Things will November be the same

November is a time for counting blessings and by far our greatest blessing of 2020, besides our collective health, is that Stephen works from home now. It's not always an ideal situation for him, but it makes such a difference knowing he's there in our home. The girls love going in to check on him throughout the day and being able to eat meals together as a family again. Ada hasn't had to miss a nap time all year because there is always an adult at home to allow her to sleep through any appointments or errand running. It really is just the best. 

Jax ordered these to die for Hamilton dresses to do a little photoshoot for her photography business. In the end she decided we needed to do a reshoot because the girls were less than cooperative and the dresses were pretty expensive, so in case plans fall through I needed to document my little Eliza. 

November was spent doing a lot of Christmas shopping. I like to get stuff done early anyways, but knowing that we were (hopefully) going to be traveling in December I wanted to make sure that I got everything squared away before we left. I did a lot of errands with Ada while Rory was at preschool, and then all my other regular errands with Rory once Ada was napping. Rory has been the best errand buddy. On one of our trips to Bath and Body Works (for a soap sale of course) she requested to stop at the giant Christmas tree afterwards and I couldn't deny her. She's also a little obsessed with nutcrackers right now so she was stoked to find a giant Christmas tree AND a giant nutcracker!

Our dance class theme for this month was Nutcracker and every week the girls would dance to three nutcracker different nutcracker dances while using props. They loved it! Rory talks about the Spanish Chocolate and Arabian Coffee all the time now. This picture was from our Sugar plum fairy week. 

The second weekend in November my brother Brad set up a trip to come and golf with Stephen. When my dad heard about it he joined in and then Stephen asked John to come down and join them to make a foursome. My mom and Lucina obviously weren't going to let them visit grandkids without them and so we had all five of them come for a visit! The very first day they were all there I had my appointment to find out the gender of our new baby. I stopped by the Dollar Tree on my way home and we had a mini lack-luster gender reveal. It's a girl! and we are all so excited!

We got to do a lot of fun things together while the boys golfed. We went to the riparian preserve and fed the ducks, we went shopping at Arizona Mills mall and stopped by the aquarium there, and ate lots of yummy food together. 

After our first day together it was clear that while Rory was stoked to have all these grown ups around she was much less excited about the fact that they all seemed to want to talk to each other all the time! My mom and I went to high fitness together that night and while we were gone she decided to give herself a little haircut. And by little I mean an extremely drastic amount. I had a missed call from Stephen when I got out of class and when I called him on the way home he said, "It's bad. It's really bad." I tried to go into her room and see the damage when I got home, but Rory rolled over and pretended to be asleep. When I went back in for try two I asked her, "Are you too tired? Or are you too sad?" and she said, "Too sad..." in a voice that nearly broke my heart. It's so hard to be mad when they feel so bad, and Rory so rarely feels bad about anything that my entire heart was aching for her. When she woke up the next morning the first thing she said to me was, "I'm so sad about my hair. Will it grow back when I'm five?!" After getting some "before" pictures we went straight to the Great Clips down the street and got it all fixed up. She loved the salon so much that I can almost guarantee she will try to cut her own hair again. I keep reminding that we can come there any time and we don't even have to try to cut our own hair first. 

On Saturday the Marshes had to head back home and my family didn't have to fly out until Sunday morning. We ate a late lunch/ early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which I hadn't been to for way too long and even my messy attention-seeking children couldn't distract from the happiness of that meal. That night my mom, dad, Brad and I went and did a private escape room, another first since Covid hit and it was so much fun. We made it out in the end but it was definitely a tricky one with some very cool clues. 

It's always tough getting back to regular life after a weekend like that, but thankfully we had plenty to do and knowing that Thanksgiving was right around the corner made the time go even more quickly. Rory got so many compliments on her new short hair and she loves it. Every once in a while she gets sad about not being able to do Elsa braids anymore, but for the most part she is a big fan. We had some fun play dates to pass the time with Rebecca and a new friend named Dantzel from her gymnastics class. 

By far the biggest thing to happen to our family in November, even bigger than Rory's new hair or finding out our baby was a girl (sorry baby girl) was that we decided to get a dog. I know, I never thought I would say those words! Shortly after we had Ada, in fact I believe we were still in the hospital with our precious little newborn, Stephen said, "If our next baby is a girl then I get a dog." A comment to which my newborn-smell- high, hormonally-unstable self laughingly agreed. Fast forward to this summer when we were taking swimming lessons with a friend from our old ward and I noticed how sweet and chill their lab was. They told me they were breeding her. I said, don't tell me that. Fast forward to October when the sweet lab actually has her puppies, and I continue to try to ignore them. Then suddenly on November 4 I see a post from this friend about how cute their puppies are and that there are still two left, and something makes me message her for more info. After a lot of prayer, and a little bit of crying, we decided it was the right thing to do for our family, even though it will undoubtedly be insane for a while with both a puppy and a newborn joining our family. A week after we put down our deposit we found out the baby was a girl, so at least I'm sticking to my word!

