Thanksgiving 2024

This was our first of many Thanksgivings at my Parent's house! They hosted us, Papa, Stephen's family, and Mary's family. Most of the food had been prepped the day before at our various houses, so it was pretty low stress to get everything warmed up and ready to serve for our big feast. The kids got to go play at the nearby Anamax park while we got everything set up. 

The highlight for me was the DELICIOUS sweet potato casserole that mom made using my cousin Shannon's recipe! I was very happy to be eating leftover stuffing for a whole week. 

Some more of the spread

We filled three tables. I love a house filled with family on Thanksgiving!

More of us

Felix enjoyed fingers for his feast

He also participated in the post-feast nap tradition

The highlight of Thanksgiving was the post-feast cousin polar plunge. My kids and Stephen's kids all got into the hot tub, even though it hadn't had enough time to get all the way hot. All of them except Isaac ended up jumping into the 50 degree pool for the adrenaline rush. Ethan and Annie were the most frequent plungers. Bree jumped higher than I thought possible to get out as soon as she got in. The grown-ups and a very bundled Felix enjoyed the show and the stars.

The next day we headed to the park for some soccer (minus Andrew who randomly puked). Elliot was a surprisingly effective goalie and Annie was all about charging that ball. Isaac had a blast climbing trees with Ethan and Eli. 

I feel absolutely overflowing with gratitude this year. 2024 was a big year for us with Felix joining the family and Mimi, Grumpa, and Papa moving here. Life is really good right now. I think that I'll look back at this time period as one of the golden ages of my life. 

Leaves.

I realized that we lacked a family picture with Felix in it for the Blood Blog this year. The family humored me with an impromptu photo shoot in the back yard by the magnificently yellow pomegranate tree. Aaron set up the ladder to prop up the phone camera, and Elliot was even willing to change his shirt. That is top tier cooperation and goes to show that the whole family supports this family book!

The "everybody look at Felix" pic was my favorite

The kids were supposed to throw their leaves on the count of three. Naturally, Elliot chucked his at Annie on the count of two. 

She managed to land the pose, and Isaac's ninja leaf throw pose is terrific

The photoshoot energy spilled over to the front yard

Here's some serious little brother energy!

Elliot hot glued a bunch of leaves to this tube to make a majestic staff

How cool is this guy?

Felix's Hair

Felix has SO MUCH HAIR. It is purely delightful. 

The hair at 1 month

 

A month and a half- he was smiling in earnest! He's a very social baby. It's also worth noting that most of our pictures of Felix were taken by Elliot. He's the designated Felix documenter. 

He hardly ever manages to drive anywhere without falling asleep. Aaron's work sent us that cute bunny (it's so soft that the older kids fought over who got to sleep with it for a few days) along with a hat that says "Felix" on it. 

Exactly 2 months old! He is so squishy and happy, and we just love him so much.

His hair is so feather soft after a bath. It's coming in much blonder at the roots. I think that the poofy sides are a little funny, but we are going to let him rock the out of control hair look a while longer. 

He's just a little guy!

Felix hanging with Aunt Claudia and Lola the puppy

3 months old! Annie and Elliot both request that Felix tuck them into bed whenever possible. At 3 months old, Felix sleeps through the night several times a week. 

The hair!

The smile!

Felix was being super cute with his head held high. Naturally he spit up as soon as I got the camera out. 

He started liking the Bumbo around 3.5 months. He was very pleased to be keeping me company... until he completely conked out

This video documents how Felix got the hiccups EVERY time we made him laugh. Aaron would bring him to me saying "Sorry, I did it again, can you fix him?" He also loved the game of sticking out tongues at each other.

Baby Hamster Wheel

The best Felix laugh video to date

We had a Sunday dinner hair salon activity. I call this look "enthusiastic to be accepting a new role in middle management"

The "Mad Scientist"

I was going for Wolverine with this one, but I feel like it has more Dwight Shrute energy

One of my current favorite things is how Felix looks so different based on which way gravity is pulling his cheeks. 

We are all obsessed with Felix. He has brought so much joy to our lives. He's an overwhelmingly sweet little guy!

Mesa

Eli was baptized on Nov 16. We decided to go up a day early for a family daytrip. We checked the kids out of school early and hit a few sites in Mesa. First up was the Arizona Museum of Natural History. The museum goes all the way to the formation of the planet through the age of the dinosaurs, then on to Native Americans and wild west settlements. 

We love the drama.

Arizona used to be under an ocean! I turned my back after taking this picture. Isaac immediately climbed over the railing and had to be retrieved from the exhibit. 

The animatronic dinos were a hit!

