"Stuffed to the Muff!"

Or, you could take the Lawrence abbreviation of "STTM". 

I have so much to blog! Gotta start somewhere, so here's our thanksgiving feast, because it's easiest. 

Aaron fried two turkeys this year and they were delicious!! I wish we had taken a photo of him out there on the driveway, surrounded by Josh and his boys holding up huge sheets of cardboard to block the wind. Well done, men. Those birds were incredible. 

I call this masterpiece "stuffing to the muffing". I started Wednesday with cornbread that I made from my own fresh home-ground cornmeal. It was diced, toasted a little, then set out to dry out overnight along with a loaf of dried out, diced,French bread, 

On Thursday, I added sautéed onions, celery, fresh thyme, oregano, rosemary and a dash of parsley, in melted butter/chicken stock(6c) poured over the top. Then, we stirred in 2 diced green apples, pomegranate arils, and diced dried apricots.  Oh hunni! 'Twas magical. 

The rest of the menu was classic and simple made 28 of moms classic (butter) dinner rolls, apple butter, whipped Yukon gold (heavy cream) potatoes, gravy (from a can with TJ's 21 seasoning salute and garlic salt added), and corn. We were halfway through the meal before we even realized we'd forgotten to make the green bean casserole and homemade cranberry sauce! It was fine without though. My mom cooked a ham and everyone took a turn helping in the kitchen. It was like having a dozen soux chefs! 

Homemade apple blackberry, triple berry, pumpkin, cherry, and French silk pies. Those didn't last long.  

Dinner success. 

Lawrence's Gone Wild

My parents called to say they were coming for thanksgiving. 

My brother, Scotty, (with wife, Kristie, and 3yr old Ben) drive from Colorado go join us. 

My sister, HolleeAnn, (with husband, Paul, 3 year old Nico, and Baby Gigi (10 months), flew out from California to join the party for thanksgiving. 

Then, my sister, Amy, got a wild hare, and her spontaneous boys, Parker (16), Tyler (13), and Steven (10), and husband, Josh, found themselves abailable for the week.  Since we all have what Uncle Scotty calls, "FOMO" (fear of missing out) They hopped in their van and drove to Arkansas from California, and we are so happy they did! 

It's a crazy (awesome) full house with 21 Lawrence's up in here! 

Most of the family rolled in on Monday. We spent the day outside enjoying gorgeous weather and greeting each family in shifts as they arrived.

The house was ready for a mass of Lawrences: hot cocoa bar on the countertop with all the fixings. The razorback cookies were replenished with pumpkin cream cheese muffins from Bentonville Baking Company later in the week. My fave. 

I made Arkansas Welcome baskets for each of the families. Who doesn't love a good swag bag? 

I included: Walmart reusable shopping bags, Arkansas and Razorback shaped sugar cookies (the nephews all knew how to call Woo Pig Sooie! By the time they left), Walmart smile stress balls and Walmart truck per dispensers. Walmart trivia playing cards, some homemade Arkansas Bingo Cards (camo, beard, confederate flag, y'all, peeing outside, overalls, missing teeth, and fried pickles all made the list), and a travel bottle of "Poopourri" in each basket. Stuff actually works! 

The kids and guys all kept busy running through the woods, playing on the island, carrying loads of firewood up to the porch, riding bikes and scooters, and playing a million pickup games of basketball and soccer outside. 

I have almost no pictures of all the family fun outside from this day. 

On Sunday night I'd made a batch of baguettes and a pot each of butternut squash soup and harvest lasagne soup. 

Harvest lasagne soup 

Campanelle noodles 

Chicken broth 

Tomato sauce 

Ground beef/ground sausage (Sautéed with diced onions) 

Sliced carrots 

1 can of tomatoes with the juice. 

Peeled sliced and diced sweet potato

Fresh thyme, oregano, and rosemary, and dry Italian seasonings. 

Put everything in a big pot (noodles last)  and simmer to soft veggie perfection. Add a splash of heavy cream. Yum. 

I served the leftover soup and my dad picked up assorted cold cuts sand cheese for a make your own sandwich bar. 

Aaron went to high rise to pick up passes  for everyone for family night. When he explained that he was getting several family passes for my parents plus Scott's, Amy's, HolleeAnn's, and our families, the manager said, "this is all one big family! And gave us one giant family pass for all 21 of us for the single family rate! $35 for all of us! Kind of amazing that there are still people and companies out there who appreciate the blessing of large families and reunions. It was a night to remember. Especially uncle Scott's tricks, the boy's family dodgeball game, and grandma's little dive. 

