A Family-Filled November

We got to see both sides of our family this month!  Here is our November...

Kayzee went on a field trip to the zoo with her kindergarten class.  A teacher at my school went on the field trip, her son is in Kayzee's class because both of our kids go to the same day care after kindergarten every day.  She got to have Kayzee and her son in her group at the zoo and they picked their friend to tag along with them.  She sent me this pic...yes, my daughter is one of the tallest in her class:)

In November I project JUST DANCE in the gym with my PE classes combined with the music classes...so fun!

 Memphis danced the whole 30 minutes...he loved it too!

In my last post I said I was going to let you know how my first week of 21 day fix went.  My results were awesome as usual.  This program really is so cool!  In my first 7 days of eating on plan and doing the extreme workouts I lost 7 pounds!!!!  Nailed it!

I tried some new recipes in the 21 day fix fixate cook book.  So yummy and nutritious...chicken tortilla soup.

I was so excited to start week 2 but then I got really sick.  I have been feeling sick (really dizzy, ear and jaw pain) since October 1 and I finally got so sick I knew it was time to go to the dr.  Don't know why I didn't go in sooner.  I had an ear infection and a sinus infection.  Dr put me on a steroid and an antibiotic.  My past experiences with antibiotics is I always have to go on two different ones.  On day 7 I was still not feeling better so I went back in and the dr said I only had one more antibiotic to try and then I would need surgery if it didn't work.  I prayed really hard and the antibiotic worked and I finally feel better two months later.  YAY!!!!  So I wasn't working out anymore because I was so dizzy but I have maintained my 7 pounds lost.  Now to lose more or maintain through the holidays right?!

Memphis has been having a rough year (making some bad decisions) and I finally found out that he has been so upset about Grandma Astle passing away and he is so worried about Grandpa Astle.  He is meeting with the school psychologist to try and help him make better choices when he gets upset and to work through some of his OCDness...Memphis loves the psychologist and tells me that loves talking to him and that he can tell him everything.  So glad about that and I can see a difference in his behavior most of the time;).  Memphis also loves his teacher even on his bad days and I am so grateful for his teacher loving him back even on the hard days!  Here is a letter Memphis wrote to his teacher...I love how tender-hearted my son is.

I will translate...Dear Mrs. Cox, Deep in my heart I love you and deep in your heart I know you love me and I promise I will be good as I can.  Love Memphis.

Memphis also made this for the art teacher...

Here are some cute pictures of my sweet Kayzee Lynn...

On Veteran's Day we took the day off and we went down to Blanding again so Danny could go hunting and try and get his elk.  No elk AGAIN! But we did have fun!  One of Danny's brothers and his wife and son went down with us so it was fun to hang out with everyone.  We went on a few more hikes and explored new parts of Blanding, Kayzee had fun playing with her cousin Max, and we also went bowling.

I have to do recess duty this year and the only reason we will have inside day is if the wind chill is below 20 degrees.  So if it's 21 degrees outside you will find me out there freezing!  My dear sweet husband knows me too well and how often I get sick especially in the winter with my freezing gym so as an early Christmas present he bought me a heated jacket!!!  It is so awesome.  And now I am toasty warm at recess:)

My kids find interesting ways to entertain themselves while they wait for me to clean up my gym and get grades done everyday.  Here is what they decided to do one day...

We went to Logan for Thanksgiving this year.  My grandpa is all alone now so it was nice to see him and spend them holiday with him.  We stayed at my wonderful Aunt Sandra's house and hung out with her and my Uncle Larry.  My parents also came down from Washington to stay.  Memphis and Kayzee were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Thorpe!  We had fun playing at a park, watching football, doing fun activities that Grandma brought, and eating yummy food.  I read A LOT of course.  We also got to visit with one of Danny's brothers and his little family.  On black Friday I stayed home (do not like shopping on that day because I used to work it and hated it) but Danny decided to go because he found an awesome deal on ammunition.  I just thought it was so funny that Danny went (he hates shopping) with my mom and aunt.  Danny said that my mom and her sister are crazy ha ha!!!

My mom had Memphis and Kayzee make hand turkeys then we cut out pictures of everyone's faces as name cards for Thanksgiving dinner...

 Exciting update on Baby Max.  Not a baby anymore!  On Max's First Unbirthday (His actual due date on Thanksgiving even though he was born 3 months early in August) he started walking!!!!  YAY such a great accomplishment.  GO MAX!

