Happy Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving festivities began on Wednesday with helping my mom with her Christmas decorations.  For her birthday this year we bought her some new garland and offered to help her with her Christmas lights and decorations.  Thanks to the neighbor boys we didn't have to mess with the lights, so we were able to just help with some of the bigger decorations.  With all the kiddos running around we didn't get as much done as we would have hoped, but hopefully it was still helpful.  We then headed over to Craig's parents for the 2nd annual Pie Night.  We started the evening with helping Pops decorate the tree in the basement and then the kids did a play that was put together by their cousin Kiley about the pilgrims and Indians.  After the play we then got to the good stuff...the pie.  There was pumpkin, cherry, key lime, banana cream and chocolate.  All homemade and all delicious.  Thursday morning after the gym we got some food prepared and then headed back to Craig's parents house to help finish up prep for the meal and then to eat.  Diane had fun crafts for the kids to do while we cooked.  Even though there were only 6 of us we had all of the fixins and they were all fantastic.  That evening we then headed to my mom's house for more pie with my family.  I of course stuffed my face again with pie and pumpkin roll and Craig I think just ate more rolls.  Sadly my sister Tiffany and her family couldn't join in on any of the festivities because she and her husband had both tested positive for Covid and the whole family was self isolating.  I felt so bad, especially since they didn't feel that sick.  My mom made sure to take them a bunch of food and pie.  Overall we had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I did have a little ache for my Dad and I'm sure that's how it will be for a while whenever there are big events or holidays, just wishing he could be there.  I am so grateful for all that I am blessed with and hope that I don't take it for granted and can share what I have with others who have less.  I am most grateful for my family and that we can be together forever!

Happy Halloween

 This year the kids decided to go with a Star Wars theme for Halloween.   Brooklyn dressed up as Rey and McKay dressed up as Poe.  McKay was able to wear his costume to preschool the Wednesday before Halloween and they preformed a few Halloween songs and then all the parents brought goodies and they came "trick-or-treating" to each parent.  Since Brian and Brooke moved we didn't have our annual Moss family Halloween party, but my sister Melissa had a birthday party for her two girls, who both have birthdays the week of Halloween, and had the kids dress in their Halloween costumes for that.  They had donut eating contest, mummy wrapping contest and decorated cupcakes.  On Halloween night we again invited ourselves over to have the kids trick-or-treat with Eric and Kim's family.  The kids love going with their cousins and their street really goes all out.  There were definitely a few less houses with lights on than normal years, but the people that were handing out candy gave out big handfuls.  We walked away with a good size haul of candy.  The kids had a blast and are already asking how many more days until next Halloween.  Brooklyn has already decided she wants to be a witch and McKay said he wants to be Chewie and have Craig dress up at Han Solo.

All Day I Dream About Soccer

 The kids had a blast this fall playing soccer.  It was McKay's first time playing and we got him all set up to play with the Star Park and Rec.  We lucked out and he got on his buddy Maxwell's team.  It was a little rough to watch/coach (I helped coach a few practices and a game) sometimes with six 4 and 5 year old's running around, but they sure had a blast.  McKay as always was a little fire cracker and was all over the place and spent a good portion of the game on the ground, but he did typically bring someone else crashing down with him.  He didn't ever score (unless you count the one for the other team and after that he was always careful to ask which way his team was going), but he always had a huge smile on his face and he left it all out on the field.

This summer Brooklyn tried out a soccer camp with a local soccer club called the Chica's and they have a preparatory league called the Academy, so we decided to give that a try this fall.  There was a lot of driving around on my part getting kids to practices and games (her practices were in Meridian and her games were in Eagle) and luckily I had help from my Mom and in-laws, otherwise there would have been a few practices missed.  With this league Brooklyn learned a lot of foot skills and got a lot more comfortable with the ball at her feet.  I ended up coaching her team for the games and by the end of the season they were really starting to understand the game a lot better and it was really fun to watch.  I didn't get very many pictures of Brooklyn because I was coaching, but she had a lot of fun, especially since they won all of there games that they played against the Eagle Park and Rec teams.  She is very excited to play some more soccer in the spring.

As with everything else going on in the world, there were a few things that made this soccer season interesting, but for the most part it was nice for the kids to enjoy an activity that was for the most part "normal".

