Monday, December 14, 2020

What November Looked Like

 

Care Bear and I love it when we both get to be Imposters...
Especially if we both win!

With the holiday season right around the corner,
we've had to record a couple of videos for different performances.
Caroline had one for her middle school chorus.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

I've still been slowly working on weaving sleeping mats
to donate to a homeless shelter. I love the way this
striped one turned out!

We had a Thanksgiving zoom with Andrew's side of
the family. So fun to catch up with everyone!

COVID Thanksgiving, just the four of us.
It was so weird to have such a small celebration.
But there were nice things about it, too.
Like staying in my pajamas all day.

We decided we still needed a pie buffet:
three pies for the four of us. Ha!
Pumpkin, grasshopper, and apple.
Each of us girls made the one we're holding.
So good!
(And I love having girls that can help me cook!)

I've been back to volunteering at NAI once a week.
I love it so much. I find so much joy in learning with 
these refugee students. Learning a new language with
masks and social distancing is HARD. I admire
our students SO MUCH. When I started last year,
the school served both immigrants and refugees,
but with the new requirements for social distancing,
we now only serve refugees. In our class, they are almost 
all men. And most of them are from Africa, many from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, others from Kenya and Sudan.
I look forward to my NAI morning every week.

Brandon has started dating a new girl, Sadie.
This is the closest I could get to a pic of her. Ha!

I've been joining in on Pha's missionary discussions.
He is awesome! He's dating Hyuan, one of my ministering sisters.
She invited him to church this summer and he has enjoyed it.
He has committed to be baptized next month.
So excited for him!

BYU football has been SO fun this year!
We are undefeated so far, 9-0. 
We've had to play some crappy teams because of COVID,
but we've played a couple good teams, too.
Zach Wilson is an amazing QB and will probably
leave to go to the NFL next year. It has been fun
to look forward to watching games most weekends.

Care Bear is still KILLING it on her unicycle.
We can now take a two-mile loop through the
neighborhood and she only falls a couple of times.
So good!

She recently learned how to mount without having
to hold on to anything. That's a big deal! 


Beautiful wispy clouds,
One of my friends said this looks like an ultrasound pic.
And after she said that, I could totally see that.
Like there's a baby head on the right side of the pic.

Andrew and I found this old radio while looking for some geocaches.

Beautiful fall day for a date!

We had a picnic lunch of Panda Express,

And went suit shopping!
It was time!
He needed a new suit and we were
so happy to find one that fit him!
And we discovered a store super close
to our house that has a tailor,
which he definitely needed. Yay!

Our downstairs thermostat died.
I had installed the previous one soon after we moved
into this house thirteen years ago.
I remembered it being easy...

But then I took off the old one and saw all these wires and
was a little intimidated...
Luckily, it was easier than it looked.

For our combined activity in Nov,
the YM planned a bonfire at Brandon E's house.
Their fire pit is ENORMOUS.

It made it tricky to roast marshmallows.

But it was so warm and cozy.

The youth had a great time.
I love working with the YW!

Another warm, sunny fall day, so we took C out to 
play tennis with us. She doesn't like to play for long,
but it's fun to see her progressing.

Andrew had a sleep apnea test done this month.

His was done at home. He had to sleep with
these contraptions on.
He has been diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea.
His doctor has ordered a CPAP machine for him,
but we don't have it yet. Hope this can help him feel
more rested when he gets up in the morning.

Our little backyard firepit seems so 
tiny compared to the one we had for the youth. Ha!

But still fun to hang out and visit and eat smores.

Happy Birthday to Drew this month!
I talked him into taking his birthday off.
We went to Dave and Buster's in Winston,
which was so fun.
Then we had dinner at Cheesecake Factory.
Our girls had never been there and we were so excited
for them to try it. They were not sufficiently impressed.
They didn't like the mood lighting and thought the food
was just ok. Hmph. We'll save that place for the occasional
date night, I guess.

I thought they looked cute in their overalls. :)

Birthday boy


Miss Whitney got a job!
She started working at Chick-fil-A this month!
She looks so cute in her uniform!

And, of course they have masks, too.
She works A LOT, usually 4-5 nights a week!
She comes home happy almost every night.
She likes the people that she works with.
And most of the customers are nice.
So happy for her!

