November 2013

Because Faith's birthday fell on a weekday, we kept it low key, hung out at home (since the kids were out of school for a teacher workday), and ate Carl's Jr. guacamole burgers for dinner.

 Sunday the 3rd is when Faith decorated her cake to take to the grandparents'. She was so enamored with her new rollerblades that she thought they were appropriate footwear for cooking!

She sure looked grown-up for her first day at young women's.

Over the river and through the woods...

it was a gorgeous fall day for a birthday party :)

Unfortunately, Christian got knifed soon after we arrived and we discovered him like this, DEAD. That kid' a prankster!

Even though little Evie has acid reflux, she must be finding a way to keep some of that milk down ;)

Faith decorated her polkadot cake with the sprinkles that came with the frosting and also pastel colored, pearlized Sixlets.

She got money and some other fun gifts,

and blew out every candle.

At Braeggers' the theme was polkadots and hot pink tiger stripe. Dad, quit photo bombing!!

On the 4th Tony took a day off from work and installed wood flooring in my front room office.

Here is another of our metamorphosizing little buddies on the 5th. Also didn't live long after developing it's legs :(

Faith was supposed to bring a picture of herself to new beginnings so we had a bit of a photo shoot out front. What a beauty!!

 Unfortunately, she forgot to bring the picture to the event. But she did get to play the piano for the opening song, so that was awesome!

This artwork depicts information about ticks. I don't know what brought up the topic, but I was telling them about how animals and people can get tix on them and they can be dangerous and spread Lyme disease. Christian was enthralled that sometimes you can break off their rear end and their head stays in your body!

On November 9th, the kids did a stuffed animal fashion show.

They built this crazy runway and dressed up their largest stuffed animals in their own clothing. It was pretty amusing, but ended up with kids and not wanting to clean up their mess :(

That day was also Christian's first basketball game!

Afterward, we went to eat at panda express. Sirui especially liked the orange chicken and said it reminded her of a pork dish from back home.

We came home and started painting our front room. It was the first time Sirui had ever painted a wall!

 On the 10th, we got a shock when we found four kittens in our basement window well. This one was Christian's favorite which he named Tiger,

and Faith's pick she named Ember.

There was also a black-and-white one they named Shadow, and an orange tabby and white little guy they lovingly referred to as "Mr. hissy pants."

November 11th Sirui had us try these preserved duck eggs, called "thousand year old eggs" or "pi dan."        

They were a little bit rubbery and kind of fishy smelling and tasting, but I guess they weren't bad. I love being able to try the new things she brings! One of my favorites we also tried this night they were jarred spicy enoki pickles.

On the 12th Christian stayed home sick with a headache, fever and sore throat. He doesn't like being alone in a room and I couldn't take off much work, so he watched movies on Netflix on his iPod while hanging out near the heat register on my front room office floor. I did take a break and make him pancakes, which he requested.

November 16th we took the Frontrunner train to Salt Lake.

We showed Sirui around the planetarium,

and ate at Tucano's. We didn't time our train back very well so we were left waiting a while, but it was a fun trip!

  The kids went to the dentist on the 25th and wanted a picture next to their favorite part – the prize machine.

Faith got to start going to young women's activities, and to one she had to bring a treat. She had so much fun playing with fonts on the computer and created this tag for her cookies.

  Thanksgiving was on the 28th this year. I had traded my hours so luckily I had the day off. We started at my mom and dads house.

I loved the three matching shirts which Joy made for her girls!

Then went to Tony's parents'.

  

November 29th we took the kids and Sirui ice skating.

Saray was so sweet and bought us Starbucks hot chocolate and me a caramel steamer as a surprise :)

After that, we went to the movie "Catching Fire," the second in the Hunger Games trilogy.

That night we went to the Nutcracker ballet with my mom, Sarah and her girls, and I brought Joy's two older girls.

We loved it, as usual! Sirui also loved it and it was her first time ever seeing a ballet. My mom spoiled the girls with gifts of nutcracker ornaments.

 The kids had saved up some money and clean their rooms to earn a special prize, so we took them to Build-a-bear at the Gateway.

That evening we went to the nativity display at the Kaysville Chapel.

We love to see the nativities from all over the world and also love the beautiful old building.