November 2016

We started off our month with birthday celebrations.

Kaleigh turned 6 on November 5th. 

She asked for a doll house and a baby doll and some putty.

Papa and Nana took care of her clothing needs and gave her an

American Girl Doll complete with jewels and several pairs of sparkly earrings.

She was such a sweet girl on her birthday, helping Dad put her doll house together

and setting up all of the furniture.

The school celebrated her on Friday and she brought cupcakes

to share with the class and she was queen for a day. 

 Brayden's 22nd birthday was the next day.

We had the entire family over for dessert to celebrate both kids.

 We watched the Broncos game.

Russ and his boys stood for the National Anthem...

Brayden took a knee

 We were so excited that Quincey and Vince came to help us celebrate

 Allie tried to teach Vince to Kendama.

She even gave him one of her old kendamas to take home and practice.

 KK and Morgan took a picture to send to Parker

It's dang hard to get 10 people going in 100 different directions to be at the same location on the same day at the same time for family pictures.  It is dang hard to coordinate outfits and its harder to snap a photo where every one in the picture is smiling their best smile.  But, we did our best on a Sunday afternoon in the most beautiful hidden park I have ever been in.  

Thanks every one for being in the Christmas Photo this year.

I am so proud of all of you. 

 Morgan 17

Ryker almost 5

Peyton 7

                                                

Kaleigh 6

Mom and Dad young and a little older

 The Littles

 Quincey 20

 Allie 14

 8 children with many more to add in the future

 Sunday dinner Rib Night.  

Such a messy choice

Our family bid a final farewell to Garrett.

We all told our favorite memory of Garrett and gave him one piece of advice for his mission.

There were a lot of tears.

 We will take a picture just like this when he returns 

to see how much the kids grew while he was gone

 Kori is giving him her advice

 Brothers.  Grant is hoping to be taller and buffer than

Garrett when he gets home

 Russ is hoping to be taller than him too

On November 15th, we said very tearful goodbyes to our
missionary.  We met at the St. George Airport at 6:00 am.
We took a hundred pictures in HORRIBLE color and lost
complete track of time.  He very nearly missed his flight.
And we could hardly let him go.

  I LOST it during this hug.

These two brothers have been each other's rock for the past 18 months

and now they won't see each other for three and a half years.

This was a hard one.

 Papa, Garrett and Nana

 Raleigh, Garrett and me

 The Hyde Family

 The Ellsworth Family

 Kori's Hug.  She did remarkably well.

She said it was because she is on "lexipro"

Well.....  gimme some of that.

 Nana's hug

As he was boarding the plane, we went upstairs to the observation deck

so we could watch the plane leave.  And after they pulled the stairs away,

 the stewardess allowed him to come back to the door of the plane

and wave to us one more time.  It was so awesome.  Only in St. George.

Papa and Nana celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary this month.
We are horrible children...
We should have planned a huge party and invited all of their friends from around the world to come and help us celebrate....  but, unfortunately their wedding date almost always falls on the day after Thanksgiving and it is so hard to get people to come to St. George on a holiday weekend.  So, instead we just took them to dinner.

Raleigh, yes that is right, I said Raleigh... made them their present.
He literally can do everything.
It turned out so perfectly adorable.
I just LOVE the photo of them on their wedding day.
They are so happy.
IF I just happen by chance to live until I am 87 years old, I will get to celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary.  It's a goal that I really hope to achieve.....  the anniversary part of the goal will be easy....  I am talking about living until I am 87.  That will be a straight up miracle.

 Miss Peyton had a Thanksgiving FEAST at school.  Assignments were passed out and included menu items such as Turkey, carrot sticks, olives, celery, cheese, rolls, apples and pie.  The feast was at 1:00.  ONE HOUR following lunch.  I had the thought that I probably didn't need to send a lunch with her because why would the children eat lunch and then eat at the FEAST merely one hour later? So, I sent a little snack with her and I felt really good about that.

BUT at 12:00,  I received an email from the Riverside Elementary Lunch Lady letting me know that that my daughter had purchased a school lunch (for the first time in her school career) and now had a negative lunch balance of $2.00.

So....  someone at the school noticed that my child only had a Gatorade and a package of fruit snacks at lunchtime at noon....  and took it upon themselves to pick up where I had seriously dropped off as a parent and instead of saying "it's okay that this child is only eating fruit snacks right now because we are going to eat a FEAST in less than one hour".... they sent her through the lunch line.... slightly traumatizing her (because she has never done that before and she gets nervous doing things she has never done before) and forced her to eat a "NASTY"  $2.00 meal to hold her over for 40 minutes until the FEAST.

