November 2020

November brought the arrival of my wall accent pieces: woven baskets. I love them, and I think they turned out perfect. I had hoped to hang them more asymmetrically, but with their proximity to the couch and the ceiling heights in our family room, this made the most sense. I anticipate they will be a favorite of mine for a long time.

David & I again for some back porch sillies while his brothers finish their school work.

Calvin lost that second front tooth!! His little smile was so cute.

Here is Calvin #24 doing a corner kick; he is a secret weapon with his left foot! Final game for the Fall season with Coach Manny in U8. 

We got some preview pictures from our family photos!! They turned out so beautiful, and I promise we had Matt in the pictures too. For whatever reason these were the ones shared.

My mini-club sign! I was trying to get a great shot I could share on my social media, and this one was the best I could manage. Still pretty cool.

For my birthday I got new earrings and some cute hair scrunchies with bows. How scrunchies came back in fashion I do not know, but I love the bows!

One of the coolest gifts the boys got from Christmas 2019 was this episode 1 edition of monopoly. It is unique because it had the properties in slots on the board and the hotels stack on one another on the board frame. It is so cool!!

It was David's turn to be the student of the week! He got to make a poster about himself, and he picked out these pictures with my help. He got to choose a story to share, and he picked one from Curious George. We did the reading outside for covid reasons, but I was so happy to get to go visit his class.

David's last game! His sweet coaches; Coach Mia is our neighbor. :-) And the whole crew in the Jeep with their daddy, waving at me on the way home.

Online school is rough like that. James on the couch with his laptop.

Something about this white board full of words from Calvin's spelling lesson made me want to photograph it. I find it really cute. And of course David, all dressed from his Thanksgiving celebrations that we skipped (and parents weren't invited to attend) so we could drive up and see Papa for his 60th birthday!!

The boys were so happy to sit and snuggle with Chip! haha, Grammy&Papa joked that he wasn't used to sharing his spot on the couch, so he just sat with them.

The boys all made Papa gifts for his birthday. James made a card, Hayden made him a paper rifle, Calvin made a paper gun, and David made him a drawing. Matt&I wanted to get him a big gift for a big birthday like 60th, so we got them a Jura coffee maker!!

Papa's happy face is great!

The boys spent the afternoon building rock towers in the back creek. They love playing in the woods behind Grammy&Papa's house!

Michelle and Brendan drove over just for the evening to surprise my dad! It was such a great birthday surprise, and it made him so happy. No hugs because of being safe for covid, but we are all really happy in this picture if you can't tell because of the masks. It made us all really excited to have them, and not only because Michelle made him a really great cake!! We all loved Brendan for coming with her, especially because he was planning to drive her home after doing all the baking. He is such a great guy, and we love him!

We sat outside to eat cake & cupcakes. Dad tried out his new coffee in his new coffee cup from Michelle. His deer cake was so cool!

Hayden found some kind of canine skull, and the boys all spend their last day building forts in the woods. It was a great game, and I loved seeing all they had made. This was our last holiday at their house in Suwanee, and it was a little sad to leave it. 

We left my parents for the mountains to spend Thanksgiving with the Prose side of the family. Poor Matt couldn't come with us, but we wanted to give the boys the time with their cousins and grandparents. So I took them by myself. It was so beautiful, and the kids had such fun. The first picture is at an apple orchard where they had this really cool slide down the hill. It was just closing, and starting to rain, but the boys got as many trips down that slide as they could! The apple cider and peanut brittle and pies were worth the trip, and the slide with the view was the icing on the cake.

Thankful for a picture snapped by Natassja that I am actually in! 

Little Calvin playing cards with his Pokemon on my bed in the cabin. Sometimes you just need some quiet space; introverts unite.

The other boys all playing with Evie. They adore her! They made balloon creations with straws that ended up 'flying' round the the heating vents. They wanted the Disney zomie musicals, who even knew that was a thing! I guess everyone but me, haha! I was not a big fan, but I'm not a fan of anything zombie, especially when it's dressed up like some kind of inclusion agenda, but I digress...

The best game we played on this trip was the 'heads up' game on Natassja's phone. The hands-down-funniest part was when it recorded Grandpa trying to do the floss, that will always be remembered fondly!!

We hiked around, took pictures, and the boys found neighbors to play with until the girls all got crushes on them. We tried to go fishing but couldn't rent any equipment and nearly got stuck parking on the side of the road. It was quite the adventure. But having a little playground at the bottom of the hill and all the woods around was perfect. When it was time to get a group photo, the light was awesome!

Walkie talkies were the best toy of the trip. And Aunt Natassja gave them as Christmas gifts that next month! They had a good time inside & outside with those walkies. Batteries were an issue like no other!

We made Thanksgiving dinner in this tiny kitchen for the 14 of us. It was pretty exciting, and Teresa played a prank about the turkey laying an egg. It's never boring. We had an extra table on the back porch where the kids sat and had a blast. They started launching army men with parachutes off the porch down into the woods, which initiated the 'untangle the parachute men' task of the remainder of the trip. Thanks for the pic of the kids' table Natassja!

Mimi/Grandma/Mamaw? (the woman of so many names) had a cookie making craft for the kids which was classic. The older ones were very artistic, and the younger ones poured as much icing and sprinkles as they possible could onto the cookie before they ate it. 

The mountain trip for Thanksgiving was worth all the driving and inevitable squabbles of close proximity to so many people. I am thankful for time with my family, in whatever occasion. May I always remember how precious the time is during the most stressful moments.

Home again to have Thanksgiving with Daddy! Aunt Natassja gave the boys this advent magnetic tree as an early Christmas gift. David did it first. The boys were helping me with the pie dough on the counter top. The younger two still like to help cook, and for this purpose it was only playing with dough! Who doesn't love that.

Grandpa and Mimi came through to eat with us so they could see Matt. Of course they missed him in the mountains! We had a lovely time; great food and lovely family.

Thank you Lord for all the silly and funny memories these pictures bring to my mind. Thank you for all the parts that I remember that were hard, the moments of frustration or the ones where I felt unloved. Thank you for the gift of my wonderful husband and precious children. I am so thankful to have them in my life. Thank you for my Dad and his birthday. Thank you that we got to celebrate that together. Thank you for good gifts to give him, and for having time with my sibling who could/would come. Thank you Lord for the messy beauty of family. I confess my romantic notions of how I wish it could all be, and how I wish it could all feel. Lord help me to always be thankful for what I get to have, not complain about what I don't get to have that I want. Help me rejoice in the truth that you will restore all things one day. Amen.