Little Tidbits - Part 32  

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11 16 15 - Puppy!

11 16 15 - 8 Months and a day :)
11 18 15 - The doctor's office had a thankful tree. Here is what Henlie wanted on her leaf.
11 18 15 - Checking out the fish. The boy in the middle saw two clown fish and said, "There's Nemo and his Dad. I guess it really happened." bahaha

 From Facebook 11 20 15 -
"Mom, this isn't a mess. It's a party!" - Henlie
(Side note - this was completely out of the blue, while standing in a relatively clean room haha)
11 24 15 - Henlie made a birthday cake out of play-doh. She was so excited I finally let her play with it haha
11 25 15 - I gave Andrew a faux-hawk one day after his bath :)
11 27 15 - Matt took his guitar in to be re-stringed, and Henlie found a piano just her size :)
11 28 15 - Both of them hanging out and watching The Lion King.

 From Facebook 11 29 15, 4:14am - 
I think the rest of my family is actually asleep now, dog included. Okay, not the cats, but we know how they are. Hopefully I'll get to go to bed soon too.
Aside from that, today was a pretty good day. Henlie got to play at Grandma's house. Matt took me to lunch at Wallaby's. He got a haircut and we did some shopping.
Unfortunately, I dropped my phone at Wal-Mart and cracked the screen. Fortunately, there is an AT&T store in Payson now. I was going to wait for a new phone, but I got a new one tonight. Switched to LG. I'm liking it so far.

 From Facebook 11 29 15, 10:31am - 
The night took a turn for the worse. After 20 or 30 minutes of sleeping after getting Andrew and Henlie back to bed, Matt got up to check on Mocha because she'd been whining for quite awhile. Turns out she had diarrhea and got poop everywhere. Naturally, upon being let out, she ran and jumped on the bed and ran all over the house. We both got up and cleaned the floors, Mocha, Mocha's bed, and put the bedding in the wash. This morning, she still has diarrhea and has thrown up. Of course, this is the day we're supposed to go in before church for tithing settlement and have three hours of church with no one home.

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Little Tidbits - Part 31  

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So.....fit a month's worth of daily blogs into a few weeks and I apparently need a couple months off to recuperate :)
Also, my house is still not put back together, and it has been two months since we moved back!
11 03 15 - Henlie was helping me pack before our move back to Utah :)

11 04 15 - My freezer full of breastmilk that I had to leave behind in Peru. :( Sad day.

From Facebook 11 04 15 -
Happy third birthday to my little Henlie! Last year, we left Utah on her birthday. This year, we leave Peru the day after. I guess family and pets are a good present, right? :)smile emoticon

11 06 15 - I had ordered a few things for Henlie's birthday, so the day after we flew home, we gave her a couple of gifts. Princess Celestia is her favorite pony from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and I was able to find a hoodie, complete with horn, ears, and mane :)

From Facebook 11 06 15 - 
Oh yeah, I can use my regular text messaging now. Fun thing to remember :)smile emoticon

11 06 15 - Andrés insists that Andrew is a U fan ;)

From Facebook 11 10 15 -
Asked Henlie if she saw Andrew's flag on the La Carreta sign in Orem. She says, "Hey, it's supposed to be my flags in this country!" ‪#‎murica‬

11 11 15 - Chillin' in the Bumbo.
11 11 15 - Toes!

From Facebook 11 14 15 -
Today, Munchkin has turned off the Xbox with his tail and Mocha has turned it on with her tail...

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Thankful Thanksgiving Countdown - November 26th  

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the day. Our countdown is complete! Before I outline the events of today, I want to point out the two best parts that were the highlights of my day. First was finding out that Michelle and Braden got engaged this morning! Since I first found out his mom was giving him her number, I have hoped for this day haha. Seriously, this news makes me so happy. Second was walking into my Granny and Grumpy's house and finding my cousin Mikey was there with his kids. He lives in Brasil and is rarely on social media (in fact, no one knew he even had a Facebook account haha), so it was super good to catch up and compare countries. :)

Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty good too, except for when I was trying to do Henlie's hair before dinner. But we eventually overcame that and had a good rest of the day :)  We had dinner in Wallsburg at Matt's aunt's house. I had never been to her house, so it was fun to go there. We said we'd bring Peanut Butter Truffle brownies, or, as we like to call them, Kill You brownies. Fun story - that's also what we took to the McMillen's house last year for Thanksgiving in Peru :) Matt and Henlie made the brownies last night, so this morning they had to make the filling and topping. I'd already gotten her dressed, so we put Matt's old apron on her since it's on the small side. She loves helping, and it was so cute to watch him accommodate her desire to help. He's much better at letting her help and encouraging her to help than I am. The cutest part was watching her lick the spatula. 

 Eating chocolate chips from the topping bowl :)

Excitedly waiting her turn.

 Helping Daddy mix.

This girl knows what spatulas are for!

Eventually we headed up to Wallsburg. Andrew took a nap, and napped forever! I had to wake up him because it had been so long since he'd eaten. Oh! That reminds me of another blessing. Yesterday I was starting to get a plugged duct. I tried to relieve it in the shower last night, but wasn't successful. I prayed that Andrew would be able to relieve it during his nighttime nursing and it wouldn't be an issue today, and that is exactly what happened. I'm so grateful because those things hurt! Anyway, that is why I woke Andrew up eventually because I didn't want to risk another plug. :) 

Henlie also took a nap, but only 20-30 minutes. She woke up as we were getting to Lisa's. She was excited to see the snow up there. Unfortunately for her, there still wasn't enough for a snowman. She seriously asks every time it snows if there's enough :) Fortunately, Grandma was there and was able to offer the sleepy girl some snuggles.

