December 2017

Birthday's
December 14th Kylee's birthday
December 21st Hadley's birthday

Announcements
Jamies Sprinkle will be at El Matador December 22nd @ 6pm
Lundell Family Christmas Eve Dinner and lights December 24th


Lori

Still not too much interesting happening here. For Thanksgiving I drove to DC to be with my friend Christina (who was also alone for thanksgiving) and have my first vegetarian Thanksgiving. Foturkey actually wasn't too bad. However, I did miss the family and feel bad I wasn't able to go to the big party at Holly's place.

Otherwise, I have been making a lot of homemade ornaments for my Christmas tree, and wrapping up the semester with my classes. I was also able to run a relief society activity where we all made homemade Christmas ornaments. It turned out quite successful overall.

I racked my brains...this is all I have. Even my trip to DC wasn't all that exciting. Empty life of a grad student....

Lori

Colleen and EJ

The Fordhams are currently enjoying a little less stress month with no sports! Corbin will start an indoor session or two of soccer after the holidays.  Mom made the mistake of signing the boys up for basketball too late, so we couldn't get in.  But I think I was divine intervention, because the break has been so nice for mom and the kids!  
Corbin is currently singing in the Farr West Choir, he has a few solo parts, and we have already enjoyed a few concerts and were looking forward to his big choir Christmas concert in a few weeks.  He doesn't even complain about the early morning practices, he is really loving singing lately!
Corbin also won in his division for the Reflections contest out of all of the elementary and Jr high schools for a poem he wrote on the theme "Within my Reach".  He now moves on to district, we will see if he goes any further at an awards assembly on the 18th. 

Luke is super excited about Christmas, and was very much anticipating the arrival of our Elf James.  He wrote him a really cute letter the night before he got to our house!  He continues to make us laugh with some of the things he says. One of those funny things was in the shower the other day, he told me that "he likes it when he poops so he can eat more".  I said "I don't thing you need to eat more", he clarified and said "no mom, not eat more, but so I can eat again"!
The kid is constantly hungry and wants to eat.
Reagan continues to be the little joy in our home.  She is also excited for "Schristmas"!  She gets pretty confused about what and when it is, but its so fun to see her so excited, and to see the magic in her eyes!! She got to sit on Santa's lap a few days ago, he gave her a peppermint candy cane and she thought it was "spicy"! Lately she talks about how many babies she wants to have and how she wants to be a mom when she grows up.  Shes at a super fun age!

Eli continues to plug away at school, hes got about a week left of the semester, and we are all excited for him to have a little break.  He's been super busy at work.  For the holiday season his boss has asked that he set up a breakfast and a lunch appointment with contractors every day.  He has been trying to eat healthier and exercise more, so that makes it a little hard.  My Fitness Pal has been his friend lately to help him stay on track.  He continues to amaze me with his work and school balance,  and makes us proud that he pushes so hard.
I have still been battling my darn foot.  I think its healing, but super slow.  This past week I started at home electronic and ultrasound therapy, and I do think it is helping!  I also broke out with the Shingles virus this past week,  it has been no fun.  I think I have a milder case, but its still been miserable. My Dr started me on antiviral medication.   I cant imagine what a severe case would be like!  I must be under more stress than I think.  Hopefully I can chill more this holiday season.
We had a blast at the Rudd's for Thanksgiving!  The drive both there and back were really not too bad.  I loved seeing all the cousins play endlessly.  My kids absolutely loved swimming everyday.  Reagan has asked me everyday since we have been home if she can swim. I think they made some great cousin memories that week!! Holly and Dan were excellent hosts who fed us like Kings everyday!! The morning we left, my boys got into the leftover birthday cake without permission.  There was like half a cake left that they wiped out.  Aunt Holly went into the kitchen to see frosting all over Luke's face,  She said "Luke did you have birthday cake for breakfast", he said" no", she said, "then whats that all over your face"? He said ,"well I had cake, but that's not what I'm having for breakfast".  That kid of mine!! Thanks again Rudds for the fun holiday!! Corbin also turned 12 while we were there, when we got home the mail man delivered him an "amazon Alexa echo", he's been obsessed with it.  It is a pretty fun toy!  Were looking forward to Corbin receiving the Priesthood in a few weeks!

