November Recap

In a nutshell...

November started out pretty insane, but it ended pretty {shockingly} calm.

For starters, we had quite the scare when my brother and his wife welcomed my sweet new little nephew Andrew into the world EIGHT weeks early with an ER visit and an emergency c-section on November 1st. It was pretty terrifying for those guys, but we are so happy to have them both doing well!

We led into the month with Mark finishing up Harvest (YAY!) and spent a lot of time outside before it got downright FRIGID on the 9th.

My sister and I spent a lot of time trying to help my Mom get the right care and on the right medications to help her with her Parkinson's and the related anxiety caused by it and the Parkinson's medication she has been on. We are so grateful that she's doing better now, but at the beginning of this month, she was not well overall, so I spent a weekend there trying to help her out with meals and just spending some mama/daughter time with her while my sister and her family made a trip to Indiana to help my older brother out while they navigated the NICU and a family of seven with frequent visits to the hospital and other little ones who needed to carry on their regular routines.

As the month went on, we prepared for a week-long visit from Mark's brother and his family from California, which started out by all of us (except Kendrick) battling a nasty norovirus the first few days (yuck!) But we were all feeling well enough to celebrate Thanksgiving not just once but twice (once in Storden and once at our home) before they headed back home. Cashel just loved doing all sorts of fun things with cousin Sofie, including decorating his first gingerbread house and helping make his first snowman.

It's hard to say it was exactly a "good" month considering how it started, but it certainly was a month full of reminders of how good we have it, even when it gets a little harried.

Here is a little more in-depth look at our November:

The End of Harvest (November 11)

We made it through Harvest again this year - WOOT!! The boys and I were able to make it out a couple times to visit, and they LOVED it!

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

A Weekend in Humboldt (October 14-16)

I spent a weekend with my Mama. We watched a boatload of Hallmark Christmas Movies and had a lot of downtime together.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Decking the Halls (November 18)

We decided to put up our Christmas tree and decorations a little early this year to have a little more time to really enjoy it.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Thanksgiving in Storden (November 27)

We gathered together with some of the Johnson family on Mark's Dad's side of the family at the Baptist Church in Storden for the afternoon.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Thanksgiving at Home (November 28)

We celebrated a second Thanksgiving together with Mark's Mom this time at our home in Windom.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

A Week with the California Johnsons (November 22-29)

Daniel, Iryna, Sofie and Buddy came for a week-long visit, consisting of sickness, two Thanksgivings, gingerbread house and snowman construction, a little OWNING everyone at Settlers of Catan, and a generally fun time together.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Pizza and Hanging out at Dad and Pam's (November 29)

We ended Daniel, Iryna and Sofie's trip with pizza and visiting at Dad and Pam's as a sort of post-Thanksgiving get-together.

Click here for a full recap with pictures!

Looking Ahead...

December should be FUN! Extra busy, but FUN! With a lot of the stressful stuff from last month resolved (nephew is home and doing great, Mama finally is seeing her anxiety controlled a bit, no more harvest, no company to prepare for, most of our Christmas shopping already done, and being home a lot more to focus on cooking and cleaning), we're looking forward to just relaxing together as a family, taking in a few Christmas events together, and enjoying this season. The end of the month will undoubtedly be a lot of traveling, as usual, but this year it's not as far as it has been in past years (LeSueur as opposed to Minneapolis, staying home instead of Worthington, and at some point Humboldt).

Long-term, likely in 2015, we definitely want to make it out to visit my brother and his family in Indiana at some point, and we are looking forward to Cashel's 3rd birthday party (which he has been talking about for approximately 6 months now) at the end of January and a family trip to Miami and the Florida Keys in early February (and yes, we ARE crazy haha).

