Halloween 2017

The kids were SO excited to get to wear their costumes to school today.  I was able to go to the school to watch all the students parade around and show off their costumes.

Ben - Power lineman (like his daddy)

 They had a huge assembly in the gym after the parade.  Emma had a hard time with some of the scarier costumes and wanted me near her, so I sat with her class in the gym.  When they started a few dance songs, she wasn't handling the noise and costumes, so I took her out for some quiet time in her classroom.

Cutest little witch!

 Emma had dance in Mountain View after school, so by the time we got back it was time to go trick or treating!  Emma was way too excited to go, so she didn't even stop to get something to eat.

 We surprised the kids and 'dressed up' this year.  They had no idea we had anything until we came out of our bedroom in these silly outfits.  Lennard was a Minion and I was a Care Bear.  The benefit was that they were nice and warm!

Emma and Ben had so much fun running from house to house.  Ben made it most of the night wearing Lennard's climbing harness (so heavy!).  He finally asked if he could take it off and then he had a second wind to keep running!  ha! ha!  They definitely got lots of candy!

Martial Arts Tournament

Ben had his final martial arts tournament tonight.  He's worked hard to get his green belt this semester and was excited to compete.  He got a gold medal for his form!  In his group form, they got bronze.

Primary Halloween Party

The kids were slightly excited for the Primary Halloween party tonight.  They asked for three hours if it was time to go yet!  Ben was thrilled to get to be a lineman (like Daddy) for Halloween.  We found a vest at Value Village, he had little work gloves already and then Lennard let him use his climbing harness and his NB Power hard hat.  Ben walked around with a swagger and informed Lennard that he could boss him around now!  Too cute.

Emma was the cutest little witch out there!  We'd bought her the shirt and skirt while we were in Utah and then with the Dollar Store finds of her hat and broom she was off!  She even found orange socks to wear which just completed the whole outfit.

 She was happy to get black lipstick and purple eye shadow, but when I drew spider webs she was ecstatic!

 The youth put on the activity and had booths with activities all over the church.  The gym was being re-done, so we were in hallways and classrooms instead.  Ben loved using the glove bag to put all his candy in!

They had such a fun time and got LOTS of candy!  Emma even ended up winning the jar full of candy for being the closest one to guess how many candies there were.

High Priest

After Stake Conference today, my dad was made a High Priest by his brother, Bruce.  I was glad we were able to be there for it.  It was neat to hear the blessing Uncle Bruce gave him.

We had dinner out at my parents house with Uncle Bruce, Uncle Lance and Uncle Scott & Aunt Beatrice.  We didn't stay too long as we were all tired, but I sure love living close enough to be there at a moments notice.

One-on-One Time

It was my niece's baptism last night, so Emma and I got to have a mommy-daughter date to Cranbrook!  Ben had Champs this morning, so he and Lennard stayed home together.

They decided, since the girls were off having fun, that they'd go have fun too.  Lennard took him to the Emoji movie at the Movie Mill and out to dinner.  He also spoiled him and bought him a Lego set!  Daddy can't say no!  lol  It sort of backfired though because Ben woke up at 4:00 this morning asking if it was morning yet so that he could build his Lego set!  

Emma and I had to meet Shauna and Melissa in Pincher Creek by 4:00 so that they could drive out with us.  We got on our way from home a bit late, but still had enough time to get there... until I realized that I'd forgotten my purse at home!  Thankfully we were only 10 minutes from home, but by the time we drove back, got my purse and headed out again, we were late!  We managed to get there just in time though! (might have driven a little fast... just maybe...)

We had so much fun visiting on the drive out.  Emma thought it was great fun to be the only kid with the grown ups.  She also got to see how crazy/fun it can get when sisters get together.  She and Melissa made licorice mustaches and duck lips out of Pringles.  We were singing at the top of our lungs and even had actions going to some of the songs.  Emma was absolutely thrilled.  She informed me afterwards that, "That was the best time I've ever had with my aunts."

Lauren's baptism was beautiful.  I'm glad we were able to be there to support her.  I love that Emma has a cousin so close in age to her.

We got to have a sleep-over at a hotel together!  The hotel was a little older and Emma kept asking me if it was safe!  Thankfully, after watching a bit of tv together, and her feeling lucky because she was up way past her bedtime, she finally fell asleep!

She'd informed me that our schedule for today was to wake up at 6:00, get ready by 7:00, have breakfast at 8:00 and go shopping at 9:00.  I tried to convince her that she could sleep in, but she wasn't convinced.  At 5:50, she was awake.  So much for a vacation day.  lol

I let her watch a few shows on tv to keep her entertained until it was time to actually get up.  The mall wasn't open until 9:30, so we had some time to kill.

 We went to Denny's for breakfast.  Not my favorite, but she was thrilled with her meal.  She was hungry and ate almost every bite!

We still had a few minutes to wait for the mall to open, but eventually we were able to go do some shopping.  Emma found a witches hat and broom that she loved, so she's going to be a witch for Halloween this year.