The feats of strength were tested in the Lawrence men dodgeball game. It got pretty intense!  

It was fun luck to see the gulbransens, skates and Seidel families there, too!

Half of the group had already left, but here are some of us (above). 

Sloane's Sneaky Straw Sippin' Skillz

Oh, is that your straw? Don't mind if I just help myself, Grandma!

A Vintage Treasure...of Mine!

This little peach crocheted seater used to be mine. My mom didn't save a ton of things from my days as a baby/small child, but the items she does have are total gems. This is a treasure. Thanks, Mom! And thanks to my late Grandma, Gladys Lawrence, who made it for me. Sloane is rockin the vintage style, today!

Young Learner Thanksgiving Feast

Happy Thanksgiving from these cute little Young Learner Turkeys! 

Thanksgiving at Cooper and Meg's thoughts about volunteer committees

Corbin: grandma, I don't think you should come to my school for the Thanksgiving feast. 

Grandma Lynn: why not? 

Corbin: my friends will laugh at you and I don't want them to laugh at you. 

Grandma: they won't laugh. Why would they laugh? 

Corbin: They will laugh at you and grandpa because you're just so old. Stay home and only have my mom come to the school. It's just for little kids. Not old people. 

And so only mom joined Corbin for his Thanksgiving Feast! And there were plenty of "old people" there to dine with their grandchildren. 

I took Corbin to the book fair after lunch and he picked out a $1 eraser and some $2 Star Wars tape. Ha! Done! 

Grandma, Grandpa, Soren, and Sloane joined us for Quincy's turkey feast. We had a nice time and the meal is actually pretty good, thanks to Katie, who always remembers to bring salt for our table ;) Quincy wanted to wander around the book fair, too, and selected an eraser that looks like an iPhone, then picked one out for Reese, too. Grandma Lynda, these kids all have impressive eraser collections just like yours! 

One day, when my littlest kids are in elementary school and I have time to volunteer at the school, I'm going to organize a turkey trot. I'd love for there to be an activity other than "come shop at the book fair" for families and kids to do together, since that is the point of having parents come, right?  Yesterday, the (awesome) PTO moms were having a meeting in the office while I waited for Corbin and Quincy. Listening to the meeting, I felt/thought some things: 

I could totally do the PTO thing, and I think I would love it. Thanks to the experiences I've had in church callings  through the years of both running and serving on committees and organizing events, I think I'd not only love it, but I'd do a good job. 

For many reasons, including having younger children at home, I feel strongly that, for me, now is not my season to volunteer at the school. It is tempting, but I know it would not be the best or most effective way to serve my children right now. 

Also, church is very dfferent than school. Both are volunteer positions, but I witnessed a gross level of backbiting and gossip happen in the PTO staff meeting. As soon as one member went into another room to make copies, the other three turned to each other and bashed all of the ideas the one had suggested. Then, only minutes later, the woman who had made copies returned, and a different member left to go get their child, and the exact same thing happened about the woman who left!  The things these women said about each other were really mean! What the heck?! And on and on it went for 30 minutes.  I stood at the counter, waiting for my children, embarrassed and uncomfortable while across the room, women tore each other down and then put smiles back on when someone returned. And they all did it to each other. 

I am not trying to say I am perfect, or not guilty of gossiping. We all know I have faults and have made plenty of mistakes. But in my discomfort, I felt a surge of gratitude for the committees I have served on. I never felt anything but  support from my counselors and secretary in my primary presidency. We were not close friends. We hardly knew each other at first. We love and respect each other and support is key. Same thing with my current calling. Whoever is in charge of program for the month has total support from the sisters on the committee to make their vision for the activity happen. If course in all committees, we may disagree on how things should be done, and I have received a share of frustrating phone calls and emails and slightly heated parking lot discussions, but I do really appreciate that it was always direct. Passive aggressive backbiting is so counterproductive and hurtful.  I love direct approach: someone expresses concern, and feelings and ideas are considered. Sometimes a change or compromise is reached, but in the end, even if there is still a disagreement on decisions made, there is an understanding that the "final say" is called by whoever has the mantle to do so. And once the choice is made, it's done. Support is given and the work carries on.  

Ok. So this is the ideal for church ministry and it isn't always done perfectly, because we are mortals, but I'm truly grateful that there is a standard set for that ideal, and that church members I've served with strive to follow it. Because it totally works. 

