At this point, I must admit that it feels a little overwhelming to try to catch up over a year's worth of family events. But, then I remember how much my kids and I love to look at old posts. I am not a scrapbooker, so this is all I have. I'm iced in today and thought I'd try to keep working toward catching up.
*Also, my phone camera was getting worse and worse at this point, so the picture quality is not great. I have gotten even worse about remembering to use my nice camera too.
November brought some fun times and some more sick times, unfortunately.
Poor Mallory got her first black eye after a run-in with the coffee table:(
But, she also got enough hair to enjoy some cute baby pigtails!
We started working on making our new house ours. It was all painted a "builder beige" when it was renovated and that is just not our style.
I love the choice we made for the living room. It looks great with some of our new furniture.
Madeline had to make an authentic recipe from the 1800s for a unit she was doing in her G.T. class. We worked together to make Wagon Train Biscuits. This was her first real experience with using buttermilk and she hated the smell. They turned out pretty good, but she said they were salty. I'm guessing that helped preserve those biscuits for a long time on the pioneers' journey:)
My friend, Amanda, and I decided to chalk paint a piece of furniture that was really showing its age. I love how the gray looks in our new living room. It makes a great place for our T.V.
Madeline had her first opportunity to perform in our town's "Lighting on the Square." She was so excited and her dance was beautiful. Here she is already to dance.
Unfortunately, the skies opened and poured a ton of rain down on everyone and the girls never got to dance:( They turned on the Christmas lights, but that was it. Luckily her dance teacher rescheduled a performance for December at the High School Auditorium.
November also includes American Education Week. One of the fun activities was allowing the kids to dress us as what they want to be when they grow up. Last year, they wanted to be a contractor and a vet. This year, they changed. Will wanted to be an Allergy Doctor, like his Uncle Robbie. Madeline decided to be a librarian, like Mrs. Franques at school. That was perfect for my girl who loves to read!
Madeline's school choir performed at the John Newton Historical Home again to help kick off the downtown Christmas festivities It was so cold, she had to wear Nathan's pull over during the performance. He is such a sweet daddy to freeze so she could be warm!
Will invited over his friend Cannon for the first time. They had a great time playing Legos and Zombies.
We were supposed to go to Georgetown to spend Thanksgiving with my Grandparents and the rest of my family. Unfortunately, my Grandma Taylor started having health problems and found out that she had an aggressive form of cancer that would not be likely to respond to treatment. It was just too much to have a bunch of visitors, so we stayed home and had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving, just the 5 of us.
On Black Friday, we went to Home Depot to get some new Christmas decorations for the new house. The kids wanted to go see Santa and the whole experience cracked me up! Both Will and Madeline refused to sit in his lap. It made for awkward pictures.
Mallory sat in his lap. But I think her picture speaks for itself! She hated the whole experience!
It was a good month, and a sad one. We were not sure how long my grandmother had but talked to her often and planned to go see her on our Christmas Break. I was looking forward to my first long break since returning to teaching:)
