Week of Gratitude & Covid-affected Thanksgiving

 A week before Thanksgiving, the prophet invited individuals everywhere in the world, to flood social media with gratitude, and promised it would bring healing and peace. It was the most amazing thing to participate in and to see--everyone in my facebook and instagram feeds were posting things they were grateful for, and social media was such a positive, happy place to be! These were my posts:

 Today I am grateful that our online school day was one of the smoothest we’ve had yet, with *almost* no crying, and not even one mess of destruction made by Hudson 🙌🏻 (at least during the hours we were doing schoolwork 😉) I’m also grateful for the moments of inspiration/creativity that sometimes come to me and help me have ideas of how to make things better/more fun for the kids—like wearing a different crazy hat today for each assignment they were working on. 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 I’m so grateful for a living, loving prophet of God and his invitation to flood social media with gratitude over the next seven days. ❤️ Join with me! #givethanks

Today I am grateful for the few {semi} quiet moments I get each night to nurse Hallie before bed (even if all heck is breaking loose with the boys outside the door...! 🤦🏻‍♀️😂) I’m so grateful for a body that has allowed me to get pregnant with, birth, and then nurse five children—such a miracle. Our bodies are amazing! I’m grateful for each stretch mark and reminder that I have of the amazing things my body has gone through. ❤️ #givethanks

Today I am grateful for how resilient and adaptable my children have been this year. They truly have made the best of wearing masks, having online school days, not being able to get together with friends, and having life turned upside down in so many other ways. Hudson wore a mask for the first time today at church and kept it on for the entire 45 minute service, and he was SO reverent!! The fact that a 2-yr old can do that is so amazing to me. ❤️ I’m also so grateful for the opportunity we have to meet together at church—even if under very different circumstances—to worship our Savior and partake of the sacrament together. Words can’t express my gratitude for Jesus Christ and how much I love Him and am grateful for His atonement; because of Him I am able to find happiness and feel peace no matter what is going on around us. #givethanks

Today I’m thankful for car washes & a clean car. I used to only indulge in washing my car when it REALLY needed it...but then Curt spoiled me & got me an unlimited pass for my birthday, and I love it so much!! And with very few reasons to get out of the house these days, it’s nice to have somewhere to go for a short outing with the kids...even if the car doesn’t necessarily need a wash because the last time I drove was just to the car wash the day before... 😂🤷🏻‍♀️😂 #givethanks

Today I’m grateful for Duke. Sometimes I still question our decision to bring another living thing into our home, when we’re just barely treading water with 5 kids as it is, haha 🤪...but he has been such a good little dog, and so good for the boys—Tucker especially. He is the most loyal, loving, cuddly little thing, and my favorite part of the day is taking him with me to pick up the boys from school; seeing his little tail wag in excitement, and the boys’ pure joy to see him, makes me so happy. I’ve never been an animal lover, but I have definitely grown to love him, and I’m so grateful to have him in our family. 🐶❤️ #givethanks

Today I’m grateful for Hudson and the fact that he reminded us by yelling/crying/screaming from his bed tonight that we had forgotten to have family prayer together before putting him to bed. He is the most independent, determined, mischievous little 2-yr-old (and gets into so much trouble/destroys something in our house literally every day!), but he is also the sweetest, most grateful and loving little person I have ever met. ❤️ I’m grateful that even when we mess up and fall short in so many ways as parents, that these little people still love and forgive us, and still learn (& somewhat retain) what we’re trying to teach them. I’m grateful for the opportunity and the challenge of being a mom and how much it stretches me and humbles me and helps me have to rely on the Lord. #givethanks

Today and every day, I am thankful for Curt. I’ve tried not to be too sappy or cliché in my posts, but I couldn’t end this week of gratitude without expressing my gratitude for him.❤️ I’m thankful for his food-making skills (especially nice to have on Thanksgiving 😉), his construction skills (that makes finishing our basement possible 💪🏻), his marketing skills (that bring in a steady income to provide for our family), his work ethic, his fun personality, his testimony and love for the Lord, and his never-ending willingness to serve and help others. He is my best friend and my very favorite person in the world, and I count each day with him a blessing. I’m so grateful for the life we live together—for the good times, and even more for the hard times that have helped us grow closer together. I’m grateful for the family we’ve been blessed with, and for the kids that we have the opportunity to raise together. I love you @curtalansmith and I’m so grateful to have you for eternity. 😘😘😘 #givethanks

