Thanksgiving week awesomeness

Newest paint by number done.  😍

Now you see 60 sheets of drywall…

Now you don’t! 30 trips up and down the stairs. Five Thanksgiving night. 25 Friday night. So sore Saturday morning. But the drywall is in the basement! I’ve been mildly anxious about this step ever since we decided to finish our basement.

I took not a single picture of our TWO Thanksgiving meals. One with my family at my grandma’s house day of and one at Bill’s parents’ house Friday. But here’s the food we brought. Sourdough stuffing, sweet potato casserole, apple cranberry pie, and chocolate cream pie. 🤤 

It snowed a bit Friday. First snow of the season in the valley!

Saturday we invited Doug along and went up to Kamas to cut down a Christmas tree. Bill and I were talking and we think this is the 12th year we’ve been cutting down our own tree. We did miss one when we first moved back to Utah. But a super fun tradition! 

Spencer found the tree this year! He picked a great one. It’s got a lot thicker branches than any we’ve gotten before in Utah. 

Snowball fight! 

Spencer, Bill, and Chloe carrying the tree. 

And all of us at the car. We nearly got stuck in the van, whoops! It was pretty slick. And then we nearly hit a deer two miles from home. That got the blood rushing. That’s the second time for me right by my house in about two weeks. In two different cars. Both times it was really close. I’m really glad I don’t have two totaled cars! 

Strong girl! 

And today was the marathon decorating session.

This is one of my favorite nativities and it takes up a ton of space. No room anywhere for it really, then Bill came in with the clutch spot on top of the cabinet. Score! It looks way better than I imagined. 

I moved this end table to the front porch for the month to make room for the tree. It’s perfect for a few more decorations. And we pulled out our light show lights and put them just in our front entry, which is quite deep, so it makes a pretty great disco party! 😂

Genevieve had her own dance party, which I video’s, only to discover I hadn’t hit play. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Each kid gets a tree in their room, plus we have one in our office. So I put this one last nativity on the shelf in my room so we can feel included in all the decorating festivities. Next year I’ll have a basement to decorate too so my living room will be a wee bit less full to the gills of decorations, but I kind of love it each November when it all goes up. ❤️❤️❤️

 

Swifties

We went up to the mountains ages ago to see the colors change. Our tree in front of our house decided to give us a fall show this week. So pretty. 

Chloe has started taking the art class Spencer and Genevieve took last year. This is her first creation. 😍😍

I finished another paint by number. I need to cut some wood so I can wrap it. Here’s the picture for comparison. A little less vibrant blues and yellows, but otherwise I think this paint by number was pretty true to the photo. 

I took my girls and my sister and her girls to the Taylor Swift concert movie yesterday. It was SO fun! We’ve got a bunch of Swifties here! 

 

New Job and Basement Progress

 Bill and Spencer and Genevieve got to go to a BYU football game last night! First time for the kids. Fun time, terrible game! They got creamed so badly. But fun was had by all. We had our primary program at church today. The kids did great. Grandma Jones came to watch. It’s Genevieve’s last one. They were all dragging through it though after going to bed at 1am! Hahaha!

I got a new chair at work that had all sorts of snazzy features like a heated back and massager and foot rest. But when I slide all the way back on it, my feet don’t touch the ground. Short girl problems! I built this little stool out of some scraps yesterday and some leftover paint. It’ll be just what I need so my legs won’t be dangling. I also helped a friend redo some trim and a windowsill in her bathroom. That let me use not one, not two, but three of my saws! Hahaha! I loved it. 

Genevieve and I rode our bikes up to Quench It and got drinks. Super fun! But how the heck did I birth a child that looks this little like me??? Bless her and her beautiful red hair. She looks just like her Grandma Suzanne and her beach waves that she’s starting to learn to style are glorious. Not at their best in this picture, but they’re jealousy worthy when she has her hair styled nice. 

Last Saturday I realized 3/4 of the way there that I hadn’t put my running shoes on. I almost turned back, as I was also a tad sick, but then I remembered crocs have sport mode! Haha! Flipped that strap down and went for it. The run felt great. I might wear them on purpose in the future! 

I don’t have any pictures, but our basement is coming along nicely, finally! We’ve only been working on it a bit here and there for this entire year. No big deal. 🤨 We’ve had framing done for months and months. We got the HVAC and rough plumbing done. Tub is in. Bill is nigh unto done with the electrical, so I paid for a building permit last week and we’ll schedule the four-way inspection this week and then start on drywall! I also bought a drywall lift, so we’ll be able to install it ourselves. Why have we suddenly started working on it more, you might ask? Because Bill has some extra time this month as he’s transitioning to a new job! He’s diving deeper into the forensic engineering field and accepted a position at a forensic engineering specific firm, where he’ll start after Thanksgiving. We’re super excited! He started this career pivot earlier this year with a startup and he’s now diving in the deep end in the industry. We think it’s a great opportunity and really look forward to all the new things associated with it. 

Halloween Round Two

We nearly missed decorating/carving pumpkins this year! I was pretty proud of myself for getting everyone costumes and decorations for the trunk or treat. Pumpkins slipped my mind. Bill ended up grabbing some Monday night. I left work early on Tuesday so I could take part in the festivities. Bill setup for the girls to paint their pumpkins while he was finishing up his workday and I was driving home. The boys couldn’t care less about pumpkins. But the girls had a great time. 

So we have two painted pumpkins and two plain ones. 

Costumes for Tuesday. 

Last Saturday I went on a beautiful run with one of my favorite running friends. We run every other week on the Jordan River Trail and I never get tired of how beautiful it is. 

I switched decorations for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. I don’t actually have much in the way of Thanksgiving decorations, but I love my table and this cute little Thankful sign. 

Funny story. Spencer came home from school and saw the decorations and was like, “Mom! We live in Utah! People skip Thanksgiving and jump straight to Christmas.” 🤣 He’s maybe not wrong. So Bill and I bought these adorable Christmas llama shakers and told him now were decorated for Christmas. 😁

I snapped a picture of Chloe living her best life, reading a book, drinking apple cider out of a cup as big as her face. 😍

Friday night I attended a thoroughly amusing run club activity plus fundraiser. We did a Beer Mile. People chose beer or root beer, or one guy even used water. You drink a can, run a quarter mile, and repeat four times. I made it through three root beers and just couldn’t do another. We should have gotten sugar free! That was like 150 grams of sugar in ten minutes. So ridiculous. No one threw up! 😝 And we laughed a lot and raised some money for more amusing run club events. Win win! 

I added a shelf to the top of my pantry. It’s all done except painting the strips holding it up. And adding a bracket. I totally forgot to buy one while I was at Lowe’s yesterday, dang it. I was so pleased to finish a project in just a few hours, but not quite.