November

 Lots of changes came in November along with the weather. We will start like usual from the beginning of the month. 

We kicked it off wonderfully with Emmy's dance recital. They switched it up this year and did the Grinch instead of the Nutcracker. It was super cute! Like we have said in years past, Emmy is in her element when she is on stage. She loves performing. She knows how to shake it and is very focused on her dance moves and doing them right. She always has quite the cheering crowd for her too! 

At the book store we had our first midnight release parties. It was on Nov. 6th and the party started at 10:00. Iron Flame was anticipated by SO many people. I just so happened to be the first order through the store for the book. We had about 150 preorders for this books. It was insane. I had to document that I was the first one. It was such a fun party and the book was pretty good too. I love where I work. It is seriously one of my happy places. It is rarely stressful and I love getting to talk and recommend books to people. 

Addi and I went to an author event at the store later on in the month. We learned how to illustrate a story. We had lots of giggles. She is the better drawer of the two of us, but we had to pass our story around to others and so we got all sorts of different drawings. 

We had Friendsgiving as a Young Women and Young Men's. It is one of the funnest activities we do all year. It is also one of the best attended. I love being with the youth of our ward. 

Took the girls for haircuts because it had been 6 months or more since they had one. All three of them were getting their haircut at the same time. We were in and out of there in about 20 minutes. That has never happened before. Addi cut about 4-5 inches off, Lyndin cut about the same, and Emmy did about 2 inches. 

On November 16, I received one of the most dreaded phone calls. My dad called to tell me that my brother has passed away. I will do a separate post for that. The rest of the month was a bit of a blur from that point on. We had the funeral the Saturday after Thanksgiving. 

While going through pictures of Kelden, we saw so many memories that my mom had captured. This one is with both of my grandma's. It still brings tears to my eyes that they are both gone. This was at my 12th birthday. 

I am the first grandchild on my mom's side. We always had a closer relationship with my Grandma Gardner because there weren't many grandkids. On the Massey side there was around 30+ grandkids. I have so many pictures with my Grandma Gardner because we were always doing things with her. She loved us fiercely. I was probably around 2 in this picture. 

There were many tender mercies after learning about my brother's death. We came home from Vernal to see that our door had been heart attacked with love from the VanDyke's. It really meant a lot to know we were being thought of. 

We spent a few days in Vernal and the kids were such troopers with just hanging around. Literally! 

We had Thanksgiving lunch here at our house with Grandma Shelly. We then cleaned up lunch and got on the road to head to Vernal to beat a snow storm that was moving in later that night. I am glad we left when we did because the weatherman was correct. There was snow the next morning. I didn't really want to be around people on black Friday because Kelden's viewing was going to be later that night. Julia had asked if Addi wanted to come play volleyball with some other ladies/girls. We had a rough time trying to find a place and we ended up at the rec center. I was dreading going in because I thought it was going to be busy. Another tender mercy, is that it was not full at all. There were maybe 30 people there in total. The kids all got to play and move their bodies. Grandma Debbie even helped Parker with some basketball things. It was so nice to be out but not surrounded by people. 

After the funeral on Saturday, Max went through the temple. I was emotionally exhausted from the day, but it was so nice to feel the peace of the temple. I saw my aunt and uncle in there and gave them a hug. My uncle then met me in the celestial room to give me another hug. Keith and Nena Caldwell are their names and they are the temple president/matron of the Vernal temple. There are no coincidences in the temple. It was wonderful to see my family there and to also be with my in-laws. I have a great support system that are always there to show love. 

That wraps up November. A lot of memories were made. Both the hard and the fun kind.