I have loved this week of participating in all the #givethanks posts—it’s been so fun to see and hear from people I haven’t seen in years, and it has made me so happy scrolling through social media. I don’t want it to end! So I’m going to do another post...and maybe still more in the future. 😉 Today I’m thankful for my mom and all the time and effort she has put into making our Christmas stockings over the years—she just finished Hallie’s, and I LOVE seeing our whole family represented on our mantle!! 😍 My mom is not a seamstress by trade (though still very talented), so it has been a labor of love for her to make each of these by hand. I love and appreciate her love and sacrifice, and I will forever cherish these stockings. ❤️ Thank you, mom!! We love you!!

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So, two days before Thanksgiving we got a call from our neighbor saying she had just tested positive for COVID...and I had walked home from church with her two days before, and Curt had sat in meetings with her husband, and our kids had played with her kids. We were always wearing masks, but we were still in close contact, and had multiple points of contact, so we decided that to be responsible people, we probably shouldn't get together with my family for Thanksgiving like we had planned. (crying emoji) We weren't super concerned about getting it ourselves, but we didn't want to pass it on to anyone else if we were to end up having it...and as sad as it made it, we figured it was better to play it safe than be sorry later. 

We had been in charge of smoking turkey and providing some other things for the dinner, so we still made everything like we had planned, and we just dropped our food off at my mom's, and then they packaged up the food they had and shared it with us. Thankfully, I had decided at the last second to buy a lot of the sides to have for our family, just in case, so we had a full-fledged thanksgiving dinner that was delicious.

Curt prepping the turkeys--mouth watering goodness:

Curt made the mistake of sharing one little piece of turkey with Duke...and then he had a best friend/sidekick with him the rest of the day, haha.

This is my favorite video--it shows Curt walking over to give the boys a taste of turkey, and Duke following close behind and trying to get in line for a taste too, hahahaha:

Our fabulous Thanksgiving dinner--just us! It was sad to not be with everyone else, but it was nice to be low key at home.

Yummy!

My dad had come into town to see everyone and share Thanksgiving with us (my mom was so kind to invite him), so he stopped by our house and we wore masks and visited outside. And then we facetimed with everyone during dinner for a little bit too. 

It definitely was a different kind of Thanksgiving, but it still ended up being nice.

November Phone Pictures

 Pam Meteer had given these cute little outfits to Hallie and Chad & Lisa's twins, 

so we got a picture of them all wearing them at the same time--so cute!

We decided to try something new with the boys' Halloween candy this year, and we made some candy blondies--and they were yummy!

Cute/messy Hallie in her highchair, haha:

November was full-on basement finishing mode, where Curt worked every night and every weekend down there. Hudson LOVED going down and watching him whenever he could, and he always brought his bear with him...and it was the most adorable thing ever:

I designed this invitation for a RS activity we were going to have...and then the governor issued strict guidelines to not gather with anyone outside of the people you live with, for the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving...so the activity got cancelled

Hudson took a nap for the first time in a long time, so I had to document it! Usually he just stayed in his crib and played for like 2 hours (instead of sleeping)...but he never complained, and I really needed the break from him to be able to focus on the big boys as they came home from school, so we did this "quiet time" every single afternoon, and it was amazing. And then he moved to a big boy bed and started potty training in January, and the quiet time went away...and I really miss it! 

Bless his heart--Hudson loves to help unload the dishwasher! In the picture on the right, he unloaded the dishwasher for the boys all by himself!! (with a little help from me to put the things up in the cupboards) He can be the best little helper! (and at two years old!)

For some reason, Curt takes the best Sunday naps when the kids are sitting on him...so Duke & Hallie were happy to oblige this day, haha:

I bought a new rug for myself for Christmas on a November sale, and when it came, I had to lay it out and take pictures so I could pick out some new throw pillows to put on my Christmas list for Curt's parents...and then I rolled it back up and waited to give it to myself on Christmas morning. ;)

It took a couple of weeks after we got our new white suburban in October, but we finally sold our beloved Hulk (green Yukon XL)--and this was the last shot I got of it as the people were signing the Bill of Sale and took it away:

This is 100% typical Hudson. This was on a Friday morning while I was helping the older boys with online school (Fridays used to always be online days). Hudson made a mess with paper, and being the sweet boy he is, he wanted to try to clean it up himself. So he went to the pantry to go get the broom...

