Giving Thanks

Bryan shared his Thanksgiving pictures with me, so now we have visual proof of what may be the best turkey I've ever had. It was amazing. He also learned how to carve and plate the turkey so it would be easiest to serve. This year I learned how to cut, peel, and prepare butternut squash. It was delicious, but a lot of work. Also, we learned (during the leftover portion of our weekend) that squash arcs in the microwave. 

Behold, the glorious turkey.

The girls made centerpieces for our Thanksgiving table at a virtual Primary activity they attended. I think it might be the first time we've actually ever had centerpieces. Can you find them among the food?

We all worked really hard during the week leading up to Thanksgiving to have the kitchen/dining room free of boxes. That morning Cooper and Topher worked together to tidy up the great room/playroom. Thanks to all that work, we had a much more relaxing holiday than we otherwise would have.

Cooper often asks us to take pictures of his food. We usually say no, but on Thursday Bryan agreed it was a meal worth capturing.

Round Two

These girls got their second dose of the COVID vaccine today! We are so thankful that the vaccine exists and that they are old enough to receive it!

Christmas Is Coming

Home

Bryan and I started cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday afternoon. That's when the sweet potatoes were cooked, the cranberry sauce was made, and the razzleberry pie was baked. Then on Wednesday we added the pumpkin pies, the apple pie, the rolls, and the turkey started brining.

Today as he and I prepared the rest of the meal together in the kitchen, I marveled at how wonderful it was to have so much more space. We usually cook these big holiday meals together, but in the old house it required a lot of juggling prep areas, making sure we gave each other room. But that wasn't an issue today. It was glorious.

Bonus: the kids were able to go outside and play in the backyard while we cooked.

Even with all the work and stress of the last three months, I'm really thankful for this house.

Thanksgiving Eve

Getting Some Zzzs

It's been a long time since I was well rested, so I've decided to make sleep a priority. I got a whole eight hours of sleep last night, after a two hour nap on Monday and another long nap on Sunday. This morning when I woke up I remembered that sleep is miraculous. Seriously, I could feel this great everyday. All I need to do is convince my children to go to sleep early, sleep all the way through the night, and not wake up early.

Yeah, I can totally do that.

Wrong Audience

Sophie was looking through an issue of Better Homes and Gardens last week when she came across this ad for a Precious Granddaughter Pearl Pendant. She replied, "Ha! Joke's on you! I don't have a granddaughter!"

So there.

Teamwork

Speaking of Leaves

It's Autumn Time, It's Autumn Time

The kids have named two of the trees in the backyard, one is Wally and the other is Veronica. They held on to their leaves much longer than I expected them to, it even took a while for them to change color. But almost overnight Veronica was orange and Wally was red. And they were both beautiful!

I wish I had thought to take a picture of Veronica at the height of her autumnal glory, but I didn't expect her to go bald as quickly as she did. She now only has a few dozen leaves left clinging to her branches, as if she's ready and waiting for snow. Wally is still a resplendent and glorious red.

We had a windy, rainy day last week and I realized that Veronica's leaves were flying off in full force. I grabbed my phone and stuck my hand out into the rain to snap a picture before she was totally bare. And then I turned my phone and took a picture in Wally's general direction, hoping that I got something since I didn't want to actually go outside in the storm. Wally is now a much brighter red, but this gives you a general idea.

I love having a backyard.

And Everything In Its Place

I kind of feel like I've been playing a giant game of Tetris for the last three months. We shift boxes from one room to another room, maybe we unpack them, maybe we don't. We put certain furniture in one room only to realize a few weeks later that it doesn't work, so the furniture gets moved to a different room. I'm not complaining, sometimes all that moving helps me see possibilities in the spaces that I didn't know existed before, and that's kind of exciting. But I do look forward to the day when all the items in my house have a home. 

And the home for some of the things we currently have might be Goodwill.

Wireless

Cooper started the day like this:

And he ended the day like this:

He celebrated by chewing gum and eating lots of chewy candy that he had saved from Halloween. His plan for tomorrow is to enjoy some popcorn and get used to his new retainers.

