Just a little ray of sunshine : October 30th - November 1st, 2020: Home cooked meals, zombie skittles, & reorganizing

Well, we've officially passed Halloween, it's now November, and next up is Thanksgiving. Craaaaazy. Time is flying! I woke up a few minutes early on Friday to blow dry Maeve's coat of many colors one last time to make sure it was nice and dry. I literally had dreams about that thing and her going to school with it still wet. 🤦🤦🤦 My mind is so crazy sometimes! Luckily I had nothing to sweat because it did dry all the way and she was sooo happy and excited to put it on in the morning. So much so that she did not put up a fight about wearing jeans with it -- she is normally not willing AT ALL to wear jeans because they're "too itchy", which drives me crazy because they look so cute on her and sometimes you just need to wear jeans with your shirt! I was hoping this would convert her over to wearing them in the future, but after her half day was over she said that she still didn't like them. 😩 I reeeeally miss the days of her not caring about her clothes and I also really miss the days of better selection in her size while clothes shopping. It's hard to get her good stuff anymore without spending more money, which is so hard for me to swallow since she's still growing like a weed. Blah!

Anyway, she got in the car with a Halloween bucket full of treats from her classmates and said she had a great little Fall party! Her teacher also said she looooved her coat of many colors because she loves Dolly Parton too. So cute! We hit up the grocery store after leaving the school so that I could get all the necessary food for the weekend. That night we were planning on going over to our friends' house - the Pylants - and I decided this time to make and bring dinner since she always hosts and has cooked the other times we've gotten together. Their house is more spacious so it makes sense to hang there, but I wanted to at least bring the food so we can share the load in that way! So the rest of the day was spent in the kitchen making breadsticks, soup, and Fall treats to share. Maeve and Rowan worked together to assemble little acorn cookies out of Chocolate kisses, mini vanilla wafers, and butterscotch chips using chocolate frosting as glue. They really did look like acorns and I loved that they could take ownership without needing my help. Maeve was so proud!

We enjoyed our time at their house that night and the chicken noodle soup was a hit! It was a unique take on the recipe because it had cream cheese and bacon in it, so I had to try it out!! It was way good and definitely a great soup for a day that you just want some comfort food. We attempted to play games while the kids all played after eating, but Nolan was not having it, so we just talked and laughed instead. They are fun friends and it seems like we're always laughing about something together! We were entertained by some of our hidden talents and everyone else's inability to reproduce said talents in any way, shape, or form despite all best efforts. 😂😂 It was a good time.

Saturday Maeve woke up saying Happy Halloween to everyone! She was quite excited and had been really anticipating the day. I decided to make a fancy chili (also a unique take on it - with cream cheese and bacon in it as well ironically - give me all the bacon and cream cheese!) that night so I had some prep to do for that and also made some cornbread muffins to go with it. So, while Adam was roofing I took care of that and also worked with a squirmy Nolan trying to safety pin the crap out of his costume. It was a hand me down from a friend and technically size 0-6 months, but looked pretty big so I tried it out on him and it was waaaay too big in some places. Like the waist line was enormous, which I don't even understand in the slightest why it would have been made that way. A newborn would have completely drowned in this costume considering my 11 month old was even struggling in it. One wonky job and some cranky tears later I got it looking presentable enough for pictures. 😅

After Adam got home, we went to Old Navy cause he wanted some new jeans. We told ourselves we only had so much time to spend in the store, so that we'd have enough time to finish dinner prep/eating/taking pics of the kids in their costumes before heading out to trick or treat and unfortunately when we were ready to head up front to buy some stuff the line was way too long and we just didn't have the time to wait. Soooo we left without buying any of it, but were able to at least find it all online and buy it online instead so it still worked out.

