January

We welcomed January with expectation and hope.... and are looking forward to this new year!

Here's a photo montage of our month, which (like all of the months of the pandemic) went by both painfully slow and super fast!!😁

After a long hiatus, the scooters came out and Matthew enjoyed evening rides showing off his light up wheels. 

Another Ducks win...woohoo!!

We took a drive to Salem to surprise Doug's sister Deanna for her birthday

We woke up on the 13th to no power. A big wind storm came in the day before and thru the night it wreaked havoc on some of the trees in the neighborhood. 

My sweet hubbys went to Starbucks for coffee AND had a fire going... all before I got out of bed. 

This is one of the larger trees that came down. It took out two different fences, a tree house and part of a chimney! It was crazy to see! Thankfully no one was hurt and we had power back on by mid-day.

Another month of Bodie being Bodie...haha!

We took a fun hike thru Nobe woods park on dry but chilly Saturday morning

Evelyn made Bodie a kilt...haha! He loved it. Obviously.... 😂

We put a candle in the window the night before the presidential election to remember all of those who have lost their lives to COVID-19.  I don't have a photo, but the kids and I watched Joe Biden and Kamala Harris be sworn in as the next leaders of our country on the 20th. It was moving, powerful, and hopeful. We are thankful for new leadership of our country. 

Well, hello GF Oreos!! So happy they made these and we snagged a few packages the minute we saw them. And I can tell you they are amazing... Evelyn was over the moon happy!!

We had a small snow storm that brought just a little bit of accumulation to our fine town. Our first snow of winter! The kids thoroughly enjoyed it!

Matthew and his buddy Cannon tasting snowflakes as the snow started

Hot cocoa with the neighbor kids after a morning playing in the white stuff. It went away almost as quickly as it came, but it was fun while it lasted, and super pretty!

That pretty much sums up our January... we are still in quarantine and still hopeful things will get better soon!!

Christmas Day 2020

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Such a different day this year with COVID. BUT... Jesus was still born.. so we could live!

Here is a photo log of our day. I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, but we had a lovely day!

Stockings are always first, and alway filled with fun stuff...

 

An autographed Taylor Swift CD from her Aunt Michelle. She was pretty excited!

The kids got me a foaming hand soap refill.. the BEST gift during the pandemic!!

 So... we are not a "gaming" family.. by choice. Evelyn has never really been into them (nor has Doug or I), and although Matthew would LOVE it, we aren't ready to swim into those waters yet. BUT... our football loving boy LOVES to play Madden with his buddy Cannon and talks about it all the time. We decided for Christmas this year we would upgrade our family PC with a larger hard drive and video card, and then purchase Madden 21 for PC as Matthew's "big" gift. 

Blogger won't let me load the video of him opening his present (we got him a controller and then printed off the cover of Madden 21), but I can assure you it was one of the most sweetest moments to see as his mom. He was overjoyed.. and completly shocked! 

He started sobbing.. tears of joy... it was so sweet!

It was all ready for him to start playing and he played all morning. He LOVES it!

I made gluten free cranberry bliss bars for a breakfast treat.. they turned out really good!

Yup.. she still is loving her comfy and wears it all the time! 

We also got Matthew a "make your own football plays" book. He spent time working on that too!

Cute new outfit our our cute girl from her Aunt LoLo

Love her so!

We usually have Doug's aunt Mary and his brother and family over Christmas afternoon. Due to the times that was sadly not able to happen. The kids LOVE this tradition and were so sad to have to cancel it. So, we decided to grab Mary and drive to Gresham to see them and bring gifts. 

It was SO windy and rainy and cold.. which helped our visit to stay short and safe. But I did grab one photo of these amazing kids! Love all of these masked faces!

We had Mary come over for the afternoon and enjoyed time with her. We sat and chatted and Evelyn entertained us with looking up population statistics of small Oregon cities. It was hilarous!

Doing her thing... good social studies lesson!😂

After Mary left the kids and I worked on a cool puzzle Matthew got from Grandma and Grandpa. 

We spent the evening downstairs playing ping pong, dancing around silly, and just having fun being together...

Oh, how I love this Christmas crew!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Christmas Eve 2020

 It's Christmas Eve!!

We had a quiet morning, then enjoyed time with mom and Doug, watching our church's candlelight service together, enjoying the company, and of course, opening gifts! 😀

We didn't get to do a "Jody/Lori Christmas" this year due to COVID, but the kids were so thrilled with the gifts they got for them. We are so fortunate to have friends who love on our kid so well!

She has wanted this hydroflask for a long time... thank you JoJo!!

Candlelight Service....

Loved watching Matthew worship.. 

Family time is the best time!

The kids and their cousins usually watch The Polar Express together on Christmas Eve. Since we didn't get to do that this year, we watched it when we got home. We all love this movie!

...and I loved this lovely drink! 😂

Love my crew!!

Merry Christmas Eve!