Thanksgiving Package Surprise

Our family hasn't been doing the greatest at having regular family home evenings and scripture study/come follow me lessons, so finally Curtis made up a chart and we scheduled Mondays for FHE nights (to do an activity) and the other nights each person will take a turn doing lessons. We also have another chart for who says the family prayer on each night. Since we have an extra day, Thursday is a volunteer day for prayer. Curtis also made a rotating chore chart for our family. That's something we've needed to do for a long time. Anyway, Jack was in charge of FHE for this week and on Monday after Charlotte and I got back from basketball practice we all headed to the store to pick out a simplified Thanksgiving dinner to send in a package to Nikki since she can't come home for Thanksgiving. I loved the idea! I had been thinking about sending her a card and this is even better. However, we did send her a card as well and Charlotte drew her a picture. And we saw this ugly sweater with a cat on it and decided we had to get that for her too. I packed it all up the next morning and took it to the post office first thing. There are perishable items in there after all so we needed to send it as soon as possible. I was told it would get there by Thursday. It would have been about $62 to overnight the package versus $15 to wait one more day. Yeah, she can wait one more day. She didn't even know it was coming anyway.

Salt and vinegar potato chips for her potatoes, small rolls, green beans, turkey sticks, cherry pie, pumpkin roll and stuffing.

After we had picked out everything for her package the girls and I went to see if we could find ear muffs to help keep their ears warm in this winter cold weather. You used to see ear muffs everywhere when I was a kid but not now. These were the only ones we could find but thankfully they love them. And they came with gloves so that was a bonus.

My two little unicorns with their new ear muffs and gloves.

All ready to wear them to school the next morning.

Wednesday was our last basketball practice. Most of practice went well. It's not until we scrimmage or play a game that some tension arises. We played red light, green light first. Then we scrimmaged (played 3 on 3). That's where we had some disagreements and arguing, mostly from one player in particular. We then tried to play Lightning the last 5 minutes and Charlotte and this same girl were arguing over who got to go first. Charlotte thought I told her she could but all I did was hand her ball to her. I had them do rock, paper, scissors and the other girl won. Charlotte was upset and started to cry at the end of the line. We started the game and the girl who won got out almost immediately, so she wasn't happy either. At that point I was really running out of patience. It's not the way I wanted to end our final practice. Some girls mentioned (including Charlotte) that they wanted to have a pizza party after the game on Saturday. I wasn't sure I wanted to do it at first but now I'm thinking it would be fun and a good positive way to end the season. So I'm thinking I'll have a party at our house after the game and just pick up some cheap Little Caesar's Pizza and some pop. 

Thursday (yesterday) I had the opportunity to go to the temple again with my dad, grandma and great aunt Joyce. Laverne is still healing and wasn't ready to go yet. We all did one endowment session together and then Dad did another while us ladies did some initiatory. It was the first time I had done initiatory since getting my own done 20 years ago. It has changed some since I last did it. I had also decided to fast while going to the temple because I'm so worried about finding a good home in a good area with good schools that we can afford over in Washington. I want as much help as I can get. We will be heading over Sunday after church to look at houses over there on Monday. We'll be taking all of the kids (except Nikki of course) with us so that they all get to see what the area looks like and do some sight seeing. Thankfully, the company will be paying for our hotel and gas for this trip.

After the temple, Grandma offered to take us out to lunch. We dropped by to pick up Laverne so she could come with us and we ate at a burger place called The Habit. It was pretty good and my first time eating there. Going to the temple and lunch pretty much took up my whole day. I got home the same time school got out for the boys and actually saw Garrett walking on the way home so I picked him up. I'm so glad I had that opportunity to go to the temple and to do it with family.  

In our conversations that day we had talked about leaves. Well, I nearly forgot to say that on Tuesday our lawn mowing guy showed up again. Yay! I wasn't sure we would see him anymore because it had been 3 weeks since he last came. I was so relieved too! I was worrying about how I was going to get around to cleaning up the yard when everyone was so busy and we spent last Saturday helping grandma. Heavenly Father blessed us in sending this man just when we needed him. He used his big sit down mower and was able to get most of the leaves and pine needles. He also put lawn food on afterwards.

I forgot to take a picture that day but here's what it looks like 2 days later. So much better!

