Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The kids had the week off from school for Thanksgiving, which meant Monica and the kids had all kinds of time for fun!  But as Thursday approached, it also meant there was a lot of cleaning to do to be ready for people coming over.  The kids were pretty good helpers with cleaning everything up, and so they got rewarded with a movie.  And what do you do when 3 kids want 3 different movies? Pull out more screens.  I helped Grayson get the Mario movie up and running on my old phone, and he watched it cuddled up with stuffies in bed. 

In terms of cooking, Thanksgiving was slower than usual for us this year as our guests really filled out the sign up sheet.  We had a little over 20 people at our house for Thanksgiving, and I'll admit that once everyone was here, the house was much less full than I expected.  Here we all are enjoying Thanksgiving dinner together.

In celebration of our 15 pounds of sweet potatoes we harvested from the garden, Monica was crowned Sweet Queen, and we got couples shirts.

On Friday afternoon we drove down to San Antonio to go to the temple.  Monica went in the early afternoon while I checked into the hotel with the kids.  We went back to pick her up, and then ended up at Kneaders for dinner.  Bedtime was interesting... but we eventually got through.  Monica read the kids some of the pages of Grayson's dinosaur book, and her little word swaps were just TOO funny.

I find that when we get to hotels now a days, the kids have trouble falling asleep in the same room.  I think there are a few factors here. One big one being that when we put Grayson to bed, he actually stays up in his room for a while doing who knows what, and so when we do normal bedtime at a hotel he's just not ready to sleep.  So he and Winry were having all kinds of issues, and Brooke was off with Monica just not even trying to sleep.  Anyway, I think the new hotel plan needs to just be keeping everyone up later, and then doing bedtime.  This problem doesn't usually exist on vacations, the main time we stay at hotels, because the activity all day long usually tires the kids out.

Saturday morning I got up and went to temple, and when I got back, we packed up and headed for the zoo!  It's been a while since we've been, seeing as our memberships expired in February, but it was fun to be back.  The gibbons were being all kinds of silly and entertaining like last time, and the fishing cat was just sitting on a platform right in front of the window.  I decided to have pictures more focused on the kids than animals though, so here they are at the hippos.

This was the first time we didn't bring a stroller to the zoo.  All the kids did fine walking around on their own, and to be honest, I think if we DID bring a stroller, we definitely would have had to push kids around.  So it's probably good to just not have the option going forward.  That said, I instead had a backpack full of water bottles, and I felt much more tired than usual by the end of the day.  Maybe it was related.  Since we didn't have a stroller, we took the secret path, that contains stairs, to the exit at the end of the day, and who should we find, but the capybara!  That was a very pleasant surprise, and the kids were so excited!

Saturday night when we got home, we went to get a Christmas tree, and we really only had time to get it home and in a stand.  So Sunday morning we started decorating.  We went with a 10' tree this year, which meant even I needed a ladder to do the lights and star on the top!  I didn't take a picture of it fully decorated, so I'll have to leave you on a cliff hanger and post one next week!

And those are the highlights from this week.  Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Brooke!!

Brooke turned 10?!? We have a double digit kid?  Oh my! She had a fun birthday going to paint pottery at that place we have out here while Grayson was at school, and in general had fun throughout the rest of the day.  We had a great caramel chocolate cake with ice cream, and Brooke wore that birthday headband for most of the day!

Winry had dance after school. But as soon as she got home, Brooke opened her presents and then we went to Panera for dinner. Yum.

We came home, sang happy birthday, and had cake and ice cream!  It was somewhat late by the time we finished, but it was a good cap to Brooke's birthday.  She got Harry Potter 4 for her birthday, and who even knows how long she spent reading before falling asleep!

The kids said something about a hammock to Monica and she realized that we have one just sitting around, so they put it up on the playground.  Now there's three swingable objects out there, and the kids love going out together.

At Brooke's nature co-op this week, they went for a hike.  Monica said it was only like 15 minutes from here, and they hiked a mile and a half loop, and it had a great camp site along the path.  We may have to find our way up there as a family some time, preferably this winter while it's cool.  Brooke put on some animal camo to help hide so she could get up close to anything they found.

