Fa La La La LAAA

That really just seemed like a fun title, but really this is more hodge podge.
First up a few photos from my parents while watching my kids a few weekends ago. I so appreciate this. Chad is now on staff at our church for all the 5 weekend services and when I sing we are in a bit of a childcare dilemma. I love our church and our kids love our church but 5 services is pushing it for them to attend. HA! My parents always graciously watch these ya-hoos. They always have a ton of fun.
Here they are watching movies.

Auntie Meg is the best. :)

After my last weekend signing I realized that my voice was really struggling. I kept dealing with chronic hoarseness and/or laryngitis. No matter what I did I would be back in the same boat after a long day coaching or just singing in the car. It was super frustrating. One of our worship leaders is super talented and knowledgable on all things voice. He encouraged me to get to the ENT and get scoped, which is my least favorite thing. HA! Think tube up your nose and down your throat.

So I did---after much drama from that office. Apparently this practice doesn't believe in second opinions; as in if you have already seen one doctor you can't see any other doctor in that same practice! I mean what kind of "rule" is that?! It is my care, my $$, all to say super frustrating--I finally got in with another doctor and was scoped. I have nodes. Yes insert Pitch Perfect movie clip here.

 Here is my perfect boy, patiently waiting at my doctor's appointment. He was SOOOOOO good.

It is super frustrating as a mom, coach and singer. I am vocal rest for 6 weeks. Now I am down to 4, but still...shoot me now. Everyone has been supportive and helpful.
Vocal rest means little to no talking period. I am only talking on a as needed basis--hello I am a mom. Coaching is proving the most challenging. And the reason I am dealing with this. While I don't yell a lot it is super loud in there and you are constantly re-directing. Now I use a lot of white boards.
So if you see me don't be offended if I don't speak to you. Prayers appreciate.
That is the latest on my life. The holidays should be super fun. HA!

Back to life.
We had 3 rounds of Thanksgivings.

Round 1 was with my MIL, where we had lasagna {insert praise hands as I am not really a turkey fan.} and then went to the Peanuts movie.

Round 2 was on the day with my FIL side. They had ham, so that made Chad happy.  No photos. Our poor kids are really the only kids there, but we always have a good time catching up since it is really the only time we see that whole extended side.

Back to round 3. We got together with my grandparents and sister's family.
The girls trying to break the wish bone...maybe they will figure it out next year. HA!

My grandparents with the grandkids from-- well us. They have 4 more from my cousins side.

Grammy with all the grandkids at the Good Dino movie. It was a good movie with a great message. 

 Our Tree of Thanksgiving.

For the last few years  we each {most days} write one thing we are grateful for on a leaf and place it on our tree. It has been a fun tradition and been fun to see what the kids come up with each day.

These two ready to brave the cold, rain and ice.

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Oh and lest we forget this hot mess. That isn't a shadow. That is water leaking in from our roof. AWESOME. {insert sarcasm}. It rained, iced, rained, iced, rained and rained some more for 5 days. Now I am all for the rain--bring it on, but when it starts leaking into the house--rain rain GO AWAY!!!

Apparently according to our amazing contractor friend who climbed up on the roof in the rain to check it out found that the ice on the roof was sealing in the melting water underneath and well the water needed a place to go...so it ends up not being too big of a deal, just a fluke situation. And we weren't the only ones this happened too---we had at least 6 other friends have a similar problem. At least it wasn't a big fix, especially this close to Christmas.

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Here are our magical Thanksgiving photos. If you have followed this blog since the beginning, you know every Thanksgiving we gather together, put the camera on a timer and take a family photo. They always turn out great in 1 take. Every.time. Micah has always made this challenging, but it is who he is so it counts. This year he was much better. HA!

The perfect photo. :)

And then we started the tradition a few years ago of doing crazy out-takes. These actually end up being my favorites.

And noticed the fireplace is WHITE this year. AHHHH!! :)

Leighton has been BEGGING to decorate for Christmas for weeks. I told her the week of Thanksgiving we would slowly start...I care about baby reindeers and I don't want their deaths on my hands. :)

I promised that on Thanksgiving day we would put ornaments on...as luck would have it the power went out at 8am. I became very grateful for power. AND the linemen that braved the cold, icy rain to fix the lines. I mean how else do you get the coffee in the mommy?  3 hours later the lights were on! 

So decorating finally could commence.

Leighton is quite the helper. I love having a daughter.

MW went to his room to decorate his little tree. Good job buddy. Good job!

Oh look who wants to help? Yep lasted for about 2 minutes...

The finished product. We moved the tree this year. I like it there so much better---not so shoved in the corner.

All lit up.

And now on to the Advent season.