November 1st - December 12th

In Our Family the Last SIX weeks...

* BIG NEWS: Luka Aurelius Vogt was born on November 1st! McKendra's water broke early in the morning and he made his grand entrance into the world before lunch! He is such a great little babe and everyone just loves him to pieces! Here are some pictures over the last month

 

* Aubrie and Lexi have been working REALLY hard on hand crafting lots of items to sell at their very first Holdiay Bazaar! They got a booth at the "Holidays from the Heart" craft fair the 2nd weekend of November and had a great time (especially being their first experience with craft fairs!) Some things sold totally out and others hardly got touched. Lexi crocheted scrunchies, ear warmers, ornaments, elf clothes, cat sweaters, infant hats and Nativity sets. Aubrie designed and sewed vintage flair aprons, Christmas bags and Holiday Kitchen towels. They brought in about $450 and were so thrilled to make so much to purchase Christmas gifts. Tech Trep was hosting a Kid Entrepeneur Holiday fair and so the girls decided to take their leftovers and try to make a little bit more money... That craft fair was the first Saturday in December (and was only being held for 3 hours) and they sold most of their remaining inventory and made another $170! They are both so talented and we're all so proud of how hard they worked, how much thought they put into their business and how professional they presented themselves! They're AWESOME! 

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*Duck Hunting! Dad has been able to go out hunting most weekends and he always bring home some ducks to process! Maggie accompanies him each time and has proven herself as a great retriever!  One weekend, he took Ben and all of the "Homies" (Matthew Garner, Issiac Fisher and Tyson Woolstenhulme) out to Grandview and they had a GREAT time! Dad even said it was probably the most fun he'd had out hunting (which is saying A LOT!). The best part was all 4 boys came back with a duck - yay!

* It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Our most FAVORITE time of the year has arrived!! We patiently waited for Halloween to be over so we could fill the house with Christmas music, smells and decor!! The girls REALLY help out tons and are excellent at decorating! In fact, when it comes to the garland (it's just plain) and I hang that up and then the girls make it come alive with all of the ornaments, picks, ribbon, lights and berries! This is also the first Christmas with our Family Room being remodeled and I love how it turned out with the trees and holiday decor! And of course we couldn't neglect the outside of the house so when Seth came home for the Thanksgiving break, he and the girls braved getting on the roof and got all of the lights securely attached to the house!

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* THANKSGIVING! Alrighty, I've got a confession to make: I don't really enjoy cooking (big meals, little meals, any kind of meals - eeeks! and don't get me started on the Cleanup! So hopefully my family realizes how much I love them to have cooked dinner pretty much every night for the last 28 years!) Anyway, after voicing my frustration of knowing the girls and I would be in the kitchen cooking all day and then have hours of clean up, dad made an executive decision and we decided to have a "Non Traditional Thanksgiving"! Here's what we did this year and it was FANTASTIC! It was the least stressful Thanksgiving (with the exception of the times we've gone out to eat!) and it's my vote that we continue on with this new tradition. We called all of the kids together and had a family counsel where I shared my frustrations and we presented the plan to them. We went around the room and each child picked a dish (or dishes) that they were going to be 100% in charge of (from getting me the shopping list for what they needed, to being the one in the kitchen cooking it and cleaning up and doing all the dishes they used  BEFORE we sat down for dinner). We had a good mix of traditional dishes and people's favorites! Here was our menu for the day:

Aubrie: Coconut and Pecan Sweet Potatoes

Lexi: Banana Cream Pudding "Salad",  Jello Pretzel Salad and Green Beans with Almonds

Nathan: Stuffing

Ben: Deviled Eggs

Seth: Zopft (Swiss Bread) and Honey Siracha Chicken

August: Mashed Potatoes and a Pumpkin Pie

McKendra: Cranberry Drink and a Cheesecake

Mom: rolls, Fried Rice (to go along with Seth's Honey Siracha Chicken) and Chess Cake

Dad: His famous Burgers!

I can't express enough how smooth everything went and how much everyone enjoyed the day! Especially me!! After dinner we had Grandma and Grandpa Vogt, Aunt Heidy and Uncle Tony and Remington and Clemintine over for dessert. We had about 9 pies, chess cake and several flavors of ice cream! 

* And here's a bunch more fun pictures from the past 6 weeks! Dad and I got new phones (during Black Friday) and we've been loving the photo quality and have been taking lots of "everyday moments"... 

Spiritually Speaking...

*  We are finishing up the Doctrine and Covenants with the Come Follow Me Program and are gearing up for the Old Testament to start in January! I've been working on researching resources that I may want to utilize next year and am impressed with so many people/companies that cater to Come Follow Me! We are in the middle of our "Winter Break" for school (where we take off from Thanksgiving to the New Year -yay!!) but have found that we're slacking on our CFM daily studies as a family. Things are just so much better when we put the Lord first that I need to recommit to finishing out the year strong!

* The Lord has been with us over the past 6 weeks for sure! With the Safe arrival of baby Luka (he was born with a hole with a hole in his heart but is quickly closed up on its own - with many prayers being said in his behalf!) and his health since coming to earth. We are all still keeping safe from Covid (yep, that's still a thing and a SECOND variant - Omicron - has now emerged). We have found ourselves going out in the public MUCH more than last year and most of us have picked up a little germ here or there (think sniffles, stuffy noses and sore throats) and after a year of virtually no sickness, it's not so fun to have colds again! LOL But we all feel grateful that we're not battling anything worse! We've had direction as we've been on the prowl for a new truck (for dad) and coming across a good kids car to purchase.

* We've also had the Lord with us as we've been navigating the new Bi-Polar diagnosis for Ben (he was also diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder and ADHD <-- which we also already had a Dx for). He is starting his 3rd week of Mood Stabilizers and he is visibly doing better! He's still working reduced hours at work (and that also seems to be helping a lot) but has a goal of being able to be back to full time in January. He's increasing his therapy and has another meeting with the Psychologist in another week. 

* I had a great experience with some family history where (unbeknownst to us!) we were missing one of the children of dad's Great Great Grandparents. I happened to come upon a death certificate for him (he sadly passed away at the age of 7 from Diphtheria - and then their 2 year old daughter passed from Diphtheria just 2 weeks later - so sad!) but after playing detective one morning, I was able to 100% connect him to the family with several sources and he can now be sealed to them!