November scenes from the PNW. Love autumn here!
Mason got his first pair of shoes with laces! Sadly, the laces that came with the shoes were almost too short for Alan and I to even tie. It took me a few weeks to order new ones, then it was Christmas so now we're in January and Mason still hasn't even practiced tying them. Got to get on that!
Sometimes they play together nicely. Spencer helped Mason built a blanket fort in his room this day.
Better late than never for applesauce! Mason liked to help mash up the apples - for about 10 minutes anyway. ;)
One of my current callings is Activity Days leader for the 7-11 year old girls in our ward. At our November activity, we did a service activity to put together welcome boxes for girls entering the foster care system. Each of the girls brought an item to add to the boxes and then we wrote encouraging notes to include. The girls were excited and really seemed to enjoy the activity. It was great!
End of season cross country awards night. Spencer made some new friends and loved running XC for the first time this year. Only the top seven on the team run varsity and Spencer was 11th, but he still lettered in varsity. (Alan explained it to me, but I still don't get how that works. Haha! He ran JV in every meet except one when there was only one race for all of the boys.) It was fun to watch him do something that he loves and is pretty good at.
Alan was an assistant coach for the girls team and enjoyed that too.
Turning our jack-o-lanterns into compost and helping rake leaves.
This is what happens when you get bugs in your bag of wheat kernels and dump all 25lbs into your compost pile. Bad idea! It all sprouted and ruined the compost I need for the garden. Oops.
November 11th was the momentous day when Mason got braces, an expander, and a roller (to prevent finger sucking) installed in his mouth. Both he and I were a little nervous because Mason had self soothed himself to sleep by sucking his fingers since he was about 6 weeks old. Alan and I had tried to help him break the habit several other times, but nothing worked at all. Every attempt just seemed to make him more anxious and upset so we decided it wasn't worth the emotional toll it was taking on Mason and gave up. We knew he'd need braces eventually and figured we'd deal with it then.
He got to start braces a little earlier than most kids because he really needs a lot of work done. In addition to a narrowed his pallet from sucking, he also has an overbite and a severe cross bite. Not treating these conditions soon would require him to have jaw surgery later. No thank you! The hardware he has right now will be the first of 2-3 phases and will stay in for about 11 months.
Mason got to pick a new stuffy to snuggle at night a few days before getting his braces on. He wanted to take "Squishy" to the orthodontist so he came along as an emotional support buddy. Mason was a champ getting everything installed. It didn't seem too bad at all. He really have any pain or soreness, but that roller made eating and talking SO difficult! It was much worse than I expected and Mason could only eat really soft foods that required almost no chewing for the first few days. I was especially worried about his speech. The roller blocked his tongue from touching the back of his top teeth so there were a lot of sounds he couldn't make. It was hard to understand him and I was a little worried about long term speech effects.
Thankfully, I guess, Mason accidently broke the roller off while trying to get some food off of it after one week. The expander across the roof of his mouth was enough to keep him from wanting to suck his fingers so we didn't have to reinstall the roller. Hooray! Eat and talking were much easier after that and both Mason and I were much happier.
Being silly
Enjoying some nice weather over Thanksgiving break. Our school district always gives the kids the entire week of Thanksgiving off. Good if you're traveling. A little long if your husband is working a lot and the weather is bad. I'm grateful we had some mild days.
Mason helped me make this little turkey as a Thanksgiving gift for great-aunt Peggy. She loved it and let him ride on her walker all week!
More Thanksgiving break activities. The boys had colds so Sawyer was the only friend we had over all week. They spent lots of time lounging in their beds and reading. Mild sicknesses are treated so differently now than they were pre-covid. Most people are much more cautious and it's still very common to see people in masks around town. I guess it's probably a good thing, but it's a change.
I had thought/hoped that the end of Uberthons also meant the end of Turkeythons on Thanksgiving morning. Alan's partner Randy still wanted to do it though and Alan agreed since he only had to be in charge of the timing. They scaled back and just did one race of about 400 runners at Cook Park. Alan didn't have to pull an all-nighter like he always did before and he was home before noon so it really wasn't too bad. It was cold though - low 30's with high humidity. Fine once you're running, but freezing when you're standing around in breathable running clothes.
Spencer and I ran the 5k. I've completed a lot of 5ks, but haven't raced many of them since I have run with little Spencer and/or been pushing a stroller for years. "Little Spencer" leaves me in the dust now though and Mason is old enough to not get into trouble while he's waiting with Alan. I felt like I was running really hard and finished in 24:47. Good enough for 3rd place in my age group! Spencer didn't have his best race and finished in 4th for his age group with 22:52. Mason ran the kid's race afterward. He insisted that I run with him, but then sprinted off the start line and left me behind! He did a good job, but still says that he hates running.
After the race, it was home to shower, prepare food, and watch the Macy's parade. I had done a lot of the food prep the day before so it wasn't too bad. I kept the menu small and let everyone just pick one side since it was just the four of us. The boys were good helpers this year.
We always have Grandma Larsen's strawberry Jello for Thanksgiving and Easter, but it was especially meaningful this time since it was the first time we made it since she passed away. I sent a text out to all of the girls on Alan's side of the family and we were all having it. I love food traditions like this and will always smile as I make it and think about Virginia and strong, quiet woman she was.
Thanksgiving is the one time a year that I make pies - I just don't care much for them. Alan's and my favorite pie is a chocolate chip granola pie that tastes more like a chocolate chip cookie than a pie. The filling turned out great, but the store-bought crust got way overcooked. Ugg.
The boys just wanted chocolate pudding pie in an Oreo crust - super easy and they loved it.
I've always wanted to a create a fancy table scape for Thanksgiving and finally got to do it this year. It made the meal extra special and I loved how it turned out.
The best Rasmussen Thanksgiving tradition is that the boys do all of the cleaning up afterward - it was great and much appreciated!
A few family Thanksgiving selfies in the front yard. So, so grateful for this little family of ours and the things are learning and we grow together.
We did the Cat Burglar Family Adventure Challenge on one of the days after Thanksgiving. We had to try to get through the yard lazars strung all over the living room without touching them. Pretty simple and funny. I think I won. ;)
I bought a felt Nativity advent calendar from Katelyn this year. She makes and sells them based off the one Mom still uses from when we were kids. Katelyn's is about a million times better quality than the piece of junk I bought from Deseret Book a few years ago and she was so kind and sold it to me for way cheaper than she probably should have. I wasn't sure if the boys were going to be too old for it or not, but they still loved it. Better late than never. Thank you Kate!!
And last, we got our Christmas tree up and decorated. We always want to do it asap after Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it as long as possible before leaving for St. Johns. Mason is just about too big for Alan to lift anymore, but they managed to get the star on top this one one more time.
