my life, my words.

Hey again

Birthdays and Turkey Days! Yeah – multiple for each. Let’s dive into it!

We started off the events with Ezra turning 1. He had a Bluey-themed birthday- because well why not? The other kids love Bluey anyway, so it made sense.

Having 3 birthdays on the same day can be trying. This year it seemed alright. My dad and Sky both decided to go to Outback for a birthday dinner (score one for Ezra too).

Afterward, Ezra got a chance to taste some sugar (in the form of his birthday cake).

This kid is a bit like me. Unlike the other kids who would tear into the take with their hands and face – Ezra didn’t do that. No, he decided to only put his face in. He didn’t want to get his hands dirty. Once he realized some cake got on his hands he wasn’t very happy until we cleaned it off.

That was probably my favorite part of it all.

What else?

The next day we went to a birthday event for Gramps who turned 80 (on the 19th but we celebrated the day on the 23rd). Big turnout with a lot of the family present for it.

That night we went to church (Saturday night) followed by Sunday morning church. Afterward, they asked for help decorating the church for the upcoming Christmas season. The kids were more than happy to help out and got to work. (see below).

We also collectively decided to take a trip over to the coast for a day to get away. The kids were excited to have a swimming pool that they could spend a few hours in as well (if you couldn’t tell from the huge smiles).

Luca was pretty out of it during this time (the whole family has been fighting off some sickness for most of the month anyway) but he complained about his ears hurting.

Ironically his ears. Ezra (just a week before) had gone to the doctor after running a fever and we found he had an ear infection.

We took Luca to the doctor and he had a DOUBLE ear infection. Man oh man.

Thanksgiving then came and we took a trip over to Gramps sister (Minnie) for dinner. Sky also brought over birthday presents for her cousin who just had her birthday. Keeping track of the birthdays? We had 3 at our house on one day, and two others later on bringing the total to five birthdays.

After dinner, we stopped and walked through some Christmas lights.

The next few days were busy. We ended up having our own Turkey Day as well (on Saturday). A second one just that is a bit more intimate than the many people at the other event we went to. Anyway, the food was good! We spent the time eating and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Let’s not forget we also had some homemade apple pies and some Costco-made pumpkin pies.

Then on November 30th, we were getting ready to go to bed. Luca didn’t want to – and after taking his cars to put them away he stormed off (running down the hall)

A few seconds later we heard a SLAM.

The metal child gate was left open and Luca ran right into it.

I spent most of the night waking up and icing his head. The kid can’t catch a break.

Hopefully next time he will be looking when he runs. Thankfully no hospital visit was needed.

just Pray.

Hey again,

Ara got the chance to spend a few nights at a friend’s house.

Once she came back we took some time and visited the falls. We haven’t been going to the falls or anything for a bit. Fall is always a lovely time to see the colors changing.

Anyway – here are some photos:

What else?

A couple of days later, we were out doing some errands and our low tire pressure light came on.

We made an appointment with Discount Tire and they fixed the hole in the tire for us.

So the middle picture (above) is NOT the hole from the tire. No.

No no no.

That is from Lijah.

What?

Yeah.

He decided to jump up and down in our second bathroom and one time that he landed he went through the fiberglass.

To replace the tub would easily be 5 to 8 thousand (as the whole thing is one piece).

We called some fiberglass repair places and they were able to come out within a day or two. The final cost was less than 1k, so that was a win.

If you are wondering, we had it repaired because my parents were coming into town for birthdays and Thanksgiving. A little more than a day later (and after the repair had dried) they arrived.

Now we prepare for birthdays.

just Pray.

You know what time it is.

I started the month trying to prep my parents for the possibility of it being anyone’s game.

Game?

Yeah, game.

Nobody had anything locked down.

Plus, as I have sent my parents previously. some weird things are going on about this election. Case in point the video below. This was back in June or July that this came out, but I’ve gone back to it a few times.

So that’s kinda odd. I don’t think she is spot on in implying he will take control of everything. But it is interesting to see who is in power for certifying votes, and what votes get counted. I would suggest that maybe there are ‘other’ votes somewhere. Again, who knows?

All I know is that my hope is in God above and not in the leaders of our country.

Speaking of that. Election day! I voted for what I hoped would have been our first female president.

The country has been so divided on everything as of late. I’ve liked the way that New Hope (our more liberal Christian church) has been dealing with the issue. It’s been so refreshing. Check it out here.

Before you start thinking one way or the other: at the core, it’s about Christians coming together. If you vote for Kamala or Trump, if you vote for someone else entirely – it is about bringing your personal “lean” to the table. What table? The table of Jesus. We should all be able to come together, even if we don’t agree with everything on one side or another. Take your lean and you can learn from others as well. You can also learn why they believe or even vote the way that they do. For me, it takes away the “hate” and lets Christians focus on something bigger than politics.

Pair this with our conservative Church all but telling everyone that they should be voting for Trump. A lot more than that too, but I don’t want to get into everything.

It helped because we went to a ‘welcome’ lunch at the church. One of the pastors talked about how ‘democrats are against the bible and want to take everything away from Christians’ – easy to see the ‘lean’ that he was bringing to the pulpit. He didn’t want to hear any other side or view either. I get it, we can all get pretty worked up over politics. Let’s focus on Jesus and what he would do. How he would vote. What he would prioritize – let those things be a guiding light. Not a way to force others to behave one way or another.

I digress.

However, seeing our first female president? That wasn’t to be the case. I hoped it in Hilary Clinton, and again with Kamala – neither came true. Maybe someday but that day is not today.

Here are some photos I took of the TV over the night.

You can easily say that Trump played his cards right. He was talking to a lot of younger male voters through podcasts and other mediums. He spoke to their hearts and won them over. Even a few women outside of church (from the more conservative one of the two we attend) were saying “Yeah, there is no way I could vote for Kamala, I wanted a Christian.

Well, for better or for worse (time will tell), Trump is the president-elect.

The day after the election, our liberal church had a worship service. This was set up months in advance. Months in advance they said, whoever won they would be praying for. Whoever didn’t win they would also pray for.

It was a healing evening. It was nice to focus on Jesus and worship.

They prayed for Trump, and they prayed for Biden and Kamala as well.

just Love.

until next time

just Pray.