thanksgiving

 We typically travel to North Carolina on Thanksgiving but stayed home this year.  It was definitely different, but I enjoyed the slow pace of the day and being able to watch the parade. 

I fixed myself a drink and cozied up with Bentley, read a book and watched the parade.  

Jason was able to go hunting with friends before we had lunch at Jason's grandma's.

It ended up being in the seventies so we enjoyed lunch outside.

We celebrated with my mom on Friday night!  I'm never going to complain about multiple days of Thanksgiving food!

We always help Nana decorate her tree the day after Thanksgiving.  

Emmy put on the finishing touches!

We started the tradition with wearing Christmas pj but it has morphed into themed shirts.  This year's shirt will definitely go down in history, just like this year!

I got the biggest kick out of Bentley sitting on the steps the other day.  I don't typically get these stuffed animals out, but I was hoping to get rid of them this year and just put them on the steps to sort of get them out of the way.  One of them was on Bentley's spot he likes to sit so I moved it and he made himself right at home.

We finished our outdoor decorations this weekend and then Jason put up the last of the decorations today!  "It's a major award!" 

My mom surprised me with a wine advent calendar today!  So fun!

We have three weeks of school until Christmas break and we are hoping to stay in school for all of it and we're praying we continue to stay healthy through this wonderfully fun season!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

It's a covid world and we're living in it!  We went to see Santa this week and I was honestly shocked that the kids had to wear their masks for the picture.  Santa had on a face shield and was behind a plexi glass partition.  This picture definitely captures where we are in life right now.   

Right next door in the SAME building we were able to eat dinner without masks so I snapped a few pictures of the kids.  I'm not sure they were this happy behind their masks though!

Every year I hold my breath as I take out our Christmas trees because it's inevitable that the lights won't be agreeable.  One of our trees was on its last leg last year so I was a bit nervous this year.  And as I expected, we ended up tossing my favorite tree.  We did a little shift and put our other slim tree in the dining room to replace it and had to buy a new tree for the living room.  I gave in to colored lights this year and the kids were stoked.  Luckily it has the option for white and colored lights!

We even got a full size tree this year rather than a slim tree.  I immediately switch to white lights when the kids go to bed!

It took me two trees to find colored lights I could be happy with!

I added a little Christmas to our playroom this year.

We got a new sectional and I knew we'd be spending a lot of time watching Christmas movies in here rather than the living room so I needed a little glow to make it merry!

We've had a love seat in our playroom for 10 years.  We added extra seating with bean bags, but it just wasn't the same.  We've been wanting a sectional for over a year and we finally found something we loved!

first week of november

This week was an easy school/work week.  We were out of school Monday and Tuesday for parent teacher conferences and election day.  Usually those two things are on the same day, but because of covid and high voter turn out, the school didn't want parents coming for conferences and voters all in the building.  I'm off on Fridays so that made it a two day work week for me!

The kids spent the day with Nana on Monday so Jason and I rode up to Charlottesville for a little day date.  We had never been to Trump Winery so we gave it a try.  Our power went out Sunday night and stayed off until the early afternoon so it was nice to get away because it was COLD in our house.

I decided to try all of their wines which consisted of a white, red and sparkling flight.  

This sign!

The views were nice!

The kids enjoyed a little leaf pile jumping on Tuesday.

Bryce's baseball team had to make up some games because the championship was rained out last weekend.  We played on Thursday night and won, but came up short on Friday in the final game.  

Emmy brought home here school pictures on Friday.  Boy does she look grown.

I went on a Target trip on Friday for the first time in a long while.  I enjoyed going up and down the aisles looking at everything.  This sweatshirt came home with me!

We spent a lot of time cleaning our play room this weekend.  We threw away tons of stuff and sold a bunch of stuff too.  They boys took a break and went fishing with some baseball buddies.

We purged enough stuff in the playroom that the reality of a sectional sofa came true.  We went shopping today and bought one we loved.  We're hopeful it will be here in the next few weeks.  Bryce went to watch Chase play baseball after church/lunch but Emmy opted to go sofa shopping with us.  We made it worth her while with a little ice cream treat!

This has probably been the prettiest fall to date and the warm weather has been perfection.  I'd be fine if it never got below 60 at night and stayed over 70 all year round.

halloween week

We kicked off Halloween week with some pumpkin carving. 

The kids did almost all the work themselves!

A mouse and Jack Skellington.  I don't think Bryce actually knows who that character is but he saw the design and liked it!

We had a fun Halloween drive thru event at school on Tuesday night but Emmy had to miss it due to gymnastics.  I promised her Brusters after the gym to make up for it!

I helped at the event and still managed to snag her a few goodies.

Emmy keeps asking me when she can have lunch with me so I surprised her on Wednesday with an outdoor lunch.  It might be the last warm day we have.

Wednesday night we enjoyed the fire pit before the hurricane remnants rolled in.

Emmy's team was allowed to paint their faces for Halloween at the gym on Friday.  She wasn't going to do it at first then decided a cat wouldn't be so bad.

I dropped her off at friend's house after gymnastics for a Halloween party.  These girls have been friends since kindergarten and they are just the cutest.

I tried to get creative with orange jack o lantern pancakes for Halloween breakfast.  Key work: tried!

We had Papa Johns jack o lantern pizza for dinner.

Bryce was a western hunter and Emmy was her favorite food, macaroni and cheese!

I thought a mask would be the perfect thing for trunk or treat.  It didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned, but neither has 2020!

It was a fun night and now it's November!