...but in the process of getting the broom, he accidentally knocked over a jar of balsamic vinegar and spilled it ALL OVER the pantry (face palm). This is how it always is--he wasn't trying to make a mess, he was just trying to be independent and do something himself, and ended up making a giant mess in the process...!

With this one, however, I don't know what his end goal was. Curt & I were both upstairs doing something, and we came down to find that Hudson had been putting flour in Duke's dog food container......!!! Love this boy, but he gets into SO many things, and makes SO many messes! Things like this are a daily occurrence!

Hallie LOVES rice...and it makes such a mess haha!

Curt got to a point with finishing the basement where he couldn't do any more without having the permit issued, and he had a free Saturday, so he took the time to put up Christmas lights down at his parent's house, and then at our house too. (and thankfully, we got the permit the next Tuesday, so there weren't too many down days). Calvin had the important job of holding the ladder for Curt, and his hands got really cold, so Curt's mom let him borrow her gloves, hahahaha:

Now are our house:

Love, love, love our Christmas lights!

Curt got this picture of the gorgeous mountains while he was on our roof:

Hudson & Curt playing a fun hiding game, haha. I think I took this picture because both Hudson & I were so happy to have Curt help with bedtime one night! (instead of always being down in the basement)

Hudson & Hallie's first bath together--so cute!!

With all the boxes we had from doing the basement, the boys decided one Sunday to make a giant cardboard castle for Duke...and I'm not going to lie--it was pretty amazing!

It had two levels inside, with stairs and everything! And Duke *kind of* liked it because the boys hid food throughout it, so he would go into it when he wanted a little snack, haha:

We finally got the permit for the basement!!! Curt started working on the basement before we got the permit issued because we were pretty confident they wouldn't change anything from our plans, and we knew the permit would take awhile and we didn't want to have to wait. We submitted the permit on October 19th, Curt started working on the basement on Oct 26th, and we finally got the permit on Nov 17th! (even though they told us it would only take 1-2 weeks!) So in the three weeks that Curt worked, he got all the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical done. All while it took more than four weeks for the city to issue a simple basement finish permit...

We had the 4-way inspection two days after the permit, and we passed! Here we were celebrating making it to the first inspection:

Hudson cuteness:

First time wearing his reindeer pajamas--he was so excited!

Everyone busted out their reindeer pajamas a few days before Thanksgiving:

Hudson wore a mask for the first time this day, and he kept it on for the full 45 minutes at church! I never knew a face mask could look so cute!

Cute Hallie in an adorable dress:

Hallie LOVES kisses from her big brothers:

A Bronco original, haha:

Even though Curt put up Christmas lights a few weeks before Thanksgiving, he was adamant that we didn't turn them on until AFTER Thanksgiving...he's a stickler about that. (eye roll)

Hudson still asks to hold Hallie every once in awhile, and it always cracks be up 

because she's starting to get almost as big as him! 

(she looks especially giant in this picture, even though she's not really that big!

We decided to make some new Christmas tree superhero ornaments this year--partially because we have Hallie now and we wanted to add in a few girls to what we had before, and partially because the superhero ornaments we had before were glass balls, and more and more were starting to break. So we started fresh with some new plastic balls, and we enlisted the boys to help us. It was quite the family affair!

Here are the finished products. Pretty awesome!

I have a picture of them all on the tree in our December phone pictures that I'll share.

Curt busted out his Christmas jacket and wore it to Bishopric meeting, haha:

And here was my Thanksgiving mantel:

And now for some videos....

Here is a typical ride in the Smith family car--full of kids constantly talking and/or screaming and making noise and being crazy...it's so much fun! (eye roll, crying face emoji)

Here's Hudson telling a story about Duke running away and running "really, really fast"--the way he said "really" was so cute!

Hudson really wanted to try feeding Hallie some baby food, and he actually did pretty well for a 2-yr-old!

Bronco loves Hallie so much and loves giving her zerbits (blowing on her belly, haha):

Hudson loved the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?" for awhile, and we read it all the time. But it always got him super worked up because he would jump around and make all the sounds--not exactly the effect I was hoping for at bedtime, haha: