Thanksgiving

 Thanksgiving 2024 was a bit different.  Well for starters, my mom is gone.  So she wasn't here to celebrate with this year.  We also aren't running cross country this season so we didn't have a turkey trot to attend.  So, I made my own turkey trot and had everyone come out and walk or run or bike around the neighborhood.  I pushed Craig to the max and he ran the three and a half laps around the neighborhood for his 3.14 mile turkey trot.  We ate at Craig and Blair's house this year.  Nolen at nothing and Edward ate very little because they both do not like thanksgiving food.  I like the desserts so I saved room to eat a lot of pie! Stephen had to work at 4:00 so we ate and played a fun game of Aquire.  I lost.  Stephen was able to come home from work and take a two hour break.  So we watched a show together and just relaxed.  It was a very nice way to spend a holiday.  I miss my mom and her laugh.  Her smile.  Her energy.  My life will never be the same.  

I made sugar cookies and the boys decorated them.  We took them to our neighbors as a gift for the holiday.

Nolen hates thanksgiving food so I took him to circle K to pick out some food he wanted to eat.  Looks like my kind of dinner! We also watched space balls together.  I have never actually seen the show. 

Saturday, Craig called in to get a tour of Stephen's work.  We picked up a bunch of bagels and brought them in for his coworkers.  Stephen gave us a tour and we got to meet a lot of his coworkers for the first time in more than 16 years of working in Albuquerque.

Blair and I went black Friday shopping in our matching outfits!!  It was so fun and hilarious.

A week with Bunny

 Craig and Blair headed out to California this week to go to Disneyland with their friends.  So we were tasked with watching Bunny for the week.  It was so fun to have a puppy in the house again.  We were quickly reminded that puppies need to go outside to pee a lot and they need a lot of playing time.  

Nolen was hired by our neighbor Robyn to walk her dogs while she recovers from knee surgery.  Nolen has had to be responsible and head over to her house every day at 9:00 AM.  She has been over paying him but he is loving it! $10 dollars a walk!! 

My baby is 14!

 

 Well, we are in the thick of the teen years and I just can't wrap my mind around how quickly time fly's!  I feel like I'm still 29 and my kids grew up while I was asleep!  Nolen is just the absolute sweetest!  He has such a soft heart.  I adore him.  He loves coding games on Roblox and has recently got into creating music for his game.  All of his music has a fart sound in it which is just hilarious.  I listened to one of his songs today and love it.  He is adding piano and making the beats stay the same through out the entire song.  

This year we are focusing on just being together as a family.  Nolen is no longer running but switched to Jiu Jitstu and he loves it!  He was ready for a break.  I think he was getting burnt out from being gone every night for two hours to run.  Truth be told, so was I.  I was ready for this break.  I am so glad we have our nights back.  

I love my sweet Nolen.  He loves animals and is still enjoying home school.  We have gone back and forth trying to decide what to do about high school.  So many choices and so many things we need to decide before next year.  Nolen is truly a joy in my life. I love him!

For Nolen's birthday, he just wanted ice cream.  So we went to Menchies and Bahama's Bucks for all of our meals.  It was a super low key day and lots of fun.