That's a wrap on October 2020!

 October seemed to fly by...unlike 2020!  Hopefully the next 2 months will go by fast too and this year will be OVER!! :)  I can't complain too much though - we are almost done with football season, our kids are still in school, we haven't had to quarantine, and honestly, we rarely even think about wearing a mask.  Covid numbers have gone down in our area and we are so thankful for life seems to be back to a little bit of normal, for our area at least!  Here's a l look 

I got to see Cason play for the last time as a 7th grader!  He hits hard!!

Mama Dee traveled with me to Ballinger to watch him play!

He looks so old here!

It turned into a beautiful evening for football!

Earlier in the day, Blu and I caught the last pep rally for middle school this year! (Cason is in bright orange)

It's been so fun to watch him start his football journey!

It got a little cold last week!

Whenever Cambree enters the house....

Cambree was in the Halloween Blackout pep rally last week - she is 4th from the left in this pic!

She didn't have the Dragon costume on, so she was a little bit nervous!

A pic of Cambree and Kirsten that I stole from Snapchat!

Cambree & Hannon

Basketball season is here!  This particular school didn't let anyone but immediate family come to watch, so Mom and Dad had to stay home...you can see there was a giant risk of Covid infection.... :(

Cambree was the only one of our 3 who wanted to do anything for Halloween this year!  Raylee, Hannon, Cambree, and Jordan went as prisoners!

The 4 least likely girls to ever go to jail, that's for sure!

Blu still has about 4 inches of height on Caedmon, but Caedmon has LONG arms!

This past week was District Cross Country for Caedmon!  It was 39 degrees, cloudy, and windy when he ran and it was FREEZING!!!  He ran a 21.01 and survived his sophomore year of cross country!

My reward for traveling by myself and braving the cold to watch him run...he gave me one of his cookies!

Sierra, Rylie, Caedmon, Malachi, and Donovan - I love these kids!

Caedmon has one football game left this year!

Last home game! 

Blu, Paw, and Dad stayed in Bangs to watch Caedmon play.

Sweet siblings! (sometimes...)

Our next project!  We bought a house in Brownwood, TX to flip!

Another random picture from Snapchat at school....

Blu giving Hannon some guitar lessons Wednesday at church!  We are still having 60-65 kids each week!

Cold weather gear ready to go!

We voted!  Eager for Tuesday to get here...

For the past few days leading up to Halloween, I decorated our board with a skeleton doing various activities...here he is loading items for New Day into a U-Haul that Wes came by and picked up to take to the container in Kansas!  Blu, Mom, Dad, and I all loaded in 38 degrees with snow flurries!

The skeleton is ready for the cross country race!  

We are ready for the month of November!  It will be a lot of football playoffs, basketball games, and a week off for Thanksgiving!  

Happy 40th Birthday to Me! :)

 I turned 40 years old on October 21st, 2020!  We had a trip to Niagara Falls with my parents planned, but...Covid.  So...we instead took a 3 day trip to one of my favorite U.S. cities (Dallas!) to get away, sleep late, watch tv, read books, and enjoy some sights in downtown!  

One last blizzard...before I start working on losing some of the weight I gained at age 39... ;)

We had the best time at an escape room called Escapology right in the heart of downtown!  Tuesdays are $15 per person, so we did two different rooms and had SUCH a blast!

We can't wait to take the kids!

Ready to go on the Budapest Express!

We stayed at the Omni, which was beautiful!

This X marks where President JFK was shot and killed.

This is Dealey Plaza where JFK was killed.  The lighter orange building that you can only see a little bit of is the school book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald waited on the 6th floor.

More of Dealey Plaza

This is the actual JFK Memorial.  The plaque said it is often misunderstood by visitors - they don't understand why there isn't something more "elegant," but the architect wanted something subtle yet solid, so he went with this massive "open tomb."  Wow.

And then we walked and walked and walked to find this random eyeball sculpture!

Outside view of the Omni!

Of course we had to indulge in The Cheesecake Factory!

We also visited the Dallas Arboretum on White Rock Lake to see their pumpkin exhibit.  Blu isn't really the type to want to stroll through a garden or arboretum, but he did it!  (However, we had a 4 hour time block to see it, and we were done in 42 minutes!)

He said, "Oh look, I've always wanted to see a tree like this..."  He had me laughing the whole time!

I loved these gray looking pumpkins!  

We took a very underwhelming hike to see this bridge...and a lot of homeless people under the bridge!

Driving through Deep Ellum!

The outdoor rooftop terrace at our hotel

Half of us masked up and ready to go!

The view from our room on the top floor!

This was another sight that was VERY underwhelming.  It is usually lined with food trucks and people everywhere, but...Covid.

We ate a supper, snack, and a dessert 3 different times at The Owners' Box!

Meanwhile, we missed one of Caedmon's cross country meets!

Back at home, we had two different family parties for me! (trying to fit everyone's schedules!)

So blessed at age 40 with this crew!

Blu got me some nice perfume, an egg pan, and a gorgeous winter dress!  The kids got me a sweet handmade card, candles, lotions, a fruit infuser cup, and the inlaws and parents got me money, bath stuff, and a family photo album!

And then, we closed out my birthday with a trip to the ER for Cason!  He had an unfortunate kidney stone episode while we were gone, but we got him checked out and cleared to keep playing football!  (And school...that's important too!) ;)

He absolutely LOVED being in the ER.  He hasn't been sick much at all in his life and barely been to the doctor, so getting bloodwork, a CT scan...he found it all fascinating, especially since his favorite show is The Good Doctor!  When something started beeping, he told the nurse, "I'm flatlining!"