December 2021

As a family we try and stay active.  Here we are doing a core workout.  Everyone was sore the next day.  Kyle was our instructor.

Happy Birthday Makai!  Makai's Birthday is one week before Christmas and he gets so excited every year for his birthday.  This year was so exception.  Thankfully he is still happy with toys.  He was happy with Halo Legos.  

He's 12 years old!!  For dinner he asked for Burgers and his cake he wanted a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.  We love this kid, but I can't believe he is 12.  

While shopping for the boys for Christmas we found a huge shoe.  This thing is bigger than me!  I think it was a size 17!  Whoever wears these is a huge person.  

A boy in our ward organized a basketball tournament.  The boys were pretty excited to go.  They even dressed up like they were in the NBA and brought their clothes to change into.  Kids still know how to play.  They did well in the tournament.  

Another random picture of Tyler that was sent to me.  She drove half an hour to feed these boys dinner.  So sweet.  

I'm not exactly sure what came over me, but two days before Christmas we were sitting in the front room and I just said, "Let's go look at puppies."  I thought we were just going to look and see what was available as far as puppies go.  Then we talked ourselves out of it and decided to go look at fish.  We looked at some fish and then decided if we got a tank we'd want to get a salt water tank.  Then Kory said, "If you're going to go big than you mine as well just get a dog."  So, we started looking at a place to look for a puppy.  Monty didn't want a grown dog as you have to deal with behaviors from their past and it's fun to see a dog grow up.  So while we were at lunch I found a place that had a dachshund.  So we went to look at the dachshund.  We looked at all the puppies and when I saw this dog I can't lie...I thought she was so cute.  Long story short...I picked this dog for our family.  Honestly, I never would have got her.  I can easily talk myself out of trying something new, but Monty said, "We'll take her."  The boys all cheered because they've always wanted a dog.  As we drove home she fell asleep in Kyle's arms.  So far everyone is in love and she seems like a good puppy.  

 

She likes everyone!  And Everyone likes her.  We had 10 days to decide if she was a good fit for our family.  i went back and forth a few times.  No one else did.  As I write this 10 days are long gone and she is still here.  So...Meet Maggie--The Ferocious Beast.  

Trey and I took her to the Vet and at her first visit she was 2lbs, 12 oz.  Smaller than we thought.  We'll see how fast she grows.  

Christmas Eve...Pizza and Root beer floats.

Christmas was fun.  This year we got the boys 3 gifts each.  One gift that was useful.  One gift that was desirable, and one gift that would build your mind.  I've wanted to do it for years and we finally did it.  I didn't take any pictures of Christmas.  I just enjoyed the day.  Monty worked nights the entire week, so we didn't do Christmas till about 1:30 in the afternoon.  We didn't get snow, but it was super cold!  I can't believe we are almost the end of the year.  We did talk to Tyler and he had a good Christmas.  He was glad to have a night off.  
  

November 2021

 We love getting pictures of Tyler.  Sometimes people will just send me pictures of him and tell me how much they love him.  I think that is so sweet because I've never thought of doing that for someone else. When I get these photos though it makes me smile.  He looks happy.    

I don't go downstairs often.  I just feel like I am in a better mood if I don't know what it looks like down there.  I have named it the man cave, and usually allow it to stay that way.  However, sometimes I have to go down there and when I do...it kills me.  These boys are so messy!  I've tried so  hard to teach them how to be clean, but despite my best efforts, they can live in this and be just fine.  

Maybe one day they will grow out of it.  Maybe...

Makai wanted to make some money, so Monty told him he could earn $40 if he raked the leaves.  He took him up on the offer.  Here he is happily working.

Sometimes we find new things to do.  We love hanging out as a family.  On this day we went to the Durham Museum.  We had no idea it would be so cool.  It is the old train station here in Omaha and we learned so much about Omaha.  We had a great time together.  I don't know that I would have enjoyed traveling on a train, but it would have beat walking.  

Kory and his girlfriend love to go to get BOBA.  We decided to go try it as a family.  Then we came home and played some games.  We had a fun night together.  