We were finally able to go pick out our puppy. She's a little black girl who has is identified by the pink collar they put on her at birth, and we can't wait to take her home after Christmas. 

We headed to St George for Thanksgiving this year. We got to play at the dinosaur park (and only lost Rory for a heart stopping five minutes), swim in the heated pool, hike the petroglyphs (and only got the truck stuck in the sand once), and see the live Nativity at Tuacahn. It was cold this year and I horribly under-packed for my crew, but it was nothing a quick trip to TJ Maxx couldn't fix. It was a small crew for Thanksgiving dinner this year, just John and Ashleigh's family, John and Lucina, and us. The food of course was amazing and the kids had way too much fun with each other. 

Attending the live Nativity at Tuacahn was a special treat and Rory and I made it a mother/daughter date. We got corn dogs for dinner beforehand and chatted all the way to the venue. Uncle John John treated us to hot chocolate, which we received right before the show, and Rory spent the entire time asking if it was cold enough to drink yet. It reinforced my decision not to spend the $25/person to see the Nutcracker with her this year. Afterwards we waited to talk to Santa, and thankfully due to Covid she just stood sort of near him, which we were both happy with. She happily told him that she wanted a unicorn this year. Santa said, "Alright sounds good!" then came to his senses and added, "Well, I'll see what I can do. Those can be hard to come by." Nice save, St Nick. 

A few days after thanksgiving, Preston's crew drove up to Rockville to have a memorial for Jackson, whom he put down the next day. The brothers were able to dig him a grave and say goodbye to everyone's favorite dog while the kids played and enjoyed themselves at the house. The whole family loved Jackson and it was hard to see him go, but everyone is glad he is no longer in pain. 

As we were packing up to leave Rory told me that she needed to take her backpack and be in a room by herself and not to check on her. I followed her, obviously, and found her trying to pack a small fancy box into her backpack. She assured me it was empty and nobody wanted it, but after I encouraged her to open it to check we saw that the box in fact contained the new fancy piano trinket that Kenzie had just bought for Grandma. As much as I disapprove of her lying and being sneaky like that, oh my heaven do I love watching her feign surprise or confusion when I see right through her plans. I told her we could take a picture of the fancy piano so that we could remember it until we were able to come back to Grandma's house and see it again and she was good with that. 

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers

October! My favorite month of the year (plus December- it's a tie)! I love that Rory's birthday comes the very first week of the month because it feels like it sneaks up on us every year and I love the excitement. We kicked off the festivities this year by letting her open one of her presents two days early. She got a new Rapunzel dress and crown which she proudly wore to Rebecca's princess birthday party. Ada tagged along but she was much less enthusiastic about her Tinkerbell costume. Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty came to the party and the girls were in heaven. I loved watching Rory clamor to tell them all the things she knows about them. She was so excited to be matching with Rapunzel and she excitedly interrupted their story time to tell them about the big princess book that she has that has TWO pages of Sleeping Beauty but only one page of Rapunzel (poor Rapunzel). The princesses read the girls a story, painted their faces and hands, gave them all make overs, and then had a princess dance party. The only thing better than a princess party is a princess party you didn't have to pay for! 

 A little last minute I was asked to make a cake for Rebecca's birthday party and it turned out so cute. I did a pink velvet cake with strawberry buttercream and it would be hard to say who was more excited about all the edible glitter I used on it, the little girls at the party or me. 

Right after the princess party we headed home to clean up, pack up, and head out for Grandma and Pop Pop's house! We woke up in the morning to watch General Conference (or as Stephen likes to call it, "golf") and finish up some last minute birthday party prep. After the afternoon session the boys returned from golf and were immediately set to work picking up sodas and pizzas and setting up the pinata. The Nielsens were in Rockville with some friends from California and they took a break to come and celebrate with us. John and Ashleigh drove up from Las Vegas for the weekend too, and lucky Nate and Linne get to be in St George all the time. Once all the cousins had made it to the house we sent the kids to the pool, where they all played in the hot tub because the pool wasn't heated and we have a big bunch of desert babies in this crew. 

Scarlet gave Ada lots of love and attention, which was wonderful because the only thing that girl wanted to do was play in the hot tub! The pizza and soda arrived and everyone had their fill and then some. After the kids swam a little longer we broke out the pinata. Out of all the designs (unicorn, lama, donut, mermaid, etc...) Rory chose the treasure chest which was just kind of awesome to me. All the kids were able to take a swing at the pinata and I think it was Rhode who finally broke it open. The kids ran for the candy while Rory spent her time gathering as many Doc McStuffins tattoos as she could. I had filled the pinata with 75 tattoos and none of the other kids were interested in them so as many as she could gather ended up being a lot. Ada happily sat in the pile and helped hand out the floor goodies to anyone who would look at her. 

