2020 Blue Jeans Week 43

It was a good week!  Wedding plans moving forward.  Engagement pictures taken.  Excited to see them all done!  Hiking pics from my college kids.  Enjoying the fall colors.  Great cross country race here!  Boys made it to state!  Ben had a birthday.  It was a good week.  Take a look....

Mr A and Miss A love hiking and sent this cute picture from their hike last week.

Getting engagement pictures taken.  Excited to see them done!!!

Miss O and Miss E had lots of fun tagging along while they took the engagement pictures.  Glad they can be part of it!

This amazing guy of mine had a birthday this week!  Sure love him and so glad he is mine!

Hiking picture from Miss O and Miss E enjoying the fall leaves in the mountains!

Regional cross country race.  Our weather turned COLD!  Boys in their masks in their pre-race huddle and prayer.  Love this tradition!

Mr J running his awesome race!  Top 10 individuals make it to state and top 3 teams.  Mr J made it both individually and with his team!!!  Woohoo!

So proud of this kid!  He gave it his all!  We were all bundled up and he ran in this.  Burr! State race next week here we come!

Mr J and his awesome team that all qualified for state meet!  Hope it is warmer next weekend!!!  Wish us luck!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are all healthy and safe!  Have a great week!

 

2020 Blue Jeans Week 42

SUPER exciting news!  Miss A is engaged!!!  We are sooo happy for her and excited to welcome Mr A to our family!  They are getting married in December, and COVID makes things very small and simple, so that is nice.  It is going to be a wonderful thing!!  Take a look at our exciting week!

Our last home church was this past week.  Since end of July we have been able to attend in person church every other week.  We had to split our congregation in two, but this next week everyone is allowed to come because we have enough room to social distance family groups and with wearing masks we can get everyone there.  Exciting to go back to a little more "normal" with church!

And this was our super exciting news this week!!!!  Mr A proposed to Miss A!!!!  We knew it was coming.  They have been friends for a long time and then dating for a while, so we are very excited for them!  Grateful for the pictures!

So excited!  Mr and Mrs coming December this year!!!

So cute!  Sure love them!

The beginning of great things!!!

Our cross country meet for the week was league.  We have won for the last several years, but last year got 2nd by one point!  So we were looking to redeem ourselves.  Mr J had an amazing race!  Best time of the season.  #2 runner for our team and 5th place overall.

And Our boys won!!!!  League Champs again!  2nd place team wasn't even close!  Awesome group of guys!

Got our flu shots this week.  Not quite as exciting as everything else going on, but important!

And Mr J in the band performing at the football game this week.  They sounded awesome!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week!  Stay healthy and safe!

 

2020 Blue Jeans Week 41

Had a wonderful weekend watching General Conference for our Church which is a worldwide televised worship service that we have every 6 months from our worldwide church leaders.  So good!  Exactly the messages of peace we needed to hear.  Life is a test.  It isn't meant to be easy, but we can have peace, joy, and comfort no matter what our circumstances when we focus on Jesus Christ.  It was just what we needed to hear!  It was a good week.  Take a look...

We always have the same snacks out for General Conference weekend--cocktail peanuts, candy corn and Reece's pieces.  I sent these same treats to the girls so they could have them while they watched it at college too.  Family traditions!

Our traditional conference weekend breakfast is aebelskivers--or round Danish pancakes that Ben makes.  They are a tradition passed down from his Dad when Ben was a kid.  They are yummy!  I love them with Nutella and sliced bananas.  

A photo from two of my girls this week, they are getting out and enjoying the fall leaves and the colors in the mountains.  They enjoy hiking together.  Lots of fun!

Did you see Mars this week?  We checked out the big telescope from the library again so we could see the red planet a little closer this week.  It was pretty cool.  We also saw lots of falling stars while we were out star gazing.  Always a cool experience!

Cross country race for the week.  Last regular race of the season.  Mr J rocked his race, #2 runner in for his team and 4th place overall.  Looking forward to next week's League meet and hopefully winning as a team!

Got out a puzzle to start this week.  We have had this one forever, since before we had kids.  It is one of my favorites to do.

And got this picture from Miss O this week.  For a group date night they decorated pumpkins.  Love the different designs.  Masked one is cute.  Sign of the times!  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!  Stay safe and healthy!!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 40

It was a good week.  Great cross country meet, decorating for Halloween and some fun times outside.  We are still plugging along here.  School here is going well.  Cases here are low.  I am grateful for my faith in Jesus Christ that gets me through. Sometimes things are just so crazy, but He is a constant source of love, comfort, and peace during the crazy.  So every day I thank Him for our blessings--large and small!  Take a look at our week...

Mr J has been working and saving all his money this year to eventually get the new Apple watch.  It came this week, and he was sooooo excited!

Mr J getting his watch all set up with his phone.  Amazing what these little things can do!  He is excited and very happy with the result of his hard work and savings!

