Flashback Friday - November 2016

I couldn't bring myself to vote for Trump or Clinton, so I wrote in Mitt Romney. (Rog did too.)

I declared this November pie month and made about a pie a week. I started with Sally's Pumpkin Pie. I had made a few pie crusts using various recipes before using her pie crust recipe and I had never felt they came out just right. Her pie crust recipe comes out perfectly for me every time and is the only one I use now.

Brown Sugar Peach Crumble Pie. I had to make this one because her commentary before the recipe is too funny. We are big Friends fans and watch the Thanksgiving episodes every November. If you're a Friends fan, go read her post, you'll die. 😂 Sadly you have to be a Friends fan, otherwise you won't get it!

Salted Caramel Apple Pie. I think I put in too much lemon zest which pretty much ruined this pie. 😥

I made the same pumpkin pie I made earlier in the month for Thanksgiving. 😋 It's now my go-to pumpkin pie recipe.

Since we had Thanksgiving at Rog's uncle's house, we didn't really have any leftovers (other than the things I made), so we did our own mini Thanksgiving the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I made this Candy Apple Pie which is super easy mostly because it doesn't have a crust on the bottom.

My Grandpa Ririe passed away (rather unexpectedly) the last week of October. Since we had just been to Utah a couple weeks before his passing and because we were going to Disneyland the day after his funeral, we decided I would fly to Utah by myself for the funeral. I flew in Friday night and thoroughly enjoyed my solo flight.

I loved seeing this picture of my Grandpa Ririe the day he married my Grandma Joan. She passed away at the age of 45 (when my dad was 21), so it was fun to imagine the happy reunion they were having on the other side of the veil. 

My grandpa married my Grandma Afton after Joan's passing. Afton and Ron pretty much kept their families separate since they married after all their kids were grown. But just like I consider Afton my grandma, Afton's grandkids consider Ron their grandpa. The funeral was a little interesting for our family because some of Afton's family spoke and it was like learning about a whole different life my grandpa had that we knew very little about. From our point of view, my grandpa had 8 grandkids, but his obituary said he had 19 grandkids and I guess that is true.

This is my favorite picture of my Grandpa Ririe. It is from him that I got my love for BYU football.

He donated generously to BYU, so they sent flowers for the funeral.

After the funeral and luncheon in the morning, I drove my parents to the airport. (They had to get back to Colorado because Diana and Jason were blessing Grey that night! Jason's parents were there from Idaho and they had to do it that night because we were flying to Disneyland Sunday morning.) Then I booked it down to Provo for the graveside service. I picked up Jared on the way and they were waiting for us when we arrived. 🙈

I took a picture with Diana and Alisha (my sister and girl cousin) at Alisha's wedding, so this picture seemed fitting. Me with my brother and 4 boy cousins. Diana didn't come to the funeral because of Grey's baby blessing and Alisha didn't come because she had just gotten home from her honeymoon.

After the graveside service, Jared drove me to the airport. I basically had the plane to myself on my flight home! 😂 It was an incredibly quick trip, but I was glad to be able to attend the funeral.

Then it was on to Disneyland!

We had our Primary Program at church the Sunday after we got home from Disneyland.

Corbyn's part: "Like Nephi of old, I was born to goodly parents. I will listen to my parent's teachings as they listen to the prophets."

Peyton's part: "My scripture hero is Esther because she was brave and saved her people."

Brenton and Melissa sent us this picture while they were watching our kids for date night swap. I'm so glad we were able to become friends with them so quickly. They treat our kids like their own. Nothing better than friends who feel like family!

I don't think I fully appreciated having Peyton home last year to entertain Logan during the day. Best buds!

As I was prepping to have LASIK, I had to have lots of eye tests done to make sure I was a good candidate for the procedure. Eye tests = eyes dilated. The worst. 👎

I helped with a Relief Society activity where we made these ornaments with pictures inside. This was just the beginning. I ended up making a ton with pictures of Rog's grandma and my grandpa, both who had recently passed away, for Christmas gifts.

Corbyn doesn't often build Lego creations from the instructions, so when he does it's picture worthy. Especially a big creation like this one!

Just a normal day with Jessie and Buzz hanging out eating suckers.

I guess we needed something for dinner because that's when I head to Safeway. These carts are evil, but sometimes necessary to get the job done!

Corbyn was recognized for running the most laps in his class. I wasn't at the assembly, but my friend sent me this picture.

Thankful turkeys are a November staple at our house.

As is our thankful tree.

Corbyn brought this home from school and it made me smile. "I am thankful for fun ruds (rides) at diziland (Disneyland)."

Corbyn had a day off of school, so we took a trip to IKEA. Playtime at Småland and hot dogs always make for happy kids.

I bought these plants and vases for my kitchen window while we were there. I still love them all these months later.

Like I said, we had Thanksgiving at Rog's uncle's house. If I remember correctly I made rolls (World's Best, of course!), cinnamon butter, cranberry sauce, cranberry punch, and pumpkin pie. 

After dinner we played down in their basement while we waited to be hungry again for dessert. Logan had fun with this car track. They also had a pool table and an air hockey table (I think). 

Logan was a big fan of my pie.

This was our best attempt at a family picture when we got home from dinner.

I went out and did some Black Friday shopping that night. We are conveniently located right by Target, Carter's, Kohl's, Old Navy, and Walmart. (Pretty much all the places I would ever want to shop at for Black Friday deals.)

The next day Rog met us at Kohl's on his lunch break (he had to work) and we let the kids each pick out a toy to donate to less fortunate kids. We had a few scary minutes when we thought we lost Logan, but we found him and all was well. 😅 

On Saturday the kids helped Rog put up our Christmas lights. We just used the lights from our townhouse and they looked pretty pitiful on our much bigger house!

We caught the missionaries sleeping during sacrament meeting and had to take a picture. The one in a black suit is Elder Packer (related to the apostle, Elder Packer) who is probably my favorite missionary we've gotten to know since moving here.

Also as I mentioned, we had a mini Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. I cooked a turkey breast in the crockpot and made stuffing waffles, mashed potatoes, and gravy. The rest I think was leftover from Thanksgiving - cranberry sauce, rolls, and cinnamon butter. 

At some point in the month I painted this pumpkin wagon from the Wood Connection.

We got to go to the Nike Employee Store and I splurged on this rain shield for running in the rain.

And Logan found a buddy in the mirror. 😂

On the last day of November, I had LASIK. The first day was pretty terrible and I struggled with very dry eyes for a few days after, but now I can say it was all totally worth it! And this is such a flattering picture. 😂

Even though November 2016 started with a funeral, overall it was a pretty great month - especially in comparison to the rest of our November 2017 (after my cruise) that I'm getting ready to post about soon. That was not the best month for our family. 😥