November 2025

November started out with a bang! The first Saturday we fit in a swim meet, baptism, dance photos, getting Ellie ready for a dance, and two birthday parties. I didn't get home until 1:30am the next morning.

Ellie went to her first school dance. She went with a boy named Davin George, who had never been to a dance before either even though he was a senior. It was Sadie's which is a dress up dance, so she asked him in "Anne of Green Gables" style. She ended up having a great time, which I love. They didn't actually stay at the dance that long, but that wasn't the point I guess. We did pictures, then they had homemade dumplings that they had made the night before at her friend Siqi's house. Then it was the dance and then a movie night. She didn't get home until pretty late too. 

Ellie: Sadie's was so fun! I went with Mori and her boyfriend and Sophia and her date. It was super stressful the whole month before to plan it, but the day itself was way fun. I loved picking out my dress and a fun theme. Davin was super nice, and right now we have a couple of classes together and are friends. The dumplings for dinner were delightful, and Stardust afterwards was such a good movie! The dance was fun, too, but not as much. The DJs the school hires never play very fun dancing music, but there were a couple of good songs. I love the pictures I have from it.

I (Kylee) took their dance photos. It is the first time I had taken dance photos before, and I definitely called Patti for all the tips. I think they turned out nice, and Ellie's friends told her their favorite part of the date was taking the photos. The only funny moment was when Mori's boyfriend tried to give me advice for the photos. I don't think they are together anymore. 

Holland went to Sophie's 11th birthday party that day. Erica went all out with a Harry Potter birthday. Holland ended up staying the night because she always asks, and Erica is the nicest. Holland went to church with them the next day, and Erica sent me the photo of them in the purple dresses. 

John and Darcy went to McKenzie Armstrong's belated 40th birthday party that evening. I met up with them after the dance photos. McKenzie went all out and rented a venue. It also coincided with Armstrong family lore where an Archbishop cursed their family 500 years ago. Duel party. 

The next day I taught a gospel doctrine lesson on D&C 124. It was so great to deep dive into the scriptures and look at the original sources. I spent a lot of time on the history of that time, and I felt like it went well. One funny thing was how Joseph Smith just went up to the White House and knocked on the door, asking to meet with the president. We had just gone to DC and the security around the White House was intense. 

It was a warmer fall so I did a lot of biking in November basically all of the places I could think of--up the canyon, down to Mapleton, out to the airport, and more. I loved pushing my body in this new way. One scary day though, I almost saw someone get hit by a train. I carried my bike over the overpass and as I was riding away, I heard a ton of train honks. Then I hear a bunch of sirens not too much later. When I was heading back, the whole area was closed with police tape, and as I was carrying my bike over the overpass, I looked down and saw a body shaped lump under a white cloth on the tracks. I later found out via the news that the man was younger than I was. So sad and kinda freaky. I am so glad I didn't actually see it. 

We spent one Saturday cleaning out all of the flower beds. Ellie and Miriam were at a swim meet (Miriam got 2 PRs!), and Holland and Darcy were actually very helpful. It was an adorable time playing in the leaves afterwards. They are cuties. I just love playing with my kids, even just silly moments pretending they are food and I am going to eat them. So many giggles. The end of season yard work is a lot but it made me glad we weren't building a pool this year. We dug up dahlia tubers (it didn't work to over winter them inside. How can they be too dry and also molding?) 

That night we had a campfire and s'mores (minus the graham crackers), which was surprisingly delightful. 

Date night this month was awesome. Fat Daddies with John - buffalo cauliflower, fat daddies pizza, and garden of eatin. Uptown Cheapskate with Miriam - so many good finds! 

John gave a talk in church about the most recent talk by Elder Uchtdorf. He did such a good job, and I was proud of him. It was funny because all three speakers in the meeting selected what talk they wanted to speak about and everyone happened to pick the same talk. His main takeaways were that progress is slow and that's okay. God helps us, but it takes effort. That evening Ellie and I went to her friend Elizabeth's Acting Up fireside. It was lovely and touching to hear the songs and messages about Christ, and Ellie is super fun to go with. 