Well that was an odd little tangent. I have no agenda there...and this wasn't some kind of cryptic passive aggressive rant, or anything. Just my stream of consciousness and observation of how different (better) things are and can be. The school PTO ladies do phenomenal things for our school. I wouldn't change any of it. I'm just feeling extra grateful for my experiences on church committees. Sending someone to make copies and then talking badly about them while they are gone would never ever ever happen in our ward council meeting. Primary presidency meetings never had sideways glances and eye rolls between two members while a third is giving assignments. Ideas are shared and heard. They might be discarded or disagreed with, but they are always respected. 

I hope that someday it will be my season to share/be an example of the cooperative leadership and supportive participation skills that I've learned at church in my community and kids' schools. 

And that's what I am thankful for, today. 

Cougar Football in KC and a brawling minivan

Saturday morning, we tried to get as many rocks moved and leaves cleared (in Bella Vista, leaf maintenance every fall is a 3-saturday job.) We are surrounded by trees and it takes about 20 total hours of labor to remove them. We've been lucky to have a dry autumn, because it is sooo much easier to blow, rake, and burn dry leaves than wet.  

But it was just too windy on Saturday, so we abandoned that project after 1 hour and a few tarps hauled. 

Onto the rocks. Unfortunately, someone called our poa and filed a complaint about our boat on the island and car parked on the street, and we were ticketed. We have until Wednesday to find a new location to park the boat (every storage facility in NWA is full, btw.) and move the cars to our driveway. Well, in order to get the cars both in the driveway, we need to move the rest of the rocks. So saturday was a scramble to make progress on the rest of the pile. It's not awful or impossible, just time consuming. We got a lot done, but still have so much to do tonight. (Hello FHE! Haha I'm sure I can come up with a doctrinal message that applies here.)  but we did make really great progress on Saturday, and even the kids helped a significant anount. We gave them some small buckets to fill with the rocks on the lawn and they cleared a huge path all the way to the car! I think they felt really great about their noticeable contribution in just a short time. 

By noon we were off to Kansas City for the BYU game! We were so sad Taylor couldn't come. She is recovering miraculously fast though and hopes to be back to flipping and flying though the air  in two weeks. We did spy her boyfriend among the players and kept tabs on him. That's right, McCoy, the Willies are watching you! 

 

It was nice to see the KC skyline lit up in support of France after recent terrorist attacks in Paris. 

The kids loved the football game. They loved watching the marching band half time show, they loved when we scored a touchdown, they loved stadium hot dogs and hot cocoa and dancing to loud music between plays. They loved all of it. 

The drive? Brutal! We've made trips a dozen times longer, and several yo KC before that were just pleasant and fun, but this one was unfortunately not. And I had no patience for it. It really discouraged me to hear my children fight with one another for six solid hours and sort of ruined what should have been a really fun trip. We aren't sure what variable led to this too being so different than the others, but it did not go as peacefully or smoothly as we had dreamed. Maybe our expectations were too high. Maybe we should have reacted differently. Maybe we could have prepared differently. Maybe, actually probably all three. Live and learn. At least we got to see some cougar football. 

But I'm being totally serious when I say that we will probably never do this again. The drive was really really terrible, and even though we shuffled seats around, there was no way to avoid the mass contention in our van, and we did not like it one bit.  

We attempted some diversions to cheer up our angry elves along the way in the form of food, and a pit stop at IKEA for a book case for Reese and Quincy's bedroom.  Sadly, the book case was out of stock, and shipping to Ar is $350!  Forget that! We'll pick it up next trip. The elves did not like this. 

So yeah, a lot of things went terribly wrong on Saturday. Even with leaving shortly after half time and making it home by 12:30am, and our best efforts to get everyone ready, (I even had clothes laid out for everyone), we were still almost 30 minutes late for church.  

What we learned: 

We still love BYU football. 

Aaron is infinitely more patient than Meg. 

It is worth the extra cost to have seats near the BYU fan section and lots of friends. 

When going to KC, always go early and squeeze in a temple trip. 

We are not bad parents because our kids fought a lot. 

We do need to improve our reaction to kids fighting a lot. 

I can't control the behavior of others, or force anyone to have a good time. 

This post sounds negative but we really did have some fun. It was a doozy though, and definitely a trip for the willy memory book! 

10 months

Left: Quincy, 8 years ago, Right: Sloane in the same outfit. These two are twinners! 

Here's Quincy 

And here's Sloane 

Our little sweet is 10 months old! She is so fun. Sloane loves:

-cruising furniture

-being held by mommy

-eating found food off the floor under her high chair 

-eating Cheerios, frozen peas, canned green beans, black beans, hummus, rice, sausage, pretty much whatever we are having. 

