November

 

We finally hit up the Discovery Gateway! We hadn’t been since May and it was bothering me that I wasn’t using our pass! Lila was delighted to be back!

Hudson had a piano recital. He played “Smooth and Crunchy” and “Spanish Caballero” He did so well! He worked really hard and it definitely paid off!

This is Davis’s excited face he does every time I give him even slightly good news. Usually that a friend is free to play or that we are having pizza for dinner. It kills me every time. 

I love him so much! Just working hard at his homework. He’s learned SO MUCH in kindergarten! I’ve been amazed at his progress in just a few months!

Hudson is studying Utah in 4th grade and we were tasked to bring a Rice Krispie treat in the shape of Utah to school one day. It came home like this- all decorated and labeled to match the geography of our state! Then we enjoyed munching on it for a few days. Hudson’s teacher this year is awesome and is making 4th grade such a great experience for him!

Davis’s class earned 10 points again and voted to have a pajama and stuffy day at school. He was delighted to wear pajamas and he brought his little “buddy” (it’s a bear, but he is sure it’s a dog) to school with him for the day. Also- I love that he frequently wears this little fingerless glove! Hudson got those in first day and they were a very common accessory for him for years. Long live the (dollar store) fingerless gloves! 

Also, speaking of which, it got really cold quite suddenly this year. One day before school started, my friend Brianne (who brings Davis home from school half the time) noticed he was sitting in the ball on the playground before school instead of playing like normal. She tried to see if anything was wrong, and he just wouldn’t respond. Very un-Davis-like. When Megan (his teacher, Mrs. Joseph, also our neighbor) came out to get the class he was still curled in a ball and wouldn’t tell Megan what was wrong. Brianne and Megan carried him into the room. He still wouldn’t tell her what was up, so she was brilliant and went down and pulled Chase out of class and asked him to help. He spent a little time with Davis and before too long Davis was happily sitting in his seat, being part of the class and acting totally normal. Chase explained to Megan, “cold hands!” And headed back to class. Apparently Davis’s little hands got really cold (he didn’t have gloves on) and he just couldn’t handle life or anything until they warmed back up! Oh Davis! When I talked to him about it later that day and explained that grown-ups like Brianne and Megan are there to help him and he can tell them what is wrong, he furrowed his eye brow, tapped his little cheek in the classic “thinking” pose for a minute as if considering it, and then went on with his day. Needless to say, I make sure and send him with gloves on every morning now!

Classic Hudson style. Can’t just wear the shirt the way it’s supposed to. I love how Hudson puts his own little twist on everything!

This is basically Chase’s uniform now. A black hoodie (he has two, they are slightly different) and jeans every single day. People might think he only owns one outfit. 

You can tell, Lila is delighted that Chase is joining in her game, although I can’t remember what they were doing!

Davis and homework! This particular day I told him he was supposed to write “1 to 20” on his paper. He wrote (below) 1, 2, 20. And was sure that was totally fine. I laughed, didn’t argue with him, and had him finish up later that night. He only finished with the help of Bei Bei, who you can see is also holding the pencil. 

Just a little sweet pea all dressed up to go visit my Grandma at her assisted living place. Lila is doing great with these visits and it very sweet and talkative to my Grandma. It makes her day.

Our Elementary school doing a musical every year for only 5th and 6th graders. Chase didn’t try out last year because it conflicted with robotics too much, but once he saw the play kind of wished he did it. So this year he was determined to try out. This year they are doing Aladdin.  His original plan was to try out just for a speaking part, since he doesn’t really sing. But after going to the pre-try-out workshops he was so excited he decided to do a singing and speaking audition! 

Two of the directors are our neighbors and very good friends (Megan and Lindsay), but they assured me that isn’t why Chase landed a lead role! He gets to be the Sultan! He was so excited about the role! It has a lot of lines (and no solo singing) so it’s really perfect for Chase. Megan and Lindsay both said he was so cute in his audition and one of the few kids who came in to auditions really memorized and prepared- so they knew he could handle the part. He’s so excited to get going! He’ll get his script in December and practices start up in January! 

One Sunday we had some time and energy to burn, so I took all the kids to walk to the Layton temple! It’s so close to being open and we are so excited about it! It took us about 20 minutes to walk there during golden hour and we all loved it!

Ben has had some free time and he loves going to Costco. Lila also loves Costco. 

This year’s thankful tree. Lila was being grumpy and wouldn’t be photographed with it. This year Lila wanted to put Penelope on it every day (so she’s on there like six times at least). Davis, our beginning reader, loved being able to find certain leaves on the tree. I love this tradition!

We had a really lovely Thanksgiving this year. Leading up to the holiday I was feeling really worn out, both emotionally and physically, so I decided not to go nuts and try to plan a lot. It was amazing. We hung out at home a lot and just enjoyed each other the whole break! Lots of quality family time. We watched Christmas movies together and played some games. The kids played with each other and some friends. We had some opportunities to do a little service. Mostly we were just together a lot and it was wonderful.

 Our delicious Thanksgiving dinner was at my parents house this year. My grandma came, along with Dennette and Sonja. Grandma had been really depressed lately since she’s been in the nursing home for 7 months now and her goal was to be home by Thanksgiving, which isn’t remotely looking like an option for her. As soon as they wheeled her in, Davis gave her a big hug and continued to hug her multiple times throughout the night. Between dinner and dessert the kids put on a little program for her- singing a few primary songs and Chase and Hudson each played her a piece on the piano. It’s always a little hard to tell if/how much Grandma is enjoying herself because she’s pretty quiet these days. Apparently, as Sonja was driving her home Shauna called. Sonja reported that grandma said that the food was good, but her favorite part was all the little kids. She loved their program so much. “That Davis!” She said quite a few times. (I get it, Davis just has a way of making people feel so good!) I’m so glad the kids could give her a little joy!

Lila and Rose had their own table- it lasted about 5 minutes. The big kids all sat at their own table too. I think they all mostly ate rolls and had a really good time together!

I snapped this photo out my window on morning in late November during a moment of pure gratitude. Life is far from perfect. In fact, November in some ways was kind of a stressful and downer of a month for us. But we still have so much to be thankful for. We are healthy. We are happy. We have the best kids and a great marriage. We love our home and our neighbors. The kids have a great school with great teachers. We have so much loving family nearby (and far away). I was just feeling so thankful.