Here's a summary of what our family was up to from the middle of October all the way through the rest of the year!!
* COVID-19 update: Total Cases here in Idaho are 141K (which is almost 100K more than the last time I reported here in the blog back in October! Holy Cow! I had no idea!) Total Deaths for Idaho are 1,438 (vs 508 in October). In the US, the total number of cases is 20 million (up from 7.75 million in October) and 346K deaths (up from 214K deaths) and the Total cases in the world is 83.9 million (there were only 37.3 million cases in Oct) and 1.83 million deaths (up from 1.05 million in Oct). These past couple of months has brought this virus very close to home and affecting our family and friends! Aunt June and Uncle Bruce were infected and Uncle Bruce spent several days in the hospital. The Dr's wanted to transfer him to a larger hospital with a Ventilator but none were available and through the power of prayer and a miracle - he was able to only need to be on Oxygen and recovered! Our friend, Stephanie Jordao was hospitalized and on a Ventilator for an entire week! She has since recovered and is back home. Our friend, Jim Richardson was also hospitalized and on a ventilator. Several family's in our Ward have all come down with it and the entire Coburn family had it over Thanksgiving, We did have a scare just before Christmas where Ben became very sick with several of the COVID symptoms. Mom took him to get tested and he was lucky enough to be given a Rapid Results test and so we had the results back within 30 minutes while we waited in the parking lot! Thankfully it came back Negative and so didn't impact our Christmas plans! Our state (and most of the US) went back to a Phase 2 lockdown where we are limited to groups of 10 for gatherings. Church has gone back to only being remote (we participate in a Zoom Sacrament meeting each Sunday at 9 and then a Sunday School/Come, Follow Me lesson at 10:30 and then on the 2nd and 4th Sundays, we have a YW lesson - all of these are done over Zoom). Our weekly youth activities have also all returned back to being virtual (we did have about 5 weeks in October-November) where we were able to gather at the church for Mutual. We wear our masks everywhere we go, and also have the hand sanitizer close by!
OCTOBER:
* Fall came and we loved the crisp air and beautiful fall colors!
* Duck Hunting for Dad most weekends
* Mom took Nathan and the girls to the Pumpkin Patch to pick our pumpkins for carving!
* Halloween! With Covid, there wasn't really Trick or Treating so we decided we'd do a family bake off! Each person baked a fun dish and then we ate together while watching the BSU game on the TV. Little Henry was too cute with his Frog costume!
* We did a little photo shoot of August, McKendra and Henry at the park behind our house with all of the Fall colors! They turned out so cute!
NOVEMBER:
* Dad spoke to the YW on Veteran's Day about his experiences in Iraq
* More weekly Duck Hunts for dad - he's loving it!!
* Lexi crocheted a Nativity for grandma Carlson's birthday... it turned out awesome!
* We started decorating the house for Christmas! We actually got it all decorated the first week of November and everything looked so magical! Seriously it was the best to have only the Christmas lights on, the fire going and eating popcorn while watching a Hallmark movie!
* We also got some cute pictures of August, McKendra and Henry in front of the tree!
* Aubrie decided she wanted to make matching PJ's for the entire family (all 11 of us!) so she started in November! She also sewed herself some Christmas aprons!
* Thanksgiving! Joseph, Sarah and Kaylie (Sarah's sister) came down from Rexburg to join us.
DECEMBER:
* More Duck Hunting for Dad - yay! He's still having such a fun time with this and loves it! He's got a great "hunting buddy" in Ryan Aten from our Ward and they go out together most weeks.
* Christmas shopping, wrapping, and spending the evenings watching Hallmark Movies!
* Gingerbread House making (the girls made 5 batches of homemade gingerbread and then proceeded to make a replica of our house to scale!)
* Aubrie took a Sugar Cookie Decorating Class and she learned some really neat skills and is really good at it!! She also did a Christmas Watercolor painting.
* Lexi spent the month working on a Christmas Afghan! It turned out absolutely stunning!!
