Nathan's Mission Call

It came!!  We finally know where he's going.  So Nathan has been called to serve in the... drum roll please...

Malaga Spain Mission!  He leaves April 14th.  I'm so excited for him.  I'm also releived to know he's going to a decent place, and that the place he's going to is warm. 

The Envelope!  The suspense and anticipation!

Facetiming the cousins.  Everyone was so anxious, especially me.

 Waiting.  Nervous.  Excited.

 Michael trying to help Grandma figure out Skype.

 Some of my pictures are blurry, but I'm still posting them because they tell the story better than words.

 It's time.

 Getting ready to open it.

  

 Where could he be going??

 Malaga, Spain!!  And mom's heart skips a beat and then she sighs a sigh of relief.

 Anna's reaction. 

We're all so excited for Nathan and so proud of him!  He's going to be a great missionary!

November

Hat day at school.  I love this picture.

I turned... how old am I again... gotta do the math.  (Seriously, I really had to do the math.)  Oh yeah, 42.   Nathan made my birthday cake this year.  He's working at Cold Stone and made me a cookie dough ice cream cake.  It was yummy.  I tried to get a picture of him with the cake (in the freezer, cuz we were both too lazy to get it out).  The flash made it so you can't see the cake.  So here is Nathan by the freezer, and the cake in the freezer.

Lydia had an orchestra concert.  I think Anna did too, but Blake went to that one.  Death by Concerts starts now in November!

We got new carpet!! We've been saving up forever and finally bit the bullet.  It was LONG overdue.  And looks awesome!  

The kids and I wrote on the old carpet with Sharpie.  Mine says, "I hate this carpet."  You don't even know how much I hated that carpet.

Lyda: "I was here."

Eh, I don't know why Elizabeth is upside down.  I'm too lazy to flip her picture.  (Seeing a theme in this post?)  Here's says, "I love Lord of the Rings."

Caleb.  I don't remember what he wrote.

I wrote about my hatred of the carpet in two places.  Again upside down, but oh well.

Michael helped Blake pull out the old carpet.  Katie watched from the sidelines.

 

Old/Before

 New/After.  It looks SO MUCH BETTER!

Anna is a peer mentor in the special ed classroom.  She took a picture for an assignment and I wanted to post it here.  She loves these kids so much!  And they love her so much!  She's so good with them and loves being in this class.  She wants to volunteer at ESY this summer.  We'll see if that happens.  (Extended School Year).

Nathan's 19th birthday.  When you turn 19, you're old and you get an "old person birthday".  We took him to dinner and gave him cash for his present.  That's what we do for our birthdays, so that's what we started for age 19.  It worked for us.  We had yummy pizza and cake.

Nathan got his mission call!!!  That deserves a post of it's own, so that'll be for tomorrow.

Nathan watned a Costco cake for his birthday and mission opening party.

It was yummy!  (Kids ate on a sheet because I didn't want to sweep up crumbs.  Laziness theme continues.

Katie dressed up her beloved Austin the Backyardigan in a blonde wig.  She thought it was hilarious.

Thanksgiving

I took the girls shopping with me on Black Friday.  We had so much fun!  We found this hideous phone case.  There are no words.

Selfies and being silly

We went to Jose Peppers for lunch and laughed and laughed.  Lots of good times and good memories!

More shopping.  We shopped all day.  So much fun!

And that's all for November.  Well, besides Nathan's mission call.  I'll add that post tomorrow.