Recalling November

The busy holidays took over me. Dan beats me this month in writing the family newsletters. Since half of you reading our blogs are not part of the Stevens clans, I don't mind copying what he wrote from the newsletters into here. The biggest event to start off our month was the move. We moved half of our stuff by our selves but had a few people from our new ward and cousins Dave and Matt as well to help with the last of it, which included all the big items. We were thankful that Matt's kids had their birthday parties so we could repay him with a lot of gifts to his kids. We still owe Dave big time!

It wasn't until the last week we remembered we had decided early in the process that we'd install a garage door opener ourselves, and that we needed to get window coverings. All the upstairs we went through a blind company and got blinds installed but the downstairs just have temporary coverings. We're waiting for shutters but they are pricey so we're still waiting. We spent a big chunk of the month unpacking and decorating our house to make it look like a OUR home. We bought a glass top for the dining room table and almost considered repainting our table because we have entirely way too much BLACK!!! Please if you are giving us anything in the future, make sure it's white, brown, green or whatever but BLACK. I'm repainting my frames and will be redoing a lot of things so they're not black. I really wanted my house brighter and considered choosing white with a wisteria (purple accent) but our couches are dark brown and most everything we have is light green. Oh well it will have to be that way for a while. We can't complain, we LOVE our house.

Thanksgiving
We hosted Thanksgiving with Dave and Kim and Shelly and Matt and all the second cousins that involves. The food was delicious. The turkey was soft and moist and the pies were heavenly. It was a sleepover party as well and the kids had so much fun sleeping in sleeping bags rather than the beds we had for them. Eat, play, eat, play, we did that all day.
Need I say more? The picture says it all.




I'm thankful for many things but mostly I'm thankful for good kids and such a sweet husband who stays up late into the night making me one of my favorite desserts - creme de caramel (flan)
Reena is showing no signs of waning interest in dinosaurs. She decorated her room with
dinosaur wall stickers, dinosaur toys on the book shelf, and dinosaur books on the window sill and her dresser. We had our first parent-teacher conference and it went well all things considered. A few days before hand her teacher sent an email to all the parents expressing her disappointment in many of the students for being rude while there was a guest speaker, and especially that a few had to be asked to go read books elsewhere. We asked Reena how she behaved and were told that it was all the boys that were acting up. That was before the parent-teacher conference, where we learned that she was one of the kids asked to leave. Her teacher was shocked that Reena was one of the kids that wouldn't stop talking and Reena was shocked to learn that we found out about it. Hopefully this is the last time we have to teach her about being honest, though we're not holding our breaths. She is excelling in gymnastics and catching up fast. All the years in dance might've helped her flexibility.

I'm convinced that she was born in the wrong era! She DOES NOT want to get dressed in pants EVER!! So I did her hair like the 50's.Christmas crafts with friends
Nativities Around the Word
Our whole church building was transformed. Every room was decorated with Christmas nativity scenes from around the world. There were over 500 nativities displayed and over 200 trees. The whole chapel was made to look like it was outer space with stars. Beds were brought in to create a home like holiday atmosphere. Even fireplaces were brought in to create a homelike atmosphere. It was so beautiful! Church was only an hour long but we got to talk to some investigators. It was neat.

Home Improvement
We added 2 light pillars to our front entrance. No light yet but the pillars sure add to the look. A little too expensive but we're happy with how it turned out.
I had a solo in the stake Cantata this month, with practices being held several
times weekly the last few weeks before the performance. After the performance I almost immediately got asked to sing a solo for our ward Relief Society anniversary celebration as well as a descant for a Christmas performance. During all this crazy busy time I found out that one of my good friends has breast cancer, so I took meals and gifts over to her often to cheer her up. It has been pretty sad but she is such a good example to me of how to be happy even in trials. We've been making cookies and taking cookies over to neighbors and friends to show our gratitude.


Our trees are up and the Christmas cards have filled up this big magnet board I made. We look forward to seeing more from friends and families. We love this time of year when there is so much to rejoice in, especially because our Savior was born. We had a short mini session with a photographer friend of mine who so kindly did it for us for free. We traded but I still didn't want to take up too much of her time. Thankfully we were able to get a few pictures where the kids looked. Here are 2 fun ones we didn't include in our Christmas card. Happy Holidays everyone!!!