Lunch Dates

The daytime schedule has not been anything I expected this year.  I didn't realize Miles would come home for lunch almost every day.  I didn't realize that the high school and junior high would get out a full hour before it looks like on paper for Wednesdays by putting lunch at the end of the day.

It's less time to get things done, but it also has some perks of having more time with my teens than I would have imagined. We love going out to lunch on Wednesdays!  We've been trying to do this particular lunch at Kitchen 88 for months and this was finally the magic time where no one else had anything going on.

Cracked Reflections

Molly got a council-level award for her Reflections clay piece!  They did announce her as a being a Lindon student instead of an Oak Canyon student but luckily the respective principals figured that out very quickly :)

Climbing Class

I am almost never the person who takes Miles to climbing, and even when I do, I almost never get to see him because you need a waiver to be out on the floor.  I got extremely lucky and Miles was visible from the entry this last time when I picked him up!  I love seeing how much progress he's made from when he started taking classes two years ago.

2024 Christmas Cards

I was so certain that I was really on top of our Christmas cards this year because I ordered them the day after Thanksgiving.  That sounded great until I realized that December was just two days later....

I love the cards we got this year!  I had always thought Minted would be too expensive, but when I didn't like the card designs on some of my usual websites I checked them out and they honestly weren't that much more.

Concert Season

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a parent with kids participating in music will spend the first few weeks of December attending their concerts :)

Molly's choir concert was up first this year! She has enjoyed seventh grade choir but would enjoy it more if more of the kids in her class took it seriously.  She's officially made it into the advanced ladies' choir for next year so I think that should go more smoothly!

Her favorite song they sang was It Feels Like Christmas from the Muppet Christmas Carol.

Molly and two of her friends also auditioned to do a trio of You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.  Molly was really sad that her mic had massive feedback problems on her big note but she sounded great and she handled it like a total professional.

I don't have any pictures or video of the high school orchestra concert because the perils of having a 2nd violin player are that you can only see them when they walk in.  His teacher does such a fun job with their concerts!  They had a trumpet player in a horse mask for Sleigh Ride and a percussion player hiding on the balconies for the whip slaps (IYKYK).  They had electric guitars for a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song.  They had soloists come in from the Winter Musical.  They had gorgeous decorations!  

Emoji Generator

 Molly and Elliott are both huge fans of the Google Emoji generator.  If you're not familiar with it, you can put in any two emojis they have and it will find a way to combine them.  For example, if you mix the snowman emoji with the fire emoji, it will give you a snowman puddle.

Elliott recently wanted to use his money to buy a candy cane caterpillar squishable, and of course it immediately had to meet both my caterpillar squishable and Molly's Christmas tree squishable.  When we put them together, we realized it looked just like one of the emoji generators. Caterpillar + Christmas = Missie the candy cane caterpillar

Thanksgiving 2024

 We had a low key Thanksgiving this year!  My sister had just traveled to Utah so recently to take the make-up family pictures that they decided to stay in Idaho, so we had a smaller group than usual.

I brought a cheese plate with some homemade crackers that are best described as "Wheat Thicks".  Brooke also brought some crackers and two delicious kinds of cheese.

My mom also always brings a vegetable tray, so this is my plate.

I brought my sweet potatoes, stovetop green beans, cranberry sauce, and a kale salad.  My mom brought turkey, mashed potatoes, and rolls.

After dinner, we played several rounds of Skyjo until it was time for our movie tickets to Wicked.  We've gone to a movie on Friday several times, but decided this year that Thursday was the best option for everyone.  Molly has been excited about seeing Wicked for MONTHS now and it did not disappoint!

We came home for pie after the movie.  This year, I made deep-dish apple, sweet potato, brownie pie, and raspberry tart, and then did a pumpkin Biscoff icebox dessert.

A Little Extra Time

 One of the nice things about Thanksgiving week is that most of the extracurricular activities are ALSO canceled for the week and the kids have a little extra time.  Molly also had no homework, which was extra nice for her.  Unfortunately, the same was not true for her brothers.

Even so, they still had a lot of time to play games, watch shows, and do a few fun creative projects.;

Elliott was really excited to try the experiment with dish soap and pepper on his own.

Elliott went to a newspaper engineering class at the library that he loved, so I gave him a giant Target box that came in the mail.  He decided he wanted to turn it into a house for Inigo, and Molly sewed him a pillow and bed, and then helped him craft an adorable carnival with a squirrel pond and a strength tester game.

I did not expect Elliott would put it on his own bed, but he claims that it's very comfortable.  Can you spot Elliott in this picture?

Fortieth Anniversary Family Photos

My parents celebrated their 40th anniversary this August!  We took pictures this summer but things didn't really work out because of the weather, so we retook the pictures in November and this time they ended up great!