Teeples, Thanksgiving

Our friends the Teeples came from Colorado to be with family for Thanksgiving, and we were lucky to get to hang out with them a couple times.

I guess we were having so much fun, that I only took out my camera once to get a picture, and poor Brooklyn was napping and missed out.

 

(Kind of ironic, because when we were in CO in June, we took the same kid picture, only Sami was napping and missed out of that one, ha ha)

 

 

We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Freeman's on Wednesday night, and it was actually preferred by a lot of people. Who knows, maybe we'll do it again next year.

Aunt Cathy was so cute to have a little Turkey craft/treat for the kids to make. Sadly, none of her grandkids were in town for the holiday.

 

The next afternoon we had Thanksgiving at Gordon and Lindy's

with some whiffle ball afterwards.

 

The boys saw a gratitude tree in the Friend magazine on the first Sunday of Nov, and started tracing and cutting out leaves themselves. So I helped them make a trunk and more leaves, and over the next few weeks, we added leaves of things we're grateful for. It was neat to see it grow. We'll for sure have to remember to do this next year.

 

CJ had a feast at Montessori House, and enjoyed trying most of the food :)

Plus it's always fun to sit next to your cousin.

November

We had dentist appointments, and it was Brooklyn's very first visit. I was super worried how it'd go, especially because she's terrified of most things, ha ha, and it was also during nap time. I was ready for a disaster and had super low expectations.

 

BUT--oh my goodness, she was the cutest, politest, most obedient little patient.

She did what they asked. They got x-rays and a little cleaning.

She just looked so tiny in that chair! Adorable.

And to top it all off, we had 0 cavities! 0! This has never happened in Payton's life, so it was a VERY big deal. The story that goes with this is kinda interesting. 6 months ago they said Payton had a tooth that would need a crown or some big work, or else it'd get worse and need a root canal. Casey wanted to see if they could just extract it. We played phone tag back and forth for a few months, and just never ended up doing anything about it. I was so worried that it'd be extremely worse.

 

Then, a couple months before the dreaded appointment, I was introduced to Doterra Essential Oils. I hadn't ever had my own experience with them, so it's pretty hard to believe in it. But my friend told me a story about using the toothpaste with her son, and how he needed 4 baby root canals, and after using the toothpaste for a couple months, she took him in for the root canals, and they came back out saying he didn't need them.

 

So...I thought, why the heck not? We'll try it, even though I was extremely skeptical. 

 

Fast forward to his appointment, and like I said, he had 0 cavities. I asked about his prior issue, and the Dr was like, "well, it's gone." Just like that. I was in shock, but happier than you can imagine. (Casey was still skeptical and had other theories. Plus, it's hard without a control in the experiment. Too bad you can't do the whole experience over to know for sure, but looks pretty obvious that the toothpaste is a miracle worker :)

 

Payton's had a fear of dentists ever since his very first appointment when he was little, because he had 8 cavities and needed lots of work. Plus all the cavities/fillings he's had since.

 

So, sorry for the long story, but this was super happy news :)

 

Also, in November, my brother Jason graduated Officer Training School in Alabama. Way to go Bro!!

While Jason was gone, Kristin survived as a single-mom to 3, and even gave birth to their beautiful baby girl Lucy. She's adorable! I'm so bummed they live far away and I don't get to hold her :(

One day while we were at the library, Brooklyn wanted her picture taken by this glass case of stuff animals. After I took her picture, she insisted on taking mine. I was impressed she got most of my face in, ha ha :)

After our pictures, she had "lunch" with the teddy bear.

We felt so privileged that our family got to go tour the Harry Potter House, a.k.a. the Davis Home. Jill had "throw a Harry Potter Party" on her bucket list, and knowing Jill, it wasn't surprising that she went all out and worked on it, with help, for a year. The details were INCREDIBLE!!! It blew my mind that she could recreate that stuff. The Davis family had a Halloween party, but luckily they left it all up for a while after, so us and a few other families got to tour it a few weeks later.

The kids loved the candy cart and using their wands to learn a spell and open a door.

When Em wasn't feeling good, and Beck was at school, we kidnapped Everett and Mabry for the day and even made a stop at the Temple Visitor's Center. I need to take them there more often...they loved it.

 

Although she doesn't look super excited, Brooklyn was beyond excited to get chosen at a Kid's Club event, to be a reindeer. It was the last one for a couple months and she hasn't ever been chosen before, so she was thrilled.

One morning when I went to get Brooklyn out of her crib, she had her blanket on her head and said, "go get your camera and say, 'where's Brooklyn?'"

Silly girl.

 

Farm Field Trip:

Mrs. Billings' preschool does a field trip to the farm and we got to go last year with CJ's class. Well this year, some friends invited us to go, and I also realized that little Isaac probably wouldn't get to go since his momma barely had a baby, so we took him along with us!

 

 Fun for us! Bet those poor animals were exhausted. I hope they all survived us...

Basketball and a Table Project

Payton played in probably his favorite league yet. He was on a basketball team with his cousin Beckam and coached by Uncle McKane.

They had a lot of fun and definitely learned a thing or two also.

The first game was pretty comical, but they figured it out over the season :)

Daddy even got to come to one game which was awesome.

But of course snack time after the game is the most important part, ha ha :)

(super blurry, but totally had to document how Payton's shoes drove me crazy. No matter how tight I tied his shoes, they ALWAYS came undone. Multiple times a game. That poor ref was so sweet to tie his shoes on many occasions.)

Most game days the kids had quite the group of rooters for them. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. Fun that the last game, Dan and McKenzie brought pom-poms which made it more festive. They started to walk in the door with one set of pom-poms, but they kinda matched the other team, so they went back to the car and switched them out :)

After the final game we went out for ice-cream. Woohoo!

 

 

 So, I pretty much have never done anything crafty. Well not never, but close enough.

So I was wanting to re-do this table and chairs, but was pretty overwhelmed thinking about it, let alone starting it.

But I finally did, and step by step, it came together. It took months, working at nap time or bedtime, but I did it!!!!

 

Drum roll please............... :)

Ta-Da