November

We have hit the end of soccer season. Emily is sad. I'm happy. Well, happy to not have to juggle soccer into our schedule for a few months. Thanks everyone who came to support her during her games!

Of course fall brings leaves ... and lots of yard work. The kids love to "help" us in our attempts to stay on top of things.

And then a few days later they were out enjoying this:

 And luckily the kids still like to help in the snow too. :)

What is it with kids and eating snow???

 

Early on the morning of Nov 1st my grandpa passed away. It was expected, and definitely a good thing for him, but still hard to go through. The funeral was held November 8th and fortunately all that snow mentioned above had melted and we had a nice warm day. The service was beautiful and wonderful. It was so great to see cousins that I hadn't seen in years and spend time with family. I was able to do an arrangement from my dad and his siblings as well as one from all the grand kids. I'm glad I was able to take care of the flowers for my grandma and it was a nice way to be a part of things and not have to speak at the funeral (saying a prayer after "God be with you till we meet again" was hard enough!).

 

My grandpa was a pretty remarkable guy and I miss him a lot. I'm grateful he's not suffering any more and I'm grateful for the many wonderful memories I have of him and the great example he set. I'm also grateful for my sweet grandma. She's amazing and doing so well!!

The rest of November was spent planning, shopping, enjoying Thanksgiving (which somehow I managed to not take any pictures of), having a last minute sleepover with Grace & Kate to help my sister out (there's nothing like cousins!), thanking the teachers at school for all their hard work with some honey roasted almonds and sea salt caramels (that were YUM!), and decorating for Christmas.

Of course Liza tended to do more un-decorating than decorating.