Thanksgiving Alligator

 The boys and I went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving to celebrate with his parents and siblings. Nate's family's Thanksgiving tradition is to do something new every Thanksgiving and this year was no exception. We had alligator! Nate smoked it in his smoker for about 20 hours and then covered it in barbecue sauce. It tasted just like pork!

Oh Christmas Tree

 We put up our Christmas tree on Saturday.   It makes our house seem festive.  I love the Christmas Season.   As tradition each child get to put on the star.  

Goodbye

 We left WV early Friday morning.  It is always so hard to leave.  I love my parents so much and don't get to see them nearly enough. 

Thanksgiving Day

Maizy loves to sit on anyone's lap who will let her.

My dad and Thomas, deep fried a turkey

Andi and Destiny

Thanksgiving dinner.  So much good food with a lot of good People.   My brother and his family, My sister and her family, my mom and dad, and Andi and I.  We were missing Zach and his wife from Emily's family and my boys or we would have had everyone there.  There were 12 of us. 

The Carters came over afterward for games. 

 

I love these tender moments. 

Ice Skating

Apparently in WV every year in Novemeber for a couple of weeks, they set up a small ice skating ring.  So for 5 dollars you can go ice skating for an hour.   Eve had been before so she was doing really well, Andi had never been so she struggled a little bit but got the hang of it and had a lot of fun. 

Then we took some cute photos with the Christmas Decorations. 

 

Wagon Rides and the WV Zoo

In WV there is a never a shortage of leaves.  Dad says he does leaves right now at least twice a week.  So this time, he hooked up the wagon and gave Andi a wagon ride while he did the leaves.

We also went to the WV Zoo,  It was hilarious.  It was a whole street that had huge animal statues in their front and back yard.   Plus they had it decorated for Christmas. 

 

Time with Friends

We hung out with the Carter Family quite a bit.  Eve and Andi and besties and love to play with each other.  We went to the movies, did crafts, watched movies at home.
 

Raking Leaves

Andi was so excited to see all the leaves in my parents.  She has really liked raking leaves in our yard at home.  She went out and with a rake and we started raking.  Grandpa took pity on us and got out his lawn mower and blow the leaves and mulched the leaves.  So Andi got to ride on the lawn mower with him. 

 

Going to WV for Thanksgiving.

 Jere and I both wanted to visit our parents over Thanksgiving, so we took separate trips.  I took Andi and Jeremy took Garrett and Devin. 

Spending Sunday in the Canyon

 After church, we decided to pack a picnic and go up the canyon to have lunch and to do our home church.   The weather is so perfect right now.  It isn't freezing but the fire felt nice.    We set up the hammocks, threw rocks in the river, did our lesson, ate our lunch and just enjoyed being outside on this beautiful fall day.   I wish we could spend more time up there. 

Mod Pizza

 I usually pack Andi a lunch unless it is a pizza day.   They were having pizza rippers which is one of her favorites so I didn't pack her a lunch.   But the aide came and talked to me after she talked to Andi and said that Andi wasn't going to eat lunch and she wasn't sure what to dose her for.  Apparently they had changed the menu at the last minute to corn dogs.  I can't say I blame her and not wanting to eat corn dogs.  I told the aide to have Andi come to my classroom and I would take care of lunch.   It was a Wednesday, and I sometimes don't have a class at Andi's lunch time on Wednesdays because I only teach Kindergarten on Tuesday and Thursday.  

I was just going to take her home and make her a lunch and then come back.  But as we were driving home she asks if we can have MOD pizza instead.  So I took her to Mod.   She got a cheese pizza and I got a gluten free pepperoni and sausage pizza.  It was a fun little date at the last minute.   She got back in time to go to Recess and I got back in time for my next class. 

Skipping School

 

I didn't work on Friday, and Andi had a hard night with her blood sugars.  We had a hard time keeping her blood sugars up even after she ate several snacks.  At breakfast time she was still low.  So I decided to keep her home with me.  I knew she was going to have a sub that day, and I knew that I was probably going to get called to come and help her anyway.  So we stayed home, watched movies, went on a picnic.  Her blood sugars stabilized and now she seems to be extra high.  But it was fun mom/daughter day. 

Disney on Ice

 Jenn, Andi and I went to Disney on Ice for her birthday.  It was so fun.  Andi gets so excited and she sang along.  We all wore our Mickie Mouse ears.   It was a fun evening.  Last time we went to Disney on Ice, Olivia joined us, and it was right before the big shut downs do to Covid in 2020.