Halloween 2025!

 Adi went all in for Halloween at school  I can’t even with that wig! 🤣

I bought pumpkins and then we didn’t end up carving them till Halloween. Better late than never, I guess. 

And then Frankie decided she didn’t need to carve hers. 🙃 D’s was super cute though!

We hosted our potluck dinner again. We had at least 30 people and it was crazy but fun chaos. Delaney and Emma were excited to head out!

And even Adi and Lily went out for awhile. 

Matt had invited a friend from school over and they passed out candy together. I flitted between outside and inside and got to visit and tidy and it was a simple and fun Halloween. 

Chocolate and games and Ruby

 Grandpa sent us a fun box of Wisconsin chocolates for Christmas  we had fun taste testing them all  

Sunday will be our 10th annual Hot Chocolate Stane! One of my favorite activists we do each year. 

I got to see Frankie’s 2nd game and it was a good one. The boys were crazy aggressive and only won by 2 points. Frankie looked so good!

And finally, Miss Ruby! She’s getting so big and is basically a sitter upper and an unenthusiastic solids eater. Those cheeks and hand rolls!

I made good progress on my Women of Light tasks and bought Christmas dinner supplies and am that much closer to being ready for Christmas. 🎄 ❤️

18 and 21 years

Today is the day 18 years ago that Sharon passed away. She was diagnosed with renal cancer the Summer after Matt and I were married. We had just visited Seattle, which Matt wasn't stoked about, but so glad we did. We didn't know how bad it was till very close to the end. I remember talking to a friend from Seattle who was a nurse and she laid it out for me, that because of the metastasizing there would be no recovery. I don't think Jim had accepted that yet, so that was hard. We had made plans to gather for Christmas, had rented a big house in the snow and had plane tickets ready. 

I was teaching 3rd grade at the Arts Academy and got a call at school, they called me over the intercom to come up to the office for a phone call and my heart sank. My partner teachers were outside their doors with hugs and offers to keep an eye on my class. I went into the office and talked to Matt. Mike had called him and said Sharon didn't have long and asked if we could come early. 

After that was a whirlwind. I was able to leave school immediately and he left work and we went through all our options. We decided Matt and I would leave that day and my mom was going to drive up to be with the kids and then get them on a plane after school got out for Christmas break. But as soon as the kids came home they really wanted to come with us, and we really wanted them to also. So we packed in an hour and drove the 3 1/2 hours to Albuquerque to fly to Seattle. I was 3 months pregnant with Adi and not feeling great on the flight but everyone was very kind and patient with us. We unknowingly met up with James at the Denver airport and we all flew into Seattle together.

And then we waited. When we first arrived she was still talking a little so we got to hug her and talk to her, She slipped into a coma a few days later. We spent time at the hospital and together and did activities with all the kids. Ken came from Chicago and Dan and Chantell from Ellensburg. The day she passed away Dan and Chantell had decided to drive home to check things and pick up some things they felt they needed and Cami and I were going to take the kids to the Science Center. Matt, Jim, and Ken were at the hospital, and Matt called to tell me she had passed away. I called Dan and Cami called Mike. We left the kids with Cami's bestie and met at the hospital to be with her and together. I'll never forget walking into the hospital and Matt walking out to meet me and just crumbling. Losing our parents is so hard and she was only 65, too young.

I remember their ward taking such good care of us. They brought dinners and someone brought a big thing of toilet paper, paper plates, napkins, etc to help make it easy with all the visitors. That was so helpful and I've copied that a time or two.

I only had my mother-in-law for a year, plus the year and a half Matt and I dated. She never got to meet our little girls, but Matt was grateful she got to know Alexis and Christian so she did get to see him as a dad. Jim wrote a book about her life, and every few years we read it with the girls. I miss her and wish she could have stayed longer, but am grateful to know of the Plan of Salvation.

And then, as life is so often bittersweet, today is also the day 21 years ago that Matt and I went out on our first date. We had met at a dance on the 10th and had planned a big group ice skating night on the 17th, but Matt called a few days before that and we made plans to go to dinner before. And the rest is history. 💗

 From the birth of our Savior, to the sting of death, to the promise of eternal life together, December holds multitudes.

So how about some Rainbow Ellie Sparkles after all that? 😝 

My toast broke when I tried to cut the arm holes and I like doing the elf stuff but not that much.

Yesterday they drank orange juice, but Delaney asked what the heck was going on, which I thought was obviously 2 straws in an orange, but I guess not?

Yesterday I had Inklings (love), a doctors appt (meh), D's counseling appt (she likes it), Matt volunteered at the Festival of lights (he loves to serve), and the missionaries for dinner (yay).

