November 2017

November is always a month to remember all the that we have to be thankful for, and this year was no different!  Kalum had fun things at school like class picture day, family feast luncheon where they sing "Albuquerque is a Turkey", and a field trip to HyVee to shop for the food bank.  Samara is still loving school and had lots of crafts and school work around the Thanksgiving theme.  Wesson is two now - what can I say, it comes with much cuteness and much determination!  We also got to celebrate some Derby family November birthdays on some weekends, so the kids got cousin time, which they love.  We got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Derbys on Thanksgiving at Michelle and Aaron's house and it was a full house with the Holmbergs there as well, such a change compared to a few years ago!  We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Pennells the Friday after, dressed in our Husker red, but the game was disappointing for GBR fans (thus the promising news that Frost will be stepping in as new NE Head Coach).  We wrapped up the month with dental cleanings for the kids that were cavity free-woot woot!  I got a new phone (my faithful iphone4s lasted over 5 years, but finally just stopped charging), so I can't access the outdated app I used for specific milestones for the month, but that covers the basics.  :)

And the biggest news for this month is that Jeff and I got to go on our honeymoon to celebrate our 13th Anniversary and our parents took care of the kiddos during the whole week we were gone!  It was a huge blessing that they could rearrange their schedules to do that for us, splitting the week between them.  We got to get away to relax and take a trip, the likes of which we haven't taken before!  I know the kids were a little anxious about us being gone.  We just promoted all the fun it would be to stay over at Grandma and Grandpa's one night and to get time with Papa and Gemma during the 2nd part of the trip.  I spent plenty of time before we left making sure that we had everything we needed as well as everything was in line for the kids' schedules - it all adds up for sure.  Jeff and I had a great time - went on a couple excursions, snorkeled, zip-lined, paddle boarded, kayaked, relaxed by the beach with books and drinks, ate at restaurants (which involved no cooking or cleaning up!!) finding the Mexican restaurant and Jamaican jerk chicken among our favs.  It took us a day or so to just settle into a slower pace, not having to rush through meals, keep track of everyone and finding plenty of time to talk while not being interrupted every three seconds.  It was not super sunny the whole time we were there - negative side-we snorkeled in chilly rain shower one afternoon on an excursion and spent some extra time on our room balcony that we might have liked to be at the beach, positive side-we didn't get really sun burnt as we possibly could have in that strong sun, we took a couple extra naps and we were entertained watching people run for cover!

It was hard to get in Christmas mode after all the trip planning and then being in the warm climate, but check out the November pictures and now onto the most wonderful time of the year!

November pictures