Grayson decided it was time to collect the fruits of all his acorn collecting and learned to use a mallet this week.  He LOVES cracking open acorns (and anything else he can)! He also loves wearing his Perry the Platypus costume from Halloween anytime he can!

I don't remember where this tissue paper came from, but Jelly knows a good time when she sees one, and she dove in head first.  I just dare you to walk close by those claws of fury.  

Grayson had a Thanksgiving lunch at preschool on Thursday.  There was a sign up so I thought it was just potluck, buy my goodness it was such a Thanksgiving lunch!  And it was fabulous!!  Also, Grayson was trying to run away from taking a picture, but for some reason we were able to catch him so long as his friend, Henry, was there.

Grayson ended up getting sick and throwing up in the middle of the night Thursday night to Friday.  It wasn't too bad, but it was while he was on the stairs, so that made it a bit trickier to clean up, especially with minimal lights on to allow him to fall asleep on the couch.  Here he is in the morning.  What a cutie!  Fortunately, he only threw up that one time, but he did have a fever and spent most of Friday and some of Saturday on the couch.

On Friday, Winry had her living wax museum at school.  All the kids were assigned a Greek god or goddess, and they dressed up and wrote up some info about about who they were.  Then as you walked by, you could press their "button" and they'd tell you about who they were!  Winry was Athena.

Here's a few of the other kids around Winry as well.  The whole second grade does it, and the time we went to see her was just two of the classes.  It was pretty fun, and the kids seemed like they were really enjoying it.

Grayson did not want to take any medicine while he was sick.  His fever never got so high that we really had to insist on him taking something, but he did have a headache for a lot of the day.  At night, Monica gave him a wet washcloth to help him cool down while he was going to sleep and he loved that!  Oh, and when she was out, she saw that Grinch stuffy and grabbed it for him too.  It's hard to say he's living his best life while he's sick, but this is still pretty close.

Niki is over in Australia again with Oriah and her family, and while they were there they went to a place to pick strawberries, and Niki sent me this picture for Grayson.  If you don't remember, when Grayson was 1 or 2 (probably both) when he was playing in the backyard he'd go over to the garden and pick anything he knew was food and eat it, and that included all the strawberries (red or white), and all the tomatoes, no matter the color!

Jelly caught Monica leaving her spare bed exposed and snuck in for a quick nap.  There's no keeping a spare bed hidden from a cat.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner with the Packers, and then went to see the new Wicked movie.  It was a very fun date.

I got another gem from Niki today.  They went to the koala experience at the zoo and saw Denise again!  Her babies are out of her pouch and are quite big now!  You can see both of them here.  She specifically sent this to me because Denise climbed up the tree, and then slid down and sat on top of one of her babies!  Also, since they were there, I had them ask at the gift shop about our adopt-a-koala we did while we were out there because we haven't heard ANYTHING about Denise since our visit.  We should have seen these babies months ago!  Anyway, hopefully my email is on the list now, and it's good to see that Denise is healthy, living her best life, and cheeky as ever!

And that's a wrap on the week.  We had some good times here, and I'm glad we made it through Grayson being sick and no one else caught it either.  It's also fun to hear about some Australia adventures, especially things similar to places we went, etc.
 

Just a Weekend?!?

Wait, I have proof there was a week between our weekends!  Here's Grayson gardening at school!  Looks like he's having a great time, and the flowers look nice!  Maybe I'll have him show me the planter bed next time I'm down at the school.  Looks like they did a great job.

On Friday, Brooke had a homeschool field trip lined up, and Grayson was of course going along because he doesn't have school on Friday.  They went to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin. It looks like it was pretty awesome, and I selected a smattering of pictures of the kids having fun.  This kinda looks like Grayson is caught in a spider's web.

And here's Brooke and... wait! Didn't Winry have school?  I mean, technically, but it was also a half day, so that's basically a no school day, so Monica let Winry come along too!  And here are the hens keeping their eggs warm.

And here's Winry and Sierra sailing the front of a ship!  This place essentially had a lot of big, cool and unique playground type structures.  It looks like it was a lot of fun.

On Saturday, we spent much of the day trying to get the house ready for Brooke's birthday party.  My main goal was to keep Grayson busy.  I was able to help with cleaning and set up in the morning, but in the afternoon, Grayson got bored and I found myself in the backyard.  That said, I will not complain, it was a beautiful day, and it was NOT hot either!!  Lovely.

