Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Going to do a quick post today so I can get back to Holiday decorating with my crew and enjoying the end of a wonderful holiday weekend!!

Connor school fun

Monday : Maci experienced her 1st reconciliation at church, we are so proud of her!

Tuesday : Last day of work for the week and my brother and family arrived for the holiday!  Aunt Sue and Mike also got in town but are staying at a hotel.

Wednesday : In the morning we picked up our catering and pies.  Molly/Tommy also arrived and Sue/Mike brought them from the airport.  We took a neighborhood walk, started drinking with snacks and then ate some smoked pulled pork for dinner.  Everyone had fun catching up and drinking some cocktails.  A late night for all!

Thursday : Happy Thanksgiving!!  We watched some parade and then football along with lots of touch screen games in the basement.  Guys smoked a turkey and deep fried another turkey while the ladies helped to cook all the sides from the catering.  We ate dinner around 5p and then enjoyed more games, cocktails and a bonfire outside.

Friday : After lunch, Aunt Sue and Mike headed for the airport.  We took another family walk, played more games and had a reheat turkey/Thanksgiving dinner before taking Molly and Tommy to the airport.  We then ended the night watching a movie on Hulu about the holidays.

Holiday Photos

Saturday : Dustin and family hit the road around 7a and our crew said bye before heading back to bed.  Clint and I finally arose around 10a, we all needed some rest after late nights and busy days.  Connor then slept until about 1045a (he also needed sleep!)  Once up, we cleaned the house, started some laundry and headed out for our Christmas tree - it was a gorgeous sunny and 50 degree day!  We got a good tree that Connor named Tom before heading home.  We then put up the tree but were too tired to do any more.  We skipped neighborhood fire outside b/c we were so tired and instead watched a movie and hit the hay around 10p.  Ahhhh what a great holiday but nice to be super lazy!

Sunday : Finishing up house stuff and weekday prep.  About to ride the bike after the Bengals game.  We got the house all decorated including the tree.  We had such a nice long weekend and now ready to wrap up 2020 before some more downtime with family come Christmas 🎄💖

Maci is into selfies - check these out HAHA I have 100s of them

We will now spend the rest of the day preparing for the week ahead with full distance learning kicking in.  We hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and are finding ways to find the bright spots in this crazy 2020.

Lots of Love,

C, K, M & C

Veterans Day & Return of Snow

Weekdays

• Monday : Kids had school, Clint and I both had full days with work at home - after work I hopped on a Peloton ride with many of my fellow Rally co-workers - it was such a fun ride!!!  Alex and Tunde road together as the instructors and they played only Beyonce music - good time!  Post ride I got a few late night calls in quick for work and cleaned up my email but with a pep in my step from a good sweat.
• Tuesday - Connor at School and Maci at Mini Hops with her neighborhood pals doing remote learning, I had a surprisingly nice day with meeting gaps which allowed for me to work ahead on a few things.  We then found out Maci's school will move to full distance learning (no more hybrid) as of Nov 23 👀 Thankfully I got ahold of Mini Hops and we took the last spot on Mondays and they had some room on Wednesdays so she will switch to going there for her schooling for the foreseeable future on M-Th - Offdah 2020 you blow!  Connor's pre-K is a licensed daycare so they will remain open even though they are at the same school because Governor is asking them to please remain open if possible.  
• Wednesday - Veterans Day!  Thanks for all those who have served our great country.  Rally observes this as a holiday so I had the day off while everyone else had school and/or work.  I enjoyed some morning TV, did all our Christmas cards/addressing etc, started a new jigsaw puzzle and got some reading complete.  Love a nice day like that!
• Thursday - Connor at School and Maci at Mini Hops, usually she is solo on Thursdays but our other neighbors (Molly and Emily) don't have their nanny for a few weeks so they are attending this program so she had some buddies at the session.  After work wrapped and we had a quick dinner, Clint headed out to play indoor tennis with our neighbor Ben.  We then wrapped our night with Hot Tub and Football fun - love that heading into the weekend tradition.