Halloween at Home, 2021 Edition

Our Halloween festivities were at home again this year, but with some help from outside. 

The Primary president in our ward had the idea for a reverse trick or treat, meaning that families would stop at our house and drop off candy while we stood on the driveway in costume at a distance. I said that sounded fun, so on the night of our ward Trunk or Treat, the night before Halloween, five different families stopped by. Since they were all on their way to Trunk or Treat, they were in costume as well. Thankfully it was a really pleasant evening, so we were comfortable hanging out on the driveway for an hour while we waited for the deliveries. The kids really enjoyed getting to see friends that they haven't seen in a year and a half.

Here we have Catboy, a vampire, and the Queen of Hearts, all preparing for the reverse trick or treat.

When that was done, we came inside for a fun hot dog dinner and all kinds of Halloween goodies.

Phoebe planned activities for us. We played Halloween Tic Tac Toe, had a dance party, blew bubbles, colored Halloween pictures, and trick or treated at the doors in our home.

We alternated between the main floor and upstairs for trick or treating. Bryan manned the downstairs while Ron and Peter shared candy duties upstairs. When they knocked on the bathroom door, Bryan opened it with a towel on his head and made lots of ghost sounds as he dropped candy in their bags. The kids thought it was hilarious.

In addition to candy, Ron found some of the scrap flooring and dropped it in the kids' bags, much to their amusement.

This ghostbusting deer (sans antlers) and Tony Stark also enjoyed the Halloween fun.

When the trick or treating was done, we gathered in the great room to sample the candy and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. After Topher was sent to bed, we started Hocus Pocus. But this year our older kids picked up on the innuendo for the first time ever, so we turned it off and watched Halloween episodes of Phineas and Ferb instead.

And then we all went to sleep, because we were super tired. No, we actually sent Phoebe and Sophie to bed while the rest of us stayed up talking with Papa Ron way later than we should have, but it was fun. We were still super tired the next day, but it was a good Halloween.

To the Rescue

When we were about to close on the house in August, Bryan's dad, Ron, was ready and anxious to come out and help us with any fixing up we needed done. But after nearly a year and a half of isolating, we couldn't quite justify the visit. We really wanted to see him, and we probably needed his help, but the COVID concerns were still too strong.

Remember when I posted about the mold and water damage we found in the master bathroom? Well, that discovery made us realize that we definitely needed his handyman expertise. We reached out and learned that he was still willing to come help. After getting his COVID booster shot, and two negative COVID test results, he generously traveled out from Texas to come to our rescue.

During his two week stay, he worked miracles. Seriously. Bryan, Peter, and I assisted whenever we could, but Ron did the lion's share. While he was doing all that work, he found ways to have the kids work along side him, even for just a few minutes, including peeks into the attic.

Topher had no memories of family members visiting, so he was a little apprehensive at first. At the beginning of the visit, he did a lot of observing around corners to see what Papa Ron was up to while still keeping a safe distance. He spoke in a quiet voice, even when he got up the courage to ask for a hug. But by the end, he loved checking up on Papa Ron's progress and just being near him. Since Ron went back home on Monday, Topher has asked several times when Papa Ron will be coming back.

Thank you, Ron, we are so very thankful for you and everything you did while you were here.

One of the Blessings of Science

Both girls got their first COVID vaccine shots on Monday! Phoebe was excited, Sophie was nervous, they were both thankful that it happened. They feel like they've been waiting a long time for this.

The Beauty of the Earth

Today I am very thankful for beautiful November weather and a backyard big enough to run around and enjoy it.

Do the Write Thing

Last Thursday night I was up late working on house stuff. At 11:49 I looked at my clock and realized I hadn't done my blog post yet. Bryan happened to be nearby and I asked if he would grab my laptop so I could throw on a quick post. He brought my laptop and I could hear him narrating what he was doing.

"Turning on the computer, logging in, opening Blogger."

