Elena's Birthday

Elena turned 11!!!   Her abuelos gave her a violin.  And we gave her a hammock.  She really liked both gifts--but I think she was a bit more excited about the violin.

Efraim's been running a fever for the last 4 days.  It's not been great.
Mixed nut tart and scones was her choice for dinner.  It has a green gob on it from a candle melting.

October

These pictures are all backwards, but what a lovely picture to start with.  Elena is so beautiful!  This was a Grandma's house this last weekend. Grandma made her cake and ice-cream with chocolate sauce for her birthday.  

Leo and I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner.  It was tons of fun.  Seriously, I was dressed as an Italian mobster and Leo a French wine maker.  Hee. Hee.

And the rest of the group.  It was with the Elder's Quorum presidency.  It was really fun.  We haven't done something with other adults in way, way too long.  

The kids had pizza and watched a movie downstairs, and these were their costumes from that night.
And this was at Grandma's house again last weekend.  The kids went out and raked the leaves forever--they thought it was so much fun.

A nasty cat-faced spider, although I read and found out it was harmless.  Maybe I shouldn't have made Leo squash it.

And the cutest pictures after church.  Efraim is a doll.

And otherwise life is crazy as per the norm.  We had a great time in Utah visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and at Megan's house for a Halloween party--I'll have to get pictures from someone.  Today and yesterday finally seem like a bit of a calm.  Yay!  And now I need to go finish Elena's halloween costume.  So ta-ta!

September

September flew by.... I'll just sum up a little of what's been going on and you can enjoy a plethora of phone photos.   Drove to Ft. Collins for Nicolas to have an eye appt for his lazy eyes, and found out he needs surgery.  Drove to Cheyenne for Nicolas to have an MRI just to make sure nothing else was going on (okay that was in October.)  That was fun though.  Lando talked to me the whole way from Laramie to Hanna about shapes--what he's learning in school.  It was fun to spoil him a bit and spend the day with just him and Efraim. And on the drive over there was the most beautiful sunrise with fog and oh I love where I live.  And the drive back a gorgeous sunset.  So so beautiful.  Cheyenne is also lovely for Once Upon a Child where I bought a whole wardrobe for Efraim who had no winter clothes at all for his size.  And a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume for Lando.  He was SO HAPPY.   Drove to Laramie for stake auxiliary training.  All the kids and everyone had dentist appts.  We all got a cold the beginning of September.  That turned into a sinus infection for me.  Efraim was teething and is the most saddest, miserable teether I've ever had.  He was writhing in pain one night and up almost every hour.  I slept on the floor the whole month till we broke down and bought a new mattress.  Then all of us got sick with a stomach bug.  Every single person got it.  I threw up 5 times in one night.  Luckily I was well while the kids were sick.  Leo had to stay home from work because he was sick.  We literally spent the whole month with some sort of illness or another.  Blah.  We went to Utah (as mentioned in my previous post.)  I canned a TON!  It was supposed to be my month to stain the banister and make curtains and stain and put together the curtain rods.  The curtain rods are done.  The curtains are cut out.  And the banister has had all the holes plugged and wood filler done.  None of them are completely finished since the curtain rods aren't up yet.  Canning took a lot of time.  Then I had a bunch of Relief Society stuff to do.  And then we were sick.  Yeah, the month didn't go as I planned.  Leo and I started going to the church's personal finance class.  It is much needed and I love it.  I recommend it to everyone.  I broke my glasses and fixed them with glow-in-the-dark duck tape.  My boys think that's cool.  It's snowed.  And snowed again.  I drove to Saratoga for a chiropractor appt--and I finally found a chiropractor I love.  So worth the drive.  I was diagnosed with bicep tendonitis at the end of August by an ortho surgeon and I've not been doing my strengthening exercises very consistently until I'm reminded again how wimpy my shoulder is (i.e. I threw a football once and my shoulder killed) so I've been trying to do those and some yoga (I figured yoga would be low-key for my shoulder).  That's happened 6 times now.  Yeah...exercising is just not a top priority sadly.  I have also been practicing Spanish on Duolingo and I'm up to 20% fluent in Spanish.  And the girls are sewing outfits to enter a contest and I'm sewing four costumes.  I was released from Cubs, but they asked me to keep going for a while because one leader just had a baby and one is having surgery.  Leo is staying late at work most nights to study for a  professional engineering test.   And he built a canoe rack for our canoe and someday kayaks.   And that's all, mostly.
 


New 12 qt pan. Yay!!!  But really I posted this because Jubal's a riot.


My siblings are crazy and plotted together against me.  It was AH-MAZING!!!!!  They called and texted and had kids sing me Happy Birthday and videoed Kenzie singing Happy Birthday.  They posted pictures and memes all over Facebook, Instagram and our family site wishing me Happy Birthday.  I was even sent the most beautiful arrangement of flowers I've ever been given.  I was literally smiling all day.  Definitely my most fêted birthday ever.  And it wasn't my birthday.  They think they are so funny..... And it was!  And I loved it!!!  



This is what happens when you 5x a batch of zucchini bread.  We had a ton of zucchini, okay?!

Yay for fall!  I love it!  I wish the snow would wait for fall to be over though.

Froze green beans.

Delicious pizza with toppings all from Grandma's garden.

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