The chili I made ended up being so good!! I've never been one to bring chili to a chili cook off before, which is what we usually have every year for Trunk or Treat at church, but with this recipe I honestly think it would be a contender. So now I'm already looking forward to next Halloween to hopefully be able to do that, unless the world is in an even bigger mess then and we have to cancel it again (cause it didn't happen this year thanks to Covid 😔)....🤞🤞 I was also very pleasantly surprised with the cute pic we got of all 3 kids together - I was kinda convinced it would be impossible to get anything good, but we were able to work some magic and make it happen. 🙌 It was a chilly night for Trick or Treating and we had a great time!! The kids were too cute in their costumes, especially Rowan. That Olaf costume gets me every time he puts it on!! It was kinda the best watching him walk in it all night. Maeve did great actually saying trick or treat, but we were unable to convince Rowan to say it himself and before long his bucket was too heavy for him to carry, so eventually I was basically doing the trick or treating on his behalf while he just watched me get the candy. 😂🤦 The highlight of the experience was definitely when one house had goodie bags made and they told us that inside the bag there were zombie skittles and some of them tasted normal but some tasted like rotten zombie. Somehow, Maeve ended up confused thinking that if we ate the rotten zombie skittles we would turn into zombies so she was terrified of them. Multiple times after that she kept saying she was nervous and insisted we needed to throw them away right when we got home. 😂🤦 I basically lied and told her that I did throw them away once we were home, but I hadn't so that after she and the boys were in bed, Adam and I could try them. I got a rotten zombie the FIRST time and it was sooooooo nasty. I had to spit it out it was so gross. I couldn't bring myself to take a chance again so I didn't eat anymore of them, but I think Adam finished off the bag. I guess it wasn't quite as appalling for him. I really kinda wanna know what is in in the rotten ones that makes them taste SO bad. Haha it was just crazy!

Sunday was an interesting day in that I started off feeling SO lazy, like all the things that I could/should do that were staring me in the face were just so not what I wanted to do AT all. It didn't help that it was daylight savings and the kids did not in fact sleep in, but instead were up at 6:30am. Surprise surprise. While Adam had his church meetings, I simply operated in survival mode while wanting very badly to go back to sleep. Somehow once he was done, I forced myself to snap out of it and be productive and I experienced a total turnaround because before I knew it, I was cleaning out my bedside table drawer and then cleaning out/reorganizing my entire bathroom sink. I had been wanting to do this for awhile and kept telling myself I should do it on a weekend day sometime with Adam around to keep the kids out of my hair. I was quite happy with myself that I took the bull by the horns and made it happen because it is looking soooo much better in all those places and I threw out some stuff that I haven't touched in awhile. Sometimes you just gotta let go and purge! I also vacuumed upstairs and after doing all that I felt like a million bucks! We also did have church meetings through zoom in the middle of all that as well - the ward has been split into 2 groups now with the rise in Covid cases again, so we will only meet at the church every other Sunday now and other Sundays we can at least watch the meeting over Zoom and then administer the sacrament in our house after that. Kinda crazy the state of affairs these days and all the adjustments that continually have to be made as we navigate Covid. Who knew life would be like this someday!? Only God did, but now we're along for the ride and it's a crazy one. 🤯

Before it got dark we took the kids to one of the playgrounds at an elementary school in town and it felt so windy and cold! They still loved every second, but it made me just wish for the snow. I have always had the attitude of if it's gonna be cold, it might as well be snowing! I really have been missing the snow lately and kinda hate that it has been so long since I have experienced a big snow storm. I miss the days of life in Utah when we would wake up and go outside and everything just looked magical with that perfect untouched white blanket of fresh snow!! There is nothing like it and my kids are missing out. We talked about it at the park and Adam misses it too. We are half tempted to want to move somewhere else where it will actually snow! Who knows if we'll really entertain that at some point, but it sure is tempting!!

Before I share some pictures from the weekend, here are a few random funny tidbits from the kids:

~I think before we went to Old Navy, we hadn't mentioned where we were going yet but told Maeve we needed to get ready to go. Then this conversation happened.... 😂😂

Maeve: Where are we going?
Adam: To spank your buttville!

Maeve (said matter of factly, but on the brink of crying): No we're not, there's not even a place called that!!

~Saturday morning both kids came into our bed to snuggle for a bit. At first Maeve and I were snuggled up together, but then Rowan tried to jam himself between us and Maeve said "Ugh! Rowan, you're entering girl world! Stop!" 😂😂😂

~Before we went to Old Navy we actually had to stop at the Pylants' house again cause Adam had left his phone there by mistake. When we got there Rowan said with total annoyance in his voice "Why are we here again!? Ughhhhhh" - boy oh boy, I guess that goes to show how much he loves those friends... 😂😏

~This has been happening for awhile, but I keep forgetting to mention it. Rowan loves to ride around his police car in the house still, but every time he rides it lately, he will tell me he can't ride with his pants on because it "doesn't work" and then asks me to take them off. I swear that boy will look for any excuse to strip down to his undies!! 😂😂

Alright, enough is enough. Time for pics!