November

Well November is almost gone and its gime to document it. Its unbelievable how fast time is going. I remember thinking how Halloween seemed so far away and now Christmas is the next holiday. My superstar bball player nephews (a.k.a. Cannon & Cole) started their season and we have loved watching them play. They are truly gifted and I wish I could have gotten more of the Simmons' skills. :) The weather has all the sudden turned FRIGID!! It came as a shock and I wasn't ready for it. I'll never be ready for it. I don't like Wyoming winters. There, I said it.
We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We had 1:00 round one with Asay's, then we got to go to Brenda's mom and dad's for 4:00 round two. I know I'm blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people among many other things. I was thinking of things I'm grateful for and realized that one thing I've always taken for granted is being surrouned by family all the time. Some people live in loneliness and I realize I've been blessed.
Today was the traditional "day after Thanksgiving work cows with Asays" day where Stan's brother Clark comes and they all preg test the cows and then we have a great big delicous lunch prepared by Jan.
Stetson & Kandace have loved playing with cousins but I'm ready to get back to a more normal routine where I'm actually home long enough to do some things around the house and the kids can get their naps.
Tonight me, Leanne Winterholler, Jaran & Shan Baker, Cannon & Erin played vball in the annual turkey tournament. We lost our first game, won our second. Its so fun to play volleyball again.

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Some exciting (to us) stuff has happened. Last week Stetson said his "k" sound is perfect clarity and mom was so excited she took a picture to document it. The CRC is so wonderful and has had such a good influence on him. He puts his finger on his neck when he says the sound because thats how they teach him at the CRC. AND, just when I say I'm glad my husband isn't a hunter, guess what? Yeah he goes and gets a buck. Well I'm totally o.k. with it. He had fun and we got some meat out of it. I'll need all your good vension recipes. We cut/marinated jerkey that night and I baked/dried it in the oven the next day. Didn't turn out quite as we expected but we're learning and we'll get better at it.

Story time

Before Stetson was even 1, I started taking him to Story Time when we lived in Laramie. Partly because other moms invited me and partly because I thought good moms took their kids to story time, and I wanted to be in that category. So I took him and it seemed silly to be there at times. He'd run under the chairs, under the tables and sometimes distract the other kids, but we kept going and pretty soon he started to like it. I remember when I was pregnant with Kandace, we went EVERY time because I knew these were my last days with him alone and I wanted to give him lots of extra attention and fun things to do. I remember it being less than pleasant to drag me and my fat belly (and Stetson) to the library every week in the frigid Laramie winter.

Well now I look forward to story time as much as he does. Not to listen to the stories, but because I LOVE children's books. We check out 6 or 7 books every time and I love coming home and reading them. I can't wait to see what they'll be about. Children's books are fun because they take us away from reality for a couple minutes as we read about exciting places, different people and fun messages. I spotted "You are Special" last time and snagged it because I knew it was a good one. I cried when I read the last part. The story is about a little Wemmick boy who has dots on him because the towns people put them on him. The wemmick feels bad and goes to the woodcarver, Eli, and Eli tells him "Remember," Eli said as the Wemmick walked out the door, "you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes." I LOVE THAT! I felt a little more confident that day because I remembered that Heavenly Father made me and that it doesn't matter what others think of me, because Heavenly Father loves me, and he doesn't care what others think, and either should I.