Photo cred - Lisa

After chatting and sharing thankful bits and favorite memories of Grandma and Grandpa, it was time to eat! I ate so much food, but it was very yummy. The yams were to die for! Literally. The amount of brown sugar would probably do you in. But they were so good. Henlie decided she liked turkey and the red jello salad. Everything was pretty yummy! We had to wait awhile before we could do dessert. Even then, I probably should have skipped it, and definitely not had seconds. But, you know, #Thanksgiving and all :)



 Look! I can still do make up! haha. I was quite pleased with it, too.

How Andrew spend his first Thanksgiving dinner, until Mom finally woke him up :)

Henlie had a grand time as well. Lisa has toys in her basement, and she took Henlie down to find some....twice. She had so much fun playing with new toys.

 She does love dinosaurs :)

I love how Jenn and Henlie are pulling the same face :)

Eventually, it was time to go. Andrew was not a happy camper pretty much the whole way to Mapleton. We enjoyed looking at the Christmas lights on our drive, though. And the waterfalls (most of which were frozen) in the canyon. I particularly thought it was neat to see the layers of rock highlighted by snow. 

We decided to stop by Granny and Grumpy's to see people, especially since we haven't really seen anyone since moving back. That was when we found Mikey and chatted with him for a bit. His kids have grown up so much! I didn't even recognize his daughter (who I saw in the window) until we walked in and I saw she was sitting on his lap. Henlie had a grand time playing with her extended cousins as well.

 Photo cred - Kim
Andrew and Koreen

 Photo cred - Kim
Andrew and Elisabeth

Photo cred - Kim
Henlie and Koreen

It is so good to be back and to be able to visit with family on these holidays that are steeped in family traditions. Even if Utah is cold :)

I hope you all have had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

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Thankful Thanksgiving Countdown - November 25th  

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Matt was told that he can work remotely up to two days each week, so today, he worked from home. I'm super excited about being able to have the car two days a week. Today, Henlie wanted to go to school. She got dressed; socks, shoes, and coat! She wanted me to drop her off. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a school, so we convinced her to go to Grandma's School. I was able to drop Henlie off (and visit for a minute :)) then go to Wells Fargo to change the PIN on my debit card and go to Walmart with only Andrew. Andrew napped from Grandma's until a few minutes into Walmart, but he was quiet and content even after waking up in his car seat. :) I got to see my cousin Casey at Walmart as well, so that was fun.


I'm grateful Grandma's house is nearly always open and that she is always willing to watch my kids at a moment's notice :) I'm grateful Matt was home today so I could use the car and because he helped carry the groceries inside :) I'm grateful Grandma's School also doubles as Grandma's Restaurant where we can always find a meal.

I'm also super grateful to have caught up on my Thankful Thanksgiving Countdown posts before Thanksgiving! Moving sure throws a wrench in your plans sometimes :)

Bonus! I love my little Andrew Guy :) I gave him a faux hawk during his bath and had to take pictures. Then he was sitting in the rocking chair with me. Doesn't he have the cutest smile and adorable dimples? Love him!



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Thankful Thanksgiving Countdown - November 24th  

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Henlie has been begging to play with Play-Doh since she found the two pots we had from before we moved to Peru. I didn't let her play with them for awhile because I didn't want it on the carpet, and we didn't have anywhere in the dining room to play with it. I finally pulled the card table and folding chairs out a few days ago (because we sold our dining table), and while we've been eating there, I still didn't get out the Play-Doh. Well Tuesday, the 24th, I finally let her play with it. I love my hardwood floors. I hate Play-Doh less with hardwood floors haha. And she loved the Play-Doh. She contentedly played for quite awhile by herself. In fact, the first thing she made was a birthday cake, complete with candles. 

Henlie's birthday cake.

 I love her creativity and am glad I let her finally play with the Play-Doh for a bit. It gave me a break and let her exercise her mind a bit :)

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Thankful Thanksgiving Countdown - November 23rd  

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Shutterfly had their free calendar offer that expired Monday. While I had set up a calendar folder to sort through pictures and find them so they were all ready to go, I did not do that until....the calendar offer was announced. So my biggest blessing on Monday was actually finishing my calendar and getting it ordered while it was still free! I'm super excited. I also love that you can now add your own events in and add pictures to the days if you so desire. I added pictures to a few holidays and our birthdays. Added birthdays and conferences. It was more time-consuming, but I love to customize things, so it all worked out :)

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Thankful Thanksgiving Countdown - November 22nd  

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Sunday - we had our favorite caramel cinnamon rolls from Rhodes. I love Rhodes rolls. So simple! Matt also made scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast. Benefits of 1pm church :)

 Matt actually ended up staying home sick from church, so it was me and the kids. Andrew slept for the first two hours. Even though I forgot the church bag, Henlie did fairly well staying quiet during sacrament meeting. Even when she wasn't exactly being reverent and smacked her head (loudly) on the wooden back of the bench, she didn't wail and just sobbed quietly in my lap for a little while. That never happens.

 Other awesomeness was catching up with my new bff Deanna before Relief Society. Un-awesomeness was finding out she's moving soon! It's okay, though. Kara is still in the ward, so that's cool. Now we just need to find condo friends again since they all moved while we were in Peru :(

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