Petersons Never Give Up: November

Lizzie has been loving playing her viola in orchestra and has learned a lot about reading music and finding tunes and transposing. She was playing on the piano one night and Bear joined her =)

Many of Alana's friends have November birthdays. Harper invited a few friends to go to dinner and shopping. They went to Cheesecake Factory and then went to Sephora and bath and body works. Alana had a wonderful time! I am so grateful she has such wonderful friends.

Lizzie's choir put on a Veteran's Day concert. They did a wonderful job and worked really hard to learn about Veterans and our country.

Oreo knows how to look cozy and so we just keep taking pictures:

My parents put their house on the market right at the start of September and weren't having luck getting it sold. Their realtor ended up needing to assign them to someone else because she got a new job. Since the listing was switching to a new realtor, it went back to the top of the MLS. Their new realtor thought that if we painted the colored walls in the house it would really help the house sell. I took a Wednesday off work and Sean and I painted and painted. Those ten foot ceilings and that accent wall were killer! But we got it painted white and that weekend they got 2 offers! Who knows how much the painting helped, but we were so glad they got some offers. The first one fell through so they went with the second one which was contingent on the sell of the buyers previous home. It was stressful because we didn't really know when that house would sell and when that would put closing for my parents. At first they were aiming for December 11, then December 29. Then it all came together and they closed 2 days before Christmas!

Brett got some Sweedish fish and was so happy to have a sour patch kid made of Sweedish fish!

Alana invited a few friends over for her birthday. We had snacks and food and cake. They watched Cruella and snuggled in new blankets. Then we opened gifts and everyone headed home.

I can't believe this beautiful girl is 12! She is an amazing human and I am so proud of all she does. She makes me laugh daily and warms us all with her kindness. She is spicy too, and keeps us on our toes! Her birthday was on a Sunday and we had family over to eat some ice cream cake and celebrate!

I made lots of Christmas 3-d prints for my classroom and Lizzie liked inspecting them all:

We took Oreo to the open field to play fetch one day and he was so so happy. He can run to fast and he loves it! Since then he has been a lot more willing to go on runs with Sean.

The Hospice company Sean works for has an annual gathering at the Luminaria. They get everyone tickets and then they have a tent with s'mores kits and hot chocolate where all the employees can come and visit as they wander through the gardens. It was beautiful and super nice weather! Its amazing to see how much better the kids are at walking this year! They don't tire as easily and have more stamina as they get older.

Brett and Eli hosted a young mens activity where they taught the leaders and young men about astronomy and astro-photography. The leaders especially loved it.

Lizzie made a cupcake out of playdough and shaving cream.

Lizzie was Leader of the Month for her class for November. She was selected by her teacher for showing superior leadership and then she got to go to a special breakfast. Sean was able to go with her (I was bummed I couldn't get anyone to watch my class) and Alana was there as part of student council helping to pass out donuts.

These kids crack me up!

Alana has been learning to help in the kitchen and was being silly when I asked her to brown the sausage =)

Alana went to another birthday party at an aerobatics silks place. She loved it and now wants to take classes. I still need to figure out the details on that.

We hosted our annual gingerbread party in November this year and it was really nice to do it before the hustle of December. We had so much fun and so many awesome creations were made!

Eli's outhouse:

Alana helped us get down our Christmas decorations this year.

Lizzie and I painted our nails one night and she was looking so grown up!

We went and saw Zootopia 2 on Thanksgiving Day. It was a really cute movie. Then we came back to our house and had Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and Dad Z and Mom P.