November Wrap Up

Between all the other posts we didn't have a whole lot going on that was post worthy...but there were a few things!

Piano Delivery
My dad brought us my grandma's piano that has been sitting at their house for about two years now. We are grateful for this gift, and it is extra-special knowing that my mom and uncles learned to play piano on it. I have lots of wonderful memories of my mom playing it for my grandma on our visits to her house. Lorelei is interested in lessons at some point and Brad enjoys just playing by ear and memory. And no, we didn't leave the piano in the laundry room, its just the only pic I got of my dad moving it. ;)

Dates
We fit in November dates, but they were very low key. Brad and Lorelei went out to the popcorn store during one of Makin's soccer practices and then Makin requested a Wii date with Brad for his choice. Lorelei and I headed out to the lake so they could have girl-free time in the house. She could have stayed and played in the sand a lot longer!

Grandparents Day
Our kids were a little bummed they had long-distance grandparents for this school event, but they certainly were not alone. :) I did go to video tape the kids so we could post it for the grandparents. Sorry for the somewhat unsteady videos!

ER Visit
One of my latest parent fails would be not checking more closely on Lorelei's earrings. After we hit the 8 week mark of cleaning and turning them every day, I was sick of it so I got lazy (and she also whined during the turning...making it another thing for us to argue about) and just left the same pair of earrings in. This resulted in one of her earring backs somehow going into her earlobe. And yes it was as gross and painful-looking as it sounds. Thankfully it was a home-school day the morning we woke up and noticed, so we packed up our school work (this isn't my first hospital visit people...I knew this could take all day) and headed to the ER to see what they could do for our poor girl's ear. We were quickly put in a room, where I then made the kids get as much school work done as we could manage. They eventually got the earring pulled out without having to make any cuts (plenty of screaming in pain from L though) thank goodness. We are now waiting for it to heal and hoping we can still get an earring in when it does.

While we were there I mentioned that Lor had a rock in her other ear we were working to make an appointment with an ENT doctor to have removed. That doctor quickly made an appointment with the ENT at the children's hospital (we were at the children's hospital ER...) for that afternoon, so we also had the rock removed in her other ear later that day...if it was a rock. It could also have been a pencil eraser...and we have no idea how or when it got there, they found it in her ear at her well-check.

Then the kids both ended up with a stomach bug...it was a stellar week. ;)

My Birthday
Mickey Mouse Pancakes, Gifts and Cards, Friend Starbucks Delivery and Visit, Home Schooling, Brad Lunch Delivery, Trip To The Lake, and Red Lobster Supper...pretty good day. :)

Thanksgiving 2016

We headed to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving this year.

Fish Fry
Dad loves to cook us fish when we visit.

Pie Prep
The kids helped cut out tiny pie crust pieces to help make mom's beautiful edges of her pies.










Thanksgiving Day
We enjoyed a chill-out morning watching Macy's Parade. Mom's meal was amazing and delicious, as always. :) And I love not having to cook it so it tastes even better!

Thanksgiving Sunrise

Most pictures are explanatory.
Just loved how Heather was having to cook with a dog and a 6 year old underfoot. :)

Chill (or no so chill for some of us) Friday
We decorated for Christmas. Although we only got out about half of Mom's decorations, it was a good start for her. According to the pictures mostly just enjoyed playing around the house. :)

(Clockwise from top left) Barbie Dream Boat With Aunt Heather,
Bubbles, Shooting Dream Boat with Ninja Turtle Pizzas,
Driving Remote Cars on Treadmill (per Makin's suggestion)

Full Family Day/Early Christmas
A.J. drove home for the day so that we could have everyone together for an early Christmas. The kids got in lots of playtime with their aunt and uncle.

Fitting In A Short Piano Lesson

Game Time!

Cute moment of Makin asking AJ all his favorites. :)

Putting the Christmas Star up on the outside of the house was an adventure. Lorelei was very concerned for A.J. when he was up so high. They did enjoy having a little "ride" in the payloader when they were finished up.

Pictures and Presents

Family Pic

First They Want To Hang a Star.
Then they want pictures.
Now they want to eat?!?
This waiting for presents stuff isn't for wimps.

I thought it was sweet they wanted Lou to open her gift first. :)
Love how their reactions and how much they love their gifts.

The girls.

