November 2022

I am grateful this month helps me to be grateful, because if I am being completely honest, parenthood was tough this month. Andrew and I struggled with patience this month. Our kids would constantly get out of bed, refuse to eat their meals, and make messes around the house with no intention of cleaning up. While I know its all part of growing up, it really took its toll. Then I caught a little bug and was sick the last week of the month, including over Thanksgiving and our wedding anniversary.

So while this month wasn’t an easy one, I do want to remember the sweet moments and fun times we had together this month. Here are the highlights.

Church

Harper’s baby blessing was definitely a high point this month. I’ve already written about that day in detail, but I just want to mention again how grateful I am for supportive and loving family.

My kids also (kind of) participated in the Primary Program at church. While the program ended up being a little bit of a disaster (with Maddy insisting that Daddy sit up on the stand with her, and then Grace bursting into tears and running off the stage), I think my favorite part was the prep work we did at home. We practiced those songs almost every day, and I loved hearing my kids belt out the words. Songs like “I feel my Savior’s Love”, “Love One Another”, and “I’m Trying to be Like Jesus” filled our house. I tried to explain the words to my kids and help them learn about the important messages they were singing. It brought a beautiful spirit into our home.

Creativity

This month we were all about the Turnkey art. : gratitude turkey, painter’s tape turkey, turkey crayon coloring pages. One of my favorite November traditions is making the gratitude turkey as a family. Every day we each say something we are grateful for, write it on a feather, and add it to the turkey’s growing tail. It is a great way to teach gratitude, and I am always amazed by the simple yet meaningful things my daughters say they are grateful for. This year the feathers included: names of family members, snuggles, the park, coloring, our new baby sister, and Jesus.

Another creative outlet this month was when we visited Pretend City day date with Daddy. I have to say, I love Wednesdays and Thursdays now because they are the days Andrew has off of work. They have become our new weekends where we complete a few chores around the house and then spend extra time together. On one Thursday this month, we took Daddy to Pretend City in Irvine. It is a children’s play museum. The girls had a great time showing Daddy around and playing make believe. Their favorite stations are the doctor and dentist offices, the water play station, and the sand pit.

Thanksgiving

Then there is of course Thanksgiving. I am so grateful to my Mom for all the prep work she put into this Thanksgiving. From the delcious food and the beautiful table settings, to the fun games and first Christmas gifts of the season, she really blew it out of the park this year!

And with that, I was finally given the green light to start decorating my house for Christmas (secret: I did start setting up the tree the week before). The kids love all the holiday decor and traditions: the pompom “snowballs” I made a few years ago that we love to throw at one another, the holiday books we read everyday, the new jammies, the music, the kid-friendly Nativity set, the endless baking of cookies. BRING IT ON!!!