An Awkward Situation

Joely called out for me in a panicked voice, "Help, Mom!  Help!" 

From the other room I asked her what was wrong and the answer made me laugh.

"Emma got a comb stuck in my hair!"

 

A smile despite being upset by the situation...that's my Joely babe!

 

I laughed because I have had the exact same experience, only it was my little BROTHER who got a comb stuck in my hair, and it happened to be right as we were about to exit our rented motorhome to tour the Smithsonian museum.  It was a very uncomfortable, awkward experience.  So, I could understand exactly how Joely felt.

The comb was really knotted into her hair, but after working at it for about 15 minutes Joely was saved!  Thank goodness...I wasn't looking forward to sharing a look-alike haircut with my two-year-old.  :) 

Seussical the Musical

One of the things I'm most excited about is being close enough to go see Riley and Kacie perform.  Boltz Middle School was showing Seussical the Musical, and Kacie had the role of Mrs. Mayor.  You know, one of the Who's that lives on the dust speck that rely on Horton the Elephant to keep them safe...

 

Dave didn't make it after work, but the kids and I were able to go with Grandpa and Grandma to the first performance.  We were so excited!  Riley and Tara joined us right before the show started, and several friends from church sat around us.  Our seats weren't great, but we still thoroughly enjoyed the show.  Kacie was AWESOME!

 

Waiting for the show to start.

Grandma sporting her new haircut...she looks great! 

We were so glad Riley and Tara made it!

Giving Aunt Kacie her rose for a wonderful performance.

Way to go, Kace!

Mrs. Mayor

Mrs. Mayor and her son JoJo.

Having fun waiting for Kacie.

First Day of School...Again

The Monday after Thanksgiving was a big day...the first day of school in Johnstown.  Emma was excited to go.  I think she was honestly missing the interaction of school.  She had met her teacher, Mrs. Willcox, when I'd registered the kids the week before, so she had a pretty good idea of what to expect.  Carson also went happily.  His new teacher, Mrs. Post, seemed very kind and his class had been welcoming when we'd registered.  Thank goodness for that!

 

Carson's bus comes at 7:53.  I was amazed at the massive number of children who were at the bus stop.  They fill an entire bus at just our stop!  It's crazy.  There are dozens of cars lined up waiting for the bus to pull up, and when it does the kids just pour out onto the sidewalks.  Definitely different than Star Valley.

 

Emma's bus comes at 11:38 and is for all the bus-riding afternoon kindergarteners.  There are two other children who meet the bus at our stop.  Emma was excited to go!

 

Joely and I met the afternoon bus at 3:50.  The kids looked like they'd had a great first day!

 

Jex Party

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Sjani, Ryan, Atti, Elli, and Eliza came over to see our new place.  We were so excited to see everyone!  We felt especially lucky that Aunt Eliza came to Colorado for Thanksgiving so we could see her.  We had Papa Murphy's pizza, veggies, and brownies and ice cream.  The kids had fun running all over the place, which was good since we hadn't unpacked all the toys yet.  Elli wanted to try out her skills on the stairs, but Aunt Eliza was a good guard and kept her safe.  We watched a Christmas movie and visited.  It was a great night and oh, so fun to have family close by!

Elli LOVES Aunt Eliza!

Thanksgiving is over...it's definitely time to begin watching Christmas movies!

Buddies.

 

Thanksgiving 2013

We survived/enjoyed our first night in our new home.  Dave was awesome and got our bed all set up so it felt normal.  Given our last experience sleeping on the air mattress (ie, Carson throwing up all over our room) I was grateful to sleep in my own bed.  We slept in, watched the last 10 minutes of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, prepared food, and worked on unpacking for the rest of the morning.  The rolls didn't rise as fast as I thought they would, so we were a little late getting to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Luckily, they waited for us!



Gathered round the table for a Thanksgiving feast.



It was a yummy meal.  Even Dave ate, which was kind of amazing given how sick he was the day before.  We ate to our hearts content, cleaned up, and visited for awhile.  Brennan needed to head back to Denver, but we wanted family pictures before he left.  We drove to the park (which caused Emma to be quite upset, leading to a very grumpy girl in EVERY picture we tried to take) and found a great picture spot.  Riley was the photographer, and he did a great job.

 

Emma really refused to smile, so she ended up looking like a grumpy Cabbage Patch doll.  Crazy girl!

Emma is actually smiling in this picture because we said that everyone would frown and be grumpy (but really we were smiling).  It made her laugh, but Carson still has his grumpy face on...

Black Friday sales started at 6 o'clock Thanksgiving evening, so Dave took the kids home and Riley, Kacie, and I headed to Walmart.  Mom had been looking forward to shopping, but apparently the stomach bug we'd brought with us hit her right then.  She had a rough night, but felt lots better in the morning.  I felt awful that we'd passed along our troubles...

 

Riley, Kacie, and I got in and out of Walmart really quickly and came home for awhile before heading over to Kohl's.  Riley wimped out on us, so just Kacie and I went, which was good because I dragged Kacie around the store for way too long.  We were done by 10:00 or so and then I headed back to Walmart to grab some syrup for our big breakfast the next morning.  It was awesome to be able to say goodbye to my parents and siblings and then be in my own home just 20 minutes later.  I'm loving this new arrangement!