Thankful

I'm not sure what happened this year...but I have felt like I can barely keep up. So this meant we didn't take even a one night to sit there and fill out our thankful tree. Can you tell I'm disappointed in myself!? So, at least Mrs. Harris had Makin write this paper. Another reason I'm thankful for GCA, when Mom fails, sometimes the school picks up the slack. So, at least you know what Makin is thankful for this year! Don't you love the Venus Fly Trap? :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Fall Soccer Wrap Up

Disclaimer: I forgot my nice camera
 on his last game and you can definitely tell in these pics!
Still so thankful for great cell phones as backup!

We had our last fall game on Saturday, so I guess we are due for another soccer post. :)

If Coach Andy has his way, Makin will be playing year-round soccer moving forward. For now, we held back on him playing winter indoor soccer. (And I feel some major guilt and stress he will have to catch up to the kids who ARE playing winter! Yep. That is Texas for ya!) He is still going to be having practices throughout the winter, but we took a break from the games. Then Makin plans to play again in the spring.

I just loved how much he was blocking this kid! :)

Makin has improved tremendously through experience and under Coach Andy's teaching and we hope we can continue with this coach long term. He still mostly played defense, but Andy made sure to always give him a chance to play a position to score the second half of the game. While Makin isn't as comfortable and used to this, he had a great final game and scored some more goals, which will really help his confidence in this area. He had quite a few near-miss shots as well and was good at being quick and aggressive, so it was a great way to end the season.


What I love about watching Makin play is that he gives 100% effort, listens well to what the coach is telling him to do and seems to learn from each game and practice. So proud of him. :)

Looks like he is blocking a pass and doing a dance at the same time. ;)

Soccer Shots Elite Fall Team
Gavin, Sahil, Collin, Tyler, Shamos and Makin
And yes, they got their trophies their second-to-last game. :)
Hence the picture quality! :)

His first-ever trophy and he is SO proud.
While I'm not a huge fan of participation trophies,
we just emphasized that he got it because he worked hard and improved a lot this season.

Only three could make it to celebrate after the last game, but we enjoyed the treat!

They are rearranging the groups by birth year rather than grade level,
 so we will likely have some new teammates in the spring.
It has me a little bummed but hoping we will enjoy it just as much!

Fun Run and Soles For Souls

Because I am helping at the school Tuesday mornings, I ended up helping quite a bit with this year's school fund raiser. We hope to continue this same one each year, so hopefully this year will be the roughest and it will be smooth sailing from now on. Thanks to those of you who donated!

We made a video, which you probably saw on facebook, but I just had to put it on here too! The kids did a great job!




Then came the actual fun run! There was also a 5k option, but we all know I'm not in that good of shape...Makin may be able to sooner than I would like though!

For the fun run, they grouped the kids by age. After signing myself up, both kids said they didn't really care if I ran with them. (Feel the love.)


Both kids starting off with their classmates.



At some point of the morning Lorelei said, "I think I'll just walk the Fun Run." Well, one she was lined up with her classmates the excitement must have motivated her. She ran hard and kept up with them, and I was proud of her for pushing herself!

I decided to run with Makin. He left me eating his dust. :) I couldn't even catch up enough to get a good picture. Another mom caught this one, of me doing the Crab Walk station. You can see Makin taking off in the background while I'm still crab walking.

Makin's friend Charlie arrived a few minutes after he finished his run. Charlie said, "I want to run with Makin!" Not really realizing he missed running with his class. I asked M if he would run with Charlie, and sure enough he did it a second time so he could run with his friend. :)

After the Fun Run, the kids made posters to cheer on those running in the 5k. Lorelei had quite a few classmates who ran, as well as her teacher! We absolutely loved heading out to cheer them on.









Urban Air donated a jump party for the kids who earned a certain amount towards the fundraiser. The kids were sooooo excited to be running around with their classmates right after school.

The following Friday we headed to Buckner Shoe organization to take and prepare shoes to be sent to orphans in various countries. Before we started packing up the shoes, they had the kids take off their shoes and walk the ground barefoot in dirt/rocks they (I think) brought back from three of the countries that they take the shoes to, so they could get an idea of how much these shoes will impact those kids and adults.

Then they got busy packing shoes. Each pair of shoes got a note inside. Makin wrote quite a few notes (that's the pic with the big handwriting) and Lorelei wrote almost the entire two hours! Her classmates/schoolmates requested she just write the notes since she was good at writing and then put them in the shoes they prepared. I think she felt special that they were so happy with her writing and I was proud of her for doing that many notes! Makin did each job, carrying shoes, writing notes, stuffing and moving the shoes to the correct bin when they were packaged.

It was a great chance to serve with our school!