Thursday

 Josh and crew left Wednesday afternoon. I trailed Jasper at one point so they could finish packing their car, and i let him upstairs where he climbed into Frankie’s bed and snuggled down in her satin sheets and fluffy comforter. I rubbed his face and he laid there for a good 20 minutes - he loved it! I told them he definitely needs some satin sheets in his life. 

Frankie had a 504 meeting that day that I did on zoom and I drove the ballet carpool and the girls went to activities and I cleaned up after having guests. 

I drove the ballet bus on Thursday too and had errands to run, so I stayed out the whole time, which included some time reading in the car. It rained just a little and the sun was setting and it was so pretty.

I wanted to have a girls night while Matt was gone, and Thursday was our night. I wasn’t sure at all who would come, but it ended up being a good little crew! Alecia, Kat, Tracie, Sarah, Jess, Kellyn, and Johnna. I can’t remember when everyone left, but I got to bed at 3. #worthit

Laura brought my homemade star and I sent pics to Frey and Alli. We’ve all been sharing our homemade gifts with the siblings we’re not giving to. 

The seminary kids talked about the blessings of the temple in Ezekiel. Delaney declined to participate. Girlie pop is giving me a run for my money, I will tell you. 😭 

President Meredith encouraged the students to memorize BYU-I’s mission statement in a devotional, so Adi and I have been working on it. I love it!

And some randomness from last month in YW. 

Matt was gone for almost 3 weeks and I was tired of having a whole country between us!

I got the girls off to school Friday morning and took a 3 hour nap. 👀 it was amazing!

Election Day

Since there was no school Tuesday, we had inklings on Monday and lucky Laura got to come. I started a family Thanksgiving group text and wanted to share that I’m thankful for our inklings group but I forgot a pic until there were just 5 of us there. Whomp whomp.  

Laura and I decided we needed salsas for lunch and Jasper sat and ate chips and salsa the whole hour we were there. He was happy as a clam, it was pretty funny. 

I ordered mini nativity’s, but there was just one small problem. No Jesus. Upon looking more closely at what I ordered, even though the picture clearly includes Jesus and some lambs and other figures, the written description says this is a 6 piece set. 

The whole McCombs crew went visiting and I made Harvest Bowls for dinner with chicken, kale, and sweet potatoes. Josh and Michelle’s dinner plans had gotten postponed for Tuesday, but thankfully everyone loved the bowls. And Josh is a good climbing toy.  

On Monday night I taught Josh and Laura to play our new favorite game - Splendor, and wouldn’t you know it, Josh won the first game. I was super surprised. But then I beat him until the very last game. He woke up Tuesday and was like, I wanna play Splendor! We trapped Jasper in the high chair with some snacks and teddy was pretty patient while we played. 

Then Laura left for Katie’s and Josh and I took the boys to the old wooden park/new park. We took turns following one kid around each and it was a perfect temp day and we had fun wearing the boys out. 

Frankie worked on some homework and I had already voted so we just had leftovers for dinner and watched the election results trickle in. 

Josh and Michelle went visiting, so it was a quiet night and I put away Halloween, cleaned (littles are so messy!), and put up Thanksgiving. My back was sore but my heart was happy. 

Full dance cards

We played some games and had fun hanging out with Alli.   

I got Christmas trees at BJ’s and Frankie opened it and we were so surprised how big they are!

Alli left when we went to church and then we were home about an hour before Josh and family and Laura arrived. 

We took the boys to the park to burn some energy and it’s so precious to see how teddy emulates Josh in every way. He kept checking Josh to make sure he had his hands behind him and was standing like him. So sweet. 

I made Alfredo for dinner and we invited Carter over to meet everyone. Then Josh and Michelle went to visit people and the rest of us played Times Up. Everyone was getting into it!

We had Josh, Michelle, and boys in the basement, and since we haven’t yet bought a new bed for Adi, we put Laura in Frankie’s room and Frankie bunked up with me since Matt was gone. She moved allll the way in. 

We stayed up late talking to Josh, just Laura and I, and I’ll say it again and I’ll say it again, grown up kids that you watched grow up and love like your own are so much fun. What a joy. 

Halloween 2026

Our dance card has been so full over here! Alli came to town on Friday and got to enjoy the last regular season football game with me. Which happens to not be their last because there is also a playoff game tomorrow. Who knew?! Not me.

Bryn dressed up like Frankie so we had to get a pic! 💙

The game was not too fun to watch. And I fear the playoff game will be more of the same. But my girl and I will be there cheering our mighty mighty raiders on. 

We hosted our annual Halloween potluck. It was a small one this year with just three families, but honestly if felt just right. Far less crazy than years past!

Our sliding glass door had been stuck but Delaney got Tony 2 screwdrivers and he fixed it. 🤣 which was lovely because the kids are outside. 🙌🏼

Fast friends over here when Alli helped Amber with her tin man wrapping. 🤣

Carter came over to be the Woody to frankies Bo Peep. They passed out candy and then when it got dark walked around trick or treating. 

Delaney had friends over and went as The Black Parade which is a My Chemical Romance song from 2008. Alli took one look at her and knew what she was because, as she said “I’m a millennial.” Other millennials in the house had no such knowledge, sooooo. 

Carter was a good sport. He’s growing on me. 🤣

Alecia, Alli, and I passed out candy - which is so fun. So many creative costumes - we loved the Hogwarts one best! And as Frankie was taking this picture she kind of went “oh, okay,” like not a great pic, but ok. Turd. 

It was a fun night and yummy food and we all love a Saturday Halloween. 

The girls and friends watched a movie in the basement and D’s moms friend came over and chatted for an hour (that was interesting) and then I took everyone home which took another hour and I was so sleepy but it’s fine. 

