Marshall's Birthday

We celebrated December birthdays with my family which is normally only Marshall but this year Jack's girlfriend was there and we found out she has a December birthday also so that was fun.

On his actual birthday we started out the day bright and early before school and work. He got his presents and favorite breakfast-German Pancakes or Hootin Annies eggs as my family calls it. Then it was a normal work and school day.

 

Taggart had a Jr Jazz game that night and then we planned to go out to dinner but Jameson was exposed to someone at school who tested positive. He had to be quarantined that day and two more days after. I picked up dinner and brought it home after the game. Only one person can go to the game due to COVID. 

Later that night we tucked all of the kids in bed and went to the movie Tennet. It was fun going out on a date and to a movie.

Marshall got a jerky tie from his parents. Pretty tasty!

Gnomes and Snowmen

One year Beckie gave us a cute set of snowmen she made out of socks and rice. There is one for each of my kids and they love them! Last year at school Lynnlee made a gnome out of a sock and rice. This year on a Sunday night my kids asked if they could make some more. We rounded up any clean white socks we had on hand, fuzzy socks, googly eyes, and used beans instead of rice.

I didn't get close ups of everyone's but everyone made either a gnome or a snowman. It was a really fun craft and amazing that we had all of the supplies on hand.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Usually we spend Thanksgiving with my family but this year my family decided to spend it in Florida. Since we had just gone to Jamaica we knew we wouldn't be joining all of them in Florida, sadly. When the plans with the Lowry side changed we knew we would be doing our own dinner together just the seven of us. It was hard to be excited about it at first but I tried to look at the positive things.  It ended up being a great weekend!

We had a yummy bacon, egg, and orange julius breakfast to start off the day. Then I used half of the roll dough to make cinnamon rolls and we had a those for a late morning snack. While the turkey was in the smoker we all went out and played roller hockey. 

We didn't play roller hockey over the summer so it was good to get back out. Everyone had improved and were more steady on their roller blades. We ended up playing Friday and Saturday that weekend too because we couldn't get enough.

We had an appetizer of garlic shrimp around 1:00 and then ate our feast at 3:00.

Marshall did a great job on smoking his first Thanksgiving turkey. It was so flavorful and moist. We have Lynnlee to thank for the beautiful center pieces, silverware holders, and name cards. She made them in sewing class over the summer.

 After dinner we had some downtime watching a show. We had pie around 6:00 and then started painting. My family has a tradition to do a wood craft so we decided to do a canvas painting. Everyone could paint whatever they wanted. We had quite the variety of paintings.

Top is Marshall's, middle row left: Lynnlee, middle row middle: Sienna, middle row right: Taggart, bottom row left: Rose, bottom row middle: Jameson, bottom row right: Kaden.

Friday I took Sienna and Lynnlee shopping with me. I forgot how bad the lines are on Black Friday. This year the lines were still long but shifted to outside the stores instead of at the checkout. So we didn't last very long shopping. 

 Saturday we kept up with tradition and saw a movie. War With Grandpa was really entertaining! Everything is better with aunt Betsy so we were really happy she could come with us!

 

Sunday we decorated a large gingerbread house for our ward. Instead of a ward Christmas party our ward invited everyone to decorate a ginberbread house and send in pictures. Then they put a slide show together. It was fun! I always give my kids a hard time when it comes to decorating gingerbread houses. They like to pile all of their frosting on their roof and stick as many gummy bears as possible on top. With this gingerbread house we decorated it the organized and cute way.

Thankful Tree

This has been my favorite year of making a thankful tree. Everyone could participate. In the past there was always someone who couldn't read or write so this year it was nice that everyone could be involved and it lightened mine and Marshall's load.

We have much to be thankful for! Jesus Christ, the gospel, family, temples, Holy Ghost, peace, friends, health, safety, home, food, clothing, are just some of the things we are thankful for.

Random Pics

Time for a random picture post. We helped a friend in our ward move. She had a teeny dog that weighed a pound or two. It was so cute! Lynnlee wanted many pictures with it and she spent as much time with it as she could. Side note, this dog may be little but he had a loud, loud bark. His whole body would jump up and down every time he barked.

Sienna fell asleep reading her scriptures and it was priceless. We challenged all our kids to read the Book of Mormon every day even if it was just a verse or two. She took it seriously and got really excited about certain verses.

What Taggart would look like if he had a shark head.

Lynnlee's dream candy.

Lynnlee loves taking picture of Chewie and with Chewie.

 

Skate Park

Like last November, we decided to frequent the skate parks again. It's funny how my kids don't ask or talk about going any other time of the year. For some reason it comes to their mind, we go a bunch, and then they don't ask to go. We went to the Lehi, American Fork, Orem, Provo and Draper skate park over the period of a few weeks. We got lucky a few times with no crowds. James switched off between the rip stick and scooter. The rest rode scooters around. They are braver than me. It looks like a lot of fun but I don't have the coordination. Chewie and I walked around and watched. It was during the Governor's mandate so it was nice to get out of the house and still be social distancing. Also because a lot of the other extra curricular activities were cancelled it freed up time to go most days after school.

 

Waffle Love

Starting the middle of October the school district changed Wednesdays to at home learning days for 7th-12th grade. That means James is home every Wednesday while everyone else goes to school. It has been four weeks since the change but I didn't get to spend a Wednesday with him yet. I was gone to Jamaica the first week, then it was aunt Pat's funeral, and then I was at her house all day. 

This week I was home and we got to hang out. Since he's never been to Waffle Love and all of my other kids have, we went out for breakfast. It is fun to have these moments since I normally don't get one on one time with him.

 

New Puppy

 Chewie got a new haircut and he looks like a completely different puppy.

Before...

After...

I was worried he would be too cold but it doesn't seem to bother him. When it snowed Sunday it was better that his hair was shorter because he could run through the snow without it getting stuck to so much fur.