Our November

Well November was still busy with football.  Samuel's team continued to win and progress through the playoff bracket.  It was super exciting and stressful in a good way.  Again, that will be its own post!  Stay tuned for that next!!

Jonah had a busy and unexpected month of gymnastics.  This season Jonah will compete level 6 again which I think is perfect for him.  There was a trial meet the first weekend of November at his gym.  It was a shaky start for Jonah, but he got over competition nerves and learned what he needed to work on before the meets begin in January.  That was the busy part of gymnastics.  The unexpected part of gymnastics was his gym closed two weeks later.  That created some tough moments of "what to do" and "what is best for Jonah".  So stinking stressful!  We ultimately decided to follow his coaches to a new gym in Tomball.  Being with some of the same guys and coaches is what is best for Jonah.  The huge bummer is the new drive.  WGA was 8 minutes from the house and Texas Star is 30 minutes from the house.  Huge sigh for that great change to our schedule and lives!  So far Jonah is happy and has adapted well to the change.

Samuel and Elena lose lots of freedom because of the time spent in the car.  The benefit for them is parks.  There are two parks next to Texas Star and they like both of them.  So, we now spend lots of time at a park during the week.

Elena continued to do really well in her swim class.  Mid November she moved up to the next level and was so very excited!  Swimming seems to be her thing at the moment and it makes her very happy!

A very exciting part of our month was my sister Kristin and her family visiting.  It was a short, jam packed, but fun visit!  They were able to see the kids participate in the Veteran's Day ceremony at school.  They saw Samuel play a football game.  The weather was perfect so we could play outdoors and visit some of our favorite parks.  And, since it was so close to Christmas we did some fun Christmas activities like baking sugar cookies and attending the Family Advent Celebration at our church.  Santa was there too!

Emma and I continued to volunteer little bits here and there.  The best NCL thing we did in November was deliver all the those wreaths we made in October.   They were donated to a memory care center so we couldn't deliver them until the Christmas season began.  35 wreaths were made with love and the residents were so thankful to receive them.

Finally, to end our month we got a real Christmas tree.  We didn't have a real tree last year so the kids were beyond excited to visit the tree farm.  Riding on the tractor and using a saw were definite highlights for the kids....especially Samuel!