-nursing, but gets easily distracted by noise

-to say "Ta Daaaa!!!" (Shown in above photo), "Mama", and "all done" 

-biting! Girlfriend has 5 teeth and with them, she bites! A lot! And hard! My leg, your arm, a toy, nothing is safe! Nursing her is officially an extreme sport. Ouch! 

The kids think that she is like baby Sunny from Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events. 

 

Feel Better Taylor!

My cute niece was dropped during BYU cheer practice earlier this week and is currently recovering from a pretty severe concussion. We were so looking forward to watching her cheer at the BYU game on KC this weekend, but we are so glad she will be ok. Scary stuff! 

Reese has been particularly worried about Taylor, because her old school principal, mr young, got a concussion last year and is no longer able to remember the students names. We tried to reassure Reese that Taylor's doctors are pretty certain she will make a normal, full recovery, but Reese is still very worried and brought me these cards today.

I love that she included a photo of herself...just to be on the safe side. ;) 

The other card was from Reese's BFF Madi Z. 

I texted pics of the cards to Taylor and you're in luck, Reese. She does, in fact, remember you! 😂. We miss you and we are praying for you, Tay! 

Apple Cider Pork Tenderloin

My allergies may be killin me, but I still knocked dinner outta the park tonight. Aaron dropped his fork on his empty plate and simply said, "That was excellence. Thank you." 

So here's the recipe, since it's one worth making again. My photos are...well pathetic, but just know the recipe has high praise from the Mister. 

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apple Cider reduction glaze.  

Cut two pork tenderloins in half, so the 4 pieces will fit into a small roasting pan. 

Pat pork dry and brush with oil, then season with salt and pepper. 

Sear the pork (about 2-3 minutes each side) in a hot skillet to give it a nice browned crust. 

Place deseed pieces onto a roasting pan in a 450* oven. Roast 15-18 minutes 

While pork is roasting, whisk together 1 1/2 cups Apple cider and 1/2 Apple cider vinegar and pour into the hot skillet. Bring to a boil and let it cook down into a glaze by stirring occasionally and scraping up the flavor in the pan from searing the pork. 

Add cooked tenderloins back into the skillet and cook 1-2 more minutes to get coated with the cider reduction glaze. (It will thicken up almost like syrup as the water boils out.)  

 

I served this dish with parmesan risotto, pomegranate arils, and butter n brown sugar roasted acorn squash. It was perfectly autumnal. 

Ok so the yellow plate doesn't help, but trust me, dinner was en pointe. Kids loved it, too. 

(The squash took about 30-40 min to cook)

Young Learners: It's Bear Week!

Lots of literature and dramatic play for my little bears, today. 

Fine Motor: bear jigsaw puzzles, and dress the bear wood puzzles. 

Math: counting bears color sorting, pattern cards, and number sort cards. 

Dramatic Play: Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. My favorite part of this was everyone wanting a turn to be goldilocks so they could "break" baby bear's rocking chair and fall asleep in her tiny bed. 

Snack: I read the big hungry bear and the ripe red strawberry while they ate Teddy Grahams, gummy bears, and strawberries and then the children "fed" berries and fish to their grizzly bears and tucked their bears in to a "den" to hibernate while I read Grizzly and Bear Snores On. 

Art and science 

B is for Bubbles! We made blue and black bubble paint and popped bubble art on big letter B's. Good messy fun. 

Music and movement: going on a bear hunt, teddy bear picnic. Brown bear brown bear parade 

Reese's Veterans Day Concert and Project

Tuesday night, we attended the OHMS Veterans Day Choir Concert at the BHS Arend Arts Center.  It was beautiful and patriotic. The choir performed patriotic songs and put together a lovely tribute for our veterans. The audience stood and joined in saluting the flag with the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem. The choir performed the fight song for the ARMY, NAVY, US Air Force, and Marine Corps,  and the audience applauded veterans who stood for their branch.  It was a wonderfully warm experience for our family to attend. 

Reese is front row, third in from the left side. Great concert, big sister! We loved hearing you perform. Quincy was literally moved to tears and cried intermittently throughout the program, first with pride for her sister, then with gratitude for our veterans, and lastly in sadness during a tribute about the sacrifice of fallen soldiers. Big heart, she has.

Choir has not turned out to be Reese's favorite thing, this year. but our introvert did surprise us a little when she told us last night how much she enjoyed performing. Way to stick it out and find joy! We love you, Reese! 

Here is the veteran poster Reese did for her school project to honor Grandpa Rob. The hallways at old high were full of these posters from all of 5th grade. Great project!