Thanksgiving 2016 and a few other things...

The week before Thanksgiving, the kids had SEP week..which means early out all week.  Which is what every work from home mom wants.  Luckily there are only like 3 weeks like this all year.  So the kids understood that I had classes to teach and that they needed to occupy themselves.  But I did get a picture of them walking to the car.  Usually Colt beats Aspen.  I didn't get my phone out soon enough.  The kids were walking side by side and then I am sure Colt said "I can beat you to the car" and that was when I snapped the picture.  So just imagine them walking next to each other.

So this Thanksgiving break, the kids were heading up to their dad's for the week.  I met Grandpa and Sheila at the Paragonah exit on Friday.  They went and had a sleepover in Richfield before heading up to their dad's so our house has been more quiet than usual.

But the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, David and I were watching an episode of 24 during my lunch break.  I went to the kitchen and stepped on something.  I went back to pick it up to throw it away but it was squishy.  So I went to grab some paper towels and turn on the lights.  I said out loud "what is on the floor" and then leaned down to get it and it hopped.  Yep there was a little frog in the house.  (It had been raining most of the morning).  Totally freaked out screaming...there's a frog in the house, there's a frog in the house.  David was like "well get it out...how did it get in here".  I went and got the broom and was trying to encourage it to hop towards our back door, which David had opened.  But David soon took over the broom because he thought that I was getting it to jump closer to him.  So I videoed it instead.  Crazy, crazy.  We did get it outside and haven't seen any more inside since.

Baylee, Alyssa and Alanah came from California on Wednesday night for Thanksgiving.  That meant that we were going to be cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  I was super anxious about it and didn't really sleep.  But I got up, got the potatoes in the crockpot (genius idea) and then watched TV til it was time to put the turkey in.  Everything turned out great.  David got some pictures with his kids (we were missing Aspen and Colten - haven't had a family picture wince the wedding) and then ate up.  After dinner, I went up to my parents to visit with Hollee and Darcee.  Darcee made caramel popcorn and I sat and ate it for 10 minutes straight out of the bowl.  Tons of pictures were taken as the 4 Chris girls ate out of this huge bowl.  Lots of fun.

I was able to FaceTime my kids early Thanksgiving morning and we were able to talk for a little bit.  Sounds like they are having a good time.  Break is ending way too soon but I will make the most of it.  And now I am caught up...for the time being :)

Soccer ends..

There were two games in November this year (due to things going on at the college on a Saturday).  But luckily the weather held out and it was nice weather to sit and watch some soccer.  Luckily Colt didn't have any 9:00 games this year.  Those would have been a little chilly.  Aspen has really enjoyed her team this year.  She wasn't on her regular team.  She also enjoyed playing goalie.  I think she likes to be the only one who is allowed to use her hands.  Plus she has a really good kick so she can get the ball down the field.  When she wasn't playing goalie, the coach would often tell her to do corner kicks to try and get the ball in the center for her teammates to kick it into the net.  Didn't always work out that way.  The coach also like that Aspen listened to him and didn't take too long to respond to his request.  I think in the spring we are going to try out softball for her.

Colten did really well in soccer this season.  He isn't scoring a lot of goals but he sure is stopping quite a few so to me, that's the same thing.  I think he came a long ways in learning the importance of passing the ball.  Unfortunately all the boys only showed up to like 2 games so it was hard to get into a rhythm.  With Colt's team, we did an party at the park after the season was over.  The boys sure did enjoy playing together.  It was fun to talk to the parents without trying to watch a game at the same time.  Colten will be doing basketball this winter but at least we have a little while before that starts up.

Halloween 2016

Ahhh my favorite holiday...not so much.  But nonetheless I survived this year.  Aspen got a costume form her friend Audra.  They were going as the devil and an angel.  I got Colt's costume last year...a teenage mutant ninja turtle.  I was able to go to the school's costume party (I usually have meetings during that time so I was glad I was able to go)  The kids looked so cute.  The first lap Colt was walking and waving to everyone.

Audra wanted to come trick or treating with us this year.  So we hit up our wards trunk or treat before heading over to our old neighborhood.  Man did the kids come away with a ton of candy.  I learned that Colt is not a huge fan of getting lots of candy.  He would much rather go home and get his electronic time but luckily I had just parked the car and so he had to go until we were done.  We didn't make it to the house that does the carnival games so Aspen was a little bummed about that but overall I think the kids had a good time.  David and I have helped them get rid of their candy.  We still have a little bit left but not much.

