Nov 20 - 26

 

Monday, November 20 - I was really super nervous about being awake for this cyst removal so I had mom come over early this morning, we did her nails, and then she took me to my appointment. It was actually really quick and pretty painless! I was awake and just laying on a chair (like a dentist chair) and they had my arm draped over a side table. They put it through a sterile sheet, sterilized my arm, then cut into it. I felt the pulling and tugging but it didn't hurt and it only took about 10 minutes. I felt bad making mom come for this. I would have been fine to drive myself home after but we went to the Cheesecake Factory and shared a salad so that was a win! She also brought dinner out so Nick put that together later tonight and I was able to rest and relax all evening. My family really is the best!

Tuesday, November 21 - Ricki's grade had the Mountain Man unit in Social Studies and today it ended with a rendezvous. They played games and had a old fashioned party! I went to lunch with Meg, Marisa, and Jenni but my hand is really pretty sore so after being out for a few hours, I was ready to go home and nap. Sweet Marisa showed up at our door at 5:00 with dinner! It was a total surprise but I was very relieved. I am in more pain than I had anticipated so not having to stress about dinner was magnificent! I am so blessed by these angels!  

Wednesday, November 22 - My knuckles are so very swollen! I really can't move my fingers much...they just don't work. I can tell that my fingers are bruised but the whole back of my hand feels bruised. I can't take the bandages off yet to look but I'll be interested to see what it looks like under the wrap. This has been a bit more painful than I remember with my left hand. It's also hard trying to get anything done with only my left hand. 

Thursday, November 23 - Happy Thanksgiving!! We had a pretty lazy morning. Simon and Nick prepped the rolls for dinner since I'm still not functioning with my hand. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade then Simon went downstairs with Zack to play some throwback Nintendo games. Dinner this year was at the Pearson's and although I failed to get any good pictures, I did capture this moment. Nick was showing us how you can put whipping cream on the back of your hand, pop it up, and catch it in your mouth. He did it once without fail but then when he went to show more kids, he popped it up and it plopped right on the ceiling! We were all dying of laughter! He's such a funny guy! It was a fun and memorable day!

Friday, November 24 - We slept in a little this morning then Kendra and I took off to do some Black Friday shopping. We went to a few stores in Mountain View Village then met up with mom, Jenni, Halle, and Brielle at Walmart. We didn't do much shopping. I enjoy doing most of my shopping online. :) I am able to be without the wrapping on my wrist now and I was correct, my hand is very bruised!

Saturday, November 25 - We spent a lot of time putting Christmas up today. We went to dinner as a family to Chili's and then we headed to Zack's indoor soccer game. We lost, darn it. But it was fun to be there with Grandma Sandi, Ryan, Ashley, and the kids. :) 

Sunday, November 26 - Ricki wanted cute Christmas nails so this is what we came up with. Welcome Christmas season!

Nov 13 - 19

 

Monday, November 13 - I'm so happy that my kiddos at home are having a great time with Grandma & Grandpa Howard. :) This was Ricki's hiding place when they played hide-and-go-seek. We said a tearful goodbye to Kam, Kayla, and Katie this morning (we said our goodbyes to Kenny last night) before they left for school and work. We gathered our things and headed out around 10:30am. We drove straight to my favorite Florida beach, Siesta Key. The sand was like powder, just how I remembered it. We stayed at a cute little beach resort called Tropical Beach Resort. The sunset was beautiful and we found a fun little ma & pa ice cream shop called Jake's once it was too dark to be on the beach. I could stay here forever!

Tuesday, November 14 - This was our last full day in Florida. It flew by! We ate breakfast just in front of our room then walked down to the beach again. As you can see, the weather wasn't perfect but we still enjoyed our time there. We had dinner at a grubby little Mexican restaurant and there were no other customers while we were there. Yikes! It was fun though. We spent our last night just relaxing and watching crime shows in our room. :) 

Wednesday, November 15 - We had a little time this morning so we took our breakfast down to the beach to eat there. The birdies liked that we were there with food. We had to be out of the hotel by 11:00 so we went for a little drive to kill some time before we had to go to the airport. We drove to the Ringling Brothers Museum and walked through the visitor's center. Our flight was at 3:35 and we had another layover in Dallas but it was a good flight home. It's always nice to get home to the kids.

Thursday, November 16 - Nick received the high honor of Student of the Month. His favorite teacher, Jill Bodine (math), nominated him. She's so great! They did a whole ceremony for these amazing students and we got the honor of being there with him before school this morning. Way to go Nick!

Friday, November 17 - I had an insanely busy day getting all the last minute preparations done for tomorrow. I had a few dozen cookies to bake, the kitchen to clean, and a few grocery items to still pick up. In the midst of the crazy though, Kendra was asked to the Winters Dance by Bridger. Yay for Kendra! 

Saturday, November 18 - Amie's big day is here! I'm sure I've mentioned it before but I am so proud of Amie and all she has accomplished. She is amazing and I hope this party gives her a glimpse of just how amazing we all think she is! I feel like it was a huge success. The guest turnout was wonderful and everyone seemed to genuinely enjoy the food, drinks, and desserts. She is one smart cookie and I'm so glad we were able to celebrate her!

