houses before they headed off to play.


Brent held Baby "J" during the ginger bread house making. "J" looks comfy and I always love seeing a baby in Brent's arms... this is only one of like 10 pictures of him holding "J". I couldn't help myself.


Little baby J was in a good mood when Chico requested to hold him. Heidi helped him and Chico just melted. I think he's almost as baby hungry as Brent and I are!
I'm not gonna lie, I totally got teary-eyed taking those pictures. While I was taking them and watching Chico's expressions I got transported two years back to when he held Griz for the first time.

After gingerbread houses we hung out some more and then cleared off the table so we could play a game.  It's kinda like Apples to Apples but there are two winners per round and your questions are about that person. Anyway, we played that game for a really long time all while Brent snoozed on the recliner and the kids played and watched movies downstairs.

We probably way over-stayed our welcome but it's just hard to leave when you're having a good time! Glad we got to fit in all the fun activities that we had wanted to! :)

oh and here are a few more that Christa took that I wanted to keep: