Election Day! Boy, if this wasn't the most heated election in the history of ever. Tempers and passions were running high everywhere. So many political signs, social media posts and discussions happening. Heck, it's the first time we've ever had signs in our yard too! I felt a little apprehensive that rioting and chaos would start again if Trump won. We all went to bed and woke up and there was no winner. Weeks went on with no clear winner. Lots of controversy about voting fraud and Georgia and Pennsylvania were hot places because their votes would have swung the election. It's now the beginning of January and Biden has been declared President elect. I'm bummed, but then again, I'm sort of relieved because if Trump had won I really thought all hell would break loose and we wouldn't be able to leave our homes or something because of the rioting. I still think that our country will suffer with him as president, so I shouldn't really be relieved. The problems will be coming. There is so much hatred and division right now though, I'm so tired of it.
I even wrote to the president, folks! Another first for me. And called my elected representatives to ask for an audit of voting machines used in Arizona.
It was 97 degrees for a few days so Shelley and I decided to take the kids swimming! Why not?! I guess it's been the longest summer in Arizona in like 30 years or something.
The boys played their first season of flag football. Weston didn't love it, but I feel bad because his coach wasn't super great. And he didn't really play any of the new boys very much. Collin had a good coach, but because the last season got canceled, they let the older boys stay on for this season, so they played against some really big kids. Most of the games were not fairly matched at all. It felt a little pointless. But Collin loved it and wants to play again in the winter. Collin got to play on the same team as his best friend, McGuire and Weston and Graham got to play together too. Carpooling sure is nice! We sat with the Laws for all the games and Livy and Olive loved playing together. Friday nights at Desert Sky park was a common occurrence!
Again, with the food. I made eggs benedict for Sunday brunch and was pleased that the kids actually liked it! I saw this new way of doing biscuits that saves you from reusing all the extra dough when you cut circles. Instead, you just roll out the dough and slice it into squares! Wa-laa! No tough biscuits from rerolling extra dough.
Kind of a traumatic experience meeting the sisters and mom for brunch at First Watch. While we were waiting to be seated, an old man fell right in front of us as he was trying to leave. He couldn't catch himself and hit his head on the concrete right outside the front door. It was the saddest thing to see!! We all wished we could have prevented it. Shelley called 911. We tried to help as much as we could. He was bleeding and his wife was helpless watching. Broke my heart. Rachel had just been telling me how when her son broke his leg playing football, all the coaches prayed over him while the paramedics carried him off the field. The story really touched me. None of them were members of the church, but in Texas, religion is in the water and I loved that they were unabashed in their faith. We live in a Mormon hotspot and yet I've never seen anything like that happen here. So I asked the man if I could say a prayer for him and he said yes. I don't know First Aid, but hey, I know how to pray. :) Luckily he seemed Ok by the time paramedics got to him, but he was taken away in a stretcher. And now I just have a picture of yummy glasses of Morning Meditation to remember the day.
It grew! It grew! It really grew!! How about those cucumber plants?! Everything else died and I had to try again with starter plants. Not a cheap salad AT ALL but it was so fun picking vegetables from our very own garden! The kids were as stoked as I was. I swear we all felt like magic had just happened.
Paired well with homemade pizzas! I'm loving this dough recipe from The Food Nanny. Just don't tell anyone it calls for beer. Eek. It cooks out, right??
Travis will often take the kids with him to the river on Saturday mornings and nobody loves that more than this girl!
I wanted to do something fun with my older class so we tried some block art turkeys! It took quite a bit of time, but I absolutely LOVED how they turned out! And I always give myself props for voluntarily mixing paint and children. Gobble, gobble!!
Tanner was so excited about picking cucumbers he went and picked the only tomato we had growing. You can see the single tear still on his cheek when he realized his folly. The kids decided they wanted to slice it up and try a green tomato! I don't think anyone swallowed, haha.
My littles got to do a Thanksgiving craft too! Crafting with Kindergartners hurts my brain.
I did a thankful pumpkin with Tanner and loved his answers. Crunchy salad. (He loves the white, crunchy part of romaine. Always steals it out of my salads.) LOVES his bike. And Coco-melon.
The older kids wrote poems and presented them with props. Leave it to Collin to dress up like Santa! He won 1st place. He puts it all on the line for contests.
I went to a gardening class at Shari Goodman's house one Friday morning when Tanner and Olive were playing at Marcies. I loved it. Her backyard is Eden. Soooo peaceful and lovely. Goals.
We are cute sleepers, the two of us. I don't usually fall asleep too, but it must have been one of those days.
We tried a new restaurant in Scottsdale and I loved it! It was the fanciest Mexican restaurant we've ever been to. Historically, I haven't been a fan of hoity toity Mexican food. But this was super delish. Get the guac and for sure get the street corn! I loved my steak tacos.
