November excitement

November was exceptionally busy. We pulled out our Thanksgiving decor (and turkey hats) and moved forward through the month.

Crazy Ryan keeps us laughing.

 Ryan was in soccer club for the 2nd quarter. We would pick up Rachel from band, then have a half hour to kill until soccer was done. This huge chair is at the kids' school, so one day they chilled on it for part of the time we were waiting for soccer club to finish up.

 Ryan, the adventurer and monkey bars enthusiast ended up having his hands slip on our monkey bars one day and landed right on one of the wood pieces that is at the foundation of our playset. It definitely left a mark.

 I got tired of the chairs I had re-covered a year and a half ago always coming off because the screws had kind of stripped the plywood on the bottom of the chairs. So I decided to try and make my own seats. The black wooden seat is the new one, the striped seat is the old (dirty) one.

 Turns out I managed it pretty well. After the success with the first one, I got 3 more done to round out the set. Add the tie-on cushions I got from Walmart and I have basically new chairs.

Annie and her best friend, Laura, were going to get baptized together since their birthdays less than 2 weeks apart. But then they switched the November baptism to Thanksgiving weekend (which was great for our family to be able to come to it), but didn't work for Laura's family, so Laura ended up getting baptized a different week than Annie. Annie was happy to go support her (along with their friend, Bryce).

 Rachel got to participate in a really cool program called Starbase in October and November. Once a week for 5 weeks she got to go on-base at Davis Monthan and do a whole day of some science/technology hands on learning. They launched rockets they had built and had 3D printed part of, engineered a plane to save an egg (Rachel's team won), learned mapping and went geocaching, did some chemistry experiements, and something else I can't remember right now. Such a cool program I'm glad she got to be a part of.
She had so much fun geocaching we downloaded a geocaching app and went out for a few caches ourselves. There are a lot of micro caches in our area that have nothing but the logbook, but they really loved finding the one larger one that they could take something out of, and leave something of their own in it.

 Rachel being goofy:

 I ended up with at least 20 pictures of her on my phone.

Since there was no school for Veteran's Day, we were able to have Peyton and McKenzie stay over for a sleepover when they came out for Sunday dinner. Spontaneous sleepovers are even more fun than planned ones. Before we went into town to meet Justin to pick them up the next morning we went out for a special treat of donuts.

 Megan and Peyton are best buds and love doing everything together.

 We got to go to Ryan's first grade concert the week before Thanksgiving. They did a great job, but boy, am I glad I don't teach first grade.

 Mrs. Radspinner, Ryan's awesome teacher, has a special place waiting for her in heaven for her great patience and love she shows to her first graders every day.

 She is the perfect teacher for Ryan.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we watched a friend's kids so she could go be a nurse at the cub scout camp for the day. We pulled out the bouncy house for a little organized fun and the kids had lots of fun with it. Especially the little guy.

 While we played with friends at home, Rachel had a math competition.

 They did a great job and had some fun. Rachel decided to play up the "math nerd" in her and added tape to her glasses. Nerd.

 Megan is now officially riding her two-wheeler. She prefers her balance bike for longer rides because she is not confident starting on her own on the bike with pedals, but she's a great biker, getting better every day. And loves riding her bike. She asks me usually at least a couple times every day to go out and bike.

 And she usually wears her helmet. Just not in this picture for some reason.

Annie and Ryan had a doctor's appointment that I ended up taking Megan along to. I think Annie worked herself up to being sick because she was so worried about getting a flu shot so she didn't even have her well check because she looked like she might puke at any moment. But since Megan happened to be along she (to her chagrin) got a flu shot along with Ryan.

 (This picture was before she knew she'd be getting a shot.)
Besides the shots, we left the doctor with orders for another Celiac panel for Ryan. He was tested in March and it came back in the weak positive range, so we were told to load him with gluten for 6 months, then come back and retest. We just got the results back from this second test and it is still about the same level--a weak positive result. Next step is a referral to a GI (his previous one that we love retired!:( ) and after that it is likely that he'll be eating gluten free again. But we've got to wait until then so if the doc wants to do an endoscopy for a definitive diagnosis it will be accurate. Ryan told me last week before he even knew we were re-doing the blood work that he thinks he should stop eating gluten because it makes his tummy hurt. It would be easier now than it was when he was 3. Especially if he feels the difference. But for now we wait for the GI appointment (3 months out, unfortunately).