Happy Thankgiving.  Instead of turkey we decided to do a Roast.  This year we did Thanksgiving on our own and the meal was nice.  We have so much to be thankful for.  The district I'm in gave us the whole week off and to be honest it was wonderful!  I enjoyed everyday!  A much needed break.  

The day after Thanksgiving Monty had the idea to go shop for Christmas decorations.  I kind of like the Grinch because I find Christmas difficult sometimes.  I don't love buying presents and feeling like Christmas has become so commercialized.

We decided to buy this little Grinch.  I think he is cute.  We decided to hide it around the house.  It reminded me that Christmas should be fun and we enjoyed hiding it in a few places.  Seeing where people hid it made me smile.  

Christmas is about Christ!

We also bought a new tree this year and it really made our front room feel like Christmas.  I love the tree because getting out all of the ornaments reminds me of all the fun things we have done as a family.  We always enjoy decorating it and talking about when we got each ornament.  

Our tree us up the day after Thanksgiving.  I wanted to get it up before going back to school.  

October 2021

 

October began with Makai needing to get some shots.  Turns out he missed a short when he was a baby and his new school noticed!  But it worked out just fine.  He just got his 7th grade boosters at the same time.  I'm happy to report he was a trooper.  He didn't even cry.  Can't believe you are so big Makai.  He's taller than most kids kids age...like off the charts and off the charts in weight.  I knew from day one he wasn't going to be little, but he's even bigger than I would have guessed.  

We continue to occasionally do some "Task Rabbit" jobs.  This job was to clean two apartments and make them ready for new tenants.  Monty and I have done this, but Kyle never has, so I felt bad sending Kyle to do it by himself.  Since I had the day off, we went to tackle the job.  The first job was pretty standard.  Took us a few hours.

 

The second one had us baffled.  It looked like the person was still there.  There was like 4 broken cell phones on the bed.  Clothes all over, hair products all over, tons of food in the fridge.  We didn't really know if the person lived there still or not.  All we knew was it was filthy.  Long story short, they told us to do it anyway and then about 2 hours into cleaning they told us to stop.  The whole time we wondered if someone was going to walk it and ask us why we were in their house.  But, that never happened.  The longer we were there the more we felt like the person was gone and long gone.  Kyle found that he was a criminal and even found a container that had drugs in it.  The drugs were gone, but it still smelled like drugs.  Again...it was another bonding experience.  And whoever this was LOVED their hair!

No matter how hard I try, the boys just keep getting older.  Kory is officially 17!  He LOVES Spiderman.  He can't wait for the Movie that is coming out in a couple months, so Monty had the idea to make his party fun and get some decorations.  He wanted to have enchiladas for his birthday and cheesecake.  Kory loves cheesecake and homemade enchiladas.  Sadly I wasn't feel well on his birthday, but I couldn't let him down, so I made him enchiladas.  We had to uninvite his girlfriend because now when people get sick we never know if it's COVID.  Kory went and spent the day with his girlfriend, so we didn't go cake until past midnight.  So, it was actually the 24th, but we still had fun.  Happy birthday Kory!  We love you so much.  

Halloween in Kindergarten.  I haven't dressed up for Halloween in a while, but when you teach kindergarten you need to be fun.  So, I went as a blue crayon and matched the other kindergarten teachers in my building.  It was pretty fun.  

We had some fun visitors for Halloween.  TJ, Dora, and Mahonri came for Halloween.  It was fun to have a little guy in our house again.  He has grown so much and learned really fast that I would pick him up.  He is heavy.  The boys loved this pirate ship when they were younger.  We've never been able to get rid of it and it's a good thing because otherwise we wouldn't have had anything for Mahonri to play with.  He loves it.  He played with it for a long time.  

Kory and his girlfriend carved a pumpkin together. It looked pretty cool.   

Mahonri ready for a driving lesson frmo Uncle.

The cuttest Russel ever!  

Mahonri's first trick or treating house.  He only made it about 3 houses before falling to sleep. 

Trey introducing Mahonri to a basketball.  

Dora braided Kory's hair and his hair is long enough that she could do all of his hair.  I can't believe he talent.  He likes the way it looks.  

Some things are worth waking up early for.  Thanks for a fun visit.