I need to catch up!

I've fallen way behind on my daily posts! My last post was on Thursday the 17th so let's see if I can remember something from each day since then.

Friday, November 18

Today Maddie and I made our gratitude turkey craft. On each feather (or as Maddie said: turkey's hair) we wrote something she is grateful for. I was trying to describe gratitude to her by saying it is things you are thankful for, things that make you happy and things you love. I then asked her who she loved and her response was "no love!" Haha! We eventually decided on things like dad, mom, Carson, penny, Toby, the color purple, toys, etc. She was quite pleased with the end product!

Another cute story from this day is when Maddie was taking her bath she wanted Carson to join in, so they had their first sibling bath. Maddie thought it was hilarious, Carson on the other hand didn't really get what was going on.

Saturday, November 19th

Today David was home and we all went to the park together. Maddie wanted to do the monkey bars so Dave was helping her. She kept asking him to hold her by her legs and bum bum when she'd want to hang on the bars more.

We were also lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Webb visit starting that afternoon, but I didn't get any pictures since Grandma isn't a fan. Haha! Too bad.

Sunday, November 21

Today David, Maddie and Grandma and Grandpa Webb went to church while I stayed home with our sick little Carson.

Dave's parents left after sacrament meeting to get back to Idaho. After church we went to dinner at the Martins with the rest of the Elder's quorum presidency and families. TJ he Martins have a little boy named Knox who is in nursery with Maddie. They ate dinner at their own table and it was a cute little "date."

Monday, November 21st

David was home this morning since he was working the late shift, so he stayed home with Carson while Maddie and I went on a quick grocery shopping trip. Because she was such a good big helper I let her pick out a little treat. She picked out mini M&Ms and I gave her the dollar and change it would cost to buy it. She was supposed to hand the money to the cashier herself, but she got shy at the last minute. She was still very pleased with the treat she bought for herself, though.

Later in the afternoon we made a paper chain to countdown the days until Christmas. She loved helping me write the numbers on each strip of paper but she doesn't really get the concept of a count down chain yet.

While I was getting dinner ready Maddie was helping penny eat by hand feeding her some of her dog food. By the end penny had lost interest and we had dog food all over the kitchen floor. Maddie sat down, looked at Penny's uneaten food and said "no treats for Penny!"

Tuesday November 22nd

We had a slow day today, but we did accomplish some prep for Thanksgiving dinner. Maddie helped me make an apple pie to put in the freezer and enjoyed poking the top crust with a fork. It was cute watching her focus so hard while doing it.

Bath time is a favorite time in our house. And Maddie is such a cheeser that I just had to take a picture.

And poor Carson gets left out of a lot of these stories because he's just eating, pooping and sleeping most of the time. But he was so cute just hanging out outside of the bathroom while Maddie was bathing.

Wednesday. November 23rd

I honestly don't remember what we did today. We probably didn't do much since it was snowy and Carson was sick. Here's the only picture I took, my cute little guy wearing overalls.

Thursday, November 24th

Happy Thanksgiving! Today is a happy day since we're hosting dinner for mom and dad, Paul and the Drapers! I'm so excited that the Drapers are flying out and are coming to stay with us for the weekend. We were sad that the Affeltrangers, Garns and Gmeiners weren't able to join us at our house!

Today my phone died so I wasn't able to take pictures past about 10AM, and then didn't have a phone until the following Tuesday, so I'll have to work on getting pictures from other people. Worst weekend ever to not have my camera!

But here are some pictures I got that morning of my cute family enjoying the Macy's parade.

Dinner was great and mom was a huge help with cooking a lot of the food. And it was so fun to have several members of the family over. Mom has a picture of all of us at the table that I'll have to get and post here.

Friday, November 25th

Today was such a special day for our family. Paul received his endowment in the Provo temple. I wasn't able to make it due to sick little Carson, but my part in the day was watching my kids + Lacey for about 6 hours. And my prayers and thoughts were with Paul. I'm so grateful for Paul and his example of faith and patience. He is such an awesome guy and is going to be an amazing missionary! And how awesome that almost all of the sisters were able to be in the temple with him!

Since my phone was completely dead by this point I had no contact with anyone. I was so glad when people showed up because I was getting lonely, and maybe a little tired with 3 little 2 and under. We had pizza together at my house for dinner after Paul's endowment, which was a great time. Maddie LOVED playing with her cousins.

Saturday November 26th

Today we started out with a play date with the Affeltranger cousins at our house. Lacey slept through most of it I'm pretty sure, so sadly she missed out. But it was fun to visit with Andrea, Leeshy and Christian while the kids played! They all enjoyed getting decked out in bows, Lewis included!

That afternoon the Drapers joined us at the Christmas tree lot and helped us pick out our tree. I have some cute pictures of this on my DSLR that I haven't gotten into my computer yet, but once I do I'll get them up here! Alicia was then so nice to help us decorate our house for Christmas! She is so talented and our house looks so cute now. Maddie had so much fun putting snowflake ornaments in one little area on the tree. We didn't put any other ones on because I didn't have enough ribbon for the tree so we were waiting until Monday to fully decorate it.

Sunday, November 27

Today was another special day for the family! Today was Paul's farewell talk. Dave unfortunately had to work so couldn't join us, but the Drapers and I managed to fit 3 car seats and 3 adults and their luggage in the Highlander and drive down to Provo together. Paul's talk took place in the ward where mom and dad's old house is, which didn't start until 1, but we went down to the Garn's house early to see everyone.

Paul's talk was so incredible. He spoke with such maturity and touched everyone in the congregation with his powerful testimony. I appreciated his testimony regarding his experience with depression and how he's grateful for his challenges as they have brought him closer to the Savior. I echo these feelings and am so grateful for Paul and his ability to express this so well. We are all so grateful for Paul's strength and perseverance and know that he is going to be an amazing missionary! Also, I'm pretty sure Caroline's heart was going all pitter pat while she listened to his talk. HAHAHA!

Afterwards the Garns hosted dinner for all of the extended family. They were so awesome to do that! It was so great, especially since Matthias had made a sign for their back room to indicate that it was a kids room only, and only one parent was allowed at a time. That cracked me up! Maddie had fun watching movies and eating with cousins. Another highlight was when I went to the basement to feed Carson, Emmaline followed me down and sat next to me, chatting with me the whole time. What a cute girl!

Monday, November 28

Today mom and dad were supposed to be heard back to Beijing, but this morning I got some surprise emails (since I still didn't have a working phone) letting me know that they were coming over! Apparently they got to the airport only to be told that their tickets were for tomorrow's flight. Hahaha! Oops! So we got a surprise extra day with them! Andrea came over with her kids and we had a fun morning play date, which involves lots of bows and jewelry again.

Mom helped us finish up our tree that evening. It was so fun having Maddie help decorate because she had to group the balls together by color and have them all placed on the same lower branches. It was expert toddler work! And then mom and I fixed it after she went to bed!

Mom and Dad stayed the night, sleeping on our recliners with mom snoozing in and out while watching Madame Secretary all night. It cracks me up that they didn't make it to bed at all. I'm sure they were exhausted on the airplane. We loved having them stay for an extra bonus day. We were so lucky!

OK I think that's enough for now. I'll keep catching up tomorrow!