I woke up with a cold one day but still made it to Holland's Veteran's Day assembly. She is adorable. I am so grateful for a body that heals from illness. I sometimes think negative thoughts about my body, but really it is amazing. Actually I was sick a lot in November. I think I had a version of the flu. 

I got a walking pad to go with the standing desk. The first one was a lemon and didn't work for more than an hour or two, so we went to a lot of effort to work with their customer service, but ultimately decided to return it because it wasn't working. We bought a different work, and it has worked great for months. We returned the first one in the most cobbled together box, but they gave us a a refund. 

We started our Taylor Swift dress up Sundays. Miriam's tightly curled hair was everything. I think I am going to do a whole post about that. 

Miriam's friend Alessia stayed at our house while her mom was out of town. I think it went well! We went to see them swim at a swim meet. I took Miriam and Alessia to the mall, and they had a great time buying jewelry. While they were there John and I went to two different bike shops and ended up buying a new dryer. Our dryer broke that afternoon. Then we took everyone to Cinnabon and to get everyone specialty cinnamon rolls. They were so fancy! 

Darcy got student of the month, and was recognized in an assembly. Ellie actually got student of the month too. Ellie laughed because she got it for a class that she doesn't really try hard in. 

We hosted the Deru Thanksgiving this year. We use our china and everything was so pretty and yummy. I loved it! John washed all the china, silver, and crystal. He is the best. We took a photo of the four of us sisters and sister in laws, and Patti had so much fun turning our photo into various versions with AI. 

The next day we set up Christmas! And the Jacobsons came to visit! They were in town because of a nephew leaving on a mission. They gave us a Christmas present that is a new game Jeff help develop - Fight 5. We love it. The next day we worked on the advent and garage storage. Man, I am definitely middle age to be excited about better functionality in our garage storage, but it was super needed. Darcy was so cute helping John with the screws for the first shelf. 

On the last day in November we had our first snow of the year. Darcy was so so excited about the start of the advent the next day. We had the funniest 5th Sunday meeting. Our kids just aren't shy. They all spoke up. They are just the cutest. Holland said gathering Israel is like making everyone a big family. Darcy told John, "We're not in Israel, we live in Utah." 

The cutest Anne of Green Gables.

Hunger games couple, Queen of hearts and the mad hatter, Gilbert and Anne. 

I picked some roses before a freeze one day. They are lovely.

Holland is actually the funniest/most alarming.

Quotes for the month:

D: Holland, we're not tenacious.

One day when I was sick and trying to take an afternoon nap, Darcy came in our room and told me how once when she was lost on our DC trip the Holy Ghost spoke to her out loud. She doesn't remember the exact words, but she replied out loud, "Okay, I will." And she followed the instructions to find us. I don't even remember her being lost! 

D: Mommy, can I start paying taxes? Or is it tithing? I have a paper and a coin I can give them. 

J (singing): You don't know you're beautiful!

D: Yes I do.

While John was exercising: 

D: He must exercise at the gym a lot because I can see his muscles. 

J: His muscles are almost as big as mine. 

D: (Gives John an appraising look and says nothing)

J: Do you like the Christmas lights?

D: Not particularly

J: Why does my phone want me to translate it to English? 

D: Joseph Smith knows how to do that! 

November raspberry crop before a freeze! 

I was a biking machine before I got sick. 

One of Miriam’s special finds on our date. (We didn’t buy this!)

Cutest kids in the leaves.

We love Fat Daddy’s!

A portrait of mommy from Darcy.

She loves the tiny scriptures

Veteran’s Day assembly

Darcy spent the Fall working on riding a pedal bike. She worked so hard on it!

The kids worked so hard at swim team

Fanciest cinnamon rolls ever

Darcy got student of the month for trustworthiness

I loved our tablescape for Thanksgiving

Yummiest Thanksgiving

Patti used this photo and had a good time editing it with AI. It was a good laugh!

I think these were supposed to be Met Gala dresses.

Forever friends

Fancy tea party of sparkles

October 2025

 

October started with going on a field trip with Holland! I have never really done that before, and it was delightful. We loved listening to music together on the bus ride. We got to ride near the front which was good because I was nervous about getting motion sick on the bus. 

When we got to the Capitol Building we had a picnic on the grass near the front corner of the grounds. We packed some yummy food and really enjoyed our picnic together. Then we went on a guided tour of the building which was great. I love hearing tours of cool historic places. I learned that they estimated that the capitol building would cost $1 million but it ended up costing closer to $2.8 million. It makes me feel a little bit better about our house project budget breaking. :) 

The next day I hiked Stewart Falls with Erica. We have never really done anything like that before--just getting together the two of us without kids as an excuse or as a tag along. It was fun! She is so easy to talk to, and the mountains were just lovely. We talk about all of the things and fortunately we match each other as far as oversharing. It is good to have each other as our unpaid therapists. 

The next day we actually got together with the Davises again but this time as families. We headed up to Cascade Springs in Heber. They have been there before, but it was the first time for us. The drive up there was longer than you'd think but very pretty. We walked around the pathways and saw the cascading waterfalls. It wasn't as colorful as it normally is, they said, but we thought it was still nice. I loved seeing the kids being together. We took Aspen Loop to get back to the canyon which was stunning. Then we followed their tradition of eating at Pizza Pie Cafe afterwards. It was fun to go to dinner with everyone. The pizza and salad bar were pretty good! It was great to hang out with them. Also, that day is connected in my brain to the release of Taylor Swift's album "Life of a Showgirl." I listened to the entire album several times that very day. Then on the drive home from Cascade Springs I made John listen to some of my favorites. I don't think he likes them as well as I do, but hopefully he at least tolerated it. 

The next day was General Conference. One reason this conference is memorable was that President Nelson had just died, but they hadn't had his funeral yet, so they didn't sustain President Oaks as the prophet yet. They were all just apostles, and President Oaks was the President of the Quorum of the Twelve.   

Another reason that this conference stands out in my mind was that our internet went out that day. Not great timing. Thankfully we could stream it from our phones, but it was harder than normal to access the live conference experience. We had rain that day, which we need so bad. We spent the day canning applesauce and apple butter with the apples from John's parents. I love listening to conference--it just makes me feel so peaceful, hopeful, and motivated. On Sunday Holland planned a tea party for us all, and we all chipped in and worked hard to make it happen. It was very fancy. I hope the kids can someday recognize the efforts we went to to make the fun things happen, especially the ones that weren't even our ideas. 

We attended a play at the Ruth with our neighbors the Bills. They gave us the tickets as a neighbor Christmas gift. The seats were amazing. We went to dinner with them first at Sizzler, which will always remind me of my grandparents. It feels like a very older person place to eat, but certainly still yummy. It was good to get to know them better. A few months later Bill Barnson had a stroke, and our whole neighborhood has had to join in to help care for them. Right now we take them dinner every Tuesday. I hope he can make a full recovery. 

The following day Holland and I went to Girls Summit at the Provo Library. It was so cool to hear from all of these female professionals. Holland wrote to herself to remember, "Remember to make a violin friend and become a pilot."  

The next day was a Friday and I did my longest bike ride yet. I biked from home, up by Timpview, and up the canyon a bit, totally 22 miles. It was so fun! That night we played games with the Jacobsons and I actually won. It had actually been years since I won a game in that group. 

The next day we spent revamping our whole DC trip because of the government shutdown. We didn't envision that coming when we bought our cheap tickets from the Provo airport. It is so frustrating that our whole trip got messed up because of our dumb legislature. At least we had a fun evening that night. We used John's and Erica's Tucanoes birthday free meals to eat together there. We ate so much delicious food and had a great time chatting. One thing I remember about that night was that it was so windy that walking to and from the car felt like a wind tunnel. Like really. 

The Primary Program was the next day, and obviously Darcy and Holland were darling. Holland seriously killed it with her little solo of "I Will Shine." I love seeing her so happy doing that. Sophie spent the night here, and she and Holland picked matching dresses to wear to church. It was adorable. 

That week we left to go to DC! I will definitely talk more about that later, but there is so much work before and after a trip. There is a cost to travel that isn't money and part of that is all the prep and recovery work. The day after we got back I went with Darcy on her very first field trip to Gordo's Family Farm. It was so cute to hear all of the kinders try to answer questions about the animals with no logic at all. It was a little chaotic trying to keep track of my little group but I didn't lose anyone for very long. I mainly just love my own kids. 

