November 2021

Brielle Turns 2 

Our little spitfire turned 2 this month! Brielle is boarder-line obsessed with books, loves Minnie Mouse, hats, and her monkey. She laughs so hard and loud it sounds fake. Some of her favorite phrases include: Link-can (Lincoln), Sure, Here Dad, Yoda, Ma yee (Maddie), Mom, Momma, mooooove, muwah (when blowing kisses) and ut-oh. This is a small sample of this girl's vocabulary. 

Her bedtime code goes something like, "Let's pick a book!" or "Let's go yellow." She always has her nightlight on the yellow color settings and won't have it any other way. 

She is adventurous, likes to keep up with her brothers, and is insanely silly. We are so grateful for this darling girl of ours. Look out, world--she is going to do big things. 

Kristina Visits 

Kristina flew in for a quick weekend visit with me Madeline. She loves babies and is always a good help. I took lots of naps and Maddie took lots of naps on her. It wouldn't be a true visit from her without getting a project done, so we stenciled the "lounge" room in the freshly finished basement. Then, a couple of hours before she flew out, we decided to repaint my main floor bathroom cabinets. ;) So grateful for her coming to visit and take care of me and Maddie. 

The Play Date 

I got a text from our sweet neighbor, Heather saying her daughter Libby, requested a play date with Lincoln Thomas. It took a bit of convincing and Lincoln might have cried a little the day of. He is always with Maverick when playing with friends, so this was something new and a little scary for him. I told him even though he was scared, it was something he needed to do. He sulked to the basement to play for a little longer before going over. Maverick came upstairs a few minutes later, walkie-talkie in hand, and said "I am going to have this and Lincoln is going to take the other one to Libby's so if he needs me, we can talk." 

Over the next hour, I heard lots of chirping and back-and-forth chatter. I sure love Maverick's problem-solving abilities and how much he loves Lincoln. (The play date went well--Lincoln reported he had fun).  

Thanksgiving

We had both the Hurless and Lovell families over for Thanksgiving this year, so I smoked two turkeys. Ronnies arrived later in the afternoon, so it cooked a little longer than the other. This might be one of Lehi's all-time favorite meals I cook. We had an insane amount of Martinellis and all the Thanksgiving feast essentials (sweet potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, pretzel salad (Ronnie may or may not have put crushed nuts in the crust, much to Lehi's dismay), mashed potatoes, and gravy. The Thomas clan joined us for desserts in the evening. We gave everyone their A Visit from St. Nicholas box, with Grandma narrating the poem when you open it. It was a special day. 

Pie Night 

The Saturday of Thanksgiving week, the Blue family invited everyone over for a pie night. It was so perfect and so much fun. It was a crowd! Terri had some bead crafts for the kids to do--I am pretty sure Maverick made at least 25 candy canes for our Christmas tree.  We gave out more A Visit from St. Nicholas boxes to the extended family--Lehi said Sue opened it and immediately started crying. (He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing). ;) Matt's didn't work super well, but as soon as he got a little more light in the box the voice activation worked. 

I hope pie night is a new tradition because we loved spending time with family.

 

Entrepreneur Night

Maverick's school had an entrepreneur night, where kids could sell items at a booth that the community was welcome to. He decided on marshmallow shooters and we made a whole garbage bag full. We did lots of demos and they had a lot of fun. He made about $10--after paying me back for supplies. ;) We talked about how you often have to hire people to help run a business and have to pay them, so he even gave Lincoln a $3 cut for his help making them.

Shoebox Success

This year was our second annual Samaritan's Purse Shoebox family project! When Kristina visited, she fell in love with the idea and packed a bunch, too. I took some pictures of examples to share next year. The YM reached out to me to see if there was anything they could do to contribute as a service project. I had them in charge of collecting boxes on a designated night and bringing them back to the house. It was so heartwarming seeing all the boxes pour in from throughout the neighborhood. We delivered 82 boxes this year (not including what Ronnie collected). The workers were so excited when we showed up and opened our trunks. The little we had with us helped unload and the workers asked us to kneel and say a prayer over the boxes with them. It was a tender and special experience. I am so excited to do it all again next year! 

Quotables:

-Brielle got stuck over the vacuum cord yelling "Lin-can, hel!!" The following times she walked by the cord, she held it up in her hands and yelled, "Lin-can, hel!" 

-Went shopping for shoebox supplies. Lehi told me how Maverick came downstairs after he put them to bed and hold him there was "probably like 10 minutes" of water left in the humidifier." I came home, Madeline was not happy. I rocked her for awhile. Maverick came down and told me "5 minutes of water left. I will watch Maddie for you while you help Lincoln." Madeline started to fuss and Mav knelt next to her and said, "It's ok Maddie. Your big brother is here." 

While getting the humidifier refilled, I asked Lincoln if he wanted some vapor rub on him. He replied, "No, Maverick already did it." 

-Kristina visits--Ronnie telling us "When I have kids it is like: I lay my body on the alter, then my sleep, then my sanity and then they ask for my chocolate and I say No! No! No! It's mine!"

-Harrison in Lincoln's pre-k class likes to say, "Hello, Lincoln Skywalker." Linc was telling me about this in the car on the way home. I was having a hard time understanding what the child's name was. He then pointed to his head and said, "Like this mom." It took me a few guesses to put the "hair-ison" together. He is such a patient kid. Harrison is Lincoln's best friend in pre-k. 

-Whenever seeing a picture of herself, "Brrrr ell!"

-Sweet Brielle and Madeline got pretty sick this month, too. It was a looooong one, but we survived!

More Pictures 

                                                                                       Mav spotted an AT AT

Oh Christmas Tree

I got a new Christmas tree this year! Our other one was falling apart and in pretty rough shape. I found a great organization to donate it to, which made me happy. :) My tree was up BEFORE Thanksgiving this year (it was delivered beforehand and we didn't want to move it to the basement only to haul it back up a week later). However, my tree was NOT decorated and we waited to do that until the day after Thanksgiving. ;)