We had family pictures taken with the Ward/Herndon/Wiseman families in October and I think they turned out really good! We went to Joplin and used a friend of my sister's that she had used before. The last time we had our whole family pictures taken was in November 2012, when I was pregnant with Lucy! We'd planned to do these in 2020, but covid (HUGE eye roll) put that on hold. I'm glad we were able to get these taken this year!
We had a nice, low-key Thanksgiving this year. We went to my sister's house in Joplin for a Thanksgiving meal with us, my parents, her family, and her mother-in-law. We ate around 12:45 and then just hung out for the afternoon. We played outside for a little bit, went for a "Turkey Trot," had pie for dinner, and then went home.
The Turkey Trot 5K we usually do with my Dad on Thanksgiving morning was virtual again this year due to Covid (HUGE eye roll), so we had to do our own. Hopefully it will be back to normal next year! The last few pictures are of a thankful tree the girls made at school and we let them put the couches together on Thanksgiving night for a sleepover in the family room!
The girls both have multiple sleeping masks and I'm always surprised and tickled to find them asleep with their masks on!
For the last three years we have been doing a family devotion during the month of December. We've used a book that has a big tree that folds out and you decorate the tree with ornaments. There is a Bible story for each day of the month and an ornament to place on the tree that coincides with the story. The stories begin at creation and lead up to Jesus' birth. It has been a very neat book to go through and we have really enjoyed it.
This year I decided we needed a change and found a new book to do. This book follows the Advent calendar and has readings for each day of the Advent season. I didn't have an Advent wreath so bought some supplies and made my own. I think it turned out pretty good! I'm excited to start this new book with the girls!
Lately, Lucy has been asking to go to Starbucks. She said she either wanted to get a coffee drink or a cake pop there and Molly said she wanted to go, too. I decided to take them to Starbucks last Saturday. I thought it would be fun to get a drink and hang out there drinking it for a bit.
BAD IDEA!
Or at least it was a bad idea to go on a Saturday morning! At 10am! <<insert eye roll and face palm emojis here!>> The Starbucks we went to was so busy! I should have thought twice about going into the store when we turned in the parking lot and saw that the drive-thru was backed up all the way to the road! We went in anyway and there were so many people inside just standing around. I quickly realized they were waiting for their orders and we soon became part of that group and ended up waiting 25 minutes for our two drinks! I felt so bad because it wasn't fun for any of us to just wait! I ordered a vanilla latte and we decided to order one vanilla frappachino for Molly. Lucy was going to try it and if she liked it I would get her her own drink.
After about 10 minutes, we finally got their drink. They both liked it at first, but after a few sips, Molly said she didn't like the coffee taste to it! Lucy finished the drink just as my name was called to pick up my latte, only about 15 minutes later.
We headed home after getting my drink and I apologized to them for not realizing how busy it would be! If we go back again, we will definitely go at less popular time!