When we got home from DC, we had to get right to work getting our yard ready for winter. This was the first time we got our pool ready for winter, and it was a fair bit of work. Fingers crossed that we did it all correctly and that we'll have no pipes break from freezing. I am the most nervous about our outdoor shower. That same Saturday Holland prayed at the beginning of the day that she would do her chores really, really fast, and she did them faster than every. It took her less than 2 hours!

That Sunday we watched a youth broadcast from Presidents Holland, Freeman, and Farns. I had no idea that it would be the last time we would hear President Holland speak. I love hearing their testimonies about looing unto Christ. That evening we did a campfire dinner. We did tin dins which was such a hit. Darcy told me that it was the best meal she'd ever had. Our treat was marshmallows with coconut chocolate which fantastic, really. To add to the fun we threw in one of John's color changing fire packs. It was good time. 

During this time I was asked to substitute Gospel Doctrine which was so scary, but I also love it. I love diving deep into the scriptures. This takes seriously so much of my time though. During this lesson I felt like spending time on the the historical space of what was going on before D&C 124. I just like focusing on what sparks for me, which is unfortunate for those that aren't interested. 

We also stayed busy with all the other good things too. Holland and I went to Girls Read at the library which is so good for us. Teen Tuesday with our older girls is such a fun tradition. We went to the ward Halloween party, which is fun-ish. On actual Halloween, we went trick or treating with all the girls for a bit, and after a while Ellie went to Siqi's house to make dumplings for her dance the next day. What a fun day date! Miriam hung out with her friends too. But the younger girls got plenty of trick or treating too. 

We wore matching dresses for this outing. :) 

Fancy reception room

Dome paintings

Cute 5th grade class

Legislature room

Cutest response from her date -- 3D printed carrots with a note, "Hey Carrots, Absolutely!" with a hand drawn flower. :) 

Such a fun hike with my bestie!

Kinder biking home with my little darling.

The best dinner - on the patio, zucchini fries, homegrown veggies, copycat madlove burgers.

Cascade Springs with the Davises and their little cousin.

Patches of gorgeous leaves

Our big girls had other commitments that evening, which happens a lot on the weekend evenings.

Pizza Pie Cafe was actually pretty good!

Tea Party designed by Holland

Love the flowers from our yard

Warm tea and iced tea - all herbal of course

She spent so much time on these menus <3

That's not a real website or email. :) 

Family walk after dinner, finally felt chilly

One of my rides up the canyon. I wear the mask because riding through a cloud of bugs is no bueno.

So pretty!

Holland's Christmas lists always make us laugh

So pretty!

Matching girls for church!

They are actually the same age!

Always trying to plant more seeds

Quotes for the month:

 

D: That's why you should have obeyed Daddy about the bike. (I wish I could remember who she said this to! Was it me??)

D: The worst part about being 5 is that your mom always tells you what to do. 

D: What does flirting even mean? Is it what I do with my sisters? 

D: Mommy you look darling! (Running up to me after I got ready to go on a date with John.)

Such pretty leaves!

John's new desk toy is everyone's favorite, including his coworkers!

Umm..okay show offs!

Field trip with Darcy's class

An after school sewing project for the two of us.

I bought a standing desk and walking pad to get more movement in my life. The first one I bought was a lemon. I tried a bunch of repairs that they recommended but ended up returning it with a cobbled together box situation. I bought another one that has worked great. It was obnoxious though.

We grew those sunflower seeds!

Last pool clean out of the year on Oct 25th! Miriam is tougher than me about cold water!

I kept meaning to do a before and after photo of our back yard. It isn't it's most pretty moment, but still gets the point across. October 2026.

October 2025

The colored flames and tins dins made a splash!

Their homemade decorations <3

I love my girls so much!

Two school parades at the same time meant that we had to divide and conquer. I got Darcy's.

John got Holland's

This was the year of multiple costumes, but Halloween we went with a robber, princess, pig, and Snow White. That Snow White costume kills me dead.

I love that we went as a family trick or treating at least for a bit.

Quite the candy stash!