Caroline taught herself how to make bread!
What the heck?
She has already surpassed me in her domestic skills.
And it's yummy, too.

Qwixx

Caroline wanted to try bleach tie-dying.
It turned out pretty well!


I LOVE when my Camellia blooms in the fall.
So pretty.

We have a sister from our ward, Katelyn, who is serving a
mission in Laie Hawaii. She serves at the temple visitors center,
but Hawaii has been very strict about tourists during COVID,
so they don't have a lot to do. They have started doing virtual
tours. One of our activities this month was to go on a virtual tour
with Katelyn and her companion. It was SO fantastic! I love
that the Spirit can travel through technology from thousands
of miles away. So cool.

The girls had a random Teacher Workday at the beginning of the month,
so C and I headed to the zoo.

I think they are growing marijuana there???

It was a great day.


I love going on adventures with my girls.





We've started watching Downton Abbey with Whit.
It is soooo good, even the second time through.
Whit downloaded the sheet music and is learning
to play the theme song. Love it.

I also bought a couple of old seasons of Survivor that we've been watching with Caroline. We've pretty much become couch potatoes at night. Ha!


Wednesday, December 2, 2020

What October Looked Like

We've started playing an app called Among Us.
Caroline was the first one to get into it,
but Whitney and I like it a lot, too.
It's kind of like Werewolf online.
So fun.

Victory!

Over General Conference weekend,
we went on family walks between sessions.

Caroline is getting better on her unicycle!



She gets a little better every day!

Whitney has been working hard on it, too,
but still needs a lot of support.

Conference cinnamon rolls.

So yummy!

FHE Jackbox games

Marianne had mentioned she was going to be in Charlotte,
so I suggested that we meet for lunch.

So fun to spend a couple hours with her and Eden.


Conference coloring

We've been getting takeout every Friday night.
This week, we decided to actually GO to the 
restaurant and eat in Qdoba's outdoor seating.
It was the perfect evening for it.
Whitney was having dinner with Lauren,
so we missed her.

This BIG praying mantis hung out on 
our front porch for a couple of days.

The girls have still be cooking one night a week,
which I LOVE. For her meal this week, 
Caroline chose plant-based burgers.
We tried both Beyond and Impossible.
They were both good,
but I think Andrew and I liked the Impossible burgers
more than the girls liked the Beyond.

Dave and Buster's is open again!
Yes!!!
I've been heading over there most Wednesdays and coin pushing.
I love it!
I even managed to complete one of my Star Trek card sets.

Caroline's pajama pants from Grandma Sweat.
So cute.

We've been taking C to the tennis courts with us once
in a while. It's so fun to play with her!
She's improving!

Natalie and I got to play together on a 6.5 combo team.
I love playing with her!
Our team stinks. Stacey and I are the only 3.5s on the team.
But we've had a lot of fun anyway.

HALLOWEEN!
With COVID and older kids,
no one went trick or treating from house this year.
Andrew didn't want to hand out candy, either,
and be exposed to all those strangers.
So, we kept our lights off and watched
The Nightmare Before Christmas and
Hocus Pocus.

But, for one of our YW activities, we 
had a virtual costume party.
Caroline dressed up as her Among Us character.



Whit was Coraline.



They were both really happy with their costumes.
It was fun to hit up Goodwill and try to piece them together.

Whit and I went for a walk to the nearby
creek on a beautiful fall day.

She found a leaf as big as her face!

We've had some really mild October temps.
It has been fabulous.
The girls and I did sidewalk chalk art on the driveway.

Caroline drew all three of our Among Us characters:
Me (lemon), C (buildybear), and W (Whit)

We also drew some fruit monsters








We carved pumpkins.



The results:
A pumpkin house, mummy, Boo Covid, and an owl.

Care Bear

Drew

Me

Whit

Also on Halloween, we cleared the leaves from the backyard.
So.
Many.
Leaves.

I think it was 18 bags full, plus a trash can full of sticks.
There are still more leaves to fall back there,
but it felt good to get rid of the first round.

If you look close, you can see geese flying in a perfect V!

Andrew and I have been going up to the park and running routes.
It's so fun!
When I saw the video I realized that I don't look
nearly as athletic in real life as I do in my head. Ha!