Mini tree

Sara has been wanting a Christmas tree for her bedroom. Luckily Grandma Orton was getting rid of this one so Sara set it up and decorated it with the mini ornaments that Grandma gave her. Darling!

When we wake up tomorrow it will be December! That's so exciting and unbelievable.

Life moves so fast most times but sometimes it seems really slow.

Mary came home from school in tears today because she misses Ben.

She saw guys carrying the True Blue Penny Wars jars and it reminded her of Kyle and Ben last year.

I have also had many emotional days since Ben left.

He has been in Spain for two months but it feels like he has been gone for much longer!

It helps to know that he is happy serving the Lord but the sadness is still there.

Chief Step

Mary's yearbook staff just received their sweatshirts. Mary's sweatshirt says Chief Step on the sleeve because she is Chief Editor of the yearbook. I love this darling girl! So glad she loves being on the yearbook staff.

We had a snow storm and the roads were slick so I drove Mary to school. Usually Mary drives the suburban to school so I don't get many opportunities to take her picture in front of the school, but I got one on this day. Love this sweet girl!

Usually Mary and Luke leave the house around 6:50am. Mary drops Luke off at early-morning seminary at SoJo and then she drives to Bingham. Sometimes she puts her make-up on or eats her breakfast in the car before she goes into school. This is the picture she took of the sunrise as she arrived at school this morning. Beautiful!

Game night at Loveland's

 Our dear friends the Loveland's invited us over for a game night. They have a soft serve ice cream machine and they have the greatest games. Ryan even did some magic tricks for us.

It was so much fun.

It is a miracle that Anna is with us. She is enduring chemo treatments right now for an aggressive cancer but her spirits are high and she is doing remarkably well considering how sick she has been since her cancer was discovered in July.

We love the Loveland family and we are so grateful for their friendship.

Our prayers are always with them.

Thanksgiving weekend

The day after Thanksgiving we went to a park near our house to watch the Chick-fil-A hot air balloon launch. It was freezing!

Sadly the wind picked up right before launch so they had to cancel the launch.

Instead of watching the launch, we helped pack up the balloon. Such a cool experience!

We did some shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend. These boys have similar taste and ended up with quite a few matching clothes to open on Christmas morning.

Mary modeling like the perfume model.

We went to the gym a couple of times over the weekend. So much fun!

Chocolate chip pancakes with blueberries. Yum!

We enjoyed lots of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers.

We had a peppermint shake from Chick-fil-A!

The boys built bridges and tested how much weight they could hold. Michael's bridge held about 6.5 kilograms. Luke's bridge held 1.5 kilograms. Nice work guys!

We decorated for Christmas. We got a new tree this year. It is a foot shorter than our old tree but it's wider. 

It looks lovely! We're so excited for Christmas!

Luke is working on the Book of Mormon challenge with youth in our ward. 

Sometimes I find him asleep with his journal or scriptures open. 

He is doing an amazing job at reading the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.

Luke wrote his testimony inside this Book of Mormon and he has a goal to give it to someone before the end of the year. I am so grateful that Luke is discovering the peace that comes from reading the Book of Mormon. It will be a blessing his entire life.

Thanksgiving 2022

The boys arranged a flag football game with friends on Thanksgiving Eve.

I was so excited to have Michael home for Thanksgiving that I made two pans of manicotti for Thanksgiving eve dinner.

While the turkey was in the oven on Thanksgiving morning, we went to the church for our fourth annual family basketball game (tradition started in 2018).

I'm happy to report that Luke made the winning basket in the Mom and boys vs. Dad and girls game.

Mom and boys retain the title for another year (not that Mom can take any credit!)

The table is set with my Grandma Child's china. I always think of her around Thanksgiving time because her birthday is in November. It was wonderful to celebrate with her china for this special occasion.

It was also wonderful to have Michael home from Ecuador this Thanksgiving!

Love you Michael!

We used our Wolf oven thermometer to roast the turkey. It was done cooking 2 hours quicker than we expected but we kept it warm and it was delicious!

Making rolls and carving the turkey

We didn't know Ben would be able to call for Thanksgiving. I cried when I saw his name pop up on my phone. He was such a good sport about seeing all of our delicious food. It was nice to be able to include him in the dinner chat and tell him how thankful we are for him.

Dishing up!

Pie with Grandpa and Grandma Orton at the Booth's

Playing music together

Playing pie face with cousins

It was a wonderful and exhausting day!

We are so grateful!

Missionary Mondays

Ben's mission president told him to call on Mondays now instead of Sundays.

Mondays are a little harder for the younger kids to talk to Ben since they are in school, but if he is able to call before they leave for school it works great!

It's always a joy to talk to our missionary!

A family in our Stake is moving with 5 young kids to Barcelona.

They offered to take something small to the mission home for Ben.

This was such a blessing! Ben has wanted AirPods to listen to conference talks while he does the dishes (apparently he's the only one in the apartment that does dishes).

I was also able to send some deodorant, a t-shirt and a converter along with some letters and pictures for Christmas.

This package is on it's way to the mission home for Ben.

I am so grateful! It's nice I didn't have to worry about shipping or customs or anything!

Ben is having an amazing experience.

I'm so grateful for the wonderful people of Spain who are open to hearing the gospel and learning about Jesus Christ.

Magnetic wall

I started collecting magnets on our honeymoon of the places we've traveled.

My magnet board was filled past capacity, so I found a place that would cut a 6 foot piece of metal to hold my magnets.

Todd and the boys helped me hang it in my multi-purpose room and I couldn't be more thrilled with it!

Look at all that space for more magnets from travel adventures!

Colonoscopy/endoscopy

I was supposed to have a colonoscopy/endoscopy on November 11. The prep made me very nauseous and I was unable to keep enough of it down to be sufficiently cleaned out. They turned me away and told me to do a three day prep the next week with herbal tea and broth rather than gatorade. I already had some things scheduled for that week, so I ended up hosting a bridal shower at our house the evening before my second attempt at a colonoscopy/endoscopy. Here is a picture of the set up before guests arrived. I successfully made it through the shower without eating anything and I only had to excuse myself to use the bathroom a few times. I prayed hard that it would all work out!

What I lived on for three days!

Despite my efforts to stay hydrated, I was of course dehydrated when I arrived and it was difficult for nurses to find a vein for my IV. I was poked 6 times before they found a superficial vein in my hand to work with. It hurt! In fact, when I woke up, the first thing I asked was for the IV to be removed.

Thankfully I was cleaned out and my colin looks great.

The endoscopy revealed that I have a narrowing esophagus which explains my difficulty swallowing.

I have EoE which means I need to see an allergist to try to eliminate the causes.

I also need to return in January to have my esophagus stretched.

It's not great news but I'll get it figured out.

This meal after three days without solid foods tasted sooooo good.