Unfortunately, this big tree and other smaller trees still have a lot of leaves left on them. We're hoping the lawn guy comes back again to get more later.

I was anxiously waiting all day yesterday from a message or phone call from Nikki when she got her package. Well, it was about 6:15pm and I couldn't wait any longer. I finally started texting her. She had asked for pictures of the cats so I sent her some, which she loved. Since she still didn't mention anything about the package I finally had to ask if she had received it yet. After all, there are some perishable items in there that she needs to eat soon! She went to go check her mail and she did receive it. Needless to say, she loved it and said she wanted to cry. She got a kick out of the sweater and said I finally got her sense of style.

It says "Nice But Naughty"

This just cracked me up. We sent her the green beans more as a joke because we knew she didn't like them. She said "what kind of a sick joke is this" and "now I have to eat vegetables". I told her she could donate it but she said "I'll eat it, just like old times". Aww 💗

It was so great to be texting her last night. Charlotte and Alice got on my phone and sent her pictures and other fun smiley faces, etc. Nikki loved the package and I'm so glad we did it.

Here are some of those fun cat pictures we sent her.

Feeding them chicken pieces.

Charlotte wanted a selfie with Sage. I had to help by holding Sage because she wouldn't cooperate, ha ha.

Nikki said she's going to have Thanksgiving dinner with two of her roommates. I'm so thankful she won't be alone. She also told me that she bought a turkey and is going to cook it herself. Apparently she told Curtis that she was going to "out turkey him" since he is cooking a turkey for us. I'm so proud of Nikki. She has had some struggles with her car, depression, worrying about money but we are helping her to work through it and she's doing great. She says she'll be coming home for Christmas so we can't wait to see her!

Snow, Wedding and Leaves!

November is here and things are not slowing down! Lots of things have happened in the last week. We had parent teacher conferences, so the kids had the first Thursday and Friday off of school. It was perfect timing because my brother in law Ricky and his family flew in to town from Alaska for our niece's wedding that weekend. The cousins were able to spend some time together. The girls especially loved playing with Lexi. It was a pleasant surprise when we got our first snow of the season on that Friday morning. The girls didn't care that there wasn't much out there, they still wanted to go play in the snow and make a snow man!

Alice was out there first and made a snow angel.

The girls wanted to make a small snowman at least, like Olaf from Frozen. And they did it!

Later they went back out and converted their snowman into a snow sled. 

Friday evening we went to help decorate for the wedding and had a family dinner at the church. The next morning Curtis dropped Charlotte off at her basketball game. I was able to get one of the other parents to coach for me so that I could go to my niece's sealing at the Boise Temple. Since the wedding was on the Butterfield side of the family (Jeanie's daughter) I had my dad meet at the school to watch Charlotte play and bring her back home. Dad wasn't feeling great but he and Laverne still did it for us. I'm so thankful that they did! The sealing was at 10:30am and it had been raining during the night and morning. We were blessed that the rain stopped right before we came outside for pictures. Later that evening our whole family went to the wedding reception. I'll be honest, if it wasn't for Charlotte I don't think I would have gotten any pictures. She asked if she could take some pictures because she was bored so I let her. All of these wedding pictures were taken by her. I didn't post all of her pictures though because I don't know that some of those people would want me to, so just posting some.

Maggie and Jacob. Found out that his grandparents used to be in our old ward (7th ward). Small world!

Garrett just got his hair cut that afternoon by Curtis. Finally!

My niece with her niece.

Sunday evening we had Ricky's family over for dinner and then some played the Back to the Future game.

I felt a little left out since they were playing without me but I'm just glad the boys were having fun playing a game instead of sleeping or hiding in their rooms.

Ricky and his family decided to buy a puppy (a Beagle) while they were here so they brought him over too. We have Julie, Lucky, Charlotte and Wes (in the back).