Connor School Fun

Maci is playing with Clint's old phone on WiFi

Yes, she thinks she is all sorts of cool now - 8 going on 18

These are the sorts of selfies she takes non stop HAHA

Weekend

• Friday - BUSY Friday!  Maci and Connor headed to North Woods as it was a no school day and I wisely signed them both up to head to this offering for the day.  I had a jam packed Friday with meetings but we also refinanced the house, yes 2nd time this year!  The rates are that crazy good and we even shifted to a 20 year vs 30 year loan this time and our payment is only back to the original rate pre any refinancing - YES!  Once work finally wrapped, we headed to gymnastics for the kids and then ordered pizza delivery.  Post kiddo bedtime, Clint and I watched some football while I cleaned email.
• Saturday - Maci had her indoor soccer at 8a and Clint dropped her, no adults allowed in the dome.  When Clint was back, I worked on some chores around the house while he drained the gas in the tractor for the year and got the snow mobile running.  He had a blast (you could tell) flooring that thing up and down our hill, he is lucky he did it yesterday b/c as the day went on the sun was out and the snow melt a LOT.  We then each had a fairly chill afternoon, I finished my jigsaw puzzle and he took a nap.  We then went to River Inn for an early family dinner since our date night was cancelled with the sitter not feeling well.  The kids behaved really well and we all enjoyed some good food.  Once how around 530, yep said we ate early HA, we all climbed in Clint and my bed for family movie night - so cozy as it sleet rained outside.  We watched Home Alone 2 together then the kids went to bed and Clint and I watched the new Borat movie, so crazy but kind of funny too.  We were both out before SNL even started HA

• Sunday - I ran some errands and brought home donuts.  Then hopped on the Peloton for my weekly Ally Love ride, today was on confidence!  Post ride, I finished some to dos around the house.  Clint is enjoying Masters/Football combo on TV and I am looking forward to an afternoon Bengals game.  In the meantime, we are getting everything prepped for what is likely another busy week in our house.  Also, Maci is nearing the end of her reconciliation prep with her actual 1st reconciliation on Mon Nov 23.  

We hope you all enjoyed your likely quick but needed/appreciated weekend none the less!

Lots of Love,

C, K, M & C

70 Degree Weekend in November!

We Love Our 'Hood

Weekdays : 

• Monday : I went into the MN Rally office for the first time since mid March - while I likely won't do this often, it was nice to see the office and have some socially distanced/masked hellos with those who are working in the office
• Tuesday : Election Day - thank goodness Clint and I voted in person weeks earlier so we just sat back and watched the coverage come evening
• Wednesday : Another busy day, Clint took a turn with Maci and her monthly religion faith formation in the evening.  We are so proud of her, she had worked so hard to memorize the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be prayers and recited them for her teachers.  She will now say these to a priest at her First Reconciliation at the end of the month.
• Thursday : Clint took Maci to an eye doctor apt at the end of the day since she has complained of her eyes itching or feeling hot.  Turns out perfect 20/20 and nothing wrong, she simply needs to get more sleep - ugh Maci!  At night we enjoyed the hot tub and football with our Harty's

This Girl 😃 - How she takes her morning zoom calls on Tues/Thurs/Fri

Oh Connor - Such a stinker and so cute

Working on shapes and patterns

Weekends : 

• Friday : Clint took the day off and had our furnace annual check up, washed cars, finished leaf yard work (now that the snow melted) and generally just enjoyed the awesome weather!  I got quite a bit of work done and was happy to wrap up a long week!  We had gymnastics and afterward we came home to enjoy some quiet down time as the kids went to bed.
• Saturday : Maci's FDP soccer program launched for the winter session.  She now plays inside a dome at 8a every Saturday morning.  Due to the virus, only Maci is allowed to go into the dome so Clint dropped her off and swung home to get Connor for haircuts.  While they got haircuts I picked up M.  Then I dropped her off and headed to my monthly massage, ah so needed!  On my way home, I heard the election results and decided to blare CELEBRATION on the way home with the windows down.  The neighbors had a good laugh when I got home.  Once home, I folded laundry outside while chatting with Tena and watching kiddos play.  Clint and Nate rented a bucket lift to do both of our houses lights outside.  By evening, we were both fairly tired so enjoyed a night on the couch watching OSU, Notre Dame and SNL.