I am baffled by the thought process of the folks at the elementary school level.  Why not have the feast AT LUNCH TIME people?  Well.... I will know for next year that apparently the day before Thanksgiving Break, the expectation is that our children eat their weight in food every hour on the hour. (rolling my eyes emoji)

 Allie started basketball.  She is the smallest on her team, but she hustles and has a good attitude.  I think she is a normal sized 14 year old and then her friends come over or she stands next to the other kids on the risers in the choir and I realize she is itty bitty.  

 My car died.  Like DEAD-died.  Of course it was on Tuesday, our most complicated day of the week.  My family rallied.  Morgan stepped up and donated her car.  Quincey stepped up and drove Morgan around.  The Village adjusted pick up and drop off times.  And Raleigh... my DIY Youtuber got the laptop out and googled what he guessed the issue could be and started pulling parts out of my car....  one. by. one.

After an hour or two, he walked into the bedroom holding some REALLY SIGNIFICANT car part above his head like a trophy.  "I am victorious" he boasted "behold the faulty starter".  He then set out to order a replacement part on Amazon Prime that will be delivered in a guaranteed two days and he is going to attempt to put all the parts back in my car in the proper order and in the correct place. 

I have to disclose that he did beat a few of the parts with a hammer and punched a few things.
But, if he pulls this off, he will be rewarded handsomely... compensation unknown.

 The day before Thanksgiving my WHOLE family was off work/school.  (Everyone but ME, of course, but I'm not even bitter).  Raleigh woke up early and RAN to Costco for pies.  Then he RAN out of gas on the way home.  And since I had Morgan's car.  And MY car was in the garage in 14 pieces.  He had no choice but to RUN home.  Like he actually RAN.  Given that he was in a time crunch and it was bitter cold outside he RAN home and got the gas can, the Rhino and Morgan.  And they drove in the Rhino (in the bitter cold and Morgan with wet hair) to Maverick to get gas and back to Raleigh's car and then Morgan drove behind Raleigh so that he wouldn't get pulled over for driving an unauthorized off road vehicle on the city streets.

 Then the Big Kids left to go to Disneyland for the holiday with their dad and Raleigh and the little kids went off roading in the river

Our Missionary #1 is doing well....  we think that maybe he may have had an undisclosed rough week during week 7.  But, his letters have been back on track since then and he seems to be back to normal.  He has a difficult companion.  Nevertheless, he has several baptisms lined up and he is so excited about that.  He forgot to push send on his email to me a couple of weeks ago and didn't realize it until the next week.  He was so upset over it and he sent me the cutest email apology....

MAMA!!! I'M SO SORRY!!!! I HOPE YOU KNOW I'VE BEEN STRESSING THAT I FORGOT TO PUSH SEND ON YOUR EMAIL LAST WEEK!  But I hope you know the repentance process is real. 

4 steps to repentance happening now....

A- Acknowledge (I know that I forgot to email you)

B- Be sorry ( I'm so sorry, I hope you know I really was worried and thought you weren't ever going to email me again!!

C- Confess and Correct (I'm so sorry and I will never do it again!)

D-Don't do it again (I won't don't worry)

Such a cute boy!!  We are so proud of our missionaries and their bravery and their willingness to serve the Lord. 

First four baptisms under his belt too

An interjection:

~~ On Friday after Thanksgiving, Amazon delivered my new starter.

And 20 minutes after delivery, my car started up~~

My super smart husband saved us $260 by taking on the challenge of repairing my car himself.

I am over the moon proud of him.  

The Christmas Decorating began.  KK helped Papa put up some out door lights. 

Raleigh and I put up the tree while the big kids were in California.  

I just knew that Morgan would come home and rearrange everything

and spiff stuff up.   So, my main goal was to have it up by the time 

she got home.  Every year, she is chalk full of opinions on how 

we can improve ourselves

The big kids came home from their vacation and Raleigh and I

left on ours.  Raleigh's company reimburses it's employees for

their vacations.  And for some UNKNOWN reason, we didn't

go on one this year.  It seemed silly to let that money go to waste.
We began planning a trip to New York for Black Friday.  I was
so excited to go see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.
And I had the cutest outfit to wear there too.
BUT....
Our babysitters had already planned a trip to Disneyland for that exact time,
so we went with Plan B

We booked a luxury suite in Las Vegas for two days

and enjoyed a day at the spa with 80 minute massages
and another day of shopping. 

It felt selfish somehow.

I felt moderately guilty.

But, I quickly got over it as I had the time of my life.
We stayed in a suite on the 50th floor of the Cosmopolitan.
We were up so high that our ears popped every time we went up or down in the elevator.
Our view was AMAZING.
Our room had a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a master suite with an enormous bathroom, a guest bathroom and a full balcony over looking the dancing waters and the Eiffel Tower.
We arrived on at 5:00 pm and checked into our hotel then we went to Claim Jumper for dinner.  I had the most delicious Chicken Pot Pie ever.  We walked around the mall but it was FREEZING and I was wearing boots and my feet were killing me.