During D's appointment I ran to BJ's for some things we need this week and then realized after I left that I haven't thought about Christmas dinner yet, so I guess I get to go back. Then after we stopped at Target for some gift exchange gifts for Frankie, and D spent some Grandpa money on mini brands. I will keep this girl little for as long as I possibly can, even if it means mini brand clutter.

We enjoyed girls night with the sister missionaries. We love having sisters! We had grilled cheese and tomato bisque and brownies and ice cream and it was a lovely evening. 

Frankie and Adi went to check the mail after and they were cracking themselves up getting ready to go. I came over to find that they had each taken a roller blade to wear for their trip up. I never did get a report on how that went because I had a Women of Light meeting, but I'm assuming not great.

There are so many little things that have cropped up - now suddenly the ballroom will take 2 hours to transform from the classes we have scheduled in the morning to the large ballroom we'll have our keynote speakers in and EventBrite is being kind of annoying. We've got technology stuff and interpretation stuff and 5 strong women with lots of opinions and it's December and busy and this is happening so soon, so it was a long meeting and we all left with another long list of to do's. It will be soooo good and worth it, I just pray we are thinking through everything and are ready!

And finally, on this long and meandering journey this post has been, Emmett won an award for having the most growth of his reading assessments from fall to winter. He was already a good reader, so this is very exciting! And we love a pajama day!

Alli’s 40!

Alli turned 40 at the end of October. She invited us to Medieval Times to celebrate. We also decided to throw in an Escape Room before the dinner. It was a tricky Escape Room with so many possible options that it was hard to know how to move forward. We got a couple hints, but didn't ever figure it out. They offered to give us more time, but we had to get to dinner. It was a frustrating one. 

Alli got us the premium package, which meant we got to sit up front, a lovely lanyard and flag, and also we each got an 8x10 picture of us. 7 lovely 8x10's. 😂 Not worth it, just fyi.

The show was fun and silly and the food was fine. Since we had just been to the Stampede at Dollywood, we all kind of compared it to that and both are cheesy but we liked the Stampede better.

Frankie had her baby that day and it was so loud inside the theater that she had to leave to feed him because she couldn't hear when he was done sucking or if he was crying.

That was kind of a bummer, but she was a cute and diligent little mommy. Who knows what people thought though! 😂 The guy at the Escape Room brought a chair into our room before he realized it was not a real baby. 😂😂

The girls don't remember going here, so it was fun. And Delaney remains a fashion icon.

It had started raining by the time we were leaving, so we did a quick gift handoff in the parking lot and gave birthday hugs. So happy we could celebrate as my second to last sibling turns 40.

December 3rd-December 7th

The 3rd was my first RSP day of Ministering. I managed to visit 4 of my Calvert County ladies and it was wonderful and busy and took all day. Then that night we finalized our Women of Light Registration and I first emailed all the Stake RSP's, and then immediately emailed my stake. Then we realized we hadn't taken the password off and then fixed it within 10 minutes. 🙃 It was scary and we were all nervous - it's getting really real!

Also, how cute was my little baby Lu??? I remember this day so clearly, we were at the mall and the portrait studio had windows and people walking by were commenting on how cute and happy baby Lexi was. One of my favorite pictures!

Another oldie, but goodie. I used to make them get pictures every year, even into their teen years because we took the girls, and now those bratty girls manage to sidestep Santa pictures every year. The perks of having an old mom, I guess.

On the 4th I went up to Baltimore and dropped off a gift and had lunch with Alli. Then I went to Laurel and visited with Ehlyvia. I got to meet her dogs and see where she lives and we had a nice visit. Then I drop to Upper Marlboro and visited with the Capitol RSP. And finally, to Kellyn's for a fun girls night. She made a million cookies and had cookie tins out for everyone to make a tin of cookies for their families and their ministering families. I still can't get over it, so generous! We had a white elephant gift exchange and played some fun games and I stayed late, but not too late. 

The next day we had our first 2-hour-delay for our lovely dusting of snow. It's now December 15th and we've already had 2 delays, is it gonna be that kind of Winter? Cause I'm fine if it is.

More cute vintage Christmas

Oh to go back and give these babies the biggest hugs.

My mom's 77th birthday was the 6th. I miss her everyday and am always so grateful when I feel her near.

I was so happy when Lu sent me the boys shoes out and ready for St. Nicholas Day. She's such a minimalist, I'm kind of always surprised when she carries on a tradition. 😂

Is this not the saddest girl in the world? Ruby decided she hates her carseat and sorry, not sorry, mimi thinks this is the cutest thing ever.

I've been sending Lu our Rainbow Ellie Sparkles pictures every day, that's why I'm also putting them here. 😂

She finally fits her cute Ruby sweater! This big girl!!!

December 7th was a quiet Fast Sunday. We took 2 cars to church because of presidency meetings, choir practice, and a President Boyd meeting. And then we had a lovely quiet day.

