November arrived pretty quickly this year! We kept counting down the weeks until our patio project was going to begin and then before we knew it the crew was moving quickly. We decided not to go to Tennessee this year so that we could be home during the construction of the patio. As we thought could be the case, we made several changes and decisions as the days went by so it was good that we were here. Kevin worked from home and was able to get daily progress pictures. Sadly though, we missed our many traditions in the Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge area of Tennessee. Google kindly reminded me of years past with many pictures throughout the weeks of November!  In early November we also headed to Roosters after we went voting as a family. We’ve been taking the boys to the polls since they were born!

 

November also began our ‘hot cocoa’ season! Both Griffin and Reid love to use their own mugs and have hot cocoa, especially in the mornings with me when they are up before I go to work. I have coffee and they have hot cocoa.

On Veterans Day (11/11/21) Griffin was able to receive his first pediatric Covid-19 vaccine! We went to Powell pharmacy and had a great experience there. At the same time Reid got his flu shot, Kevin got his flu shot, and I got my flu shot and Covid booster.  Whew – that was a lot all at once but it was very smooth. Reid did really well and Griffin did too. Griffin powered through his fear and anxiety of getting a shot – he was quite nervous and tearful initially. But afterward he was just fine and grateful he was able to get the vaccine. He immediately asked if this means he can play inside his friends houses again. It made me pretty sad, actually, that it’s been so long since the kids have really played inside their friends houses.  But the time will come!  So, after shots and in the yucky pouring rain we headed to our favorite family place – Roosters – to celebrate all the good things.

Griffin’s Cub Scout Pack cleans up the leaves at Liberty Presbyterian Church each fall. So Kevin and Griffin had a fun couple of hours using rakes and mom and dad’s backpack blower that we thankfully inherited!

Reid and I got to go on a fun daytime date where we headed to Bob Evans for a yummy breakfast. He loved the bacon and hot cocoa!

Brutus is such a good boy and does really well when he is outside with us. On different occasions when the weather has nice and I’ve been working in the gardens I take him out there with me and he just sun bathes in the gardens or grass. When people or dogs walk by he just sits there, sometimes he will go from lying down to sitting up. But he loves his freedom and taking in the rays.

On the 16th Kevin and I celebrated our 9th anniversary! Thanks to a visit from Jim and Pat, we were able to enjoy a nice evening dinner while they entertained the boys (or is it the other way around?!) at home. We had dinner at Lindey’s, a dessert sampler at Barcelona, and then topped it off with drinks at Nocterra in Powell. We were still home by 10:30, hahaha.

Both Griffin and Reid’s rooms are always cold in the winter time, especially Griffin’s as his room has the access to the attic. This year Kevin decided he was going to lay down insulation above their rooms, so he ordered about 30 rolls of R30 insulation. We carried it all to Griffin’s room, then tossed them up into the attic and Kevin put down two rolls before we ran out of time. It’s unfinished as of yet, but thankfully we’re having above average warm days for November!

Reid, this boy has his own style that is for sure! Each day he wakes and dresses himself before coming downstairs. Typically, he’s wearing OSU shirts and shorts, 1 day out of 30 will he come down in pants. We’ve been trying to tell him it’s getting colder and for school he’s going to want to wear pants (not shorts). On this particular day he wore a thermal, with a shark button down shirt, and grey jeans. He was pumped with his choices.

Sometimes there are just pictures that make you laugh – and this is one of those for me. I don’t even recall why, but for some reason Reid came downstairs “nu nu” and while he was with me in the kitchen wanted a piggy back ride. Somehow Kevin captured this pic. Silly Reid. This picture makes me laugh as it reminds me of the way he was cutely giggling the entire time.

Reid has Miss Laura and Miss Michelle this year in the Monkey class. Here are his class and portrait pics – notice he’s wearing OSU gear. As I said, he wears OSU 9 days out of 10, and I thought it was great to do pictures in an outfit that shows his style and personality.

Check out these cute little hands and feet turkeys that Reid and Lilly did together. I love them!

Even though we didn’t go to Tennessee, I had scheduled the week off from work months ago. So instead I did fun things throughout the week with the kids and other fun things like going to Mansfield and helped Mom and Dad cover the greenhouse! We lucked out with a great weather day and got it covered with just the three of us very easily. We put the mule to bed for the winter and also blew some leaves and covered up some raised beds back in the playpen area. We got a lot done!

Another fun Boy Scout meeting was one with a U.S. Marshall who brought his service dog, a 4 year old yellow lab. I attended this meeting with Griffin and it was really cool to see all of the demonstrations of the dog detecting explosives! I really love watching dogs who have been trained execute their commands. It’s really cool.  And I appreciate it so much since we’ve had Brutus trained too. It creates a great bond.

For Thanksgiving Reidy helped me bake the pecan pie this year! We went to Mom and Dad’s house for Thanksgiving along with the Bethune’s. We enjoyed a huge feast!

This marks the second year that we haven’t ventured out as a family for Black Friday shopping. Last year I did not go at all, but this year I went out to Costco, Polaris Mall and Kohl’s. It wasn’t too crowded when I began mid-morning, but by the time I checked out at Kohls late afternoon I waited in a line wrapped to the back of the store for a half an hour! Later that evening we still did gather for dinner as is tradition. This year we went to Kitchen Social at Polaris with Mom and Dad, Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan, and Greta. We had great seats to watch the action of the kitchen!

I love seeing pictures of Reid’s days through the HomeRoom app that his teachers use. Here are a few.

Reid made it on the Locker Soccer Instagram story too. He is definitely a silly Cone Head.

Can you spy somethings that do not belong? Daddy gave these chameleons a fun ride.

Since we now have an artificial tree, we can put it up anytime. And this year we put it up on November 28th and had our fun decorating night on Tuesday the 30th – whoa! These boys absolutely love decorating the tree. They have such genuine joy when they see their ornaments and we talk about the memory each one has. It takes us hours to decorate the tree as we put up all my childhood ornaments, all of our family ornaments and the boys have already begun ornament collections – we have so many fun ones! This year we broke three while hanging them this year, but thankfully they were just generic decoration ones and nothing personalized, whew!

Our tradition includes wearing our matching family jammies, listening to Christmas tunes, and lots of trips up and down the ladder! At some point we break for hot cocoa and then wrap it up with peppermint (or cotton candy) ice cream!

The City of Powell has a mailbox for Santa and you can download a template letter to send to Santa as well from their website. Griffin completed the boys letters (in cursive a bit!) and one afternoon I dropped them off. They are eager to see if Santa writes them back!

 

Here are some videos! I always want to remember the childlike voice of Reid so we’ve tried to capture some lately before he begins to sound older! We did the same thing with Griffin and it is so crazy to go back now and listen to them!