November 2018

Poor Kael was sick the whole first week of November and this was him most of the days. "Mom, I'm not tired, I was just resting my eyes."

Brothers

Practicing Gymnastics. Those girls are getting better every day.

 Derek's Bagram Photos

Mud masks for lonely nights.

Garbage bag angels

New braces

New shoes. Kael already wore through his school shoes and the girls got snow boots for our trip to Utah.

We are making Friday nights pizza nights while Derek is gone. We have been making our own pizzas and it has been a lot of fun for us.

Derek surprised me and sent me this sweet poster. I need to find a way to frame it and get it hung in my room.

Sunsets in Bagram are beautiful. Just shows God's beauty is for everyone.

Derek's toilet paper in Bagram... It's so thin it's see through.

Silly Elara

We painted letters to hang in the kids rooms.

Elara made Derek a Thanksgiving card and drew him a turkey "bird".

The girls played with their friend Hadley Gunderson one last time before she moved to Oregon.

Jamie Pinkston got a pig and named her Fleur. We love playing with her.

Derek at a meeting with his anesthesia group. Where's Waldo?

Naughty, naughty, naughty Connor.

He was washing off the "evidence" of his crimes... Except he tracked them all through the house. He wouldn't make a very good criminal.

The evidence...

Charged and Convicted...

Thankfully hours and hours later and one rental shampooer, most of it came out...

Derek's sleeping quarters. He finally got a closet.

Kael is progressing in scouts and I'm so proud of him for all of his hard work.

We had science night at the school and were able to see some really fun animals and do some interesting projects. I only was able to snap one photo from the night, but the kids held snakes, cockroaches, etc...

The very next night we went to Turkey Bingo for the school's fundraiser. We went and Elara won the camera she had been wanting! We were feeling pretty lucky!

The night finally arrived for President Monson to come to San Antonio. We have been sick off and on the entire time. Elara got strep throat the night before and our sweet neighbors still took her and Connor so Kael, Eden, and I could go with the Pinkston's to listen to the Prophet. It was such an amazing experience for us, and I am so grateful we could go!

Sweet Elara was so sick even with medicine. Our sweet neighbors took such good care of her though.

When she was sick I found this written on our board for Dad. It says, "I am having a hard time. Elara"

Derek got our Thanksgiving letters we sent to him. The mail has definitely been faster than I thought it would be.

During the Thanksgiving break we were sick, but were dedicated to getting ready for Christmas and we got our lights hung up!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We also got our thankful tree up. We added a lot more leaves throughout the week. I love our simple traditions we have.

 The kids each got to decorate a tree in their room. I love that each one represents their personalities.

We made pies to take to Pinkston's for Thanksgiving.

Derek was able to celebrate Thanksgiving with his military medical group. They had a big lunch and dinner. I'm so glad he was able to celebrate in some way. It might be cafeteria food, but it's pretty good cafeteria food for Thanksgiving!

We headed up to see Rob and Julie and Heidi and Jamie for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to be surrounded by people who love us. Julie made a feast and it tasted AMAZING. I'm so grateful for all the love and support they give us. We got to play with Fleur while we were there.

Sometimes a boy has to just pull down his pants and pee...

We slept over at Aunt Juli's house and the next morning took off for an urgent care. Kael was getting sick, and Elara still was not better.

 All tucked in for the night.

Kael was done being sick by this point.

Over a week sick. Someone has been sick every day basically since "before" Derek even left. It's been a rough year for sickness...

Derek got to meet one of the bomb smelling dogs. Eden was a little jealous. She loves dogs.

Derek picked up a new hobby of putting these planes together. They are pretty amazing.

Elara took a picture of herself and she is too cute not to post.

Finally finished a project from October.

Derek got to go on a helicopter tour and it seemed pretty amazing.

 The anesthesia staff.

We have been teaching the kids about baring their testimonies for family home evening lately and Kael wanted to write his down. It was very sweet.

I brought Pirate Pete back and decorated him for Christmas.

My date at costco.

November was a busy good month. We are so blessed and grateful for all the amazing people in our lives supporting us! We are glad we can have a month to show our gratitude.