Date night with Talia

 

Talia and I had a wonderful girls night out! We got dinner together at IHOP and then went to a painting class. We painted giraffes under black light! It was very cool. Talia also had her very first virgin daiquiri it was nice to only have two other people in our class so we were able to do things more at our own pace and enjoy the time together.

Lucy turns 5

 

Of course we celebrated 5 years of Lucy!  Alaina made her a special carrot dog cake!

Lucy is a necessary companion in our family.  Ky likes to commentate Lucy's thoughts with a special voice, which always keeps us laughing.  However, we have been unable to teach her that food in the counter is off limits.  She will sneak and grab things on the counter if they are left unattended.  Last night she has 10 pancakes!🤯 ( A kid forgot to put the lid on the container.  This year she has also enjoyed 1.5 lbs of pork loin (our dinner), a loaf of bread and other things that I can't think of right now.  After she sneaks the food, she punishes herself by going into her kennel!  😂

Even with these naughty behaviors, I wouldn't trade her!  She is mellow, yet just goofy enough to fit in.  

Futsal begins

 

When you can't play soccer outside, you play futsal!  Talia had her first game on Saturday and did great!

Decorating for Christmas

 

The tree is up! Dad wanted a real one so we set a budget and he found a fir. Not a big fan of this tree, but it worked out just fine. Next year for getting a live tree I want the experience of actually picking one out and cutting it down. I'll pay more money for that!  Everyone did the usual jobs. I enjoyed handing the ornaments out. The kids hang their own ornament. This is tradition every year as they get to pick new ornament every year. I often think about how empty our tree will be eventually when the kids take their ornaments with them and move out. 

I realize now I didn't take very many pictures. But it was a nice time had by all! Ky helped to hang the garage lights. However, "helped" is a very generous word for what he did. He was terrified of going up the ladder. So I did much of it myself.  It was a beautiful warm day so perfect for hanging lights.

Thanksgiving

 

So much to be thankful for!  It was a good day to visit family, play games, eat, celebrate birthdays, eat, snuggle with puppies and eat!

Plate pictures are Talia's.  I laughed when I saw how much food she took.  I told her there was no way she would eat all that.  Second pic of her plate is the finished meal!😂

A day with Laina

 

I had a special mom/daughter day with Alaina.  We enjoyed Wendy's, exploring books at Barnes and Nobles, lotions at bath and body, shopping, shopping and more shopping before getting our nails done.  It was a great day for some girl fun!

College visits

I had the privilege of taking 30 seniors on an overnight field trip visiting colleges.   This is normally a trip that takes place junior year, but due to Covid it was pushed off.  The trip was a lot of fun.  Our first stops were UW EauClaire and then mall of America on day 1.  We then visited Augsburg and University of Minnesota-Twin cities.  It was a great time.  I had baked (or had Ky bake 😂)cookies for the students, but I grabbed the wrong container with 2 sad muffins.  Oops!  The teachers helped me take a pic of sleeping outside of the students doors...I told them I took this job to keep them safe very seriously!  😂. It was so much fun!  Oh...and I completed with 2 students on a plank challenge.  After 12 minutes, I gave the win to the other student as long as he would tell everyone in class that I earned his respect.  So much fun!  Can't wait to go with my next class!
 

Snow driving

 First accumulating snow...and a little too early for me!  Now to teach Ky to drive in the snow.  (It actually went better than my pic implied.  Though he did slide in the left turn lane and then the car behind us did the same.  I was directing ky to hit the median .  Thankfully he didn't because the car behind us chose that route and it saved them from hitting us.  Phew!