Decking the Halls

The day after Thanksgiving we start to pull out all the Christmas decorations.  It makes for a fun weekend.  I love it!

Baby Jesus has been "misplaced" since last year so the angel has graciously been filling in.

November Odds and Ends

Tye falls asleep in this chair more often than any other person.  He must think it's comfy, but it sure doesn't look like it.

Haley thought she was soooo funny coming out wearing Tye's (clean) underwear.

Eliza finally started pulling herself up to furniture in the beginning of November.

Okay, sorry.  This is gross, but these are Nate's riding gloves.  You know..... the ones he wore when he would ride his Harley.  So you can guess what that is being rinsed out of them.  Yep.  Blood.  They got put away in a cabinet in the garage, stiff as could be and Nate decided to clean them up almost 6 months later.  When we visited the paramedics after the accident they told us they were pumping him full blast in both arms with fluids.  He lost a lot of blood that day and his gloves prove it.

Maybe I should have posted this before the gloves!  Sorry about that.  Nate and I tag teamed and made this delicious apple pie. I had it for lunch the next day too. :)

You all know about the "blizzard" that was supposed to come.  We all got ready.  We had gas in our cars, milk in our fridge, diapers for baby.  The wind started to blow.  Okay, any minute now..... an hour later..... 4 hours later.......nothing.  This is what it looked like the day after.  It was COLD, but we didn't get a blizzard!  My sister in Rexburg got it good.  I told her she was a snow hog.  You can blame her. ;)

Thanksgiving and Gingerbread

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Nate's family. What's not to love about good food and good company?  I didn't get any pictures, but I'm sure it looked a lot like yours.  Kaden was sick the whole Thanksgiving break with a fever and cough so we tried to keep him away from kids, quarantined him to the couch and he'd wear a mask a lot of the time.  Hopefully he didn't get anyone else sick (besides his own siblings).  And just when I thought he was all better he wouldn't be, but he's all better now. :)  I am very thankful for so many things it's hard to choose just one to focus on, but I will.  I am very thankful for miracles.  They happen all around us some are big and some are small, and some are hard to recognize, but they happen everyday.

Decorating gingerbread houses with the Swensen cousins....

Rachel's 9th Birthday

Rachel turned 9 on November 24th.  There was no school for Thanksgiving break which she thought was the greatest present ever!  She wanted breakfast in bed so her dad made her chocolate chip pancakes..... and she didn't like them!  WHAT?!  Tye thought they were great, though. :)  So he whipped her up some plain old pancakes and she was happy.  She has been wanting a new bike so that's what she got, along with a new helmet (in hopes that she'll actually wear it!).  I let her invite just a few friends to go see Disney's new movie Tangled.  She had a huge list of everyone she wanted to invite, but I had to draw the line somewhere!  I typically only do birthday parties every few years so this was a bonus for her anyway.  It was fun to listen to the girls giggle and hear the silly things they talk about.  Her Grandpa and Nana Bishop came over for cake and ice cream later that evening.  (Grandpa and Grandma Swensen were in Idaho.)  Rachel is such a joy to have in our family.  She is a sweet, kind and caring girl.  Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Slide Show

For those of you who would like to see the slide show I made for Nate's party, here it is.... (No judging.  It was my very first slideshow/video creation.)

Birthday Surprise

I threw Nate a surprise party on his birthday, November 18th.  I can't believe I pulled it off!!  There were times I thought he would totally figure it out.  Like when he found a file on the computer with pictures of him from when he was a baby until now.... I was making a video slide show for the party.  Luckily he didn't think twice about it, but I had to fib my way through a few other things, too.  My stress levels were maxed out!  It's normal for Nate's parents to take us out to dinner for our birthdays so I arranged with them to make it happen so we could get him out of the house.  We ate, but got done a little sooner than I had hoped.  I had a plan, though. I had something I needed to return to a store and it was in the area so I did that to kill a little more time.  We got back to our house a little after 7:00 p.m.. We invited Nate's parents over for birthday pumpkin pie (at least that's what Nate thought).  They were waiting for us in front of our house in their car.  We all walked through the garage door into the kitchen and SURPRISE!!  It was great.  He had no idea and I know it made his day, if not year!  He was all smiles and so was I.  I really felt like this birthday needed to be extra special.  The fact that he didn't lose his life in the motorcycle accident was reason enough to celebrate big!!  I wish I could have invited EVERYONE, but between mine and Nate's immediate families and some of his close friends my house was full.  We missed those who couldn't make it and thank those who made a special effort to be there.   It turned out to be a really great night!  {Thanks Jess for taking all the pictures.}

 SURPRISE!!

That's a look of "Are you kidding me?  I got wasted." (Nate's words)

Nate said he saw the punch bowl as he walked in, but didn't have time to process the thought because everyone yelled "Surprise!!"  It was perfect.  Yay!

Below:  I'm reading all the nice things everyone had to say about Nate.

He says I tried to make him cry, but didn't succeed...... does this picture prove otherwise???  He says he wasn't.... hmmm.

 

 (This picture was completely dark so this is the best I could do to see what was captured.)

See..... there was a pumpkin pie waiting at home for us. :)

Happy 32nd Birthday, Nate!  I love you!

Is it PDA if it's done in your own home.... in the presence of 40 people?! ;)  Yes, I know.  It isn't the prettiest kiss..... we're working on that.  Ha!

Go Ahead and Feel Sorry for Me....

Really!  You can.  I do. ;)

Here is just a little bit of what Haley does while I am distracted.  {*Sigh*..... or more like *groan*.}

A little desitin (on Eliza's head), a few tums, band-aids.  Where was I???

Don't be confused.  That dirt isn't just sitting lightly on top of the carpet.  She somehow mashed it in really deep, but luckily it all vacuumed out.  It just took a while!

Found ALL these (more than once) inside the piano.  Like INSIDE inside the piano.

This was an accident, but of course it would be Haley who did it.  Ugh!  It wasn't even ours.  Don't worry it was replaced with a spankin' new one.


Okay, these next ones are awesome.  And what I mean by "awesome" is "really NOT awesome".

Why?  WHY???  What could she possibly be needing to clean so badly?

I guess the plus to this is I discovered our tile is not quite level. I've been wanting to replace it.  Now I have a good excuse..... un-level floors are so last week, right?!  Ha! 

There was at least half an inch of water in the drawer.  The two beneath had a little less.  It has taken a week for the wood to un-swell.  We can shut the drawers with ease now.

This is not the first time she's cut her circulation off with hair elastics, but I hope it's the last.

I give her credit for putting it on the plate and not all over the carpet or something.

And to end on a sweeter note, she wanted her drink to "arrive alive" while she rode in Tye's booster.