Happy Thanksgiving! This year we are for sure counting our blessings!

Our 1st snowfall of the year! It must mean one thing...We are at the start of the Holiday season and this year we are SO ready for some cheer and celebration!

Ellie's bus she designed for her virtual science experiment.

Just a couple of bros...

This is our remote learning setup for the winter. It has changed as we have had to adapt but this is the current successful setup. :) Ben is basically a ROCKSTAR and is home everyday with these three while working his own fulltime job. LOVE HIM.

We were so excited to go up to TC to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad had both gotten a negative COVID test and then self-quarantined. Our family was able to also self-quarantine because of our family being at home and Oxford moving to remote learning the week before Thanksgiving as well. This was a real gift!! We all felt so safe to be together, no masks on, enjoy each other and just have fun!

Elle brought her informational All About Elephant book that she published in Writer's Workshop. She was so proud of herself! We are pretty proud of her too. :)

Snacks and puzzles...

This was my Dove chocolate. I agree!! This Thanksgiving season I am so grateful for my friendships with friends and family. They make my life meaningful and special.

Lots of watching football...

AND playing "pigskin" like the boys call it.

Love you, Mom. Mom made our Thanksgiving dinner so scrumptious and she taught me a few of her tricks.

We wanted to get out and go for a hike so we spent an afternoon hiking on the Vasa Trail. We grew up going on the Vasa Trail because it butts up behind my Aunt Debbie's house. We would play on the trails and sometimes even go cross-country skiing.

We also had a special mission. My Uncle Steve LOVED the Vasa Trail. After he passed, a bench was gifted to the trail dedicated to Uncle Steve. Mom has wanted to go to his bench for awhile and leave a photo of her brother that she had found. Today was the day!  

We have no problem with relaxing in this family...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2020!!! We have so much to be thankful for this year. I am thankful for our health. I am thankful that we are happy. Our kids are happy and that is such a gift during this pandemic. I am thankful that we have a warm, loving home. I am thankful that we don't have to worry. I am thankful that Ben and I have been able to easily adapt. I am thankful for our jobs. I could go on and on. Most of all, I am so thankful for our friends, family, and Jesus, who we know loves us no matter what.

Ben was thankful for: I am thankful my family is healthy and that we could be in TC for the 1st time for Thanksgiving.

Luke was thankful for: Going up to see Papa and Grandma and being alive.

Elle was thankful for: Being able to go up north, having some snow, Grandma's great feast, and being safe from COVID!

Drew was thankful for: Being together with Papa and Grandma.

Out of all the special moments from our Thanksgiving, this might have been my favorite. Our last night there we spent the night transforming Mom and Dad's house to Christmas!! The kids loved putting up my Grandpa and Grandma's old Christmas tree. Luke hung every single light up with Papa's help. We listened and sang Christmas carols. Grandma helped Drew make an ornament. Watch out Christmas 2020...We are ready for you!

Ben's Birthday!!

This special guy. HAPPY, happy birthday! We love you so much, Ben! You make life so much more fun!!

When we have Seth's mower to pick up the last of the leaves, everyone loves to go for a ride!

Elle created a family Jeopardy game to play for Ben's bday!

And later that day...Well, our power went out. Oh, man 2020. We all cuddled and slept together in our bedroom. I was off to work the next day and Ben and the kids...No work and no school because of the power outage! 

We have power!!

I LOVE our fireplace. My favorite spot is curled up right in front of it! Ben put in a new insert for us.

Ben and Luke's first annual bball game: 2020. Ben won in this game but I've got a feeling his wins are going to run out fast. :) 

Fall 2020- Gigi, Splash Village, Halloween and Everything In Between

We LOVE when Harlow comes over to play!

Our Fall gifted us with some warm weather! Drew rockin' his Halloween facemask in shorts and Crocs!

Gigi moved out of her house and into her new assisted living home. Thankfully, she is just a few miles from Uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy's house in Ann Arbor. With Covid, we were at first unsure of what restrictions would be put on all of us to see her. Aunt Cathy was able to find a way to make sure she could visit her 6 nights a week for a few hours each night. Way to go, AC!! We are also able to pick Gigi up and take her for a short visit. This Saturday, we made her favorite chocolate chip cookies, picked her up, and found a park nearby her home. We are so grateful to have this time with her. The kids loved eating the cookies with her and showing off all of their skills at the park.