We didn't shop for too long, but she was happy with our purchases.  We got on the road and I was glad we were driving in the day light as we hit snow part way home.  It was a fun night away together.

Bathroom Update

We were able to get two sides of the surround installed tonight.  We got the holes cut for the other side where the plumbing comes through, but then Lennard had to work on all the rest of the plumbing before we could finish installing it.  We're going to have to enlarge the holes a bit to get it installed properly, but it's coming.  I love how it looks in the space.

Buddy the Cat

I made a super quick trip down to Kalispell today to get our tub surround so that we could keep working on our bathroom (novel idea!).  When I got home (tired from driving all day), Lennard grabbed my hand and said that he had a surprise for me!  He pulled me over to his work truck and knocked on the window.  Immediately, I knew there would be some kind of animal.  lol.  Nothing happened though, so he opened the door, moved a box, and there was a kitten!t

We've always said that we wouldn't have a pet because of Lennard's allergies and the possibility of Ben having them too, but lately we've talked about the possibility of a cat.  I had no idea it would happen this quickly though!  ha! ha!  He was such a cute little thing and snuggled right up in my arms that I caved. 

The kids were thrilled and kept jumping up and down and asking if they could keep him.  They even pulled in their friends to look at him!  Long story short... we have a cat!  We've named him Buddy.

Good thing the Dollar Store had a litter box and bowls for food/water.  We even got a few toys!  The kids are still quite jumpy around him (especially Emma), but we're hoping that they'll settle down and enjoy having a buddy to play with.

New Glasses

Ben has needed new glasses for quite a while.  We finally took the time to order some new ones!  As soon as the kids were off from school, we went in to Costco.  While we were looking at glasses, we were told that if we bought two pair, they only charged $10 for the second pair of lenses.  I really didn't think we needed two pair for him, but then I looked at the state his current glasses are in and thought it might not be a bad idea to have a back up pair.

Ben loved these glasses the most...

Only because the green part on the legs has some texture to it!  ha! ha!  Oh - and it's because they have orange on them and that's his favorite color.

 I liked these ones... and they'll make a good back-up pair.

For both pairs of glasses it was $199.  Not too bad... especially when insurance will pay for both pairs!

Honey-Do List

With a day off work and no other plans, we were finally able to get working on our bathroom again!  Life has been so busy lately that it's been hard to squeeze in time to get things done.

We got the exhaust fan hooked up again and added some extra wood around it so that it was secured better than before.  I took this picture of Lennard and posted it on Instagram and shortly afterwards, James showed up at our door to help!  ha! ha!  The power of social media.  Too funny.  Thanks, James!

 They started getting the gyproc put up where they could. We have to leave the walls until we get the bathtub surround installed as it is supposed to be screwed directly to the studs.

 While they were working on drywalling the bathroom, I worked on making turkey broth...well, the Instant Pot did anyways!  Three batches of broth from the turkey (bones) we had yesterday.  Yum.

 Lennard and James even went out to the hangar and got the bathtub and got it set in place!  Thank goodness it fits!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We were blessed to have our good friend, Cody, and his boys over for Thanksgiving dinner after church today.  Shannon is gone to visit family in Utah with their girls, so it was nice to share our day with them. 

We don't usually do this huge of a meal for just us, but Lennard really wanted a full Thanksgiving dinner.  We did a 'Nichols' feast!  Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing (family recipe), devilled eggs, cranberries, carrots (without dill - sorry mom), green beans, buns, pickles, olives, jello, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert!

Lennard did a great job of carving the turkey and we made a good dent on all the food! (Although we did have lots of leftovers!)

Special Day

After a busy morning of Ben at Champs (basketball) and then eye appointments for both kids (that the doctor was half an hour late starting), we raced in to Lethbridge so that we could attend the baptisms of Mason and Gideon.  It was a special day to have cousins get to be baptized and Emma is getting pretty excited for her upcoming baptism in December!

Atwood Family on Mason's baptism day.

Hatch Family on Gideon's baptism day.

After the baptisms, we all gathered in and got a family picture since ALL of us were there! Pretty amazing to get every single grandchild, kid and spouse there.

We had a dinner afterwards that we counted as our Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great to sit and visit and eat yummy food together as a family.  I feel so blessed for our loud, crazy, silly family that I belong to.

Snow Day!

The weather turned gross yesterday - enough that we didn't want to be on the roads to Lethbridge for Lennard's physio appointment.  The snow just kept coming, and coming, and coming!  

When we got up this morning, we got the notice that school was cancelled.  The kids were pretty excited to find all their winter gear and go play in the snow!  Unfortunately, although I'd found their gloves, toques and snow pants - they didn't have winter boots!  They've grown so much this year and I hadn't thought to get boots for them quite yet.  Oops!

 They weren't being put off, so they ended up going out and playing in their rubber boots.  It didn't keep them terribly warm, but they had lots of fun!