Alana, Sean, and Queen Elsa helped me do some shopping at Ikea one day. We ended up needing to return a few things within the next few days, so Lizzie and I went by ourselves while Alana was in preschool. It was our first outing with panties on and Lizzie was a champ telling me she needed to go right away. We used the nice family bathrooms they have there, did our return, and wandered around a bit. After picking up some baskets and checking out we got to the car. I asked Lizzie where Bear was and she said he was in the car. He wasn't in the car and I remembered her carrying him into the store. It soon sank in to me that we lost Bear in Ikea! Ginormous Ikea! We ran back in and started retracing our steps through the kids section and then down through the downstairs area. I started to get worried when we weren't finding him and I needed to go get Alana from school. I found a nice worker and asked about a lost and found. He called the lost and found and told me there hadn't been anything turned in. He had me write down my name, number, and address in case they found anything and I continued to retrace my steps to the exit. After a few minutes the same worker came and found me and asked if we had used the bathroom. I remembered that we had gone to the bathroom and that we had set Bear down while Lizzie got on the potty. I told him thank you and basically ran to the bathroom. There was bear sitting on the little table in the family restroom! What a miracle. I didn't have time to go find the worker and hadn't even asked his name, but on the way out I found another worker and told him what had happened. I described the man that helped me and asked if he would please please tell him Thank You! He told me it sounded like Trevor from my description and that he would be happy to tell him. I left the store in awe at Gods love for my little family in sending Trevor the angel to help us. We have had so so many experiences where the Holy Ghost has led us to that mischievous Bear and I texted Sean later that day the I believe Bear's purpose in life is to testify of God's love for us!
Alana was pretending to be a unicorn one afternoon and Lizzie was riding her, it was so cute!
Our Stake had a special Stake conference this past month where Elder Quintin L Cook came and spoke to us. In preparation for the meeting we were encouraged to spend some time in the Temple the week before. Sean went and did baptisms the Thursday before and I was able to do an Endowment session in the newly remodeled Jordan River Temple on Saturday morning. It was a wonderful experience to go and especially to sit in the Celestial room at the end. After the temple, we went and saw The Grinch in the theater with Papa and Mimi. It was such a darling show and the kids all really enjoyed it! I loved that you could see the goodness in Grinch all along and of course Max was adorable!
While Lizzie was starting to potty train, she didn't wear pants, just panties and it was so cute!
Alana loves doing piano lessons with Daddy.
One afternoon the girls were watching a show, I came down from upstairs and found Lizzie asleep in a basket like this!
We started preparing for Alana's birthday. She finally decided on an under the sea theme and was excited to prepare games.
Our sweet neighbor Eve comes to play often and we just love all the fun and games she imagines! This day they were playing doctor in a circle =)
I know I have mentioned before that I was making all these stuffed animals for a service project. An opportunity arose to donate them to the Festival of Trees. They would be sold in the shop there and all the money goes to Primary Children's Hospital. I had to kick it into high gear with sewing these little guys and getting all their eyes on in preparation for stuffing them on Thanksgiving.
Alana was very excited to get sung to in Primary:
Lizzie loves to dress up and she loves this broom and she still had no pants on =)
Mom Peterson asked me if I needed any pecans. I ordered our pecan pie for Thanksgiving so I told her I didn't NEED any, but would never say no if she had extra. When she gave me the bag I recognized it as one that had been frozen from Mer's trees. I was so honored and excited she would share such precious pecans!
Lizzie had a hard time sleeping with a cold and potty training and such one night, so she joined us and it was very sweet!
Brett has been really unhappy when he loses things lately. He can get in a real rage about it and blame everyone else for moving or taking his stuff. We have been talking to him a lot about how you are responsible for your own things. He gets stuck on the issue though and has a hard time moving on. The other night he lost his green flashlight and was ridiculously upset about it! Alana decided to make him feel better by making her purple flashlight into a green one so he would feel better. She colored some paper green and taped it on, she worked really hard at it and it was so sweet. He told her thank you and found his shortly after. Sean was able to talk with him about getting stuck in a certain thought though and how you have to work to get out of that.
My parents are building a new home out in the Daybreak area. They have been thinking about it for about a year because the stairs are difficult for my mom to navigate. They found a great place out there and are really excited about it! My mom asked me to take some Christmas pictures for them this year and we chose Daybreak since they are moving there. It was fun to take photos of them and it was really cold!
When we went to look at the house with the kids they mostly just love the basement! They love all the fake food and stuff to make it look homey. Apparently they licked some pretzels in a random jar! I told them not to do that again. Brett liked this game table:
On Thanksgiving morning Sean went to play in a neighborhood Turkey Bowl game. He had a ton of fun, but came home hardly able to walk! That morning the kids and I started putting together a puzzle. When Sean got home I did a quick 15 min run then got started on all the table setting and other preparations for the big feast.