Luke is our sports guy and we are all having fun bopping from one game to the next! He often will play a bball game in the morning and a soccer game later that day. He plays travel for Magic Soccer and this season started as their center defenseman. He loves that his best buddy, Joey, is on the team with him. We love that he can bike to his soccer practices because they are at the park next to our house!

Luke playing catcher for the first time in a game with his new team.

All of these sports has this big guy all like...

And Drew too...

One weekend, we all needed a little escape and so we met up with Papa and Gma Cooley at Splash Village in Frankenmuth. I will say it. It probably wasn't the safest bet during COVID. I don't think we would choose to go again during this pandemic BUT we all came out healthy and happy. (And now we are wiser for the next time.) 

Papa and Gma took the kids to Frankenmuth's Christmas shop to each pick out a new ornament. Luke had his name put on a baseball bat, Elle picked out a beautiful crystal with gold bulb, and Drew picked out a Hogwarts ornament!

We got to the waterpark first thing Sunday am and we had the pool to ourselves!!! This is what I call safe social distancing.

We ate their famous family style chicken dinners downtown Frankenmuth at Zehnder's!

Ben and the kids had a ton of fun on the family raft ride. It's one of those slides that you can fit the whole family on. BUT there was one slide that everyone was too scared to down. You stand on the surface, they close the plexiglass door, and they count down from 3. Then the floor opens beneath your feet and you drop straight down. OHHHH, geez. My stomach flip flops just thinking about it! Welp, this brave kiddo decided on our last morning there that she wasn't leaving until she gave it a try! Did I mention this slide has a warning on it about hurting your back?!

Elle LOVED it and was all smiles!

SO then, not to be outdone by his younger sister Luke had to now try and Ben. Can you spot Ben with his arms up in line?

They all did it!!

So, now we have this huge buck living in our yard too. 

Luke has been doing this pushup challenge for his bball team. He completes 100 pushups each day! Drew got on for a ride. :) 

Happy Halloween!

The Friday before Halloween, I just kinda threw it out there like guys what do you think if we do something different this year instead of trick-or-treating (due to Covid). Ben and I weren't for sure what the reaction would be so we nonchalantly brought it up AND they were fine with! In fact, they began planning our new and improved Halloween night with different games/activities we could do!

Uncle Chad, Auntie Megs, and Harlow came over. Harlow and I were both Monarch butterflies!

We played Halloween Pictionary!

We made butterbeer!

We played Halloween Bingo!

We lit our pumpkins!

Got all dressed up...

And then we had trick-or-treating in our yard Easter egg style using flashlights in the SPOOKY dark! This was so fun and it was ALL Drew's idea. He came up with putting "tricks" or "treat" in Easter eggs. Ben and I had fun the night before thinking of tricks to stuff the eggs with. We used qtips, hairballs, clipped fingernails, frozen peas, scrunched up Kleenex etc. Chad and I hid the eggs while Ben got to kids ready with flashlights and glowsticks. Off they went, finding the eggs in the dark!

Drew getting one of the "tricks", a hairball from Elle's hairbrush!

Elle designed the game and created the picture poster of "pin the nose on the witch". Drew got a little turned around. :) 

Harlow took her nose and marched it right up to witch! She knows where to put a nose on a face!!

Trick or Treat/Easter Egg success!

The weather has been so nice!! We got blizzards before a walk in a new park in town!

And some of my favorite moments...Everyone quietly and happily reading a good book.

We ended our Halloween Covid style with donating some of our candy to our troops overseas. All Halloween candy needs to be gone in this house by the time Thanksgiving rolls around or now we have Holiday candy and old Halloween candy and it's too much. I love that we can enjoy our candy, donate our candy, and have it sent to troops overseas. We call this a win-win!

Although we celebrated Halloween differently this year due to Covid, I really think this will be a Halloween that we will always remember. We had so much fun!! The kids really learned how to move in life differently than they are used too and we all had fun doing it!! Such a great lesson that I hope they hold onto. Life can look different, yet still feel special and fun!