 A picture of my other sister Annalyn and her husband.  Their baby is due around Christmas.  So exited for them!

My mom got my kids new Sunday clothes for the holidays...so cute!!!

When we got home from Logan we set up our Christmas tree and we had a little birthday party for Danny's sister Nita.  

We also had a good snow storm and my kids were so excited.  They played out in the snow for over 4 hours!!! The first picture was 4:30 pm and the 2nd picture was from 6:30 pm.  The snow just kept coming down...

The next day after school we stopped by some good sledding hills by our school.  The kids had so much fun sledding together while I sat in the nice warm car and read a book ha ha!

EXCITING NEWS!!!  We are now officially DEBT FREE (except for the mortgage on our house).  It has been a hard 5 years but it feels so good to have no more car payments or credit cards.  We even have money saved up to start finishing our basement.  We have already had several contractors over to give us some bids and we have most of it saved up to pay for the basement in cash!  So proud of our hard work and it feels so good!  Now to get ready for Christmas.  It will be here before we know it!

Where did October go?

Why is it already the middle of November?  I am not ready for the holidays yet!  October was busy but so much fun!  We packed in a lot so here is how it went...

The first weekend was General Conference.  Here is how Danny and his dad listened to conference on Saturday...

 I LOVE that I have two nephews named Max and they are only about a month apart.  This is Max on Danny's side.  We went to his party after conference.  So stinkin' cute!

 General Conference on Sunday just relaxin' with grandma...

 The next weekend we went and played some frisbee golf...perfect weather...

 I am the activity day leader for the 8 and 9 year old girls in my ward.  One of our activities I taught the girls some PE games that I know and we played with the parachute.  Memphis and Kayzee had to join in on the fun too...

 Love this toothless grin.  We have been calling Memphis our Memph-O-Lantern all month!

 We have fall break in October.  Danny has an elk tag down in Blanding and we really want some more elk meat in our freezer so we headed down to Blanding for 4 days during our break.  While Danny and his dad went hunting me and the kids spent a lot of time exploring Blanding with grandma.  My kids love to hike and I love that we can go hiking and exploring and everything is close by.  First white rock...

 One day we went to the library and we found elephant and biggie books...yay!!!  Memphis' favorite!

 We had a fire one night and made dinner and s'mores...

 Love Kayzee's expression...

 It was the orion meteor shower while we were down there and Blanding is perfect for star gazing!  We all got on the trampoline...even grandma and grandpa joined us!  We tried to take a family picture but it was way too dark and the flash was way to bright.

 More exploring...this was right out in grandma's and grandpa's back yard we hiked out to see the beaver dams...

 I won't rant and rave too much about this but let's just say I have been dealing with a leaky ceiling for the past 10 years in my PE office and it is just getting worse which is ridiculous.  It is literally a waterfall of water sometimes.  It is ruining my stuff (my own and my PE stuff) and no one seems to care.  Ok I am done venting...

 One day we finally decided to carve these huge pumpkins that Grandpa Royer grows in his own backyard.  It took over 2 hours for Danny to clean them out and carve them but the kids love it.  We made Memphis clean is out.  He was not too excited as you can tell by the look on his face but he did it!

 Kayzee dove right in...

 Kayzee wanted to be Elsa again for Halloween and her old costume didn't fit so she got another Elsa dress.  So pretty...

 Memphis had been begging to be Luigi and I should have bought the costume the first time I saw it because by the time I got around to actually getting him one I couldn't find one anywhere!  He finally decided to be a wizard/magician...

 Super Auntie Nita came to our ward Halloween party with us...

 Danny does not like Halloween can you tell?

 Witch!

All ready for school on Halloween and yes we did survive having Halloween on a Monday!

 Love that my kids go to my school so I can see them in the school Halloween parade!

 Trick or Treating around our neighborhood...

 My sister Alicia and her baby Max.  Max is wearing Memphis' old pirate costume.  So cute!

 My other nephew Max came trick or treating with us...Ninja Turtle!

 Call me crazy but I decided to start another round of 21 day fix on Halloween (my favorite eating and exercise plan).  I wanted to avoid the candy so this was how I was going to do that.  My first week went amazing!  I did not have any candy or junk food or soda all week even though I was surrounded by it!  I will post my results in my next blog post...