Dr. Dennie had finally sent out my Staff Appreciation request signup and this is the best thing to see when you open your mail app. I love watching the signups roll in.

And finally, toilet humor.

T-T-t-today

I ran a thousand errands, again. My errands multiplied when the girls got home from school, again. I ran into a problem with our Area Conference, again. It’s fine, it will be all fine, again. 

November 20th-22nd

I spent the 20th decorating for Christmas. I have not a ton, but enough Thanksgiving decorations, so the Christmas/Thanksgiving combo reminds me of Nightmare Before Christmas. I actually decorated for Christmas quite a bit before Thanksgiving and I still felt behind when we got back into town after Thanksgiving and it was already December 1st.

The 21st was spent working on our Area Conference. Lots of emails, texts, calls, writing messages, and answering questions. 

On the 22nd (Saturday) I met up with Sarah C and McKenzie and we drove up to the temple together. Elder Rasband came to visit his daughter for Thanksgiving and because he was local, he held a big Washington DC North Area Training. He invited the bishops to a special temple session in the morning, so we followed their pattern and invited all our presidents to worship together in the temple before our training. I let Elizabeth and Grace know, so it ended up being all the women presidents in our Stake. I had 6/8 of my presidents and it was lovely to be with them in the temple. 

After, we ate lunch in the temple cafeteria and then went to the Stake Center next door for our training. Because I've been managing the Area RS Coordinating Council, I know all the Stake RSP's by name and many by face, so it was fun to see so many friends. The training was excellent. Nothing new or groundbreaking, but very very focused on Jesus Christ, on helping people remember Him and learn of Him.

It was nice to ride with friends because we were able to talk the whole way up and then compare notes the whole way home.

I was home for about 30 minutes before Chelsea and Steve picked us up for Sarah's Women of Country Concert.

It was at The Rex and I had no idea they had a whole concert venue in the back. It was just a little smaller than the warehouse in Philadelphia where D and I saw Marina. I wasn't really in the mood for a concert since I'd been out all day, but it ended up being really fun! I knew (and loved) 90% of the songs and since it was so loud I was able to sing at the top of my lungs and so obviously I did.

It was fun to see Sarah - she's so talented, and to hangout with Chelsea and Steve. It was a long and full and beautiful day.

A Very Caliente Christmas

Saturday was a wonderful day full of dancing and driving and celebrating our baby. I really like the Caliente Christmas show they do Saturday afternoon. The Nutcracker is nice, but I love the variety of CC. Delaney's contemporary class danced to Silent Night and it was my favorite!!!

It was so beautiful and D hadn't shared any details, so I didn't know she'd be right up front or that they'd lift Olivia and I just loved it! Of course I got teary, but when I looked at Matt, who so rarely ever cries, he had gotten teary too.

During the break between shows we caught up on our advent calendar activities. We made our garland and actually had our family night lesson since we had to piecemeal it.

Delaney caught up on some gaming with Max. 🙄

I made a peanut chicken salad and then it was time for our last show of the weekend. The sunset on the way to St. Mary's City was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. This driving iphone photo does it no justice, it was perfection.

I volunteered to be a ticket scanner, but then other people wanted to, so I made a friend and we picked a spot to usher. D had 2 dances, the first with the candy canes and the second she was the tail of the dragon, which she loved. She is significantly shorter than the front end of the dragon and it was pretty funny seeing her little legs working twice as fast as the girls in front of her. 😂

We got a few more pictures of her, but they have a no pictures policy and they were enforcing it which is very annoying.

We made Delaney her customary candy bouquet and I was surprised when I got out my Christmas stuff to find that I'd bought her a Nutcracker last year too. Probably on clearance?

Lily was the Rat Queen and a) that's Delaney's dream role, and b) it was so special to see Lily dance in her last Nutcracker! She was beautiful and did such a good job. 

A super cold weather front came through Saturday night, so Stake Council was cancelled around 2:00pm. We went to bed wondering if we'd have church at all. I had planned to go up to Bowie, but when we looked at the weather when we got up it was dicey enough that I stayed home and went to Pax. I know at least 2 wards cancelled and Bowie also cancelled their Ward Council.

It ended up being a lovely, quiet at home day. And then sometime in the evening we got the call that there would be a 2-hour-delay, which really is best case scenario. We took our extra 2 hours and Delaney and I finished our super challenging Lego from our Amy Advent Calendar. And by 'us,' I mean that I found the pieces and organized them so they would be ready when D was ready to put them together. She's a really good Lego builder.

A few Rainbow Ellie Sparkles hijinx to round us out...

And finally, Frankie had her first game on Friday but I had to miss because of Nutcracker.

I'm excited to get to see her Wednesday!