November Newsletter & Slideshow

https://picasaweb.google.com/103753336633055957263/2015_11_Slideshow

Hamilton Newsletter

November 2015

FAMILY: The beginning of the month was daylight savings & with the darker evenings, we've been enjoying candle-light dinners almost every night. We all love this tradition. We also finished the first Harry Potter book at the beginning of November. We all loved it & the girls would talk quite a lot about Hogwarts and spells they wished they knew :) Kalli & Mike came into town the very end of October/beginning of November to see a friend at SUU & they stopped by a couple times. It was great to see them!! November 7th would have been Link's 3rd birthday. We sure miss our duder-dude. See his section for more details about his birthday. The 11th was Veteran's Day & Jason had the day off work. We attended our local Vetran's Day Program at our Veteran's Memorial Park. McKinley's class was there, too & it was fun to spend some time with her as well as honor the Veteran's who have served our nation. On the 12th, Grandma Potts & some friends came over for dinner and dessert (cupcakes to celebrate Grandma's 60th birthday!). We loved to see her, even if we wish it were longer :) She was so sweet & got the girls all shirts and a book she put together called "Why I believe what I believe" - so sweet to give gifts for HER birthday! On the 14th, they had the annual Storybook Parade on Main Street. This is the first year daddy has been able to go & we all had a wonderful time. It is always so well done, with so many impressive floats and characters. Afterwards, we went to St. George, grabbed a pizza & headed to the park to see Daken play baseball. The Reeds were there, too, so it was fun to see so many cousins & cheer on Daken's team. Afterwards, we grabbed some hot cocoa and cookies :) Thanksgiving was with the Devenish's this year. As always, we enjoyed good food, good conversation, and good times. The kids had fun coloring and mom even printed out a Thanksgiving quiz packet with crosswords, rhyming words, etc. Anyone who completed the packet would get their favorite candy bar, & all the girls completed it. Way to go! We have very much to be thankful for this year, including our faith, our family, our new home, daddy's job, and our freedoms.  All month, we had a pumpkin on our kitchen table with a marker for everyone to write what they are thankful for. It was neat to fill it up with so many blessings. We also did our annual Gerald the Grateful Turkey this year. Unfortunately, after we got home from Richfield, most of us got sick with sore throats, headaches & fevers, so we had to stay home from church & school for a bit :( Another bummer was having to get a new radiator for the van. $450 :(

JASON: Jason had fun visiting his family during Thanksgiving & going out with Jeff & Dave to look for cow elk and then to go cut down a Christmas Tree in the mountains.

HEIDI: Heidi had REALLY a hard time at the beginning of the month with Link's birthday. Not sure why this year was harder than the others for her, but for a few days, she wasn't very functional & all she could really do was cry. His third year would have been so much fun. One thing that was hard was going through all his funeral pictures this month that she had to save one by one to the new external hard drive from Mixbook.com. That was a difficult trigger. Thankfully she got out of that dark place & was able to find more gratitude and in doing so, she also found love notes everywhere from her baby boy - including hearts in tortillas, rocks, chips, and how Link's candle from the wave of light event is STILL going!! Also - Ireland had a dream about Link being resurrected & that made mom really happy. Heidi helped a lot with the "Make & Take" night this month for Relief Society. She was in charge of doing burlap pennant banners. They were fun to make & it was a fun addition to the decor.

McKINLEY:
-McKinley got to go on a few fun field trips this month, including getting to see a famous young engineer who made a robotic arm and going to Veteran's Park for Veteran's Day.
-McKinley decided to join the ward choir and she is really enjoying it! (and being brave since mom & dad don't go)
-McKinley had a turn for Activity Days being in charge and sharing her talents. She showed the girls how to do finger knitting, how to do zentangles, and how well she's doing with her piano playing. Great job McKinley!
-She loved the Activity Days about babysitting. They got little binders with information on babysitting & McKinley has already put post-it notes in there for all the things she wants to remember.
-McKinley had a few days where she was feeling lonely for not having close friends. Mom & dad had some long talks with her & prayers. She did make a lot of her little "Hohos" for all her friends and for Mr. Sahagun. She also found a friend at the Storybook Parade when we were there.
-McKinley is doing art again for Polar Expeditions & she loves it!