‘Twas a happy Halloween. 

So cozy

My one picture today, on this National Cozy Oatmeal Day, of my delicious creamy oatmeal. I do make a mean bowl of oats, if I do say so myself. I toast the oats in coconut oil and then add a ton of milk and water and slowly cook them. So good.

I ran errands while Delaney was at ballet. I talked to Christian and Adi, d and I watched a movie, and then when Frankie got home from her cheer dinner we included Adi in our come follow me study. I’ve been focusing on principles rather than just reading straight through and discussing and I think it’s going well. It’s a lot more work, but it’s lead to some really good conversations. 

And our girl cheering. Tomorrow is her last football game, and I’m gonna miss our Friday night lights. 

Organizing

The great photo sort continues. Actually, I finished, I just need to organize each persons pile. This is my grandparents bowling alley, which is so fun!

The cutest little Wednesday Addams went to a Halloween party with her mom and dad. I love a baby in a wig!

Matt and Mike took the light rail downtown and went to dinner. We had leftover chicken noodle soup for dinner, so that’s cool too. 🤣

I have some paperwork bins under our bed that I’ve been organizing too, and I opened one yesterday that had picture frames and a large envelope and when I opened the envelope I found our missing vacation pictures! They’re all just from souvie stores, except the one of the bridge that is an original piece of art that we bought from a street artist in Paris. It was a little expensive, but we had splurged because just how often do we find ourselves in Paris with the opportunity to support a local artist? So it’s been missing for 2 years and we were so sad. I had looked everywhere too. So happy!

Rich in life

There’s a house down the street that poses their skeleton every day and I love it!

That’s the only picture I’ve taken in the past 2 days. So some grandbaby love. We all adore this little sister!

This little sister who got her ears pierced Saturday! Lu said it was hard for the piercer to get them both even because she couldn’t see past Mia’s cheeks. 🤣

And then our cute little Ruby cakes went to the pumpkin patch!

I feel so blessed with all these precious loves of mine. 

Interfaith walk

It was a busy weekend to be a communication girlie. On Sunday Frankie and I (Delaney declined my invitation) headed up to dc for a unity walk. Traffic was bad. 👎🏼 Even worse than the map projection because we didn’t arrive till 1:30 and we left at 11. 

Anyways, I was hoping to arrive by 1:00 to sit with cute LaneAnn at the Just Serve table but we were obvi late and she said she had things under control. 

We met up with Dan and Chantell and went to the opening ceremony at the Catholic Church of ascension. They had speakers from several different faiths, people that serve on the interfaith council speak, all of them quite short, so that was nice. 

Cute Latter-day Saint missionaries handed out programs, so after the ceremony, where we were encouraged to talk to and get to know other people , we headed for our walk. There were 10 churches on our route. 

The first was a Sikh temple that served us the most delicious lunch! It was a lovely surprise and they serve the community like that weekly. I’m so impressed!

Some of it was spicy so I mixed it all together. 😋 

We took off our shoes and covered our heads and people were able and encouraged to ask questions. 

It was so lovely because everyone was friendly - everyone was there to foster unity and get to know each other. And they loved that Frankie was there. There was a handful of teens, but not many. 

Chantell was still eating, so Dan, Frankie, and I went in to the temple and when we came out we found she had had a turban wrapped on her head. She said they asked her to and she was like, sure! And then the news people got an interview but some of those guys had lots to say, so she finally had to just say, thank you, bye. Only Chantell! 🤣

I mean, I just think we need to slow things down. 

The churches were really beautiful. We loved the golden light steaming through this Greek Orthodox Church. 

They had their holy alter open so we could peek back there and we had a long chat with one of their… parishioners?

Ginny was there and Sister Stowell from the visitors center. 

We were on the same track as our coordinating council photographer, and he grabbed my phone to take this one at the Russian Orthodox Church. 

So intricately beautiful. 

Frankie got henna (not sure the correct way to say that) at the Hindu temple. 

She knew just what she wanted and she got a manta ray. 

One of our stops was a memorial and I love the stone placement. 

Frankie wanted some more henna embellishment, and lucky her, they had another artist out. 

She was a good sport about coming with me and hanging out with the grownups. She was friendly and pleasant and we had a fun day together!

And some out of order pics? I think yes. 

Frankie really wanted to walk around dc, so after the closing ceremonies we said goodbye to Dan and chantell and headed downtown. We found a street parking and walked to the Lincoln Memorial and then the Washington monument. The White House was all lit up. 🇺🇸 

Almost a full moon, and a movie on the lawn. 

❤️🇺🇸❤️

We had the cool opportunity to have our service members names displayed at the new USAA memorial. 

You can do three at a time, and I believe they have to be retired, or out of the military at least to have them displayed. First we got my dad, Matt, and Jim. Then we hopped back in line and got Mike, Dan, and Glenn. I totally forgot my grandpa and uncle, even though I’d remembered them in the car on our way. Next time. 

The weather was just perfect, it was a beautiful day!

Now let’s sandwich this thing and hop back to the walk. Keeping it interesting. 🙄 Our timing worked out perfectly and we were at this Muslim church just in time to walk around and see it and then enjoy the closing ceremonies. I loved this choir and especially because we all got to sing together. And that precious, simple  song made me cry. I just think Heavenly Father gets so happy when we all come together. 😭

I wasn’t sure what to expect and was less than excited to drive into dc after my long day Saturday, but it was really a very sacred and special experience and I am looking forward to showing Matt around next year. 

The carpet inside the Muslim temple is fluffy and soft since people kneel to pray so often. 

So beautiful and so grateful.