The Men at Work on Both Houses

Thank Goodness Nate knows what he is doing and has proper fall/tie off equipment

End Result ❤️

We just need to add our lights on the bushes and house light up wreath

• Sunday : I enjoyed CBS Sunday Morning and Meet the Press while Clint picked up donuts and made breakfast for our crew.  I crushed another Peloton ride with my gal pals and Ally Love, one of my fav instructors.  We then both got a ton of stuff done around the house since neither of our teams were on at 12p - Bengals are on a bye and Dolphins have a 330p game.  The kids played at the park with the Harty boys for almost 2 whole hours this afternoon while Clint and I started to watch his Dolphins game and I got things prepared for the week.  Clint is now running to get us some KFC for dinner (YUM!) and the kids are still outside enjoying this crazy 70+ degree temps (even if it is a bit windy)

We are so thankful for the weather we had this week as things are going to go more normal this week - starting with 67 and thunderstorms tomorrow before colder more common temps from there.  We hope you also enjoyed a wonderful weekend and hopefully some sunshine.

Lots of Love,

C, K, M & C

Happy Halloween & an Extra Hour of Sleep!

Weekdays : 

• Monday - I had a virtual happy hour with my former colleague/pal Nikki after kiddos went to bed
• Tues/Thurs - Had some nice bundled up walks with Tena to get some fresh air before it gets way too cold to do so 

Friday : 

• After Maci finished her schoolwork, she watched some Halloween shows before heading outside to play with the Harty boys
• We all headed to get Connor and off to Gymnastics 
• We ordered Papa Johns once we got home and while we waited on it, Clint and Maci carved pumpkins while Connor an I supervised
• Once done, the kids headed to bed while Clint and I watched random TV

Dry Run as a Dead Bride for her Class Zoom Call 

Stumbled Upon this in her Writing Journal ❤️😍

Neighborhood Buddies Playing Driveway Rollerblade Hockey

Pumpkin Fun

Connor's Spot HAHA

Saturday : 

• Happy Halloween!!
• Clint picked up "Chicken place" for breakfast
• We hung out around the house an enjoyed a quiet early afternoon
• The kids played outside until 4p when we decided to do the piñata with the neighborhood kids
• Afterward, we ate pizza with Harty's and Kavanaugh's before finalizing costumes and heading out for trick o treating 
• We used a trailer that we pulled with Sarah's SUV which had us cover so much amazing ground in our neighborhood 
• Once back home at 8p, we helped the kids sort candy and head to bed
• I realized that I too was exhausted so Clint and I hung back for the night and hit the hay around 9p
• The kids said it was the BEST Halloween ❤️🎃

Clint and I met Halloween Weekend 15 Years Ago

Time to Reminisce on a Few of our Fav Halloweens

Night We Met

Couple Costume

Wee Ones

Mi Familia

Piñata Neighbor Fun

The Trick O Treat Ride

Best House

Sunday : 

• LOVE gaining an hour of sleep - we got up at 8a which would usually have been 9a
• We got stuff done around the house and enjoyed CBS Sunday morning
• Before I knew it, it was 11a for Ally Love's ride on the bike - I hit a personal record and enjoyed the message so much!
• I then enjoyed watching the Bengals WIN 🐅and Clint very much enjoyed watching his Dolphins 🐬WIN!  Oh and Connor was happy the Vikings WON!
• We then finished our usual Sunday chores, prepared for the week and are now about to call it for the night - I am tired again, even if this is usually only 8p 😉

We hope you all have a great fall week ahead!  We are getting back into the 60s so we are sure to enjoy all the final warm temps and sunshine we can get!

Lots of Love,

C, K, M & C