Grandpa is letting Lane and Collin take turns helping him do yard work on Saturdays to earn money. Collin loved his first day. He was literally bursting to tell me all the things he learned. How to mow in lines and make it look like it goes through a tree. I guess they also worked on dirt bikes. Men stuff! ;)
The boys crack me up. They invented a card game. Each card has an opposite. For every "good" there is a "bad". For example "corona virus" is matched with "masks". Schools being shut down/ Prenda. Rioting/ Police officers. Murder hornets/ wasp spray. Forrest fires/ fire fighters. Way to sum up 2020, guys! You deal the cards then someone gets to lay a "bad" card on someone else. If they have the "good" card that matches it, they don't have to pick up the bad card. If they don't have the good card, they have to take the bad card. First one to get rid of all their cards wins. So creative!
For Poetry Tea Time, they made breakfast! Kristen is so fun with these kids.
Tanner has been struggling with wanting to go to preschool. There are tears every time, but once he gets there he is happy. I think all the holiday activities helped. How cute is his face with his turkey?!
It's pie makin' time! And FRIENDS watching time! I started on Tuesday night making all the crusts.
And this is what happens when your silicone crust shield ruins a crust. The kids get to eat it!
The Shaheens were exposed to Covid and their extended family was being weird about it, so they came to Scottsdale instead! We were thrilled. We met them for dinner at Scottsdale Fashion Square mall on Wednesday night. I had been baking all day, but luckily had planned well enough that taking off for 5 hours that night didn't totally put me behind.
One of my favorite traditions of the entire year is when our family runs the Gilbert Turkey Trot together on Thanksgiving morning. Well it got canceled like everything else in life, but I just couldn't give up the tradition. So I hosted my own turkey trot! We invited our families and close friends and were thrilled with our turnout! My entire side of the family came. So did Reddin and Karen's family. Travis's partner, Quinn and his family came and so did Kristen Arnett and her kids and the Laws. I bought way too many donuts, had a bubble machine going in the yard, Christmas music playing on our speaker, a Thankful poster taped across the garage that everyone could write on, and a photo background for people to take pictures in front of. I had mapped out a course through the neighborhood and set up signs along the way. I borrowed my mom's megaphone to help with starting it off! It was really fun! I was so happy about everyone who came to support it! Abbey had a hurt foot so her and David rode bikes and made sure they were back first to call out the times of everyone crossing the finish line. Notes for next year: Don't buy so many donuts. Have a prize for the winner! Get signs made professionally. Maybe buy a big, digital clock to have at the finish line. But really, I just hope the Gilbert Turkey Trot is up and running again next year!
All loaded up and ready to feast! My mom and Shelley thought their ward missionaries might come so we all basically doubled our recipes. I brought two 9x13 pans of sweet potatoes, two 9x13 pans of corn casserole, 4 pies and a bowl of homemade whipped cream. I did Grandmother's chocolate custard pie, a coconut cream pie, a salted honey pie and berry pie. The salted honey tasted like caramel. Abby loved it. I used real vanilla bean pods for the coconut cream pie. All of them were very labor intensive. I was immensely proud of myself for having all of it ready to go, everyone showered and ready and on time to lunch at 1pm after hosting a turkey trot. Three cheers to you, Stephanie. ;)
My mom borrowed all my table decorations so it was fun to see them again!
The Goodmans walked in with this turkey and I lost my ever loving mind. It was so beautiful!!!! I've always wanted a Thanksgiving with a perfect turkey like this! Bravo, Casey! I felt like Buddy on Elf when he congratulates the coffee shop on making the worlds best cup of coffee.
Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without football! We were going for Green Bay. I mean, it's like, my favorite Bay. Haha.
It was really fun having the Martineaus with us! The gushed so much over our food giving us such big heads. They should come every year.
I ate myself sick. Literally. And I'd do it again in a heart beat.
We hardly made a dent in the food so we all divided it up and had leftovers for days.
Welcome, Christmas! People started decorating and putting up house lights sooner than ever before. I think everyone was just wanting something nice to think about. Even I succumbed and put up my fancy tree a week before Thanksgiving. It was my only day without kids around and I wanted to decorate in peace! found this sign at a boutique. It was my favorite addition to my holiday decor.
Every time the kids decorate the tree they ask if this ornament is a picture of me, haha! Just call me Monica!
On Black Friday we get a text from the Shaheens that they're still here! Haha. So we convinced them to come to our house so we could leave the kids here and go to dinner. And just look at my beautiful salmon salad from Tia Rosas. I'm in love.
The kids had so much fun together. Such a fun bonus night with them!
That Saturday, we took Collin and Weston to Hale Theater to see A Christmas Carol. Leah has been raving about it for years. We had to wear masks and our seats were separated from anyone else. It was an excellent production. Scrooge was quite amazing. I wondered if the boys would be bored... there were a lot of long dialogue scenes and the language wasn't easy to follow, but they said they liked it! We went to the matinee so we walked over to Zinburger afterward for an early dinner. It was really nice being out with just them. We never do things like this so it felt special and novel.
Marcie had the idea for us to all buy flowers and convene at Grandma and Grandpa's house one evening to spruce up their planters! It turned out great! It was really nice to all be working together to do something nice for our parents. They are always doing nice things for us. We bought pizza to share afterward. Nothing like getting dirt under your fingernails! Felt good!
Travis said Tanner was calling for him to come wipe his bum and he turned the corner to find this.
I. died.
Get this kid into a yoga class! I guess it made for easy access, haha!
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