Sunday, November 19 - First of all, I was set apart today as the Secretary in the Young Women's program. Yay! I am so excited to serve in this calling - especially after the beautiful blessing Bishop White gave me. We had dinner at the Muffett's tonight since mom is hosting Thanksgiving on Thursday. Grandma Sharon bought this cute reindeer decoration that lights up and even plays music. She asked Trevan to put it together for her because it came in so many pieces. It is really cute!

Nov 6 - 12

 

Monday, November 6 - Kendra had an MRI this morning to check the anatomy of her ears. She did great...once the IV was in her arm. She had a hard time with the needle of the IV. It was quick and easy otherwise and I had her back to school by lunchtime. We'll get the results in a week or two.

Tuesday, November 7 - Today was the ACT test day for high school Juniors so the Sophomores and Seniors had the day off. I used to take the kids to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch a ton when they were kids so for nostalgia sake, we went to Dollie's for lunch. It was so good and fun to be there with the kids. I also dragged them grocery shopping so it was an expensive day out. :)

Wednesday, November 8 - I have had so much to do to get ready to leave town so getting my tags done was a huge check mark on my to-do list! I only did embroidered tags for this year so each person will get three different tags. I like how they turned out and they have been fun to do.

Thursday, November 9 - Another big thing on my to-do list this week was doing this custom cookie order for the Mountain Ridge High School Swim Team. Their closing banquet is tomorrow so Marisa "hired" me to make cookies. I got them all baked earlier this week, froze them, then took them out this morning so I could start decorating tonight. It is a big task but I do enjoy doing it. 

Friday, November 10 - Today was Blackridge's Veteran's Day Program. They always do such a wonderful job. I need to remember to bring tissues each year because it is a tear jerker! Thank you to all of the Veteran's that make this land free! I finished the swim team cookies tonight. Word from Marisa was that they loved them! This is my first official order that I actually made money so yay cookie business!

Saturday, November 11 - Simon and I flew out to Florida first thing this morning. We did have a short layover in Denver but I much prefer that to catching the red eye and flying through the night. When we got here, we rented a Kia at the airport and met up with Kenny, Katie, and the kids. We went to dinner at one of my favorite Florida places, Cheddars. The food was good but the company was even better!

Sunday, November 12 - This trip is for Simon & I to celebrate our 20th anniversary. One of the highlights that we have been looking so forward to is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. They did so many cool tributes because of Veteran's Day. They did a 3 helicopter fly-by and parachuters landed on the field. The Buccaneers played the Tennessee Titans and it was so fun because the Bucs played so well! They won 20-6 and the energy in that stadium was contagious! We loved every moment of being at the game and it only made it better that we were able to go with Kenny & Katie. They have to work tomorrow and we are leaving during the day so we had to say goodbye tonight. It is hard every single time but we are so glad that we got to spend this time together with them.

Oct 30 - Nov 5

 

Monday, October 30 - For family night tonight we carved pumpkins. The kids had a blast and their pumpkins turned out fun. :)

Tuesday, October 31 - Mom, Simon, and I started the day off at the Halloween Parade at Zack and Ricki's school. So fun! :) This afternoon, I came back to the school to put on Ricki's class party. It turned out really fun!! I let Mrs. Lofgren keep the Quidditch game. It will go really cute in her room. Tonight, we went as a family to the Losee's backyard Halloween party (it's an annual tradition) then the kids took off on their own to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. Kendra met up with this cute boy, Bridger, and they went around with Ricki together. It was a fun holiday today!

Wednesday, November 1 - It's that magical time of year again...GIRL'S TRIP!!! Yay! We got on the road just after 1:00 and made a quick stop at Lehi Bakery (tradition!). When we got into town, we quickly unloaded at the house then went to dinner at Paula's Mexican Restaurant. We have our annual tag exchange coming up so we spent the evening visiting, watching Friends, and working on our tags.

Thursday, November 2 - The St. George temple has been under construction for about two years and they are now doing an open house prior to the dedication. We were lucky enough to get to go through it and it is amazing! Marisa was also in St. George for a swim meet so we met up with her and went shopping together for a few hours. After Jeremy picked her up, we went to linner at Olive Garden then went back, got in the hot tub for a while, then worked on tags for our upcoming tag exchange.

Friday, November 3 - The beautiful Red Cliffs Temple is almost done and the open house will happen in just a few months. We went to check it out and walked around as much of it as we could. It is gorgeous! We stopped at the yummy Morty's Cafe for dinner before heading back to the house. I did mom and Jenni's toenails and then my own fingernails.

Saturday, November 4 - We got up early to go yard-saling but that was a bust so we went out to the Tuacahn Saturday Market. That was fun but my head was killing me and getting worse by the minute. I finally had to go back to the house and take a nap. That helped. Once I was up and functioning again, we went to The Pizza Factory for dinner then back to the house to document our haul.

Sunday, November 5 - Yay for daylight savings time that gave us an extra hour of sleep! We started laundry first thing, went to breakfast at Bishop's, cleaned the house, then stopped at Pink Box on the way out of town. We left way later than normal. We got on the freeway around 3:00 and didn't get home until about 7:30! What a fun and memorable Girl's Trip! Can't wait for next year!