Oh Christmas Tree

We looked at the calendar and realized that if we didn't get our tree up this week, that we weren't sure when we'd be able to!  Also, since my parents don't have a house right now, we thought it would be nice to include them in putting the tree up, so they came to start the Christmas season out (with all our craziness!).

 The kids were so excited to help that I was a bit overwhelmed, but it all worked out and things look great.  It is always fun to have it 'feel' like Christmas in the house.

ER Visit

Ben woke up in the middle of the night gasping for breath.  I don't usually hear much during the night, but I heard him!  We sat outside for a while hoping that that would help him, but he was panicking pretty bad.  I took him down to the ER and he was seen within minutes.  Of course, his breathing improved once we got there, but they still treated him to make sure his airway stayed open.  Thankfully, we weren't there very long and we were able to get home and get him back in bed.

Family Dinner

Shauna invited the family to a dinner in Lethbridge this afternoon. It will be Becky's birthday soon and Brendan got ordained to the office of an Elder!  He's been working hard on getting his life figured out and it was nice to get to support him today.

Uncle Lennard and Mia

Hatch Family

Playing with cousins

Moving Day

Dave & Nysha got to move in the majority of their stuff into their rental in Stirling today.  The house isn't done (all the reno's) yet, so we could only load things into certain rooms.  They had lots of help though, so it went really quickly.

They didn't want any kids there, so Lennard stayed home with the kids while I brought Mom & Dad's van that was filled with Dave's stuff too. We were surprised to find that ALL of us Murray kids were all there.  It doesn't happen very often!

Mom and Dad weren't able to come help because it was my dad's Uncle Geoff's funeral. I would have liked to have gone to the funeral too, but it was at the same time that we were moving everything.

Lennard and I were able to go to President Rosenvall's Open House tonight though.  He married Marilyn Cahoon from our ward today.  It is so nice to see both of them so happy together.  It was funny how many ears perked up as soon as Lennard would introduce himself as a 'Nichols'.  Rosenvall's have been family friends for years and Beth and Sidonia were great friends.

Happy Birthday, Lennard

Lennard was in Red Deer today for work and didn't get home until dinner time.  Then we had to run to parent-teacher and that took a bit longer than planned.  We managed to have him open his gift before he ran off to his EQ activity!

He loves the quote by President Hinckley about the Nauvoo and Salt Lake temples being 'bookends', so I made him this!

Festival of Lights

We went to the annual Festival of Lights at the Remington Center again tonight.  It was a bit different this year, as they started at 5:00!  The kids had just got done piano lessons at 5:00, so we went home and got something to eat and then went down at about 6:00.  We were there for when the lights were turned on and then we went in to see Santa.  Even with being closer to the front of the line, it still took a while to get there.  

We didn't end up doing much after that.  We'd forgotten to bring cash and everything cost something.  We ended up taking the kids to DQ for an ice cream treat instead.

Instruments!

Lennard was 'slightly' excited today when he got to open all the packaged from Dynon that had all his panel instruments for his airplane.  He was vibrating!  It was fun to watch him!

 It's a bit crazy how something so small can cost so much!

#expensivehobbies

Angels Among Us

We had our Relief Society activity tonight.  We called it "Angels Among Us".  

We had a lasagna dinner that turned out really good.  We made too much, but I'd rather too much than not enough! My mom was able to come to the activity... but I was so busy getting things set up that she ended up just visiting with Ann.

We had a short program.  Deb Heninger sang "Angels Among Us" while we had a slide show of all the sisters in our ward scrolling.  Then, Shirlee Yuill talked.  She did such a wonderful job and it was so heartfelt that I don't think there was a dry eye.

We had collected stories from the sisters in our ward about times they've felt 'angels' ministering to them.  We made them into a booklet and handed them out at the end of the activity.

Remembrance Day

Emma was in the school's Remembrance Day choir this year, so she had to be at the school early to get ready.  That meant we got really good seats this year!  Ben did really good sitting quietly... since I'd brought his tablet to play on for the wait.  Unfortunately, as soon as the program started and the tablet got put away, he had a bit of a meltdown and proclaimed loudly that he was 'bored' and didn't want to sit still (and he didn't).  Emma and the choir did a great job and it was a good program.  Lennard layed a wreath for his Grandpa Nichols again.  Although they get his name wrong every single year... and it's something different each time! 

Since Remembrance Day fell on Sunday this year, our Stake decided to only hold Sacrament meeting. As soon as we got back from the high school, Emma got changed into her dress and we headed to the church.  Then we had tithing settlement right after that too.

Welcome Home!

My parents have been gone since Sept 30 on a huge cruise around the South Pacific and they finally got home this week!  We made a poster for them during FHE!

 Emma had her Remembrance Day choir performance at school Thursday morning, so I attended that and then took the kids and headed to Calgary.

Emma - 3rd row back and 7th from the left

 Shauna came with us, so it was fun to get to visit with her.  We ended up parking at the wrong end of the airport... probably the farthest away we could have possibly parked.  Ha! Ha!  We were about half way there when a gal stopped with a golf cart and gave us a ride the rest of the way! 

  We had to wait for a bit and the kids got a little antsy waiting.  They did the escalators a few times and made friends with any moving body.  lol

 At last, Grandma & Grandpa came out! The kids were SO excited... but so were grandma and grandpa!

 It was so good to see them.  Emma was so excited that when she ran into my mom's arms, she banged her head into Grandma's lip and gave her a bloody lip!

They were pretty exhausted from being up so long, but we had a good visit all the way back home.