Fall is coming!  Getting decorations out for fall/Halloween.  Not sure what Halloween will be like this year.  We rarely if ever get trick-or-treaters where we live anyway, and I won't have any of my kids trick-or-treating this year.  We will celebrate how we always do by carving pumpkins and decorating pumpkin shaped sugar cookies.  Yum!

Mr J's cross country race for the week.  I love their pre-race huddle and prayer.  Great group of guys!

Mr J had his best race all season today!  He has been their #3 runner, but today he was their #2 and got 4th place overall.  Their team got 1st place!  Exciting day!!!

Mr J and his amazing cross country coach which also coached all of his older sisters AND was my cross country coach too.  Yes, he has been doing this for a long, long time, and sadly he says this year is his last, but I am so thankful Mr J was able to have him as a coach the last few years!!  Too bad he can't stay 2 more years to get Mr J through school!

Enjoying a beautiful evening in the backyard playing some badminton.  Admittedly, I am not very good, but we still have fun.  These boys have good attitudes and put up with me :)

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are well and safe and stay that way!  Have a great week!!!

 

2020 Blue Jeans Week 39

We keep moving on.  We are grateful for where we live and that we are allowed more freedom to go and do than a lot of other places.  Living in a small rural community has it advantages, and we love where we live.  It was a good week.  Another awesome cross country race and school continues to go well.  Take a look at our week...

Sunday Mr J decided he wanted to make something new and challenging so he made a delicious pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting.  It was so yummy!  Recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe here.

One of our favorite pastimes in one of our favorite places--family walk on the trails by our house.  What a lucky girl I am to get to be with these handsome guys!

 Ben and his crew at work all masked up and ready to go!

Cross country race for the week.  Mr J and his team did awesome!  It was a great day for a race, cloudy, cool and no wind.  

Mr J made the paper in his sprint to the finish line.  Super proud of this kid and how hard he works!

Finished reading Harry Potter #6.  Watched the movie this weekend.  Started the last one #7.  This has been a fun journey to go on during all the crazy going on outside.  

Getting October/Halloween packages ready for my college girls!  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week!  Stay safe and healthy!!

 

2020 Blue Jeans Week 38

Good week last week.  Things are going well so far.  School continues here as "normal" and cross country continues.  So far we are still all healthy and so grateful for that!  It was a good week.  Take a look...

Picture from Miss O.  She and some friends did some hiking.  So pretty!

Me walking on my favorite trail in the morning. It was cool enough I was able to wear a hoodie!  So excited fall is coming!!!

Made my absolute favorite rice krispie treats this week.  Find it here. Yummy!

Picture from my girls.  My mom was in town to visit my 94 year old grandma, and my girls went to see them and say hello.  They stayed outside in their masks and visited with their great grandma through the window and my mom kept her distance and visited with them outside.  The new "normal" for visiting, but they they were just happy to see them!

Cross country race from this week.  Mr J did awesome.  Was the #3 runner for his team and got an individual medal.  Looks to be a great season!

Cooking in the kitchen with this guy.  He was making pancakes, and I was making waffles.   We make lots and then put them in the freezer to eat in the mornings.  

Saturday we got out of town and went on a 16.7 mile bike ride on a fun trail in the city.  It was a beautiful cool day and fun to see the leaves turning and falling while we rode.

Thanks for visiting.  Hope you had a great week!  Stay safe and healthy!

2020 Blue Jeans Week 37

Made it through another week of in-person school.  Every day we make it, I consider a good one!  We enjoyed the long weekend and did some bike riding.  Got some pictures of my college girls, and all is currently well for them for which we are very grateful.  Ben and Mr J had a canoe adventure Saturday.  It was a good week.  Take a look....

The kids gave me this hummingbird feeder a few months ago for my birthday.  It has been awesome to see the hummingbirds come each day.  This last time when I refilled it, this one hummingbird decided that it was all his, and he wasn't going to share, so all day he just sits above it and waits for the other hummingbirds to come and then he chases after them to get them away.  It is funny to watch.  One time 5 of them tired to get to the feeder with him there, and he chased them all away.  It does make us laugh to watch, but it is also kinda sad.  Those poor other hummingbirds can't get any food!  #hummingbirdbully

Our Labor Day activity was to go on a 14 mile bike ride.  We went early in the morning so it was nice and cool.  Fun way to start the day!

Got this cute picture from Miss O who made it through her first week back to college.  Most of her classes are online even though the university is "in-person" so lots of screen time this week!  One week down!  Woohoo!

It is been so dry here, but this past week we finally got some rain...lots of rain!  The air was white looking because of all the rain coming down.  Everything in my yard was very happy after this!

Picture from my girls--they hit the store together, and I guess all needed to buy frozen broccoli this week.  Glad they can be together!

Super exciting Friday night, we actually had a home football game, and that meant the band played!  Mr J on his sax playing in the halftime show.  Don't know how many more games we will get to have, so we enjoyed this one!

Saturday Ben and Mr J went on a canoeing adventure with some other guys from our church.  I think they had fun!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a good week!  Stay well and safe!