Grateful for Fall

This week my focus is on gratitude. A few days ago, the president of our church gave us a challenge to post on social media every day for a week about the things we're grateful for - and it changed my life. My feed has been flooded with positivity and thankfulness, and as I consider what to share that day I think of so many things to be grateful for that it's hard to choose just one. President Nelson's challenge is timely for the week of Thanksgiving, but it's also so much more than that - the world desperately needs gratitude this year. 2020 has been tumultuous for so many - and gratitude is powerful therapy. It's religion and science: gratitude helps you see the world more positively, improves sleep, calms your mind and teaches your brain to search for the good. And as President Nelson said, "counting our blessings is better than recounting our problems." As I look back over the last few months with gratitude in mind, it's easy to see that there has been so much to be thankful for!

Matt's birthday

We made a big deal about Matt's birthday this year since we were apart last year on his 30th. I made him a Cake by Courtney cake: triple layer dark chocolate with dark chocolate buttercream and a dark chocolate ganache drip. YUM. This was my first time making a big layer cake and it turned out great. Then Lydia added her own embellishments and was very proud of herself. ;) 

My parents sent him the most incredibly indulgent cheese board kit, overnighted from a little farm in California. The Humboldt Fog, brie, candied almonds etc., were the perfect addition to home made cake. Cheese and chocolate are the way to Matt's heart. 

Then we had lunch at a 100-year-old farmhouse-turned-bistro, way out in the gorgeous countryside surrounded by horse pastures. Does it get more Virginia than that? We got lost on the way (it was my fault) and ended up driving through not one, but TWO prison compounds!? Matt said we probably got written into their daily log for suspicious activity. But what's a birthday without a little police activity?

first french fries

Charlottesville - Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyard day trip

One Sunday, after having church at home (before in-person church started again) we took a day trip to charming Charlottesville. The views from our picnic at Pippin Hill Farm were pastoral perfection and I asked Matt to find a job nearby so we could just stay. It was heaven. 

waving to the ladies and the ladies waving to Luke

Back to in-person church

No picture for this one, but with Covid restrictions easing up a little, we're finally starting to get together with friends more and getting to know our neighbors and ward members. We started going back to church in person last month, with restrictions: just every other week, wearing masks, for one hour only. But we're grateful: we hadn't been to church as a family in more than a YEAR because of Matt's deployment return overlapping with Covid. The last time was Luke's baby blessing back in October 2019. Even though it'd been so long, as we sat together at church again as a family it didn't feel like we'd missed a beat. And it was really refreshing to get out and see people again too, ha. 

Maryland day trip for Stanton's 3rd birthday!

The 2.5 hour drive to and from Maryland for Stanton's birthday was totally worth it for some fun cousin time. We all love living (kind of) nearby!

Pumpkin patches

Virginia just gets pumpkin patches - they're so good - and we decorated our front porch with the ones Lydia picked out.

Halloween

We weren't sure how a Covid Halloween would go, but it turned out to be great! Our ward had a fun Primary drive-through activity (socially distanced of course) and we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with hundreds of others - all somehow socially distanced. People found creative ways to still give away treats while keeping their distance setting up putting tables with neatly packed goody bags at the end of their driveways and sitting a ways up, chatting with neighbors as they passed. We also saw a couple ingenious candy chutes. I loved talking with all of our neighbors - that was the 'treat' for me!

This year we dressed Luke up as Clark Kent, inspired by Matt's glasses that Luke loves trying on, and Lydia chose to be a monarch butterfly. 

Lydia and I also went to the big fancy Short Pump Mall in the afternoon while Luke was napping at home with Matt, and she got lots of compliments on her butterfly costume. Going shopping with her made me soo excited for future shopping trips to come as she grows up!

Have you ever seen anything cuter than Spooky Lukey reading Spookie Pookie in his Halloween pajamas?? I haven't. Lydia wore these last year haha - he's so much bigger than her.

Visiting the new Richmond Temple site

We're thrilled that Richmond is getting its very own temple! The closest others are in Washington DC and North Carolina, each about 3 hours away, so this is so needed. Even though we probably won't live here any more when it opens in 2022, we're still happy to watch it being built. 

The Primary kids were invited to decorate rocks to be added to the foundation of the temple. Lydia and I made three and we all drove up to drop them off at the temple site one Sunday. 

Richmond Zoo

Our favorite part about this cute little zoo is interacting with lots of the animals - feeding giraffes, having parakeets land on your head, and petting different wild animals in the petting zoo. Oh and Lydia loooooved the merry go round. 

Preschool

What a privilege to go to school in 2020! The public schools are doing virtual learning, so we don't take for grated that Lydia gets to go see friends, play and learn at school for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Nothing new here - we still adore her preschool.  I love the structure it gives to our days, and she's really learning a lot. She can write her name and sight-read a few words - her first was 'BOO'! which she read in a Halloween book. She can also read 'OK' and a few others. I also really appreciate that her teacher sends us pictures every day. Lyd recently started getting herself dressed for school (hallelujah! the getting-dressed struggles were rough) and almost always chooses a dress or skirt. She's a girly girl, through and through. 

Being outside

It finally cooled down enough to enjoy being outside, without so many bugs that we feel like we moved to Jumanji. We got Lydia a new bike that she earned with a chore chart, and she likes riding it but is a little nervous about it too. And Luke loves going to the park and climbing everything and eating wood chips. But I think Barkley is the happiest of all about the extra outdoor time!

And finally, the lead-up to Thanksgiving has been fun - we finally broke down and bought a basket for all of our holiday books and consolidated all of our Thanksgiving ones there, plus supplemented with a few new ones. We've read sooo many books lately - Thanksgiving ones but also from our weekly library visit. We also made a big thankful tree and have been adding to it throughout the month. And we're hosting Thanksgiving for two families we've gotten to know at church and I've had fun planning it out - and making as many excuses as possible to visit our new Trader Joe's that just opened nearby. So grateful. :)