Holidays

 I thought I had posted after Halloween, but I guess not.  So this may end being a pretty long post!  

Our Halloween preparations (ie: costumes) were figured out pretty quickly!  I noticed that Goodwill was putting out their costumes the first week of September.  So I went in then and got all their costumes for about $10!  I don't like spending a lot of money on costumes that are only going to be worn a couple times and the costumes at Goodwill can actually be pretty good quality.  The girls got Cinderella and Aurora dresses and Asher picked out Spiderman.  So that was a lot less stress for me!  Last year Asher was still trying to figure out what he wanted to be like 2 days before Halloween.  I wasn't sure if we would actually go Trick-or-Treating because of Covid so I let the girls wear their dresses all during October.  And November.  And they still fight over who gets to wear the Aurora dress in the middle of December...

Probably the only picture I have of Ava actually wearing the Cinderella dress.

The kids got into my closet and decided to try on all my dresses.  They are the main reason my house is never clean no matter how much I try to keep it that way!  Good thing they're cute. ;)

I asked Ava if she wanted a blanket for bed.  She grabbed a towel.  She also took the towel when we drove Asher to and from school the next few days.  I don't know why.

For Halloween I decided we would probably do some Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood because I knew a few people in our ward would be expecting kids to come around and Asher really really really wanted to go.  But we weren't sure how many people would be answering their doors so we organized a Halloween get-together with my family!  It was all outside and the weather actually cooperated and was pretty nice!  Last year it was snowing and icy on Halloween.  Each family came dressed up in costume and we all spread candy out on my parents front yard and had an Easter-style dash to get candy!  Each kid got a pretty fair amount of candy and they all thought it was pretty fun.  My nephew dressed up as a vending machine and had all the younger kids come up and "order" what they wanted from him.  It was pretty cute!

Ava refused to wear the Cinderella dress.  I really try to let my kids make their own decisions as much as I can and I figured having her wear regular clothes was better than her having a meltdown because I forced her to wear the dress.  She had fun and so did everyone else and that's what's most important!

The grandkids!  Plus Lisa and Tyler.  Their whole family dresses up every year and they always do a really great job! 

Halloween!  Ava agreed to wear Asher's old Pikachu costume and it was so funny to watch her little legs waddle around the neighborhood.  Only about half the houses were answering their doors, but they didn't mind and we had a great Halloween!

I have so much fun with them while Asher is at school.  I try my best to set aside some time every day where we all just play.  This particular day they got pillows for Mia and some toys and Ava read them all a bedtime story!  The other day we were having lunch and they wanted to imitate things.  They kept wanting me to be a pirate, Mia wanted to be things like a dog and kitty, and Ava wanted to be things like a tomato and an angry sheep.  It was hilarious and I enjoyed every second!  I know I'm going to enjoy some alone time when they start Preschool next year, but I'm also really going to miss this time with them.

One night it snowed and they were so excited they went out at 7pm to lay down, make snow angels, and look at the stars!  I watched from the warmth of the house.

I walked downstairs to find Asher watching TV like this one day. ;)

A new girl came into Asher's class and he said he was too shy to go talk to her.  So he wrote her a note asking if she would be his friend and I thought that was the most adorable thing ever.  He said she wrote "Yes" on the back of the note.

We went to get pizzas one night and it wasn't until we were at the store that I realized I maybe should've made a few wardrobe adjustments....but at the same time this really represents my kids the best!  Asher loves to be comfortable and always tries to wear shorts/sweat pants and flip flops to school, even in the middle of December.  Ava gets attached to random objects and doesn't care what anyone thinks, so she wore Asher's old bike helmet.  She is the quirkiest kid I know.  And Mia loves all things girly and wore her Aurora dress.  She channels my Grandma Haroldsen a lot because she is quite the fancy lady.

I feel like this is a cliche' thing to say at this point, but it has been a very difficult year.  My anxiety has just been getting worse and worse as the year has progressed (as I'm sure it has been with everyone) and things are just frustrating right now.  When President Nelson announced he was going to be giving a short message I looked forward to it so much, and it really helped!  I didn't love the posting on social media for 7 days part (I don't really post that often...)  but trying to find things every day that I was thankful for helped switch my thinking.  It helped me feel a little better and like I could handle things for a little while longer.  

The day after he gave his message my nephew was baptized!  Ledger and Asher are less than a year apart and have always been friends.  It was so great when we moved back here and they got to see each other more often!  It was just family that attended (with my brother and his family in Florida Zoom calling in) and my sister and I did a violin/viola duet as part of the program.  Ledger is the 3rd grandchild on the Mitchell side to get baptized, but the first that Asher has been able to see.  It was adorable to see all these little kids watch the baptism!  When Ledger walked into the font they all started waving and saying "Hi Ledger!" and after he was done they started clapping.  At the end of the program Ledger wanted the closing song to be "Gethsemane" and Asher was so impressed/touched by the song that he started clapping at the end of that too!  I guess we'll have to talk about how to express appreciation at church a little more.  But it got Asher so excited for his own baptism in less than a year!  How did he get old enough for that???  But it was a great day!

Asher and Ledger!

The girls also wanted to be in a picture.  Someday we'll get a picture with everyone smiling and looking at the camera!

The week after that was Thanksgiving.  We were going to go to Missouri to have it with David's family (Most of them I haven't seen since the girls were babies and some I haven't seen since I was pregnant with them!)  But because of Covid concerns we decided not to go.  We had Thanksgiving dinner for the second time at our house and invited my parents who were just going to go to Chuck-o-rama or something for their Thanksgiving.  It was low key and relaxed and I loved it!  I am proud to say I did the turkey by myself and I think it turned out pretty good.  Since then we've been getting ready for Christmas!  I hope next year will be better, but I am working hard to make the rest of this year the best it can be!