November Moments of Note

Obviously our biggest moment of November was the arrival of our sweet Ivy Jo; however, there were a few other happenings that are worth mentioning:

1. Daddy Daughter Dance:  At the beginning of November our ward hosted a daddy daughter dance and the girls were beyond excited about the prospect of dressing up and dancing the night away with their favorite guy.  The night included dinner, dancing and karaoke- just a few of Ryan's favorite things!

2.  Snow:  Winter arrived for about a week, complete with freezing temps and the first snowfall of the season.  Thankfully it warmed back up for the majority of November and even December, but I think winter is officially here to stay.

3.  Stella's Library:  Stella is slowly moving away from her obsession with princesses and dress ups, and is instead completely immersed in the place where reality meets pretend play.  One day she decided she wanted to have a library (a real library, not a pretend one!) and ever since that day every single book in our home (that's a lot of books) gets pulled out and organized in the living room so we can all come check out our favorites.  Her end goal is to have her library set up outside so that people in our neighborhood can come borrow books to their heart's content.  It's so endearing, but the constant mess drives us a little bonkers!  Her next entrepreneurial endeavor is to start a store, which means every little toy, hat and bag we own makes it's way from where it belongs and onto display in the playroom.  I think I like the library better.

4. Super Joni Strikes Again: A week before Ivy was born my mom showed up to help me finish that pre-baby to-do list.  In typical Joni form she arrived with Sunday dinner in tow, got up with my kids all night long, helped me file approximately 1,000,000 papers, cleaned my bathrooms, did my laundry, organized my pantry and decorated the nursery.  Did I mention she was here for less than 36 hours?  I am still not sure how she does it all, but I am ever grateful for her sacrifice and love.

5.  Work: This fall I was given the opportunity to take over the YMCA's basic community nutrition class.  It is the same class I was helping teach last spring, but this time I was in charge and was looking for ways to improve what was already in place.  I decided to make it a 10 week program open to both YMCA members and the community, and to charge a small fee for attendance.  In the past the class was free, but we were hardly getting any participation and thought adding that monetary value might get more people committed to the program (weird how that works, right?)  I stressed about the class all summer and was so nervous that no one would sign up and the whole thing would be a complete flop.  My first class was on September 11th, and I was so happy when I had 30 people who were signed up.  It was a lot of work prepping material for the class each week (handouts, power points, recipes, samples), but when I start the second session next week, I will be able to use all of the same materials.  Overall I feel like the class was a great success, and since my final class was on November 13th, I finished just in time!  Even though I only teach once on Thursday morning and once in the evening, it has been so nice having the last six weeks off to adjust to life with three kids.  Hopefully the next session goes just as well, and the stress of doing it all with another child in tow doesn't get to be too much.

6. Frenemy Time:  They love each other, they really do.

7.  Hosting Thanksgiving at 10 Days Postpartum:  Yep, I really did that.  And you know what?  It's the best way to do it!  I honestly didn't lift a finger besides showing people around the kitchen and it was wonderful to be able to show off our Ivy to her adoring aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.  The weekend consisted of smoked turkeys, football in the backyard, lots of Ivy snuggles, a little black Friday shopping, lottery tickets and a night of babies keeping the young married aunts and uncles awake just for good measure.

November was a beautiful and happy month full of my greatest blessings.