* We invited Stephanie and her kids to come over for an evening of Christmas fun! The girls baked and decorated cookies, the boys played video games and mom and Stephanie did some school catch up and then watched a Hallmark while eating popcorn and drinking cocoa! Stephanie has told mom on several occasions that this was one of her highlights for the Christmas season!
* We had a major scare with Maggie! She got into some Ice Cubes Gum that is sweetened with Xylitol - which happens to be highly toxic to dogs! Even 1 piece is toxic and she had eaten 18!! She spent 3 days in the Animal ICU hooked up to IV's and having medication administered around the clock. We were able to pick her up on Christmas Eve at about 7pm - and all of the kids were thrilled to have her home just in time for Christmas! We're pretty hopeful and optimistic that this incident won't have any long lasting effect on her liver (which is what was affected the most with the xylitol poisoning).
* Mom and dad celebrated their 26th Wedding Anniversary!! It was pretty lowkey - dad worked, took Maggie to a follow up appointment to get more bloodwork done to make sure that the medication is still brining down her liver enzyme levels. Then mom and dad made a quick trip to Walmart, picked up some Chinese food for dinner and brought it home for an "in home" date of dinner and movies. We are so grateful for the sealing power her on earth and that we can be an Eternal Family!!
* Mom, McKendra, Henry, Seth and the girls went to "Winter Wonderland" in Caldwell to see their spectacular lights! It was a fairly mild evening and we all enjoyed it! Henry slept through it and on the way home we grabbed some dinner at Burger King! Dad's back was hurting too badly to join us (sad!) and Nathan didn't want to go. August had to work and Ben and Natalie lost track of time and so didn't get to join us - but we had a great time!
CHRISTMAS!
* Christmas Eve had all of the boys working at Marco's. They closed at 8pm and then they all came back to the house. In the meantime, Dad and Aubrie had gone to pick up Natalie from work and bring her back for the festivities. We ordered Chinese Takeout from a new local place called Wok Fusion. Seth stopped by to pick it up on his way home and they were WAY delayed and he didn't make it back to the house with the food until close to 10pm! Sadly, it wasn't that great either - boo! oh well...
* After the dinner, we all opened up our AMAZING Christmas PJ's from Aubrie and got dressed up in them and took some pictures! She did a phenomenal job and they looked so professional!
* Then it was on to the Sibling (Homemade) Gift Exchange! This is one my most favorite traditions that we do! The kids really did some creative and thoughtful gifts this year! You can see them all pictured below :)
* During this time, Seth also brought out a surprise treat that he had put together for each of us - he had gone to Winco and gotten chocolate treats for everyone.
* Then the girls separated the gifts and got things ready for Santa to come! Aubrie also left out some delicious cookies!
* Finally we were all tucked into bed! The good news is that we were able to sleep in until after 9am - yay!!
* Christmas morning brought smells of a hot breakfast (made by McKendra) wafting through the house! We all got up and ate before starting in on presents (and while we waited for Ben to get back home with Natalie).
* The Chaos then ensued and we spent the morning opening gifts and after all gifts were opened and we were organizing the gifts to take pictures of, mom noticed something NEW tucked under the piano - a new, extra long bench! She was blown away and had NO CLUE that dad had secretly been working on building it for her the week before Christmas!
* Ben and Nathan wanted to pool all of their "resources" together and get a PS5 for Christmas. They are in HIGH demand and are very hard to find (unless you want to pay $1,000+ for one on eBay or the FB Marketplace... which is double the "regular" price of $500). Mom tried for weeks and weeks to get one and was never successful so they got a printout of one and will have to be patient a little longer until they can find one.
* August and McKendra gave us all a very thoughtful gift - they got everyone matching Stockings and had their names put on them! Super thoughtful and they'll look awesome next year hanging up by the fireplace with all of the Christmas Decorations!
* The afternoon was spent watching shows, taking naps, playing new games that were received, eating chocolate and candy, downloading new video games, enjoying new gifts and having an epic Nerf War!
