November

Well November just flew by.  I can't believe it's already almost December!  

Every once in awhile Mia's teacher lets them bring a stuffie to school and keep on their desks. Mia is ecstatic every time it happens. This day she had me take a picture of her while waiting for the bus.

"If I had a Fairy Godmother for a day I would ask for a cat and gold and a pet horse and to lose a tooth every day."  - Mia  
The kids really want to get a cat.  And Mia loves pretty things (like gold) and horses.  She had also recently lost a tooth and was so excited to get money for it! 

Before this next picture, I have to share a parenting moment I think about all the time.  When Asher was in second grade I took him to school and picked him up every day.  He had such a hard time going to school and never wanted to go.  One day I pulled up to the school in the morning and Asher refused to get out of the car.  I tried being nice and encouraging and he still refused.  It didn't take long before we were both yelling at each other and I almost had to physically remove him from the car.  He eventually got out, in tears, and I felt sick to my stomach all day about how bad I had handled that moment.  I thought about it so much about how we could avoid having another morning like that.  I think it was inspiration from the Holy Ghost that gave me an idea.  I told Asher that he could pick whatever he wanted us to do after school so that he could have something to look forward to.  I thought to myself that I would even go as far as letting him pick out a toy from the store (at least once or twice), but he surprised me when he said what he wanted to do most was make cookies!  That tactic worked so well over those next few weeks until he no longer had any problem going to school.  Sometimes he wanted to make cookies, sometimes he wanted to play videogames with me, sometimes he wanted to invite a friend over.  Fast forward to today and I still sometimes use this tactic and Asher still picks making cookies about 90% of the time.  

Asher had a tough time going to school, so we made sugar cookies!  I actually really hate making sugar cookies because of how much work it is, especially with 3 kids who want to help, but they had such a fun time and all picked a show to watch (together!) while they ate.

This was after church one day.  No Bake cookies are much better in my book, much less work!

Somewhere in the month we had a concert with the Symphony and got the play Dvorak's New World Symphony.  I love playing this music and it was especially nice after our last concert where I did not enjoy the music as much.  The New World Symphony is so satisfying and fun to play and I had a great time.

It was also Thanksgiving which we spent with my family. We have started going to a church and having dinner there which means there is plenty of space for the kids to run around and play and we can set up lots of tables for snacking, puzzles, diamond painting, coloring, etc.  There was also an impromptu talent show which the kids had so much fun showing off their various skills!  I did not take a single picture but it was a great day.

We got a little snow on Thanksgiving and my kids were so excited!  They spent an hour playing outside after we got home from Thanksgiving dinner and the next day they spent a good amount of time playing in it too.

Asher wanted to try his hand at shoveling off the driveway.

They had so much fun carting each other around on that sled!

 I will say I was nervous for Thanksgiving break.  They had the whole week off and I had a little PTDS based on how rough the summer was.  And there was fighting and squabbles, but overall I think everyone had a good break.  We played a lot of games and the kids played with each other pretty well.  It does make my workouts much harder because any time I lay down I end up with someone sitting on me and anytime I make any kind of bridge (pushups, planks, etc) the girls try to run under me which wouldn't be as bad except it makes me laugh and then I fall or they don't quite clear the bridge and they end up knocking me over.  But it is fun to see them try to imitate me and grab the weights or the bands and do their own version of the exercise.  

On Friday the kids have Parent Teacher Conference which I always look forward to because I love hearing stories about how the kids act at school.  So that will be included in my next post, whenever that happens to be!