Oh and we had the annual Chris/Watkins Halloween party.  Aspen had wanted to make creepy cupcakes (a recipe she found in her library book - it was a cookbook).  Grandma had gotten all the ingredients that she had written down...well she apparently didn't get all of the recipes written down.  So we scratched that and did sugar cookies instead.  Then Aspen, Colt, Jeramiah and Alijah decorated them.  At the party they played a few games including wrap the mummy and don't eat Frank.  Then Paula or my mom had picked up a project form Home Depot and the kids all made a little whiteboard.  Luckily Jonah was there to help me and my kids with theirs.  Colt wrote a cute message on his for me.  It is still on there almost 4 weeks later :)

My fall break = Dodgers game

David is an avid Dodgers fan...luckily he doesn't have to watch all 180 games of the season but does like to watch playoff games.  David kept saying it would be nice to go watch the Dodgers play in a post season game.  He had wanted to go for the divisional round but work just didn't pan out.  So when the Dodgers made it to the NL Championship round he walked in after work and wanted to go to the game that day.  I didn't have work and had to reschedule my infusion but we made it work.  So we headed down to LA, watched the Dodgers lose :(, also watched Cub fans get kicked out of the stadium for taunting (most of them were drunk) and then drove back home.  I had my infusion on Friday morning at 8am...I am not used to having infusions that early and didn't drink a lot of water before hand but they were still able to get an IV in.  I was freezing though.  I had 3 blankets on me.  Two laying on me and then one wrapped around my back.  The ladies at the infusion center are so nice to take care of their patients.

I don't remember much of that Friday...I think that is the Friday my dad, David and I worked to repair the dryer.  Luckily, we did get it fixed.

A few other things from October

So when we moved back in July, I had a feeling I would be going back in the primary as sure enough the second week we were there, David and I were called as primary teachers.  Well they hadn't done their program yet (lucky us we got to do 2 programs this year).  The chorister is a real fun girl that comes up with crazy ways to encourage the kids to see the songs.  She made this crazy hat and each of the teachers had the privilege to wear it.  Aspen came over to take a picture of me in it.

At our new house we live by a golf course that has a pond with ducks and swans.  We go by this pond while going back and forth to school.  The kids asked and asked to go feed the ducks.  I was a little nervous about it but finally we went and it wasn't too bad.  As long as no one is on the hole, we aren't bothering anyone.  The ducks will just come up to the kids.  The first time we went, the kids just threw the bread into the water.  The second time the ducks were already out of the water.  We even got some of the swans out of the water.  The kids sure do enjoy that.

Oh man I have been horrible

Yes over a month has passed since I last posted :( I don't have an excuse...just plain lazy I think.  I have a reminder that goes off on Sunday but it's football season.  I need to change the time of the reminder.  So I will do my best to catch up on what has been going on in our little world.  I am not getting off the computer until I am caught up...unless something distracts me :)

So way back in October we had fall break.  Washington county and UTVA's didn't align this year.  So I was working during the kids break so yeah that was fun.  But on Thursday Aspen's best friend Audra had her birthday party and Colten went up to Grandma's to play with Trent.  So they were pretty well occupied.  On Friday, if my memory serves me correctly, Colt went over to his friend Jesse's house.  He was there for 3 hours and that still wasn't enough time.  Since there were no soccer games on Saturday, I took the kids on a little hike.  This was my first time doing the Chuckwala trail up Bluff street.  Aspen had done it last summer with her activity days group so she led the way.  I didn't see that Colt had worn flip flops out of the house so yeah that was fun.  But we made it to the turtle rock (I think that is what it is called) with only a few times of Colt stubbing his toes.  The kids were complaining so I suggested playing "Would you rather".  I don't remember everything that I learned about my kids but it sure was interesting.  And of course the situations they come up with was funny too.  I definitely learned that my kids are growing up :'(

Anyway here are some pictures from the hike.

After the hike, I took the kids to the firehouse park.  They had asked to go to the new all abilities park but I didn't feel like fighting the crowd.  It had been awhile since they had been to this park so it was good entertainment for them.  They liked to have competitions of who could run through the obstacle course faster (Colten won this one) or who could go across the monkey bars fastest (Aspen won hands down) or who could keep the spinny thing going the longest.  I was the time keep and they loved to see who was the best.