A Hundred Million Bits of This and That

I don't have any specific thoughts to get down today (though my mind has been turning over a host of things lately!), but I just wanted to pile on some photos and moments from the last little bit before we head into all the birthdaying and Christmasing that might want recorded during the remainder of this month.

So. Our first bits of snow and Starling out by her lonesome in all the vastness enjoying it.

Starling often runs off and shuts her door. Then I'll hear snipping and taping, and occasionally cries of frustration over the things a four-year-old can visualize but not quite bring into fruition. And then she'll come out with something like this snowman ornament. I love that she even cut out a curved paper hook to hang him. 

Little snowmen dotting the yard.

Running errands one Saturday with a host of grumping and fighting kids.

The grass was poking through all of the snow, but somehow they still managed to roll a bunch of balls to create all their snow people. 

This boy lost a big front tooth on Sunday during dinner. He bit into some corn and it twisted his tooth almost out--which caused him a lot of terrified and panicked screeming that needed major soothing. And then ... the tooth came out. And it was all cheery celebration. (I like Star peeking from behind him in the photo he wanted to send to his older siblings.)

Little person.

A cold and pretty late-November day.

I get this exact box in the mail every few weeks (with my dupixent/eczema shots all covered in ice). Here Hans and Starling are turning one of them into ... something.

We stopped at a little seed and feed store in downtown Logan one Saturday that was right out of a Hallmark Christmas movie. The charm, the trees and Christmas decor everywhere, the small-business aspect of it, and even Logan's new outdoor, ice-skating rink just a short walk away. We kept waiting for the romance to play out with Daisy (who happened to be home that weekend) and some owner of the business who she would recognize as someone she'd had a disagreement with from somewhere before. But it never happened. We'll go back. 

Making Thankful Turkey Bags for FHE the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Kids are funny. Starling stuck a lot of berries from a bush onto a stick one afternoon. I later found it "planted" in a spot of dirt in our front yard. I'll miss odd little discoveries like this about the yard and house when my kids are all grown. 

I foolishly took no pictures of Thanksgiving. Luckily Mike's brother Jeff (who was in town from Chicago) took quite a few that he shared, so I'll post some of those. The shooting was from the day after Thanksgiving when Mike invited some of the family up to shoot clay pigeons at the farm. It was sooo cold!

Mike's brother Greg brought things for a bridge-building contest. I don't recall how little Hansie did here, but Jesse got one of the highest weights. 

Bar dips kept happening. 

Gayle showing the kids some of the old-type of hard-tack Christmas candy they had when she was young. My grandma always had a bowl of that around the house during December, and we actually often got hard-tack in our stockings. (Just a loose handful--which meant stocking lint was often stuck to it. :))

Mike is a great shot. And Abe, Dais and Pen all shot really well. I, on the other hand, cannot hit a clay pigeon to save my life. 

Mike texted us this from the grocery store one day. Made me laugh.

The moon out back one evening.

Decorating the tree. (Decorating the house was quite simple this year ... as there just really isn't much house to decorate!)

All the smoke from Mike browning some steaks made for some lovely celestial rays near the windows.

Anders about to throw an angel squishmallow at me. Nothing celestial about that!

The tree at night. 

Christmas set up ... and Thankful Turkey bags still waiting to be opened and read. 

A few kids braving the cold with me to go feed the geese. (I actually intended for them to stay in the car--which is why they are so unprepared for cold. But they wouldn't have it.)

The Thankful Turkey bags. Minus Anders'. Because I don't know where it went. (Jesse, Starling, Summer, Mette, Hans.)

The moon one watercolor-looking morning.

How the tree-lights look through those fun little glasses that make all lights have shapes. 

With my most recent prescription close to expiring, I ordered not one but three pairs of glasses! I'd had my old conservative-looking pair for years, so, with prices pretty cheap on the Zenni website, I went for some that were slightly more fun. 

And our little Goldie is doing well in Arkansas. She's on her second companion. (Well, third if you also count her MTC companion I guess.) And her first time being a missionary trainer. And she really seems happy. In her letter today she mentioned seeing a steep dirt road and commenting how she couldn't imagine living on that road in the winter. Then her companion reminded her they were actually already IN winter. :) Probably she won't see snow this year! I keep thinking she's a completely new missionary. And she sort of is, but ... by the end of January she will be a third of the way through!