The birds enjoyed some yummy Thanksgiving Millet Spray =)
I tried something different with the turkey. I brined it for 24 hours then we rubbed it down in butter and injected it with butter, garlic, and chicken stock. Then we baked it in the oven. I think we needed to cook it longer. and take off the bag to let it get more golden and crispy. The flavor was good for turkey and it was a fun experiment.
While the bird was cooking, we pulled out the stuffed animals and started stuffing them. The kids had so much fun and did a really great job. I was impressed by how much stuffing Lizzie could stuff into a single animal!
Sam, Mom, and I sewed up the backs while Sean played piano, Dad P. and Dale took naps, and Dad and Mom P put together a puzzle.
I loved the way the table turned out! Funny fact, we only have 8 butter knifes! I've obviously never entertained such a fancy meal before! Luckily the kids didn't need one and I shared with Sean.
All the finished stuffies ready to be picked up for Festival of trees.
Mom and Dad P and Dale had to take off to go have pie with Neil and Rebeccas family. We decided to exchange Christmas with my sister that evening since we won't be seeing them for Christmas this year. We gave Kaity a barbie and ken, Sam some Zelda earrings, jared cheaters monopoly, and the whole family Cover your Assets game. Sam and Jared gave us Disney Code Names, Brett legos, Alana water colors, and Lizzie and singing minnie mouse. It was way fun to have an early mini Christmas.
The pies were YUMMY!
Jared got to turn on the football game:
This next picture is from Sean's turkey bowl.
Kaitlyn decided to sleep over that night and had to borrow one of Alana's nightgowns. The kids all stayed up too late but had fun. I decorated for Alana's birthday and Sean wrapped the gifts.
Alana got 5 candles in her pancakes!
Pecksy and Flutter like using a pie dish as a bird bath now.
We spent the morning of Alana's birthday just hanging out and playing. We met Sam and Jared at the movie theater after lunch to see Wreck it Ralph 2. Alana got really scared during one of the end scenes and we left. She really didn't want to go back in and I was ok with her making that choice. Since it was her birthday when she asked for cookie dough, I said of course!
Alana's anxiety has been really high lately. I was feeling like it would be a good idea to call and get her a doctors appointment. As I was filling out the paperwork to get her in the system, I was blown away by how high she scores on the anxiety charts. Poor thing will wake up sad and unmotivated many of the days in the week, she worries about pleasing others, stresses a ton about food and is so so picky, and the biggest issue right now is that she is so hypersensitive to any kind of clothing that she struggles to even get dressed in the morning. Everything is too tight and even when the pants are barely hanging onto her hips, she is crying that they hurt. All shoes hurt and socks hurt. sleeves hurt, and hair brushing hurts. Its really getting bad. I am in the process of looking for a good therapist for her and she is all set in the system with the anxiety specialist pediatrician so I can make an appointment as soon as we feel like it will help. We just know that she is really young and the best thing to try is therapy first. I am just praying that we can find someone who is able to help her.
On Saturday morning I had a photoshoot to go to down in Provo. It was at the new Provo high school and was really fun! We woke up to snow that morning so Sean played with the kids in the snow, then worked on the birthday cake. It was really yummy!
The party guests included Grandma and Grandpa, Papa and Mimi, Uncle Dale, Neil, Rebecca, Sam, Jared, Brett, Alana, Lizzie, Kaity, Kaden, and Lexi. We invited the neighbors but they couldn't come.
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| we got Alana a stamp set. |
Sean put up our Christmas lights!
Eating pizza at the party
Pinata in the basement:
Pin the tail on the mermaid made by Alana!
Cake time:
After I did Lizzie's hair one day this week, I had to take a picture of how long and full and pretty it is! I tell her when I wash it that its her pretty Elsa hair and she loves that!
Flutter discovered the Christmas tree! She looks like an ornament.
We finally made it out to dinner for Alana's birthday and to celebrate Lizzie learning to use the potty. We had Noodles and Company and then went to a dessert place right next door called Last Course. Alana got a Brownie Bomb which wasn't that good sadly. Brett got peanut butter chunk ice cream, Lizzie got Gooey Browning ice cream, and Sean and I shared the Fosters Banana tacos which were heavenly!
Tomorrow is the fist day of December and we are all pretty excited. We decided to do a Giving Advent Calendar this year. Each number has an assignment to make or wrap a gift or deliver cookies, learn carols, write letters, etc. It even has money so the kids can shop for gifts for each other and buy food for the food bank. The box is full of all kinds of supplies for gift making or service opportunities. I will share all the ideas after Christmas.
We bought Brett a new kindle and handed down his old one to Lizzie, she is giddy! She and Sean were playing a game this morning where they got to feed different animals=)
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