On Monday we ate homemade hamburger helper (mac n cheese with hamburger) because Alice requested it. Charlotte told me she wanted to have homemade pizza. I said okay as long as you help me make it. Tuesday morning I made a quick shopping list after writing down a few dinner ideas. Jack's trumpet was at Dorsey Music and ready to pick up after getting cleaned and repaired, so I drove to the WinCo on that side of town afterwards. I had plans to go to lunch with some ladies from our new ward. I ended up being a little late because the line I got in at the grocery store was going very slow. I had a nice time visiting with the ladies at Chapala's. I wasn't sure I was going to vote that day because I didn't know who I would vote for but the ladies convinced me to go anyway. It was nice knowing there was another there who felt the same as me. It is one gal that I seem to be connecting well with. We're about the same age and both have kids. Her name is Sara Ostler. It makes me sad that I won't be staying to get to know her better. After the lunch I dropped off Jack's trumpet to his school just in time for him to use it in jazz band. Then I went home to grab some stuff and headed over to the church to do my voting. I couldn't believe the long line! Thankfully the line was inside the building though. It wrapped from one foyer all the way past the foyer on the other side. It took an hour to vote but I did it!

After getting back I thought I had some time before taking Garrett to his orthodontist appointment. I kept thinking it was at 4:30. Well, while I was going through my emails I saw the email they had sent about his appointment and saw that it was at 3:30 and it was now 3:50 when I figured it out. It was too late and I had to reschedule his appointment. They are short staffed and so his appointment was rescheduled for Dec 21st. I was so mad at myself for forgetting because now he has to wait 1 1/2 months! So much for getting as much done as we could before we move. Ugh!

Well, I had to turn my focus to something else and so Charlotte and I did make the pizza for dinner that she wanted. Well, it was put together at home. I bought the dough premade plus all of the toppings at WinCo. We basically just had to build it but it was fun working on it with her and it turned out good! I even let Charlotte take the pizza out of the oven, even though it was a bit heavy.

Can you see the cheesy smiley face?

On Wednesday we only had 4 girls at basketball practice. I usually have them scrimmage but we couldn't do it that day. I think it turned out well anyway. We just did some drills and then I taught them to play the game "Around the World". Then we played the game "Lightning" a few times. They like that one.

Thursday morning after I got the kids off to school I wasn't really sure what I was going to do that day. I sat on the couch for a few minutes and decided that I had time to shower and go to the temple so I should. I checked to see if there were appointments available at the Boise Temple and there were. At first I scheduled for the 11am session but then decided I had time to do the 10:30 so I did. I'm glad I went and it was kind of nice to just go by myself for a change so that I don't feel rushed. I could take my time getting there and sit longer in the sealing room. I will definitely try to go more often whether it's by myself or with someone.

That night the girls were begging me to take them to the store so they could spend the $2 they had in their money bank. We went to Walmart but I warned them there wasn't much to buy in that price range. We were able to find this dinosaur egg that the girls "excavated" to dig out the dinosaur inside. They enjoyed it.

It was messy.

Holding the dinosaur in their hands. It's a triceratops.

The weather got colder on Thursday and Friday but I decided that on Friday I wanted to try and get some leaves mowed up in our backyard. It was so cold that we still had snow on the ground in the shade so I had to go around those parts but it was also wet. I was able to get two big bags full before I was done. Part of my motivation to do it on Friday was because my dad called me earlier in the week and asked if my family could come help my grandma rake up her leaves. It was a big job and not one he could do alone, especially since he was just getting over a cold. I knew we wouldn't have time or energy to do both her yard and ours on Saturday.

Before

After. I only got this section of lawn done.

This is how far I went before I decided to quit for the day. I didn't want to overdo it and get sick. 

Saturday (yesterday) morning I was back to coaching basketball. I again tried to get pictures of Charlotte. It was fun and the girls did well. Watching girls this age can be quite entertaining. Lots of double dribbling and taking multiple steps with the ball, etc. I have enjoyed coaching but I am thankful there is only 1 more week and then we're done.

Since two of our girls were missing on picture day I decided to get a team picture after the game since everyone was there. I had my assistant coach stand in also. He's been great.

After the game, the girls and I dropped off some bags of clothes to some friends because I had been going through closets and drawers and getting rid of clothes my kids have outgrown. Jack and Garrett are basically wearing either size 18 in youth or small in mens. They are both taller than me now! Anyway, we went home to eat lunch and change into our working clothes. Then we headed to my grandma's to do the leaves. It took us about 2 1/2 hours and Jack said we filled 17 bags. The girls had so much fun raking a big pile of leaves and then jumping and playing in it. I loved how well all of the kids were working though. The boys didn't complain and just kept working. They even jumped in the pile with the girls once. I'm so glad we were able to get our kids over to do a service project and not think about getting paid for it. Dad was there and grandma was also out there helping. Grandma did order some pizza and had some other food for us. Some of us played Uno afterwards while the others watched Shrek downstairs. On the way home we dropped off another bag of clothes to my sister Tamara's family. They get all of the boys' hand me downs. It was a great day.