Grayson thought relaxing on the swing seemed pretty sweet too, and he came and joined me.

Oh, that actually happened in the morning, as the girls were off at a dance camp at the middle school.  The camp was a few hours, and at the end we were able to come and watch them all dance!  Here's Winry.

And here's Brooke's dance.  One thing I thought while watching this, is that I think Brooke would be able to make the middle school dance team now if she tried out.  Looks like all those dance lessons are paying off!

Here are the kids with Ashley, their favorite babysitter.  She is on the middle school dance team and is who told us about the camp.  The kids love her so much, and she was even helping in Winry's group!

That evening was Brooke's party.  It was a Wicked themed spa night, and I missed most of it.  At the start, Grayson and I were up in his room trying out one of his hot wheel tracks he got from the Lasky's.  This track you have to attach to the wall, so that's why we hadn't done it yet. But this seemed like a time worth getting out 3M strips for.

After playing for a while, Grayson wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A which was the original plan to keep him from disturbing the party.  I thought maybe we'd just hang out at home since we were having so much fun with the hot wheels track. But he sure didn't forget I offered Chick-fil-a earlier in the day, so off we went.  He had fun playing in the playground and even got ice cream.  We made it back for the last bit of the party to sing to Brooke and have a brownie.

After the kids went to bed, we had the Packers over for date night.  It was a secret date night, so don't say ANYTHING about this before Christmas! I needed to make sure what I got worked, and the best way to check was a fun date night.

I mean, you know you're having fun when even Jelly comes by to have a turn.

On Sunday morning, the kids were all playing together. From downstairs, I heard Winry ask Grayson if he knew how "Jingle Bells" went, and then they played a very lovely rendition of "Jingle Bells" for quite a while.  You know what, they never fought, so I've heard worse sounding play.

And that's a wrap on the week.  We had a pretty busy weekend after a pretty quiet week.  We'll definitely not have to wait until the weekend to party next week, as Brooke's birthday is on Monday!! Yay!
 

Just a week

Winry really likes to play out front, and Grayson often comes along with her.  They'll head out of the garage and often find something good to play with along the way.  For the last little bit, there's been a kite sitting out in the garage.  We've never had a good windy day and remembered the kite is sitting there (hopefully soon) at the same time, but that won't stop us from running like the wind!

The kids were looking for ways to be snuggly I guess, and the go to item was mermaid tail blankets.  Grayson's baby Yoda snuggie thing made it's way in, and this mix was the result.  Lovely.

Here's my favorite shot from school!  It's hard to imagine he's not the happiest kid on the playground right there.

On Saturday I had a date night planned to watch the BYU basketball game on Saturday night.  I bought some face decals and maple bars, etc. to try to get more of a BYU experience.  However, Monica was feeling sick, so I moved it up to the football game (which was in the afternoon) and included the kids... and as I'm writing this I'm realizing we never did my BYU trivia...  Looks like I've already got next week's date planned! 

The kids really wanted to go to the library, so I took them right when the football game ended.  The library wasn't open much later than when we got there. We also couldn't find the library card. So we had a little time inside, but mostly played on the playground outside.  It's pretty cool and bird shaped.  On our way back to the car, we got our picture by the sign.

That evening, Jelly was waiting for someone to spend some time with her halfway up the staircase, so I obliged.

And Monica pulled out all of the ginger from the garden.  Looks like we got quite a bit!  I've never cooked with ginger, so I really don't know how much this is, but it seems like a lot compared to the size you buy at the store.

Monica was sick much of the week, and I think that's part of what kept things slower around here.  I feel like it's been ebbing and flowing a little bit with some days her feeling better than others, but hopefully she can kick it soon and just feel better.  She's also been losing her ability to taste, which, thankfully has not been showing in her cooking!  That's still been as good as ever.

 

Halloween and Parties

We'll kick things off with all of us ready to start trick or treating!  We were Phineas and Ferb characters this year.  Monica was Phineas, I was Ferb, Brooke was Candace, Winry was Dr. Doofenschmirtz, and Grayson was Perry the platypus.  We're looking SOOOO good!

