November

It would have been nice to have all of 2024 wrapped up by now, especially in case I decide to make blog books.  I like to make them by year.  However, I'm close to getting caught up with the year.  

November started off with a giant snow storm.  It snowed for five days straight.  All of their snow days got used up so any snow we get from here on out means the kids will have online school.  It was cold and windy.  The kids were so excited to see real snow again and have space to play in it.  Across the street from us is a big big hill and we got plenty of snow for the kids to take sleds and slide down the hill.  

Now that I'm writing, I realize that I wrote about September last and completely skipped October.  Our first snow actually cam in October on the day our Trunk-or-Treat was scheduled.  They still held the Trunk-or-Treat but it was snowy and wet!  

Anyway, moving on.

We had Thanksgiving at our house and Gillian and her kids came to stay.  They were supposed to come early in the week but another snow storm prevented them from making it safely through the mountains like originally planned so they waited a day and then drove halfway, stayed overnight in a hotel in Grand Junction, and waited until the storm had mostly passed.  They got here Wednesday evening and left on Saturday afternoon.  We traded family photos for a hair cut for Eli and a color for me.  We ate yummy food, did some shopping, and mostly hung out together.  It was so nice to spend the holidays with family again.  That is definitely something I missed while in Japan.

Other happenings in November included a solo trip by me to the Paint Mines.  It's about an hour west of the Springs in the middle of no where.  I'd been before during Covid with Mike and the kids.  It's a cool place to explore and I didn't see many people so it was very peaceful.

Finally, Felicity's tooth.  I can't remember the last time she lost a tooth.  I don't know how many times I've written this over the last 19 years of writing on this blog but my kids take forever to lose teeth!  Her tooth has been wiggly for over four months, easily.  The gum above her tooth is red and angry looking and the tooth is turning grey.  She's tried to eat hard things and wiggle that sucker out but it is firmly rooted in place.  Mike tried to help pull it out but the tooth is so tiny he couldn't get the floss to stay secure around it.  Her dentist said to leave it for a while longer and keep wiggling.  She hates it.

We took Piper in to see about starting the process of braces but like her siblings, she has too many baby teeth still to lose.  They said to give her six months and reevaluate and I didn't say it but I thought it, "There is no way she's losing six teeth in six months."  I can't even see her losing that many in a year.  We did, however, get Eli started on Invisalign.  He had braces to correct his jaw alignment and now they are just fixing the last few crooked teeth now that all of his teeth have come in and we are back from Japan.  Honestly, while more expensive than braces, Invisalign seems so much easier.