The girls liked to bury themselves inside. One would get buried and the other would come and tell me they didn't know where the other one was. They were so cute.

Jack was throwing leaves on the girls.

My boys working hard.

Hey, I actually got a selfie of myself. That doesn't usually happen because I don't like selfies, ha ha. 

Grandma taking a rest.

This was their pile of leaves. All of their playing in it was spreading it out.

I didn't get a picture of my dad because he was mostly working in the front yard and road while the rest of us were in the back yard.

I almost forgot to mention that on Wednesday this week Curtis signed the offer letter for becoming the office manager in Tri Cities, Washington. So it's finally official that we are in fact going to be moving there and will be leaving some time in January. Some days I am actually excited about moving. It will be an adventure and we'll get to meet new people. Now we're on the hunt for a house! I'm just praying that we'll find a home we like in a good area with good schools.

Halloween Fun 2022

We have had lots of fun Halloween activities to attend this year. Last week on Thursday we went to our old ward for their chili feed and trunk or treat. It was so good to see friends again and visit. They started with eating either chili or soups and rolls/corn bread. Then there were some games and activities for the kids to do in different parts of the church building. The girls took off and did most of them without me but I did see Alice get some whiskers and a nose painted on her face. Then it was time for the trunk or treating! I wasn't sure if I was going to dress up or not because I didn't find anything at the thrift stores that I wanted but that afternoon I dug out our old costumes and decided I was going to wear my old prisoner costume. We originally bought these way back when Nikki was 2 1/2 and Garrett was a newborn. Back then we had fun coordinating costumes so we were all prisoners. I left Curtis's costume out on the bed in case he wanted to wear it and he did! Garrett did not want to go so he stayed home to watch a movie.

Since Garrett didn't go to this party I had him take a picture of the rest of us. It was fun to dress up so I'm glad I did.

Alice is our little bunny rabbit this year. 

Charlotte is our dinosaur, a raptor called "Blue" from Jurassic World. She found another person dressed up in a dinosaur suit so we had to get a picture.

The next day the kids did not have school so we got to sleep in and then Charlotte decided she wanted to learn how to make German pancakes so I helped her with that. I am trying to learn to jump on these opportunities when they want to learn how to bake.

It doesn't normally get bumpy like that in the middle so I'm not sure if we over mixed it or what but it still tasted good. Usually the two sides come way up like a big wave. Then it curls over as it cools. I also taught her how to make syrup to go with it.

We did do some cleaning up of the house on Friday but mostly relaxed. We did not have anything planned for the evening after Curtis got home but we thought we might go visit my grandma whom we thought had broken both of her wrists the day before. I came to find out after talking to my dad again that I had misunderstood him the first time. It wasn't Grandma that broke her wrists it was Mom (Laverne)! They were getting ready to go to the temple and she somehow fell down the last half of the stairs where she broke both of her wrists and hit her glasses and eye, giving her some nice cuts and a black eye. Big OUCH!! She was not feeling up to visitors and they were going to bed early anyway. I ended up making some Ritz cracker sandwiches with peanut butter in the middle and dipped halfway in white chocolate to bring to our activity the next day while Curtis took a nap on the couch. The girls put on Hocus Pocus. By the time that was finished I told Curtis I wanted to do a fire. He got a fire going while I finished up my treat. Then we went out to sit around the fire. It was a nice clear night where we could see the stars.

Getting cozy on the bench.

Curtis and Jack

We were told to make a face. Looks like we're on fire! 😂

Garrett didn't want to get too close to the fire because he was wearing his new jacket and didn't want it to smell like fire. He decided to make some hot chocolate and bring it outside (far from the fire).