* For dinner Christmas night, dad BBQ'd up some tasty burgers and they were a great reprieve from all of the sugar!
THE HIGHLIGHTS: Mom asked everyone in the family what their highlight of Christmas was! Here are the responses:
DAD: secretly working on the piano bench for mom because I knew she'd love it! Also, it was fun waiting for her to notice it!
MOM: The secret sibling (homemade) gifts are always one of my favorites! I also LOVED discovering the surprise piano bench that dad built me!
AUGUST: I enjoyed being all together as a family and the helmet that Seth got me was a BIG surprise that I'm excited about!
McKENDRA: I loved how we all matched this Christmas with the jammies that Aubrie made. I also loved waiting for Shandy to notice the piano bench that John made her!
SETH: The body pillow that Lexi made for me is sure getting a lot of use and just being around the family. It's not too often that we get to hang out with all 11 of us for an extended amount of time and so that was a highlight for me!
BEN: I loved just being all together! My favorite gift was the digital drawing of Natalie and me that Lexi drew. The Nerf gun war was also pretty fun and a favorite!
NATHAN: Getting a PS5! Even though I don't actually have it yet... but I'm excited for it!
AUBRIE: My absolute all time favorite gift was the CHUB SUIT!! The Nerf gun war was also a highlight!
LEXI: I loved all of the baking and the eating! And of course opening all of the presents! That was fun!
Dad and Nathan ice fishing with the Young Men
Getting a puppy - Maggie in January!
Lambert getting into several cat fights
Mom and August getting CPAPs
Covid-19 Pandemic and the whole world shutting down!
TP shortage
Bidets installed on the toilets (one at home and one at work for dad!)
Home Projects! Repainting the entire kitchen! Added new hardware and extended the cabinetry up to the ceiling
Building a Backyard Bar and Bench seating
Floating the Boise River
Taking Kat and family to Jump Creek
Several Visits from Kathryn and her family
Vacation to Washington - boating, swimming in the ocean
Ben and natalie got engaged
Birth of Henry!
Dad got called to be the Elders Quorum President
Seth coming home from BYUI in March and finishing the next 2 semesters at home
All 4 boys working at Marco’s Pizza
Xylitol Poisoning for Maggie after eating 18 cubes of gum and had to spend 3 days in the ICU
Renting a Boat and Tubing on Lake Lowell with the family
Getting 2 new toilets for the bathrooms upstairs
Decorating for Christmas the first week of November
Mom and Stephanie went to a Vocal Point Concert (before Covid shut down everything!)
Daily tutoring from April-December for Nathan from Grandma with Reading
New skills acquired by the girls (Crocheting, Sewing, Cookie Decorating)
Grew a garden (like most precious years - not much was yielded from our attempts! haha)
Ben got his Wisdom Teeth out
Weekly Temple Trips until the Temple’s closed (in March) and then weekly Family History sessions
The girls’ first Temple Trip to do Baptisms! They were able to go several times before the Temples shut down
Updated the main (downstairs) bathroom (repainted from baby blue to gray, glazed the cabinetry and replaced the knobs, put up a new shower curtain and rug and took down the “builder grade” mirror and put up a framed one)
Homeschooled and loved it!
Mom was the “go to” homeschooling expert for several friends once the schools shut down and family’s decided to change the way they educate
Dad took up Duck Hunting and has been loving it! He’s gone 20+ times this season!
Quarantining, Masks and Social Distancing
All 8 people in our family now wear glasses
Joseph, Sarah (and Sarah’s sister) joined us for Thanksgiving
Membership to the Indoor Shooting Range and LOTS of sessions target shooting (until ammo got scarce and too expensive to shoot)
Dad got to meet Bruce Campbell and watch a screening of one of his movies - 1980's Evil Dead
3 concerts (with tickets purchased to) were all canceled! Those concerts were: Killswitch Engage, Tool, Coheed & Cambria
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