Here's a moment from preschool.  It looks like they had a balloon party, and you know that Grayson's always gotta go to that!  I think the real highlight is the video they sent where you hear a teacher tell a kid off camera that we only hit the balloons!

At work, we're moving to a new space in the WeWork that we're in, and it's smaller than our old one, so my company was getting rid of the extra desks and monitors.  Connor came down with me to help me move stuff into my van.  I was going to get a desk and monitor, however, the monitors were locked in the new space my key wouldn't get into, so I had to settle for getting a desk.  I actually grabbed another guys desk too, and next week when we're all back in the office we'll grab two monitors and then swap a desk for a monitor up at my place while he's driving back to Dallas.

I feel like poor Grayson has been hurting his back a bunch lately!  Specifically, this time he somehow tipped the chair he was on (if you've seen him on a chair around a table it doesn't take much imagination to see how this might have happened) and landed his back straight on the edge of another chair, or maybe on the chair he toppled.  Ouch!  Poor guy.  I hope he can be a bit more careful.

We had our ward trunk or treat on Wednesday night.  They had some games set up for the kids to play, with the big draw being donuts on a string.  Who wouldn't have a hankering for a donut right before dinner?

One person who for sure needed to get in on the donut action was Grayson.  This kid is all donut and no dinner!

After dinner we headed to our car to hand out candy.  I already shared a picture of us in our costumes at the start of this, and the lighting was better on Halloween too, so here I'll just share a picture of our trunk decorated like Phineas and Ferb's backyard, with our Candy Passer-outer 3000!

Update on that lizard story, I guess we had more than one lizard in our house, and this one hadn't been found by Jelly!  I was able to eventually get it trapped under a big tupperware. Honestly, we all wanted to keep the little guy instead of throwing him back outside, but in the end it was back out to the garden for him.

Grayson had a costume parade for preschool on Thursday.

Thursday was also Grayson and Winry's last day of volleyball.  They got new shirts, and Grayson was even wearing his Spike Frog volleyball shirt that day, so he just threw the second one on over it.

When we got home, Monica had made a cool Halloween dinner while we were gone.  We should leave her alone in the evenings more often.

On Friday night, we had a great time trick-or-treating.  While wandering our neighborhood, we found this garbage can... I can't imagine this was meant to be a decoration, and I'm a little curious how exactly they burned up their garbage can like this... You can also see a burnt spot in the grass back there closer by the fence.  Whatever it was, it wasn't safe.  Glad no one's house burned down.

Grayson really loves these big blow up pumpkins. He always asks us to drive that way so that we pass them when we're leaving the neighborhood. When he trick-or-treated at their house, he let them know, and they were so happy about it and told him to make sure he gave them a hug on his way out!

Saturday morning was Brooke's last day of volleyball and a volleyball tournament.  It was a lot of fun, and very exciting.  Sadly, they ended up losing their first two matches and were done, but the games were really close, and Brooke had so much fun.

Here she is with her team and coach.  I really liked her coach and hope that Brooke can be on her team again in the future.

After the volleyball tournament was over, we went to the park to set up for Grayson's birthday party.  One of the games we played was a dragon egg hunt.  Each egg held a clue to the next egg that the kids needed to find, and each egg held a surprise for the kids to put in their take home bag.

It was a little bit windy while we were singing happy birthday, well, actually, it was windy the whole time.  I tried to block the candle, and it worked for a while, but the wind changed directions on me right as it was time to blow out the candle, and I didn't quite figure out from which direction in time.  Good news, Grayson didn't actually care.

And then Saturday evening we had a fall fiesta put on by the stake!  What a full day Saturday was.  There were tacos, sports out on the field, rain, and even a dance at the fiesta.

That night I was trying to help Grayson get on pajamas and somehow got them on my leg!  He thought this was SO funny.

At church I saw Mia come walking by and lured her over with my phone.  Babies sure like seeing themselves on phones!  She stayed to hang out for a few minutes before squirming down and running away.  Tearing up my heart!

Brooke, Winry and I played volleyball in the backyard for much of the afternoon.  Grayson came out with us, and sat on the swing eating cheese balls.  Just your standard 5 year old afternoon.

And I think that's everything for now.  I hope you had a happy and safe Halloween, and I hope you got as much candy as we did!  Nom nom nom, I maybe like candy a little too much...