 The next morning, we woke up at 6:00 (or 5:00 LV time)
and we went to the swanky gym and then onto the Sahra Spa.
Raleigh's treatment was on a big heated stone.  Mine was
a cleanse and a detox with 80 minutes of massage time.
Raleigh just sort of liked his...  I LOVED mine.
My skin was literally glowing and I was so relaxed and I felt great.
I don't think I am so much a spa person.  I am ultra modest and pretty much not adventurous and I loathe being naked at any time, much less in the vicinity of other humans ...  but it was so fun for one day to be completely pampered and to feel so rejuvenated.

 After our spa day, we went to Fashion Show mall and
bought a few things.  And then we went to Top Golf.
I am pretty much not a golfer.  And taking me to a venue like that is
similar to me taking Raleigh to a karaoke bar where I am really good
at the thing and he would would be mortified.  I really didn't want
to step up on the platform and embarrass him and myself.  I was afraid I was going to
fall off the side.  But, I didn't want to be a stick in the mud either.
So, I stepped up and the only thing I remembered from my dad's training
sessions from 2007 was "keep your head down"....  So I did that.
And I'll be darned....the ball lifted up in the air.

And it was so fun.
And..... then we left and headed back to our hotel.
We were going West on Tropicana.  Approaching Las Vegas Blvd.
The entrance to our hotel was dead ahead on the other side of the blvd.
But our lane was blocked off and so at the last minute we were thrown into a lane that was forcing us to turn right onto Las Vegas Blvd and Raleigh WAS NOT happy about it.
And just as we were about to turn unhappily right the red light turned green and so Raleigh rebelled and broke the laws of the land and went through the intersection...  cutting off those people who were legally and rightfully going straight.  We crossed over the blvd and re-connected on Tropicana on the other side ONLY we were going the WRONG WAY.  Cars were coming towards us and we could NOT get into the correct lane because there was a huge cement barrier and we were in the Maxima.  So Mario Andretti did the only thing that he could do to save our lives and there was a play action fake of the most monumental kind and he flipped a U going 35 miles an hour and crossed 4 lanes of traffic to end up in the left hand turn lane.  My body was not prepared to go from West to East so unexpectedly and so I flopped all over the entire front seat while screaming at the top of my lungs "Raleigh, what have you done?"

The whole mess took 23.7 seconds but in that time 8 or 9 laws were broken.  And I almost had a heart attack.  While we were sitting at the light waiting to turn left...  I started hyperventilating.  My hands and face were tingling and I had to put my head between my knees.  And I was laughing but I wanted to cry.  Raleigh is the best driver I have ever known.  But, not on this day.  Oh my gosh....  drunk people don't drive this badly.   I made him promise for the rest of our trip, that he would obey all traffic laws no matter how inconvenient they were.


That night we walked over to Harrahs and went to Ruth's Chris for dinner.
I LOVE a good steak.  But here is the thing.  There was a 59 next to my filet on the menu and I thought that meant I was ordering #59....  I swear I did.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever DREAM that it meant my 11 ounce steak and ONLY my 11 ounce steak was 59 FREAKING dollars.  Fifty-nine-freaking-dollars.

That is TOTAL CRAP!!!
I don't care how NICE you think your stupid restaurant is
YOU ROBBED US!!
Literally stole our money and then asked us for a tip.
That steak could have been purchased at Harmons for $10.
I am SO sure.
I HATE that I suggested eating there.

Yes....  it was a delicious steak.
But, I could have nearly purchased an entire outfit for that.
At the very least a fabulous pair of shoes.

I will NEVER eat there again in this lifetime
That is for sure and for certain.

I don't want to end our enchanting weekend with this aspect.
Because at the end of the day....  we didn't pay for the overpriced meal anyway.
Raleigh's boss did.
And so I am just going to let it go.
And just be so lucky that I got to be with the Love of my Life all alone for two whole days.  And I love him more than I did 48 hours ago.

I am so Thankful for my awesome family...  my extended family and my own little family
I am Thankful for our warm home and for food
I am SO Thankful for brilliant, healthy, darling kids
I am Thankful for a rock solid, fabulous (in my mind) perfect marriage to a wonderful, spiritual, strong, fun, funny and (in my mind) perfect man.
I am Thankful my sister beat the odds and is thriving and getting better each week.
I am Thankful we get to live in St. George
I am thankful we drive cars with NO car payments
I am Thankful that we are members of the church
I am Thankful for our knowledge of Jesus Christ

I am just Thankful