Weekend Wrap-Up

I am not sure how it is Sunday night already!  This four day weekend flew by.  We made the most of the mostly warmer than usual weather to do some fun outdoor things.  But also there was a lot of unscheduled time at home, which rarely goes smoothly but we survived.  Ha.  Anyway...here's what we did!

Saturday: We met G-ma, Pa, Auntie Cat, Auntie Hanna, Uncle Dan and Mitchell at a Christmas Tree Farm near Cannon Falls.  It was beautiful and sunny and we all found the perfect tree!

The girls and Auntie Cat even got to ride (very slowly) in the back of Uncle Dan's truck
down a dirt road!

When we got home, the Christmas-ifying began!

And I did the outdoor pots too. Then spent the afternoon addressing Christmas cards in front of the tree with a glass of wine listening to Christmas music.  It was lovely.

Sunday: This morning I woke up early to do my November project- a virtual 10K.  I finished in 1 hour 2 minutes and 59 seconds, and got 11,000+ steps in by 7:30am.  Then the rest of the morning was spent battling our youngest child about cleaning her room.  Chris even told her that if she paid him $1 he would help her...but ultimately it was a lot of whining.  And then Luna was naughty and went in her kennel so I told Maya that Luna couldn't come out until her room was clean.  That ultimately did the trick because she can't stand going more than 10 minutes without finding Luna and squeezing her.  Do I get a nomination for mother of the year for that?  See the picture below for a list of Maya's commentary about cleaning.  It is a riot.

Later on the girls all wrote notes to Santa (even Luna, apparently), and they played outside at the neighbor's house (ahhhhh the beauty of having kids who can just go out the door to play nearby).

As I was working on this blog post, I found these pictures on my phone, which thanks to the cloud on both Maya's iPad and my phone being the same,  pop every once in awhile.  I don't even know.

The girls put up and decorated our little tree from our old house and having it in a nice spot up in their playroom.  My mom gave them each a number of ornaments from her collection, so they used those to decorate "their" tree.

Tonight at dinner we light out first advent candle and Maya read the Creation story from the Spark Bible.

Lastly, we are finally able to reveal Callie's room transformation!  G-ma, Pa and Callie have spent countless hours painting, organizing, putting together shelves and headboards and putting up pictures.  It is a VERY cool room.  

As a reminder, here's a little taste of what it looked like before:

And click here to get a full room tour!

A Picture Update

Happy Friday everyone! Here are the pictures from our week.  

The girls were off school all week, so here are some pics from Monday and Tuesday. We tried to keep them all busy while working, but it was pretty much a free-for-all.

We surprised Mitchell for a quick birthday song on Wednesday afternoon.  He liked the balloons!

Later we went for a walk before a Zoom smash cake!

Chris made his famous (in our house) Eggs Benedict for Thanksgiving breakfast.  Later Maya helped me smash some crackers to go in my broccoli corn casserole.

We were pretty lazy all day.  We watched the entire parade and the girls just kind of ran around crazy and also laid around.

That afternoon we went to watch Mitchell open his presents from the Gosselin side! It was chilly but we had fun regardless.

It was just Chris and me for Thanksgiving dinner that evening.  G-ma made us all the amazing food (except the broccoli corn casserole that I made for myself) and Chris was pleased about his favorite pecan pie.

Then we had a Henderson family Zoom.  Mila's face makes me giggle. 

This afternoon we went to play outside and do some Stomp Rocketing with Auntie Yoda and Lucy.

Have a great weekend.  We are going to get our Christmas tree tomorrow!  Chris and I worked on rearranging the living room for all the Christmas stuff, so stay tuned to the weekend wrap-up to see our house all Christmas-ified!

Click here for some birthday shenanigans and the Stomp Rocket.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Hello wonderful people.  Happy Thanksgiving!   We hope that you are able to stay safe, enjoy good food, and connect with loved ones in whatever way is safe.  

Love to you all!  Grateful for our village.

Happy Birthday Mitchell!!!!

Our favorite little dude is a 1-YEAR-OLD today! He surprised everyone by arriving before Thanksgiving instead of after New Years. He’s just the sweetest, smiliest, funniest little guy and and we love him

Have a happy birthday Mitchell!!

Timehop Tuesday

Just a couple sweet faces today!