That's it for the Fordham's,  were just looking forward to the Holiday season and trying to focus on our Savior and how much he has blessed our lives!!

Dan and Holly

Hayden is doing great in piano and started his Christmas song book. He received a wonderful report card from his teacher. He invited a non-member friend to scouts, Ace loved scouts and is super excited to join Hayden’s troop. Last week they built some crazy contraptions that reminded me of the game mouse trap. He loves his scout leader. 

Hadley is loving reading more and more. She is really into these "baby mouse" books. They are kind of like comics. I catch her reading in her room after lights out all the time. Hadley and Kylee started a second day of gymnastics a week and Hadley is perfecting her handstand and can kick her legs much higher then her momma! Hadley gets to start activity days next week and cannot wait!

Kylee is doing well in gymnastics also. She just bounces off the walls when she goes with all her excitement. She is doing so well with reading and moved up another reading level on her homework. She hates school. She asks every single day how much longer she has to go to school. But she loves writing notes to everyone in the family. Kylee is in a picky eating stage where she will hardly eats anything! She is pretty much living off bananas and pancakes right now.

Jake had a thanksgiving joy school and make ‘chicken hats.’ He also learned about listening and made a telephone with two tin cans and a string. Now he tells me ‘Mom! Your not listening to me!’ 

We had two big adventures this month. My Dad, Colleen and Jamie along with their families came for Thanksgiving. I absolutely love having family around and it melts my heart to see my kids play so well with their cousins. We swam everyday and went on a razor ride and hit up a near by park. The women pretty much lived in the kitchen for 3 days and it was so fun to cook with my sisters. Dad enjoyed sneaking in and out watching the kiddos play and even got in some Black Friday shopping with us! 

Our other adventure was we surprised our kids with a trip to Disneyland with friends! We had a total of 5 families all meet up. It was such a fun experience. We used the new Disneyland app where you can get fast passes on your phone. It was not very busy and we got to ride the rides multiple times. Jakes favorite was Splash mountain. Hayden’s was the Screaming’ roller coaster. Hadley's was Guardians of the galaxy(which is totally insane!!) and Kylee went from hating all but the kiddy rides to becoming a roller coaster addict! I’d say the trip was very successful. Except the part when we got to our hotel at 1 in the morning only to realize Hayden had left his backpack with the iPad at the LAX airport.  Dan and I put the kids to bed and drove all the way back to the airport to find it and got to bed at 3 in the morning!!  However we had plenty of fun the next day to make us forget about our lack of sleep!

I broke out in hives again this month. I’ve realized it’s stress induced. The Dr gave me a new anti anxiety medication to take when it first starts. I’m headed to the allergist this week to get more answers. I also got a new calling of YW camp director.

Dan has been all things play, play, play! He planned our trip to Disney and is planning a ski trip in February and a few day trips in between and is already planning a trip for the whole Rudd family next year.  I love how adventurous Daniel is and is always coming up with fun things to do.  

We are headed to Utah for a few days for Christmas then we are all super excited to go visit grandma and grandpa in Maryland! 

Jamie and Mike

November has been a busy month for me (Mike) at work for the Thanksgiving holiday but have had some great experiences among the business. I have found a new sport that I am intrigued by: Pickleball. If you think it’s a sport for old people, your wrong. I thought it was and have yet to beat someone over the age of 60 at a game. But I love playing it. It is a lot of fun. Also this month I had the opportunity to do equine therapy. It’s a therapy with horses and it taught me a lot about myself and was one of the most amazing experiences. 

Gibson has become a master hover board rider over the Thanksgiving weekend. He has been getting better at his sight words and loving Kindergarten. Jamie and I began to put up the babies crib in the same room as Gibson and he did not like that one bit. He wanted everything in his room to go back to how it was. It took him a day to be okay with it. An update to that will come when the baby is here. Cross our fingers 🤞it goes well. 

Jamie got to go to AZ with 2 of her sisters to TOFW. It was a fun weekend get away. We also went to NM for Thanksgiving. Where the Rudd’s graciously hosted everyone. Gibson was in heaven swimming and running wild with his cousins. We missed Aunt Lori. Jamie and Grandpa worked on the play house a little this month before it got to cold. We replaced the 15 year hole in the floor. Uncle Bob rebuilt the rotted out door and did a wonderful job. 

We look forward to the Christmas season and seeing family.