Then I heard typing, which prompted me to ask, "Are you writing my blog post?"

He said he was. Well, that meant I could carry on with my task, so I didn't stop him.

At 11:59 he handed me my laptop and said I had less than a minute to read through it. I thought it was hilarious. When he offered to do the same thing on Friday night, I was all for it.

It's nice having an editor to fill in for me when needed.

The ghostwriter strikes again!

So funny thing - Phoebe was talking to me about types of jobs authors might have on their resumes, so I suggested ghostwriter as one of the possibilities. Here's how the conversation went:

Phoebe: "What's a ghostwriter?"

Editor: "It's a person whose job it is to write under another author's name, as if that author was writing the material."

Phoebe: "What, so you don't get any credit? Why would someone do that?"

Editor: "..."

Phoebe: "I mean, how are people going to get to know you as an author if they don't know who you are? It sounds silly to me." (You forgot a question mark, just over there. Good thing you ran it by the boss first. -ed.)

Editor: "It's a way to get experience as a writer."

Phoebe: "Oh. Why can't I just write for me?"

I thought that was wise. We should write for ourselves. This is the second day in a row I've 'ghostwritten' for Margot, and it's kind of nice. (Not a very good ghostwriter if you're outing yourself -ed.)

Don't worry, though. Margot is aaaaallllllmmmooossstt finished with the project. I know you want to guess what it is, but you won't. No - it's not related to the 5th Indiana Jones movie (it didn't work with her schedule -ed.)

She'll be back soon.

Sorry, Margot can't come to the blog right now...

This is Margot's Editor (Not a very good one, eh? - ed.). She's working on a super secret project that she's not quite ready to reveal just yet, but suffice it to say, it's been a lot of long hours and hard work over many days. (Which raises the question, where have you been, Mr. 'Editor'. - ed)

No, she's not getting scuba certified, and no it doesn't involve ostriches in any way, which means you're out of guesses and will just have to wait and see what it is. No, artesian cheeses aren't relevant at all.

No really, you'll find out shortly. (Can't wait. -ed.)

Patience is a virtue!

(It's also not holiday related. -ed.)

Margot only had 30 seconds to approve this message.

Going Back In Time

My brother Jordan and his wife Leah have an adorable baby boy named Maverick. I haven't met him in person yet, but every picture I've seen tells me he's sweet and snuggly. Leah asked me if I had any pictures of Jordan from about the same age. This is the picture I found, it's from the day of his baby blessing. Also pictured are our mom and the chubby-cheeked oldest child.

As I've looked at this picture, I've realized a few things about myself.

• My face has always been full. I understand why women would pinch my baby face in grocery stores.
• My hair was never meant for bangs. I wish I'd had this picture handy the last time I decided bangs were a good idea. For the record, they were not.
• I had dark eyelashes once! I wonder where they vanished to.
• I have never had visible eyebrows. There's more of an idea of eyebrows in this picture than actual brows. And that's still how they are.
• I've always loved my brother (and all my siblings), see how I'm holding his hand?
• My girls look like me.
• Topher looks a little like me too, maybe it's the expression on my face?

We were both pretty cute kids.

Hair Today

Sophie's curls for Halloween were amazing. They were amazing because they were full of gel to hold their shape. Today we learned that all that gel shouldn't stay in for too long because then it turns your hair into one giant, ratty tangle. I had Sophie wash her hair with conditioner, not shampoo, to get the gel out. Then I sat and slowly brushed out the mess while she read to me at bedtime. When I finished she was shocked at how smooth and straight her hair was. Yup, hair brushes can work magic.

You can see the beginning of the tangle in the first picture and the end result of brushing in the second. Oh, and Cooper totally knew we were taking the picture and chose this pose intentionally.

A Breath of Fresh Air

This is what it looks like when you want to do your PE class outside, but it's windy and 53 degrees. Thankfully, the class wasn't too long.

I'm thankful that the kids can attend cyber school again this year and for the flexibility that provides.