First Day of School

Well this school year is definitely bound to be an interesting one, to say the least, but luckily the kiddos have a great attitude and they were both so excited to start the school year.  Brooklyn is in 2nd grade at Galileo Stem Academy with Mrs. Cox as her teacher.  McKay is in his first year of preschool with teacher Carey. Both kids school years got pushed back a little bit because of Covid, so Brooklyn started the day after Labor Day with remote learning, which meant at home with an iPad and Microsoft Teams.  We did our best to set up a "school" zone in the tech room.  After 2 weeks of complete remote learning she then went to hybrid learning which was every other day at school and then at home for a week and then was finally able to head to school everyday (wearing a mask of course while she was at school).  After a few weeks of being at school every day they then had to go back to hybrid because of a bunch of teachers called in sick and there weren't enough subs.  Luckily her teacher was not part of the "sick out".  This week we are finally back to school everyday again.  Luckily Brooklyn has just rolled with it all and has had a great attitude, unlike her mother at times.  She loves her teacher (so do I) and she really enjoys the kids in her class.

McKay was so excited to be able to go to school like his sister and to say that I was excited would be the understatement of the year.  His teacher is in our ward and just lives a neighborhood over from us, which makes it super convenient.  Luckily he does not have to wear a mask and they are school as normal.  He looks forward to school every Monday and Wednesday morning and runs right in without looking back.  I keep waiting for his teacher to text or call me to tell me that McKay tackled someone or wouldn't stop wrestling, but so far he has been a good little student.  He has loved having Brooklyn home more and is so bored with me when she is at school.  He was very disappointed when I told him she would be at school every day this week, I guess I'm just not as fun as Brooklyn.

Summer Fun

 

We had such a fun summer.  Most of it was spent swimming, hiking, or at the park.  I always feel bad for Craig in the summer time, he gets stuck in an office all day and I get to play outside with the kids every day.   We swam at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Nana and Pop's house, the lake, and even at Roaring Spring water park.  Most of the time we were with cousins, which makes everything more fun.  I also taught some swim lessons this summer and so the kids got a few lessons as well and McKay really became a little fish this summer.  He was jumping off the board like a crazy man and would swim all around the shallow end without floaties on.  It was really fun to watch him gain some confidence in the pool and just have a ton of fun with his cousins.

We tried to go to the park when we could, especially when it wasn't too hot.  The kids also did tennis camp and Brooklyn did a soccer camp.  They both did great and have already asked to do the camps again next year.  The kids also had a lot of fun heading over to the driving range with Craig, especially after McKay got his own clubs for his birthday.

Every summer Nana throws a tea party for the granddaughters and the girls absolutely love it and look forward to it every year.  After the girls had their party, the boys were a little jealous so Nana decided to throw the boys a pirate tea party.  They could not have been more thrilled.  Nana went all out and those boys had a blast.

We also had to say some sad goodbyes this summer.  Craig's brother Brian and his wife Brooke and their 3 sweet kiddos moved to Texas for work.  We were so sad to see them go, but wish them the best of luck in Texas and hope that they come back eventually.  Also, my friend Alisha decided to move to the frozen tundra of Rexburg, how rude!

We did a lot of hiking this summer and as always the kids were champs.  Not only do we love to be out in nature, but we hope to instill in our kiddos from a young age that we can do hard things and that it is ok for our bodies to push past our comfort zones because that's how we get stronger.  In June we tried to hike into a few new lakes, but there was still too much snow so we went back to a classic, Blue Lake.  We ended up hitting those new lakes in July when the snow had melted.  We still ran into quite a bit of snow on our hike into Blue Lake, but it was manageable especially since we have hiked it quite a bit and knew the way to go without a trail.

Later in August we tried a new hike into Deep Lake.  It was a great hike and a new favorite.  We went right at the start of huckleberry season and were able to eat our way up and down the trail.  It was a fairly short hike, about 2 miles round trip, but the lake was gorgeous.  There were some fun camping spots, so we are hoping to backpack in with the kiddos next summer to camp for a night.  We figure it would be a good way to start backpacking with the kids.  Maybe next year we can actually bring some huckleberries home with us, instead of eating them all as we pick them.

We had such a great summer and made a lot of great memories.  We are so lucky to have grandparents that have pools and to have a cabin to escape too.  It really allows us to easily create these memories as a family.  I hope my kids cherish these times as much as I do.

Brooklyn being a good sport and wearing her mask at my check-up for my shoulder.