After opening WAY too many presents (note to self- we do not have enough room in our house to ever throw her another birthday party again) it was time to tuck in to her cake! I had been planning this cake in my mind just for the entire year and I was so happy with how it turned out! I agonized over whether to try to assemble the cake at the Marshes house or make it at my house and try to transport it safely. In the end I decided to risk the transportation because I can turn in to kind of beast when I'm in the thick of making a cake and I didn't want my in laws to see me like that! Thankfully we had no issues transporting the cake and it looked even more beautiful in their kitchen than it did in mine! The cake was a butter cake with raspberry lime curd and an orange and strawberry buttercream and the theme was unicorn Doc McStuffins. 

We had to sleep off all the sugar and birthday excitement, but thankfully Conference Sunday is the best day to do that. She was able to open her presents from us, a Doc McStuffins doctor kit, Elsa nightlight, dance leotards, and a Fancy Nancy unicorn book. She was a little disappointed that she didn't look any different when she woke up on her birthday. She kept saying, "I don't even look like a four year old!" but then she also kept saying, "It's my birthday so I get to do whatever I want, right?" I felt so happy watching her celebrate and seeing her capacity to be gracious and patient even with all of the attention and excitement. 

We stayed to play on Monday and we were able to check out Nate and Linne's new house. It is gorgeous and stocked to the brim with super cool house features, so we can't wait to spend more time there. On Tuesday Stephen went golfing and I left the kids with Lucina while I took off hunting for an outfit for myself for our upcoming family pictures. It was a bit of an ordeal, but in the end I finally found something. We stopped for drinks, got the birthday girl her own (which we learned was a mistake about the third time we stopped for the bathroom) and headed back to regular life with our newly minted four year old.

 

Because I'm a little bit of psycho I set up a little birthday play date with Rory's friends so she could celebrate with them too. I let the girls decorate cupcakes with the leftover frosting from Rory's cake and then we did a treasure hunt around the house to find the little birthday goodie bags I put together. We watched a Barbie movie and painted nails and ate a special birthday lunch of chicken nuggets and french fries. 

We finally had some family pictures done on our own (that we paid for like real adults!) and they turned out so great. I was a little nervous, but now I'm so happy we did them. We ended the night with Handel's and McDonald's (in that order) because after all the stress of getting outfits ready for pictures I just couldn't even deal. 

Rory started a Parks and Rec Gymnastics class and she is so excited to finally be a "trimastics girl" as she calls it. After her first class we went home, put Ada down for a nap, and took off for Vertucchio farms for our annual play date with the Bartons. It was hot, once again, but I was the most prepared I have ever been. We still ran out of water and the day ended up feeling too long, but the kids loved the barrel ride and I channeled my inner David Earl and got us a watermelon lemonade even though it was too expensive and it did make us all happier. It's crazy to see how much these girls grow each year!

FINALLY it was time to celebrate our favorite guy! For the first time ever Stephen let me make a big deal of his birthday and I was in heaven! He took the afternoon/ evening off from work and we took the girls to Uptown Jungle. Ada loved it as much as we thought she would and Rory quickly conquered her sudden fear of the big slides with the help of her dad. 

We stopped by Chick fil A on the way home and quickly scarfed it down while Stephen opened up his presents because I had to take off for mutual. We got him some new headphones (because I manage to ruin every pair he has ever owned), blue sunglasses (chosen by Rory), a book that Rory made for him and a picture for our bathroom that is my new favorite decoration in the house. It features pictures of Rory's bare bum in all our favorite places so it may not be appropriate to share online haha. I left them to eat the cake while I rushed off to the church, but Stephen texted me to say that it was the best banana cream pie cake he had ever had. 

I phoned it in for Halloween this year because, frankly, I am tired and family pictures took all my caring about clothing energy. Rory decided to be a unicorn which was fantastic since she had a gorgeous unicorn costume from Grammy. I took the girls to do Halloween pictures with Jax and Rory was the best behaved I ever seen her in front of a camera. I can't stop looking at these pictures, I love them too too much!

Ada on the other hand was apparently ticked that I made her dress up in Rory's hand me downs and had no desire to be Marie. She cried and screamed so hard it was embarrassing. We left in defeat and I cried a little when we got home because I felt so frustrated by the situation. But then we got the pictures and I laughed SO HARD. 

Sometimes the best memories are the worst ones? I don't know, but I know that I am going to be laughing at these pictures for many Halloween's to come. 

For Halloween we threw our own fall festival at the Avery's house. It was a lot of work and pretty exhausting but the kids loved it. We paused before cleanup to take the girls trick or treating to a few houses and it was impressive to see what people came up with in this Covid era of holidays. Now if you will excuse, I need to go nap for a year.