Saturday was busy starting with Charlotte's basketball game at 10:30am. Well, it was supposed to start at 10:30 but the game before us went way past their time so we didn't start until about 10:50 I think. It was a tough game for the girls but it was the first time we had all 7 at a game so we had 2 subs instead of 1, which was good. Our girls only made a few baskets but I'm happy to say that one of them was Charlotte. Yay! After her game we went back to the house to eat lunch and make Pigs in a Blanket appetizer for our ward's Fall Festival/Trunk or Treat. This activity was combined with 2 other wards and was open to the community as well. They had it outside at the Greenhurst Stake Center (which is our building that we attend). There was a photo booth, appetizer table, lots of carnival type games, face painting and a trunk or treat. They also had music playing which made it more fun. 

Since I'm the coach I don't get many pictures but I got a few this time. Charlotte has the ball in this one.

The girls brought their friend from our old neighborhood, Brooklyn, to the festival.

Alice had a different costume on today because her bunny dress broke and I didn't have time to look at it before we left. Good thing we have extra costumes.

Jack helped with a game called Monster Smash. The kids built a tower with cups and then knocked it down (smashed it down). 

Leftover donut from the donut eating contest.

The classic fishing game.

Garrett helped with the fishing game. He enjoyed it.

Someone brought goats to pet and feed.

Trunk or Treat time!

In line for another game just before we were done.

They had several corn hole games set up and so Curtis and I got to play a round before everything started. We were told to get there early if we were participating in the trunk or treat (handing out candy). Anyway, the weather was perfect, sunny and warm enough to not need jackets. It was a big success and a lot of fun!

After the festival we came home for a bit where I cooked up our extra Pigs in a Blanket appetizers and washed dishes. Then we headed to my grandma's house to watch the Boise State football game on TV. Laverne was there too. It was a very good game and BSU won big. When the game was over we headed home, dropping Laverne and Brooklyn off on the way. (Dad had gone to the game and I didn't want mom to have to wait any longer for him to come home.)

Fast forward to Monday, the day of Halloween! The girls had the option to wear costumes to school but they chose not to. I decided to do Papa Murphy's for dinner since they had their traditional Jack O' Lantern pizzas. We all ate before Curtis even got home. After he got home we left around 6:00 to drop the boys off at a party they were invited to by the Hansen family in our ward. Then we drove over to our old neighborhood to trick or treat on our old street. We started at Aunt Cori's. Then went down to say hi to friends. My friend Ashlie loaded the girls' buckets with lots of chocolate candies. Her little girl was sick. She has been sick since last Wednesday. Poor kiddo! 

We then headed back to the same neighborhood where the boys were at their party and did some trick or treating. It turned out to be a good neighborhood to do it in. Lots of houses were handing out candy. We actually started out at a family's house from our ward, the Ostler's. They were cooking hot dogs and had hot chocolate for anyone who wanted some. I was full of pizza but I took a hot chocolate so I could sip while walking and keep warm. Fortunately it was a warm day and evening so it wasn't bad at all. 

Our Jack O' Lantern pizza. Yum!

At the Ostler's for hot dogs and hot chocolate.

Saw this really tall skeleton while trick or treating. Alice really wanted to go over and touch it so I got a picture.

This house was decorated pretty scary but the girls had no problems getting to the door.

Finally got a picture of all of the pumpkins. I never did carve mine (the one in the middle back). The one on the far right was Charlotte's painted pumpkin she did at activity days.

We went down one street and the girls were done. Halfway through, Alice really need to go potty so we stopped at the Hansen's. Thank goodness they were close and we knew some people on that street. We drove home with the girls to go see my in laws. Then came back to put a movie on. The girls really wanted to hand out candy. This is a quiet street so we didn't get many trick or treaters but we did get some. One thing I love about my girls is that they will donate candy from their own buckets to hand out to trick or treaters since we didn't buy any candy to give out on Halloween. All of our candy went to the two trunk or treats. Curtis picked up the boys at 9:00 and then watched the movie with us. The movie the girls picked was "The Nightmare Before Christmas".  Then it was bed time.

On a side note. Curtis finally had a conversation with his boss yesterday and was given an official offer in writing for the move to Washington. They did not get to talk about money until now. Unfortunately, the offer he gave us was lower than we were hoping for. They basically gave him the same raise he would have gotten in January anyway. And with the interest rates way high right now we need to make sure we can afford to buy a home over there. Curtis did not sign the offer letter yet. He and his boss are both going to look at some numbers for different things and then we'll see what happens.