November and Thanksgiving

 November was full and fun! We kicked it off with Justin's birthday. Butte played in a quarter-final game for football state in Pocatello, so I planned a babysitter and we went to dinner and watched the football game. It was so great! There's nothing like alone time with your spouse when you have four little kids! The next day was the perfect fall day for a hike, so we took the kids to lower cedar creek and hiked to the waterfall. It was 40-ish degrees with a faint drizzle of rain making it feel like the perfect fall hike. 

Two weeks later Butte made it to the state championship game. This was a big deal for our town since Butte has never won a championship. I texted the Beals to let them know and surprisingly, many of them wanted to come cheer them onto victory! We met at Costa Vida before the game and had the best time together at the game. Butte pulled out the win after a seriously incredible game. I will never forget the forced fumble return touchdown when they were on the 1 yard line with only 4 seconds left putting us two touchdowns ahead going into the half. The entire stadium was absolutely going insane. With two minutes left in the game the whole Butte crowd chanted "Dilly Strong" in support of one of the teammates whose story I mention in a photo caption below. It was the most fun at a football game I've ever had and will surely go down in Butte County lore for a long time to come.

We had an enriched November with extra study about the Pilgrims for homeschool. I love how much my kids learned about the Mayflower and the Pilgrim's first year in America. We looked forward to having the Roses come stay for Thanksgiving all month. Emmett made a chain count down and I planned and prepped as much as I could. It was my first time cooking a whole Thanksgiving meal and it tasted just like Mom's! I was feeling pretty proud and we had a great time with Justin's family. He planned a lot for them to do while they were here, including pickleball and a live action version of Among Us at the church. Logan especially enjoyed playing the Imposter part. 

The weekend before Thanksgiving Justin helped organize Arco's first Turkey Trot - complete with "lost" turkeys along the route that the kids could find and turn in for a prize at the end. We had about 20-30 people turn out which felt like a huge success for the first year! 

As soon as family left for home Justin helped me put Christmas up at our house. I left a sticky note in one of the Christmas storage bins from last year that said "Merry Christmas in your new house!" - We are especially feeling love and gratitude this Christmas season being in our new home.

Drawing from youtube tutorials...with goggles? Why not?

Making Mars

Earth cookies

Come, Follow Me lessons

One of many tantrum positions

The kids sure enjoyed all their cousins electronics while they were here!

Emmett's drawings becoming more...graphic. He hates any mention of blood, so he said drawing it is his way of trying to get over it.

More tantrum positions.

Making Venus

Turkey Trot!

Earlier this season the team had a teammate collapse on the sideline due to a blood clot to his brain. He went in for emergency surgery and has been recovering since. It is a miracle he's alive, let alone walking and talking but still has a long way to go. Anyway - they wheeled him out onto the field and upon announcing Butte the state champions, he got out of his wheelchair and walked to grab the trophy surrounded by his teammates and coaches. It was truly an incredible moment.

Building cabins like the Pilgrims.

Hide n seek with Colby

We did an object lesson for how far the planets are from the sun (1 toilet paper square = 1 million miles) which quickly turned into mummy wrapping and other shenanigans. 

Making Mercury

Making Mayflowers

Cutie Pilgrim boys

11 months old

We finally got all our grass put in!!

Moon phases with friends.