November

 Let the Holidays Begin. Nov 1st Christmas music was blasting. November is just the appetizer. 

I was able to get my Christmas cards ordered early. I will keep thinking positively and will NOT get overwhelmed I will only enjoy it. 

We had neighbors moving stuff out of their house (it is a military house so that happens a lot) Colvin prayed at dinner we could get a family with Kids. I prayed we can get a family with GOOD kids. 

The boys had a fun run at school.  I dragged a friend with me, since this is the whole reason I am a stay at home mom. It was cold and rainy (I even put on a glove), but it was worth it to see the kids’s faces. 

I canned pumpkin again, only I did it differently. I cooked the pumpkin, then puréed it then canned it. I will let you know if it made a difference. 

We let each kid participate in something. It made life crazy but full. Azalyn LOVED tumbling. She was the oldest in her class and had no fear. The first of the year we will do it again. Colvin took a soccer skills class and really enjoyed it.  Only it was outside, and we Arizonians are wimps when it comes to the cold. Denali took a basketball skills class. He had to really work on it, his shooting is good because he is so tall. Thank you to all my alarms or we would of missed a few classes

We have been testing things for when my family comes for "Christmas". We tested the outside movie. It was fun but gets cold, and we needed a better speaker. With just our family our speaker works but we had another family come over to test it with people and our speaker just does not cut it. Greg got an early Christmas present.  We also had to check out the practicality of people sleeping outside. I slept with the boys outside. It got colder than we expected. Colvin stay out all night and we snuggled tight. Azalyn got to sleep inside with dad.  He fought the monsters for her. 

My husband loves me because when I get a wild hair I will not stop. He is great enough to  go along with my hair and helps me accomplish it. I wanted to get a sand pit for the kids. We (Greg and I) went out looking for sand. We live in Arizona you would think there would be sand NOPE. Greg found a construction place with sand. We tarped my van and put in sand. It was WAY cheaper than we had anticipated so win for ALL. 

Greg also helped me put pictures up, after 6 mons I wanted people to know that yes we do live in this house. It took a whole Saturday, a few "discussion" Moments but we got them mostly ALL up. We still need to get pictures up in our room but we want to paint first so some time in the next 3 years. 

We went to Fat Cats one last time. ALL my kids got TONS of tickets, each kids had 900. Then we went to the best Mexican restaurant so far in Arizona. To bad we don’t live closer. 

We have been trying to find the "things to do". We went to a free Charley Brown play. The kids really enjoyed it. Colvin had a friend from school in it, he made her feel really special. 

We went to a skate park because the kids wanted to ride their bikes. Most of the kids tried to stay out of Azalyn's way. Let’s stay positive and say we need to find a "bike park" for the boys. Mom cannot spank other people’s kids. 

Each family member shared a not so fun cold. Denali and Azalyn got to stay home from school. I asked Colvin if he wanted to stay home. He looked around the house and asked will I have to clean, I told him YES. He was up the stairs dressed and, in the car, lickety split. Then jumped out of the car with a smile on his face at school. 

We had the missionaries come over for dinner. The kids were wonderful, they do have table manners.  The missionaries also did an object lesson my kids loved. They slammed their finger with a can under the Book of Mormon. You will not get hurt with the word of god.

We put our tree up before Thanksgiving. I am slowly helping my husband come around to my way of thinking. 

Mom and Dad and Grandma finally made it down to Arizona. Grandma Afton LOVED just laying outside in the sun.  Dad got a job the 2nd week he was here. He has to get up at 5:30 but he loves it. It is working at a golf course. The first week he cleaned my house. Even got me a new dishwasher and installed it. He made my bike rack and organized my garage. 

At WinCo if you spent so much money you got a free turkey. Challenge accepted. I think I could of got 2 free turkeys I don't do anything half way. 

Azalyn loves anything makeup or nail polish. She will make anyone "look" pretty. Grandpa was super smart and said that he would do her nails. Dad was not so lucky.  He looks gorgeous. 

Grandma Afton is so funny, she is so lost. I took to her to the park (mom and dad biked to the park) She was scared to death that I was going to leave her. On the way home she was not happy that Dixie left her. She does not know anyone. I said Hi I am Syringa she said Hi honey I am Afton. She was sure I was nice but just did not know anyone. She also wondered why we picked up so many kids. (I had the 3 in the back).  Then Dad left Azalyn watching Grandma one day why he went on a bike ride (it was like 10min and the TV was on). The boys have really had to step up and help Grandma Afton. I love watching them. 

We went to Timbers for Thanks Giving (see other post) 

AD: on the way to New Mexico I did my nails with 3 different nail companies. Color street came off before we left New Mexico, Lily and Fox stayed a few days, Dashing Diva stayed for weeks. 

I have to remember there are awesome people. We bought a Christmas present and the FedEx guy knocked on the door till I opened it so we could hide it. 

We got pork at Costco for a still. There are miracles and blessings all the time. I tried to cut my finger off. After a week and almost a whole bottle of super glue is started to scab over. 

All of the family is not feeling 100% but we did got some of our Christmas up. 

Let the Fun Crazy Begin.