For now, though, I'm taking advantage of what few non-crazy moments I have to sort of just exhale and re-group after a VERY crazy year. I've got to get a sort of "year in review" type post up at some point, since some of you are probably stopping in after receiving our Christmas card this year, so check back soon! But it is just mind-boggling to think of condensing this past year into a post worthy of summing it all up. The Lord is so very good :)

Pizza and Hanging out at Dad and Pam's (November 29)

We didn't get to celebrate an official Thanksgiving with Dad and Pam this year as they were down in Iowa celebrating with Pam's folks, but we did get together that Saturday afternoon before the Californians headed back home.

We had a laid-back time visiting and eating pizza together (well, until the unruly little guys needed to be driven around for naps haha).

As always, the boys were totally smitten with Aunt Jess - I just love the look on Kendrick's face in the middle pictures here :)

Unfortunately, we were missing Sarah and her two Johannes's this year, but they up and moved to California for the winter, so boo to that! Hopefully we'll be able to see them this Spring if and when they ever return back home.

A Week with the California Johnsons (November 23-29)

Mark's brother and his family came to visit for a week leading up to Thanksgiving this year. Unfortunately, the first part of their visit was a little unfortunate, as Cashel came down with a stomach bug on Saturday. We all enjoyed the day on Sunday, but on Monday Mark and I both had it and stayed home from work. By Monday night, Daniel and Sofie had it, and Iryna picked it up on Tuesday as well. Talk about a "fun" vacation!

Thankfully, by Tuesday evening, everyone was feeling MUCH better, and we were still able to enjoy two nice Thanksgiving meals with family. (I'll post about those in separate posts.)

We did have a lot of fun with them while they were in town, and the boys just LOVED playing with cousin Sofie.

Cashel especially really enjoyed being able to help decorate his first ever gingerbread house with Sofie.

We got the boys' Christmas present set up early - a bouncy house! - and the kids had a BLAST playing in it.

We also had a lot of fun once it warmed up a bit and we were able to build a snowman, thanks to Sofie's persistence.

And, of course, the obligatory snow angel :)

And who can resist some hot cocoa with marshmallows to warm up?

Other highlights from the week were that we had a couple nights where we got to sit around playing games: Poker and Settlers of Catan (in which I beat everyone - muahahaha!) Cashel and Sofie made the Watergate salad for Thanksgiving #2, and Cashel only ate about 50 marshmallows. Also, I SO enjoyed visiting The Red Barn in Jackson with Sofie :) She wasn't quite as impressed as I was with it, but I was just in heaven :)

While the week started out a little crazy with all those sickie germs going around, we really did settle into having a great time together. It's really too bad that they live halfway across the country and we don't see them very often. We always end up making such fun and crazy memories with these guys. Until next time...

Thanksgiving in Windom (November 28)

We enjoyed a second Thanksgiving meal with Mark's Mom at our home in Windom the day after Thanksgiving. We initially had planned to have it on Tuesday, but with a house full of sickies earlier in the week, it seemed like a better idea to wait until everyone was no longer contagious and until we all had our appetites back.

This was honestly one of the most laid-back holidays I've hosted since I can remember. It was just a nice, relaxing day overall. Sofie and I even made it to Jackson to the Red Barn for a little while, and I did a smidge of Black Friday shopping in town at ShopKo for some Christmas gifts.

Diane made the turkey and stuffing this year, and I took care of everything else, including more stuffing, 10lbs of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Watergate salad, cranberry sauce, Rhodes dinner rolls. I cheated this year and used Stove Top stuffing, Rhodes dinner rolls and jarred gravy. (Hey, I know my weak points, and gravy is DEFINITELY one of them)

We all decided to exchange gifts with the Californians, seeing as how they will be on their way to Cabo for Christmas this year. Cashel was over the moon about his new Jake and the Neverland Pirates PJs (that will be his birthday theme this year). He has since been telling everyone "Merry Christmas" haha

We finished off the evening with some pumpkin pie, some poker and an early night, seeing as how tired we all were from a busy past week. We had a fun afternoon to look forward to the next day before Daniel and family headed back to Minneapolis to catch their flight.

Thanksgiving in Storden (November 27)

We enjoyed a fun afternoon in Storden at the First Baptist Church where Mark's uncle is the pastor on Thanksgiving day this year.