IRELAND:
-On the 11th, mom took Ireland out of school to take her out for her lunch date. She chose to go to Wingers. We had a yummy lunch & she especially loved the asphalt pie! She kept saying "my tummy is full but my taste buds say MORE MORE!"
-One day mom was fixing Ireland's hair & she commented about wishing she had such pretty hair when she was her age. Ireland said "Well, you didn't have the cool technology of curling irons back then."
-Ireland's class job right now is materials manager, which she really loves because she is quite an organizer!
-Ireland got to go on a few field trips, too, this month, including a field trip to Zion's to see an IMAX film and a trip to Homestead Resort. Cool!
-When mom was asking Ireland about her field trip, she asked her if Ireland blew Link a kiss since the cemetery was right by where she went on her field trip. Ireland looked at her a little sheepishly and said "in my mind..." and kept talking :)
-Ireland had a dream this month about Link being resurrected. She said she was sitting by mom, who was "holding Link in her hands and was so happy!!"
-For Polar Expeditions, Ireland kind of accidentally chose a class that teaches about mummies. She wasn't really excited about it, but has learned a lot & now she thinks it's pretty cool!
-Ireland was SO excited on the first day of snow. She grabbed her snow gear right when she got home from school & worked till it was very late & dark on her snowman :)      

KEZIA:
-Kezia and Noelle were playing outside in the cold & snow one day & all the sudden there is a loud noise. Mom came out to see that the patio table was shattered. Kezia immediately started crying & sobbing & it took a while for mom to understand what happened, but eventually she got that Kezia had been trying to throw rocks at the table to make them be in the snow on the table & be "glittery." Needless to say, we will need a new table. Kezia felt so bad, but mom made her help clean up the mess & she will have a consequence.
-In Kindergarden one day, the teacher asked the kids to come up with things that start with the letter A. Kezia raised her hand & said "Anne of Green Gables!" :) Parenting win!
-Kezia says her favorite parts of November were the Storybook Parade (her favorite float was the music box one) and going to St. George.

LINK:
Three years old this month. You would be so excited and loving to open the matchbox cars set that we got for you. You would be able to choose what you wanted to eat for your meals and what you wanted for your birthday. Oh, how we missed you this year, our sweet Link. This year was a little more simplistic than the other two. It was on a Saturday. We woke up and ate Fruit Loops, since they are rainbow-colored.  watched a movie in the morning, then we went to the dollar store and bought a lot of things for the Jubilee House. Then we went to the Cemetery & released balloons & then to McDonald's to put money in the Ronald McDonald Jar. It was just our little family this year. We are grateful for your love notes this month. Mom found MANY hearts in many different places & your candle from the Wave of Light is STILL going after almost 2 months now! It's really a sweet blessing. Mom is trying to do a family history game for Christmas this year & hope it will help us become closer to our ancestors and help fulfill your mission. We truly hope you can feel how loved you are, little boy. Happy Birthday.

NOELLE:
-Noelle says "Yay!!" when we put some food that she loves in front of her. It's sooooo cute!
-Noelle still thinks the fire alarms are stars and she loves to look at & point to the one in her room and say "star!" and sing twinkle, twinkle to it.
-We are amazed at how much Noelle knows. She knows the sounds for about 10 animals, she knows a few of the numbers when we count (like if we count to 7, she knows 8 comes next), she knows a lot of the ABC song & can point to about 10 of the letters and tell us their names. She can point to & say like 10 body parts. She is starting to really speak in 3 & four word sentences now. It's so fun to see how much she absorbs!
-When we throw Noelle up in the air or blow on her tummy or do something else she loves, she will say AGAIN! again & again!
-Another 10+ on the cuteness scale is when she says THANK YOU after she kisses you. It's this high-pitched Thank you and it's soo cute.
-Noelle will get a diaper for you if you ask her to! She says "daiper!" & runs & grabs one & brings it back.
-She says "Buh-Bye!" a lot. She really likes to be out going & doing - not just in the house all day.
-We got a book called "Wake Up!" from the library & she knew a lot of the words after a couple weeks of having it. The cutest was how you would turn to the page that said "ewww... " and she would automatically point to the word & say "Ewwwww!"
-For FHE one Monday, we made a cookie cake with whipped cream. We gave some to Noelle & she proceeded to "wash her hands" with the whipped cream while she sang the hand-washing song.  :)
-Instead of just repeating back the word, she now says "Yes!" or "Yeah." Like, do you want an apple? Instead of saying "apple" she says "Yes!"
-Noelle has started to tell us when she has a stinky diaper. She will reach around, pat her bum & say "Oh! Stinky!" One day while changing her diaper, mom said "buh-bye stinkers!" and she said "Ni-Nite Stinkers!"
-Noelle has really started to join her sisters in playing ponies. She loves to have one or two at a time & have them "talk" to each other & walk on the walls. She also still loves little cars.
-Noelle's hair is getting so long! It's about to her shoulders & we can put it in pigtails now! It's so adorable.