The time certainly is going by way faster than I can keep up. Our lives really are so fully blessed with many good things. For time sake I'll just wrap up November in a nutshell.
Nov 11: Veterens Victory 5K
Weeks leading up to this the boys were sent home with a job to collect pledges for this race. To my astonishment they went out on their own door to door through our neighborhood to gather pledges for the Veteren's. I love their bravery and willingness to do something so good. I loved even how excited they were about doing it. They would come home and show me all of their collections. I wish I could have been a fly on their shoulders as they were talking with our neighbors.
When they day of the race came I was really excited that we could all do it together as a family. Ryker(9.5yrs old) told me that his goal was to beat his time from last year (30:25) and not only did he succeed in that, but he crushed it with a time of 27:05. And Cy (6.5yrs old) chose to run instead of riding his bike and finished in 33:09.
I was blown away by these boys. I don't think I could even run a 5K that fast when I was their ages. It's quite impressive to me.
Nov 16
Fynnie is constantly making us laugh. He came into the bathroom on this morning just so proud of himself for putting these glasses on by himself. I just love this little boy. I want to freeze him at this fun age. He is busy and gets into everything. But I will take it. He really is the life of our little family.
Nov 21: Mom's and Muffins
The boys always look forward to this. We get to the school early and we get to read together and snack on muffins. We are still steadily reading the Book of Mormon every day and because we were left with little time at home to read our chapter that morning, we read it together at the school.
Can I just say how much I have been loving our Book of Mormon time together. We started it together in Aug 2016 and it has been a true Joy. We have been reading in Alma lately and I usually have a hard time getting through Alma. My dining table I had these decorative fabric pumpkins that served well for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I put them to use while we were reading about all the wars in Alma. Each pumpkin would represent a different Army or captain. I would us those to help give a visual to Ryker and Cy. They seemed to really enjoy it and I got more out of it trying to explain it in a simple manner to them. I would feel so happy when I could see that they were getting the story and really enjoying it.
Nov 23: Thanksgiving
This year Jesse was off the whole weekend. So yay for that!
We started out the Thanksgiving day with the traditional GPP workout. I used to go by myself, but eventually Jesse started to join me. But this year my whole family wanted to go and it made me so happy to share my passion for health and fitness with the people I hold closest to my heart.
I have SO MUCH to be grateful for and 4 of them are my husband and 3 boys!
The rest of the day was spent with the Smith Family. I honestly don't know how I got away without getting any pictures. It was probably due to the fact that I was so busy in the kitchen up until we went to Jesse's parents house. Then we all ate and we went and saw the new movie COCO with the whole family.
That movie was family centered and I Just loved that. It was based off of the Mexican culture and their celebration of The Day of the Dead. The whole movie was focused on knowing and remembering your ancestors. There was a moment in the movie that the main little boy and his great-grandma shared together that was very tender. Tears welled up in my eyes because I have a tender place in my heart for my family.
I found out afterwards from Heidi that she was bawling during that moment as well because of Fynn. She was holding him on her lap and he looked at the screen, pointed and said "Uh Grandma" and hen turned and wrapped his arms around her neck and laid his head on her shoulder. He totally knew. When Heidi was telling me about it, she could hardly keep her composure. He's such a sweet boy and really loves his grandparents.
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Nov 24: Black Friday
It has been irregularly warm for this time of year, so we wanted to take advantage of the outside. At the last minute we put together a little family hike before Andrew and Emily had to drive back up to Logan.
I love seeing those 2 brothers smiley and happy with each other. I certainly hope they will stay that way their entire lives.
I'm always looking for a good photo opportunity and when times get desperate to prop your phone up I improvise by wedging it perfectly between a branch.
Nov 26: Thanksgiving Continued
A few years ago my mom started having our family do Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. It's been working out for everyone so well we have continued it.
After we ate dinner we each took a turn expressing our gratitude for each other and our many blessings. The feeling that was felt around that table was tender. We were all in tears by the end of it. Even my Grandpa (who I have never seen that side of him before). As we shared with each other I got thinking that it is SO easy to focus on the little things in our lives that may not be perfect, out of place or just not how we want it. But in reality we have SO much to be thankful for. I loved all the little reminders of individual things we are grateful for.
My mom just got a new saying in her kitchen that reads...
"The things you take for granted... someone else is praying for."
I just love that. What a great reminder to be thankful for the little things.
