It's pronounced "steer": November 2016

November started out great! Stephanie and I took our boys to Cabela's to see the stuffed animals, fish and outdoor gear. They loved it. Then we made a little video of these two wishing Papa Stoehr a happy birthday.

Jocelyn won Honorable Mention/Merit Award for her essay in the Reflections contest at school.

Colin is my favorite little shopping buddy.

Baby Andrew visiting with Steph and Hannah.

I went to the Dr's office and they're doing major renovation at Alta View Hospital. Colin was in heaven watching the diggers.

Cecily lost her first tooth!

Sadly, we lost two of our hens this month. Falcy (like a falcon) suffered a broken leg or something that caused her to be paralyzed. I worried she'd had a disease that might spread to the other birds so we quarantined her. But she was unable to reach her food and water and was losing weight. We thought it would be best to end her suffering. The bird vet down the street charged $50 to euthanize her so we had to do it ourselves. It was sad to lose one of our hens so soon.

Then over Thanksgiving break this beauty died. We called her Jewell or Winter. Our barred rock hen that we'd only had for a couple months. But she didn't have any of the same symptoms of the first. I worried it would spread to all the birds but fortunately it didn't.

Jocelyn's pile of kleenex that I found next to her bed as she cried herself to sleep knowing that we were going to take this hens life.

After having a year of migraines and still no feeling in my right thigh I'd heard about a chiropractor who was helping another child in my neighborhood with his migraines. So I made an appointment and was relieved to find out our insurance covered about half of the visits. I started going 3x a week. They give me exercises to do at home including adding a curve back into my straight neck.

Harvest season was mostly over but on the warm days Cecily and Colin went out to the garden and picked up the old bean pods. She discovered that some had hardened inside allowing us to replant. Cecily wanted to immediately but I told her we needed to wait until next year.

The girls and I went to Brighton High School's production of The Little Mermaid to see a young man in our ward perform as the French chef. After we showed up I learned that we could only pay with cash. They directed me to an ATM. Because we were already running late and not wanting to pay the ATM fee I told the girls we'd just come back the next night to see it. As we were leaving the vice-principal could see we were a little disheartened and ushered me his way. He lead us into the theater and gave us free seats! It was so kind of him! We supported the program buy buying some candy and snacks during intermission with the little cash that I did have in my wallet. It was fun to take the girls to experience live theater. It made me miss my old productions so badly too.

Right before Stephanie and Kyler moved to Colorado we met up at the Bean Museum on BYU Campus. Hannah met up with us too. They had never been before. I love how it's still free. And they have revamped it too. The boys had a blast and it was fun to let them play one last time before they moved miles and miles away.

I loved the colors of the many pumpkins that we grew this fall. In late November they were still in good shape even after sitting outside for all of October. So I brought them in and baked, pureed and froze the filling for year round pumpkin treat goodness.

Usually once a week I swap babysitting with our neighbors, the Smith's. Jocylynn is J's bestie. Jaley is C's bestie. And Colin cries out for his "best friend" Jayden. Sometimes I take the boys shopping with me. They have a blast in the car. They are hilarious. They sing, they talk, they put their arms up when we go down hills. They're best buds and are so cute together. When Colin gets hurt he usually cries, "I want Jaaaaayden".

Tyler splurged and bought his Uncle Jacks old apple cider press. We collected apples that we'd had left from Stoehr's buying us some (Honeycrisp), Jack gave us some red variety (can't remember the name right now) and our neighbor (who also provided some for my applesauce) gave us Granny Smith, which Tyler also used to make the yummy apple pie. We sampled some that night at our going away party for Steph and Kyler. Tyler calls it liquid gold. We drank some more over Thanksgiving. And we have a gallon left in the freezer. Tyler hopes to make many many more over the years. I hope he makes enough to justify the cost of the machine. But I suppose I am looking at it less as an investment and more as a hobby (sort of like our chickens, haha).