Again, we love the drama

There was a big outdoor area where you can pan for gold! Annie maintained her reputation for having a sharp eye. She's always been good at finding things. It's part talent, part persistence, and part luck. Elliot had a good haul of the fool's gold. Isaac had a bag of sand he was proud of and a soaking wet shirt. Everyone was happy. 

The next stop was Pioneer park. The kids adore this place, especially the roller slide. Aaron and I sat on a nearby bench challenging them to slide down every which way we could think of. 

Sibling slide trains always sound like a good idea...

Unless you are the one in front and the ones behind you can't stop

This is how younger siblings learn resilience. 

The Mesa Temple visitor center is in walking distance from the park, so we squeezed in a visit before meeting up with Mary for dinner. The visitor's center is so well done! We were able to see an artist working on a big chalk art exhibit for Christmas. 

Annie and I had some sweet conversations as we explored all the exhibits about lighting the world. 

The kid's section has lots of great activities. Elliot was pleased with his temple picture. We aren't sure why he started doing this toothless old man smile lately. 

We did have to drag Isaac screaming out of each of these locations when it was time to go. I suppose that means they were all hits! I'm glad we made the time for a little family bonding. 

One other thing that I'd like to note about this trip is that it was the first time the kids didn't put up a stink about not having screentime while driving to Mary's house. I credit podcasts (Smash Boom Best is a current favorite) and cool non-fiction books. The family has a radically better relationship with screens than ever before. I credit Aaron for this. He pushed for a family rule where the kids are only allowed to play video games with someone else. This means that Elliot either has to go find a friend to invite over, or be nice enough to Annie that she will want to play video games with him. It has done wonders for their relationship, and Elliot's relationship with screens is far less addictive. He's allowed to use his 1 hour of screentime doing educational stuff or making things if he doesn't have someone to play video games with. 

Harry Potter Book Club

 Some of my friends started a Harry Potter book club. It's one of the most Millennial things I've ever been a part of. It's delightful. Each month, we discuss one of the books in depth. We have come up with ways to fix the broken rules of Quidditch and have done deep dives with characters and theories. I wish every book club I went to had this level of nerdery! Here are some pictures I'd like to remember, mostly of the impressive treats that other people made.

Mandrakes from Chamber of Secrets. There were also cupcakes floating from the ceiling and a petrified beanie baby cat for Mrs. Norris. 

Tom Riddle's diary and Harry's sock for Dobby. 

This was my favorite... Scabbers rat kebabs. I passed on that one. 

Monster Book of Monsters brownies

I'm generally not into making cute treats like these, but I greatly enjoy having friends who share their talents!

Goals

As a family, we have been really focused on goals for the last while. We make goals on our white board every week as a part of home church. These are things ranging from "learn how to make a quesadilla" to "invite a friend over to play by myself." Aaron and I pick weekly goals too. From time to time, we pick a family goal as well. Lately, the two big family goals have been OOB mins (Out of Breath Minutes) and vegetables. 

As the Halloween candy started pouring in (which it seems to do continuously through the month of October), Aaron gave the kids a very persuasive pep talk during dinner about the value of vegetables. He somehow got them on board to agree to eat the daily amount of vegetables recommended by the FDA (2 1/2 cups) in order to get dessert, which is usually a piece of their Halloween candy. This has resulted in daily conversations about how many veggies were part of their school lunches and kids getting out measuring cups to figure out how many more veggies to eat. We have been impressed by their newly found enthusiasm for vegetables!

The ward had a goal this year to have every child visit the temple grounds. We finally made it in October. It was... not the best day for a visit. It was way colder than it had been and started raining when we were there. We broke out the emergency jackets but were still quite chilly. But we made it and were able to have a good conversation with the kids about why temples are important. The older two had to use the bathroom, so I got to take them into the lobby and the nice bathroom there. I hope it left an impression on them. 

Hopefully that impression was something beyond the first time experiencing cold that year. 

 

We are far from perfect, but we are all working on getting better and learning new things!

Dia De Los Muertos

 This was our second year celebrating the Day of the Dead. It was poignant because we added Grammy and my cousin Trey Andersen to the ofrenda. 

Breezy and my mom leveled us up this year! My mom brought over coloring pages and cute colored flags leftover from her award-winning Frida Kahlo trunk or treat get up. We also found this great tablecloth at her house for it. Breezy let us use her collection of skulls and got some Mexican sweet breads and candies for us to try. We listened to a Dia de los Muertos playlist while cutting up paper to decorate the frames. Then, we lit a candle next to each picture and told stories about the people on the ofrenda. It was so nice.

We left it up for a few days. My Papa came over for Sunday dinner and was happy to see his parents and wife on the ofrenda. He was able to tell me some stories about his parents.