November was a less busy month for our family than the few months prior had been. I was in the throes of being sick so I did as little as absolutely possible. It was full on survival mode. Yet, I still managed to snap plenty of random photos to capture the little every day things that still went on.
Man Cub made great use of his car mat and his favourite car- Mack. He has been known to sleep snuggled up with Mack at night even, which I am sure cannot be comfortable.
I bought a pregnancy pillow, anticipating the uncomfortable nights to come and Beebs commandeered it. Truth be told, even though I don't always sleep comfortably, I find that I get horrible sleep when using this pillow. So Beebs can have it! She loves to make it into a little nest before falling fast asleep.
Have I mentioned how much I love having a mini van? I was so against having one for such a long time, but now I wouldn't trade it for anything. I can fit all my kiddos, a bail of alfalfa and 50 lbs of chicken food. With room to spare!
As is traditional for our family, we set up our tree just a week or so into November. Some say it is too early and that we are skipping out on Thanksgiving, but I find myself to be in a much more thankful and reverent mood when my tree is up. The whole house feels cozy and my mind is centered on Jesus Christ and His birth.
Sharing donuts for breakfast and Man Cub's new big boy hair cut. No more curls! It took me a bit to get use to, but now I think he looks a little shaggy once his curls start to come back in. It sure makes him look grown up though. He's definitely not a baby anymore.
Snuggles with my Beebs. I guess you could say that was a silver lining of how incredibly sick I was throughout November. I spent a lot of time snuggled up with my wee ones on the couch, watching movies. I felt like the lamest mom in the world, but I definitely made the most of all that cuddle time.
7 weeks along. Not so much baby bump as baby bloat, but I could no longer wear my regular pants! Hello maternity wear.
Beebs and Elsa. Beebs is so my little farm girl. She loves to work in the garden and snuggle the chickens.
One day, I took a shower. After 8 years of motherhood, I should really know better. While I was showering, the girls dug out their hair chalk (which is kept up high, out of their reach and eye sight) and proceeded to give each other rainbow hair. I couldn't even be mad. I just laughed and was grateful that it was a day we had no where to go and nothing to do. And they were so darn proud of themselves!
Bruce put in a nice new fire pit. It was so inexpensive and easy... we are wondering why on earth it took us so long to do it. But it's there now and we love it! It was fun for sitting around and roasting s'mores in the cooler temps and we are looking forward to using it for some dutch oven cooking before the hottest part of summer arrives.
Some epic Beebs bedhead. There's not really much more to say!
More car play. This boy and his cars! They make him so happy. And I just love watching him play.
Man Cub's Family Home Evening responsibility is to welcome us all, choose the opening song and call on someone for the opening prayer. He takes his job oh so seriously and it is just about the cutest thing in the world to hear him say "Welcome Family Home Evening. Thank you coming. Sing popcorn. I pray." Every. Single. Time. But we wouldn't have it any other way!
Sunshine ran in the Turkey Trot at school. She did AWESOME!
Beebs made a turkey hat in preschool. She loved it. I think we only just managed to get her to part with it in the last month!
When the Christmas decor came out, so did the blinking Rudolph nose. It provided much fun for the wee ones. One night, Beebs insisted on eating her dinner with it on. Notice the corn dog on her plate? Like I said, full survival mode. In November I went grocery shopping at Costco once. I filled my entire cart with all the processed, frozen, ready to heat and eat foods I could. My family was in heaven. Just looking at my shopping cart multiplied my nausea ten-fold. But we came in under budget (which makes me sick in a whole different way!!) and my family was able to eat for the month while I kind of hid under a rock.
More snuggles. Or as Man Cub calls them- "snuddles". I told you- November was full of them and I loved it!
Over Thanksgiving break we decided we needed to do at least one fun thing with Sunshine having the entire week off school. We still had our passes for the Sonoran Desert Museum down in Tucson so Bruce invited his dad to join us and we made it a day trip. I managed just fine until the ride home when I was a sick and nauseous mess. And then I was down for the count for several days as my poor body attempted to recover. But it was a super fun trip and I'm so glad we did it, despite me feeling less than ideal. The fresh air and beautiful scenery were definitely good for me. It was the 2 hour car ride each way that was not so good.
On the way home, we happened to be stopping to eat at the same time and on the same street as Sunshine's best friend Audrina was stopping to eat with her parents after a weekend in Tucson. We surprised Sunshine by finding them to say hello and both girls were beyond excited to see each other.
I got a nasty, nasty shock on Thanksgiving morning as Bruce was participating in his annual Turkey Day football game with friends from work. I looked down at my hand and realized the entire head of my engagement ring, diamond and all, were gone. We tore apart the house, the car and even scoured the field where the guys were playing. The diamond could not be found. I was beyond devastated and the pregnancy hormones didn't help. We look at it as a true blessing that our little locally owned jewelry store took full responsibility for the loss as the jeweler had just replaced the head of my ring 6 months earlier. Within 3 days, I had my ring back on my finger with a new head and a new, larger diamond. They didn't have any diamonds the size of mine in stock and they didn't want to make me wait, so the jeweler upgraded my diamond by a bit when he replaced it. It took awhile to get use to my new stone... it's a slightly different shape than my old one... more oblong than square and enough bigger than I managed to catch it on everything, but I am finally use to the new look of my ring and I am just ever so grateful that the jeweler took care of things for us.
Planks-giving dinner was the same meal we've enjoyed for the past four years... steak and crab legs with a shrimp appetizer just for Beebs Ü I wish I could say the meal was incredible and delicious and the best meal of the year buuuuut... that whole being sick thing kind of put a damper on the meal for me. I very much enjoyed my baked potato. But that's really all I could eat. The rest of the family loved it though and I am very much looking forward to Planks-giving 2015 where I plan to make up for lost time!
Despite being nauseous, I couldn't miss out on my 99 cent poinsettias on Black Friday, so I got the kiddos up at 4:40 and we headed to Home Depot to snag 2 dozen. They are my favourite way of decorating the house for Christmas, as well as a great gift to give out to the families we home and visit teach for the holidays. Plus, Home Depot always gives out donuts for "night shopping" as the girls call it. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes and then we all came home and crashed. Man Cub was such a little trooper. He puts up with a lot from his crazy mom!
And with that, November came to a close. On to December... a month of me still living in survival mode, but one month closer to feeling better!
