November: WE FINALLY MOVE IN AFTER BEING HOMELESS

Well, our last day in our rental came and went and now we had nowhere to live. So we bounced around quite a bit and it was hectic and not super easy because we still had appointments for things in Heber or Salt Lake or Orem. Rusty had to work every day in Orem. All of this was complicated, but also during this time it was SEMA in Las Vegas and Rusty needed to go. He needed to go have some fun and take a couple of days off! He never does that, so I was proud of him for doing it. He had a great time and he got to ride in one of the cars.

So for most of our homeless time, we were either at the cabin in Bear Lake or in Mendon at my parents' house. 

My mom found this old toy I had when I was little!

Mom playing Barbies

Decorating the cabin for Christmas!

The kids made homemade ornaments out of their toys and my rubber bands. It looked like they were hanging all of them and killing them haha.

I love sitting out there

Amelia ate lunch with her stuffed animal like this one day

JOLLY

Cinnamon toast

We went out to dinner at a restaurant in town one night. We were sad Rusty wasn't with us, so we sent him pictures! He would love this restaurant!

During the craziness of moving, actually on our moving day when I had my parents watching the kids, I got a call from my mom. They had just swapped Jessica at Nature School so she could go to a meeting. Normally we would just have skipped nature school, but it was the first day with knives and Henry had worked so hard memorizing all of the rules so he could get certified and use a knife. He was the first kid out of everyone to get his certification! He was so excited. So anyways, I get a call from my mom and she asks if I can meet her at the hospital so Henry can get stitches. My poor best friend was so excited about the knives that he sliced his finger open while he was getting it out of its case. He didn't even get to carve anything!

I started working with Red River Health last month to try to make some progress with my health. I have done so many blood tests and am currently doing a very strict elimination diet. It is not fun, but it's only for a little while so it's manageable. But she did tell me that because of my Hashimoto's I need to be gluten free permanently. That was really sad to me because I love baked goods! Like, so much haha. I don't care about ice cream or fudge or candy bars. I love cookies and cake and pastries. But oh well, we'll see if it makes me feel better.

There was more house progress this month- honestly by this point I was so over everything and just wanted to move in that I was not very excited about the changes. I just was annoyed and wanted everything finished. We finally got to move in the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Picking curtains

Right before we were about to move in, some water leaked and flooded the basement. So they had to tear this stuff out and put new carpet in. It was really disheartening.

Thanksgiving was fun this year! We all went to my parents' house and it was the first time in a while that a lot of us were able to get together! Angie stayed in Idaho for some other family things, but Em, Dave and Colton came and so did Jess and Aaron. It was a party!

 Henry's surgery day finally came! I was very anxious about it, and so was Henry, so we were both ready just to get it over with. He was so brave the day of the surgery. We got him checked in and then they took him back to complete it. Afterward, the surgeon said that he was surprised by what he found but it was the best possible scenario it could have been. The surgery didn't have to be as intense as we were thinking (he didn't even need a cast!!) because the tendon wasn't actually severed it was just pinned into the bone. So he fished it out, checked everything out to make sure it was all good, and it was! What a miracle for Henry and our family! 

Nature School is still going well! We're finding a groove of making friends and things, but still haven't found a place we fit in completely. It is so great to be outside every week and watching the seasons change. I love this time of year! We've done some really fun activities too like carving soap and making a bow and arrows!

Extra Photos

Kiln

We went and saw the Firebird while we were staying at an AirBnb in Park City. My parents came out and watched the kids for us which was super nice of them

The mail lady didn't want to walk up the stairs so she left all of our packages here and they got ruined. I was not a happy camper at all.

My perfect angel playing the piano

Decorating our big tree!

We got to go to the Orem Temple Open House. It was so beautiful inside, maybe one of my favorite temples. 

Getting Bailey a new tag

I found these wreaths at Costco. They were real and smelled SO GOOD so I put them on the doors in my room and I was soooo happy

I started my IV infusions

Henry's Highlights:

• While stuffed into the doll stroller: "You know the best part about this thing? It has four wheel drive."

• Can't find the answer to something in a word search and mutters under his breath: "Where are you? I will haunt your dreams!"
• I was talking to Rusty about my elimination diet and I said that I could use sourdough for french toast but I can't have syrup and he says, "Then what's the point?"
• Emilie asked what she should pray for to make him feel better about his surgery. He says, "Oh that is so sweet! Please pray that it will go good and the cast won't bug me too much. And please say thanks to her because that's really nice of her to do that!" He brought up multiple times after the surgery how that prayer was answered because he didn't even need to wear a cast!

Adeline's Adventures:

Amelia's Updates:

• She pointed at a man in a store wearing completely normal shoes and said really loudly, "That man has cute slippers!"
• She bops you on the nose when she talks to you
• One day just randomly is staring at her thumb and then says to me, "Do you think this thumb is funny?
• I was changing my sheets and she said the purple mattress and it has a weird pattern sewn in. She said, "I like these bones." Then she said, "How did you get this big bed in here? Oh I know, Dad and Wes helped you."