We started the day with some snuggles and Netflix mixed in with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and enjoyed a butter braid and fruit for breakfast. It was such a nice, laid-back morning, even with some crazy little boys running around :) I was super excited about my new owl mug and just exactly how much coffee it holds :)

We loaded up and hit the road around noon for the half hour drive to Storden. We arrived to the smell of a bonfire inside the church, which is one of those things that will stick in our minds for years to come, I'm sure, even if it wasn't really that big a deal to us :) The flue was apparently not working properly on the fireplace, filling the church with smoke - ooops! It certainly added a little extra rustic feel to the meal :)

We had a nice-sized group this year (16) and a nice variety of food as well! The menu consisted of turkey (of course), stuffing, mashed potatoes, a fluffy jello salad, Grandma Vi's rolls, a festive mixed green salad, veggie and relish trays, freezer corn, sweet potato casserole, and, of course, we topped it all off with a variety of pies (of which my favorite was the pecan - YUM!). It was all so delicious!! Granted, we had to enjoy it in spurts, as we now have two little toddlers to wrangle, and both of them were well past their nap times.

It is fun (and let's be honest - completely exhausting haha) to watch the next generation of Johnsons grow. I, for one, am looking forward to the family gatherings when I get to eat my food before it gets cold and when I don't spend an hour putting the boys down for naps {a drive in the country for the win!}, but I'm also trying to remember to be present in my harried state of mind and body. I know these days are so short-lived and that I will look back on these days fondly and think to myself how fortunate I was to be able to be so humbled by such sweet boys :) We are all healthy and joyful, and for that, I am SO THANKFUL!

It is always such a blessing to be surrounded by family :) A HUGE thanks to Dave and Chris for hosting this year, and to everyone for all the delicious food, fun and fellowship :) We had a great time :)

Lately in Windom

It has been a while since I've done one of these, so hold on - it's probably going to be fairly long!

I desperately miss the days of sweatshirts and shoes and walks already, and it's not even the end of November yet :(

It is so fun to watch these boys and their Grandpa :)

The boys loved to "help" with harvest, but Mama is sure glad it's over!


My little family in the last nice days before the snow :(

I'm thinking next year we can just let these two go trick or treating by themselves. No?

We went to Zoo Boo in Sioux Falls, and every 5 minutes or less, we'd find Cashel like this having a treat.

We celebrate my 33rd birthday!

I feel like we did a pretty good job of soaking in the last warmish days of fall before the snow :)

But truthfully, I spent more time worrying about this than enjoying some of the time. The road seems to be a magnet for these guys, and I'm constantly having to pull them out of harm's way.

They look a little grumpy here, but they love to be around each other these days :)

I met my Mom and sister for an appointment for my Mama the first Monday in November. It was a LOONNNNGGGG day, but it was nice to spend time with my the ladies with no kids in tow.

We voted!

We were able to meet up with Mark's cousin Drew for lunch while he was swinging through town. He's currently living in Oregon, so we don't see him often. It was a special treat...apparently a blurry one.

The snow came early and it is COLD outside. Cashel doesn't mind, though - he's having a blast!

The boys are now fighting over who gets to vacuum. I wonder how long this will last?

Honey Dijon glazed salmon with sweet potatoes and quinoa - a special treat with my Mama.

I'm VERY glad that the Halloween candy is mostly gone. I had way too many of these scenarios happen at least every few days.

This poor little guy had the "hiccups" all day Saturday. He was pretty terrified at first, since he had never thrown up before. Lots of snuggles and Special Agent Oso helped while he recovered.

And naps. He slept a LOOONNNNGGGGG time on Saturday.

Kendrick seems to have escaped unscathed, and, in fact, has probably more energy than anyone.

Mark and I? Not so much. We all stayed home on Monday. It was awful!


Thankfully, it was just a 24 hour thing, and Tuesday morning, we were back to the daily grind.