Thanksgiving '17

We got to see so many family members this Thanksgiving!  It was a little different then usual - family came to us - and it was really nice to not have to make a long drive!  Much of my extended family gathered Tuesday-Friday of Thanksgiving week, rotating host houses per meal giving each Twin Cities' member a chance to host.  We celebrated actual Thanksgiving at my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Scott's house, and it was so great to catch up with everyone!  I am so grateful for such great family!

Thanksgiving Day

My grandma (kids' Great Grandma) with her four Minnesota great grandchildren

We spent Friday-Sunday at Auntie Sarah and Uncle Ty's house with the Tommerdahl clan!  The food was sooo good and we had a blast hanging out, singing Christmas carols, doing crafts, coloring, and being together.

Among many things, I am so grateful for awesome families on both sides!  We are beyond blessed!

Lil Bits of November

I realized almost the entire month of November has flown by and I've barely blogged at all!  We have stayed busy with our weekly routine of activities without too much out of the ordinary, so I'll update a few things before moving on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Summer LOVED attending a gymnastics clinic put on by our local high school gymnastics team!

She was all smiles....

Running around gym stations for 2 hours!

 She got to try new things she hadn't done before, including jumping from low beam to high beam.  She didn't make it the first two times, but she persevered and did it on the third try.  Here is a video:




The kids had a day off school and we went to the children's museum and had so much fun playing all day!

Colton got to "meet" Lightning McQueen when a local church had a Cars 3 movie night!

Colton is doing a 6 week soccer skills clinic and gets to be #7 - Daddy's soccer number!

It's fun to watch him enjoy soccer so much and give it his all, every time.

Daddy was really sick much of the month...I love Colton's sweet note!

Larkyn has been working on lower case letters (tree matching game)

She really likes this muffin matching game for upper and lowercase letters.

After putting the lowercase  "muffins" wherever she likes in the muffin tin she drops the correct uppercase token in each.

I love our Wednesday cuddle nap after BSF and before gymnastics and church night!

Larkyn finished one session of swimming lessons and on to the next!

Larkyn loved going to this mini nutracker dance show!  It was held on a Tuesday (the day I volunteer at school) so I asked Grandma and Grandpa if they would mind taking her (they easily obliged!)  According to Grandma, they did a great job of telling the story so the kids could understand, showing some dances, and having the characters take off their masks during parts of scenes so kids could see they were simply people dressed up.

Practicing letters

Larkyn has been getting really good at writing the letters in her name, specifially L and A.  

While Larkyn's letters are getting better, unfortunately she recently chose to practice her "L"'s all over the house...with black crayon...on walls, picture frames, and more....while she was supposed to be putting away her clean laundry....yeah....not a happy day for little Loo.  Never a dull moment!  Honestly?  While P and I successfully implemented consequences and a very stern follow-up to this infraction, we could both barely keep a straight face listening to her tearful confession, reasoning, and utterly distraught little body over marking so many household items with the letter "L".  Larkyn has definitely been keeping us on our toes lately...most recently putting a shredded carrot piece up her nose (during family dinner devotions!) so far that I couldn't see it.  Superhero daddy was able to pull it out with tweezers.  Goodness was I grateful for that!  On a positive note, Larkyn has been asking a TON of spiritual questions lately, including some hard ones such as "Did God want Goliath to die?" and "Where is heaven?" and "If the Garden of Eden is perfect, why was Satan there?"  We have had great discussions and I truly feel she is so close to understanding enough to make a big kid decision for Christ.  On Monday, November 20th we were out running errands and having a lengthy deep van discussion about various topics including needing to ASK Jesus for forgiveness and believe he is God's Son in order to be forgiven.  While Larkyn has bowed her head many times unprompted during conversations like these and asked God to forgive her sins, this time felt different.  In the parking lot at Kohls, Larkyn on her own bowed her head and told God she knew she was "really really bad" and asked him to forgive her.  I truly believe she meant it.  While I don't know that she fully understands everything about what it means to believe, she understands the basics, and I want to note this day here as a definite milestone in her faith journey.  I pray the Lord would truly open her eyes and that these seeds of faith and spiritual understanding would continue to grow and grow!  Amen!

Mother Son Superhero Party

S.O.R.R.  puts on a "Mother and Son Morning of Fun" (just as they put on a Father/Daughter Dance).  This year's theme was Superheros!  Colton and I had SO MUCH FUN together at this!  The organizers made every aspect of this themed event fun, creative, and a great bonding time for moms and sons.  I have such great memories!  Here are a few pictures:

The superheros got to take turns racing the clock to see how fast they were...and the DJ would call out their times.  Colton thought it was the coolest thing that the DJ said he (aka Flash) was zero seconds!

The Loot