Nothing crazy, just day to day life

 The past few weeks have been pretty routine with normal school schedules, normal work patterns, and what has become our normal activities. Free time is spent working on our house and we are getting so close to moving in. Annaliese was given Skip-Bo for her birthday so we've spent many hours playing that together, and since we aren't always available to play, Grandpa taught her how to play Solitaire! 

Such a lazy dog...soaking in the sunshine!

We've seen lots of shows and dances now that there is carpet and no furniture in the living room!

At the orthodonist...Annaliese got an expander and braces!

Keeping these two occupied while I got a few things done!

The girls bring home schoolwork pretty regularly and it is so fun to see the things that they are working on! Haleigh loves math and is starting to learn how to read. She doens't talk much in class, but at home she is constantly talking in Spanish. When I was looking for her things, I found this story about the Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving!

Another project of Haleigh's. The feathers all have things she is thankful for written on them: comida. casa. manzanas. Annaliese. familia. Mamá. Papá. Lydia. 

Annaliese also surprises me with the things she comes home with. Yesterday, she brought home a diagram of the layers of skin made out of playdoh! 

La piel.

Illustrations for a story.

All about the Titanic!

Lydia loves preschool as well; she comes home with so many cute little crafts. Apparently, I need to take a few more pictures of them! 

We are so grateful that they have been able to go to school everyday (and I am looking forward to when we move and I don't have to drive so much each day!) However, living at Mom and Dad's house works out so well and we will miss having live-in babysitters...Lydia has learned a lot about Tiny Houses from watching TV with Grandpa in the mornings and Grandma recently introduced them to Charades! It's hard to believe that we are wrapping up 2020, but 2021 is looking to be a good year:) 

Thanksgiving

As with everything else this year, Thanksgiving looked a bit different than in years past. I had to work Wednesday night and Thursday night which meant that I needed to sleep all day Thursday. Our original plan was to do a little birthday party for Annaliese and Owen's birthday at dinner time and then we would all get together on Saturday for our big Thanksgiving turkey dinner. However, with the latest recommendations to stay home, we decided to skip the big family get-together. 

I started Thanksgiving off with a hospital-provided Thanksgiving meal at midnight...it was tasty and included all the fixings! 

We still planned on eating our turkey on Saturday, so we started the prep Friday evening. After some discussion over how to cook the turkey, we decided to sous vide the bird. I found a recipe online that made the whole process look much easier than it actually was! We started by spatchcocking the turkey...who knew that was even a thing! It would probably have been easier if the turkey was fully thawed. Or smaller. But Grandpa likes leftover turkey so I was told to get a big one. This one weighed in at 21 pounds. And then we seasoned it, bagged it up, and used a cooler to sous vide it for 12 hours. Once the 12 hours was up, it went into the oven for half an hour; then it was time for dinner. It was delicious!! We added a few simple sides of green beans, and a sweet potato/apple/sausage 'stuffing' and ended with a gluten free pumpkin pecan pie. 

When we weren't busy prepping food or eating, we were busy playing games. Skip-bo and Solitaire are the current favorites. 

We also fit in a nice afternoon hike on a new trail with some gorgeous views.

This is definitely one of those years where we didn't get to celebrate like we normally do, yet it was such a relaxing day and there is still so much to be thankful for. 

Annaliese is 9!

 Nine...how in the world is she nine years old already? I still very clearly remember heading home from the hospital with her, thinking that it was a bit crazy that they thought we knew enough to take care of such a tiny human! And now here we are, and she is such an incredible girl! 

She loves going to school, reading, and playing games. She is thoughtful and smart. As she has grown, she has become more reflective and less talkative. She will spend hours sitting in a chair with a good book and is constantly singing to herself. Annaliese likes to play soccer and basketball and loves a good park date with her friends! 

Annaliese has a few good girlfriends at school and she had eagerly planned her birthday party, including both indoor and outdoor options, but I with the increasing number of Covid cases and a request from school to me mindful of how our actions affect the community at large, we decided it was best not to have a party this year. Annaliese very graciously accepted this and we did a small party at home, just with Grandpa and Grandma (since we live with them!) 

We made a gluten free-dairy free cake this year so Dad could enjoy it too! 

Favorite dinner: Pizza or Rosemary Apple Pork Chops

Favorite color: Turquoise

Favorite activity: Soccer

Favorite book series: Boxcar Children and Magic Treehouse

Favorite subject in school: Math

October

 I feel like it's the same story, different month. Our weekdays are filled with school (yay!!) and our weekends are busy working on our house.

School has been going fantastic! The girls love it and it is so neat to hear them talk about everything they are learning. Haleigh's favorite subject is math and we are working on her reading as well. Annaliese loves science and has been busy learning all about our solar system. Lydia is busy learning all about colors and recently showed me that she can write her name. We carpool with Mallory and Owen and I love listening to their conversations on our drives!

The house is coming along nicely! Thanks to Thane and his brother-in-law Jeff, all the trim that can go up is up and we are almost done painting the rooms that will be carpeted.  We had some trees trimmed last week, a new slider door goes in this week and hopefully, we will start laying the floor this week as well!! It's exciting to see it starting to come together!!

Just starting to paint Annaliese's room...she picked turquoise!

We've got our work cut out for us...load one of flooring.

And of course there are always a few random pictures that I find as I'm looking through my photos!

Malachi and Haleigh by the Nooksack River

Malachi really wanted a picture that showed off his two missing teeth!

Auntie Kim picking a few blackberries.

Making homemade pasta

Kelsey took Owen and Lydia out to Birch Bay to visit with Grandpa and Grandma (They're camping out there for a few nights.)