Weekend Wrap-Up

The end of the weekend is here.  Going in to Thanksgiving week feels pretty strange, I must say.  Chris and I are working (from home) through Wednesday and the girls are off school.  Our Thanksgiving will look very different, with some shorter chilly outdoor gatherings instead of big delicious cozy meals together.  I have said it before and I'll say it again...this is a week where practicing (the discipline of) gratitude is necessary and a gift.

So today I'm grateful for a quiet weekend, mostly at home.  I went for a seven mile run yesterday morning.  I did 5 of the miles inside on the treadmill, and finished up with a frosty (yet sunny) 2 miles after that.  Chris made homemade apple cider donuts, using our friend Nik's homemade freshly pressed apple cider.  Delicious!  Also, I finished my puzzle and got my usual 3:00pm stare down from a creature who does not appreciating waiting until 4:00pm for dinner.

Chris ordered me this DIY Miniature House project (he has seen me work on MANY MANY puzzled over quarantine and thought maybe a new challenge would be good). It is very complicated and every teeny tiny thing in that picture of the greenhouse has to be made/glued/put together.  So it will take awhile and will be a fun project.  Maya started helping me last night. We also played Set and watched a movie with plenty of Luna cuddles.

This morning we did a drive-thru event at church to get some Advent supplies and see familiar faces (in masks).  Santa was there, too!

Then we met my mom at Lakewood.  We went to see Bops and then walked a big loop around the cemetery.  The girls were fascinated looking at the different names and dates on the gravestones.  The earliest birthdate we found was 1825. The sun peeked out and shone brightly periodically, and the fresh air was needed.

The rest of today has been lazy and crazy and not as productive as it should have been.  Our house needs some TLC and I hope this week I'll have gumption and energy to put into it.  We shall see!  Here are some videos from the past couple of weeks...click here! There is some primo Maya content...apparently she had an iPad down while she was taking her Zoom dance class.  Lots of funny stuff, among other sledding and crazy Luna videos!

A Picture Update

Happy Friday.  It was a hard an emotional week, as the news continues to be scary and restrictions are being put back in place to try and help keep people safe.  That will obviously affect holiday plans for next week...and throughout the winter.  Just trying to focus on gratitude and the knowledge that this is all short term and necessary for the safety of all.  Here are some pics from the week:

Work and rest on Monday

We wore purple for Mitchell on Premie Day on Tuesday!

Maya celebrated her great virtual conference with "milk in a wine cup!"

A fun outdoor obstacle course on Wednesday!

And our KAMALA shirts finally came!

Work and pleasure on Thursday

Friday

Picture Day and Math with a helper on Friday

I hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Timehop Tuesday

We all love video Timehops, right?!?! Here are the sisters from November 2013...and October 2020. Playtime looks a little different now!

And then we have this. November weather can look very different too!

And finally, it is WORLD PREMIE DAY! Our little Mitchell was born early and spent a few weeks in the NICU. A few weeks before he was born, we hosted a shower for Hanna...and this little dude has been so strong and fierce all year! 

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday night!  We hunkered down this weekend and took it easy.  Yesterday morning started with a beautiful sky outside our bedroom window before 7am.

Maya and I took Luna for a mid-morning romp in the snow.

And then after lunch I took the girls sledding.  The snow didn't look too appetizing, but it did the job!

This morning the girls were very snuggly.

The rest of the day was spent on Zoom with family playing games, playing with toys, playing the Switch, and general craziness.  

Hope you have a lovely week.  Stay safe, wash hands, wear masks, and make good decisions. :)

A Picture Update

Hey all-

Another week has flown by and by Friday afternoon I'm pretty spent.  Here are the pics from the week!

Monday: a tired dog, a crazy almost-11-year-old, and a momentarily still 7-year-old doing a puzzle

Tuesday: girls unhappy about the impending snow ("it feels like it is raining SALT") and a VERY needy dog

Also...Maya lost her mind laughing looking at Luna's weird skinny-necked shadow!

Wednesday: lots of snow and fancy Gramma!

Thursday: working hard at Pa's house and learning about her favorite sea creature

Friday: hard work (and also a bit of fun) at Boom's house

They out on quite a show tonight- lots of dancing.

Both girls had Art for their specialist this week.  Here is a sampling of their creations (and see the end of the video later for Maya's explanation of another one of her masterpieces):

Callie is definitely my winter baby!

Here are some videos from the past week...ENJOY!  

Have a great weekend!