For A Successful Thanksgiving Weekend-

Step 1- Long weekend off from school and work.
Step 2- Delicious food
Amy made this apple pie- plus a super yummy turkey. I had the easy job.
Step 3- Have a wonderful family to share it with.








Step 4- Have some family you don't see as often come the next day. (They are looking at a pregnancy book :)

Step 5- Thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings that fill your heart each day with love and gratitude.

Enjoy!!

Turkeys...

and crafts too!

Family Pictures 2010

This is my third time trying to post these pictures. So if you're reading this, that's a good sign. It helps that Dana took the kids and Scout to the dog park and here I sit in a silent house. Silence can really be a beautiful thing when it's hard to come by :)

My great friend Ashby in my ward took these. And I have to say she was extremely patient with our squirrly, talkative children. Especially one 3 year old who kept deciding for herself when she thought the picture should be over. Is Eli so cute in this one?
We brought the doggie along.
He's been such a good dog so far and gets us all with his sweet little expressions.

I already got them printed into Christmas cards too! Very unlike me to be ahead of schedule! I know it's a total spoiler- so I guess you 10 readers will just have to get over it :)

Now to start on some Christmas shopping. (that's you Jeff and Carrie)

Thanks again Ashby!

Simple Pleasures

I keep seeing lists of things people are grateful for and it's got my mind going on things I'm thankful for. So here's a partial list of more specific things I love in my life:

-a patient husband

-working with the young women at church and the examples they are to me (not to mention the amazing leaders I get to work with)

-my new sheets

-watching Holly read new words and her little giggle when she gets them

-the joy and excitement on the kids' faces when they play with Scout

-going out to lunch with Dana when he works from home

-the perfectness of fall weather here and walking to and from school in it

-chapstick

-fixing my girls' hair

-DWTS (and the DVR)

-our new temple and going to the ground breaking

-family coming out for the holidays

-gno

-when Eli runs to me after school and tells me with a big smile he had a "high day"

-when Emma offers to help out unsolicited

-going to the park with Holly and Sadie in the mornings

-when I see "Best Western" on the caller ID

-making new recipies

-the opportunity to change and always try harder

A Spirit of Thanks

I was reading a new Thanksgiving book we have to the kids today. I realized I'm grateful for the same things today that the original Pilgrims were thankful for.

Freedom: from religious persecution- and all the many freedoms we have.

Friends: the Indians that helped them survive the first year there. Enabled their survival even.

Family: about half of the original crew died the first year and they were thankful for the health of those that made it through.

Food: they were celebrating a good harvest.

Of course those are just a few of the thousands of blessings I have and am so grateful for, but it made me realize that the things that matter never change, in any century.

Here's a little Thanksgiving trivia for you:

Which president tried to make Thanksgiving 1 week earlier to extend the Christmas shopping season?

(By the way this was met with much opposition but I think the idea is a pretty good one! We don't know the exact date of the original one anyways so why not?)

Dreams Really Do Come True

For kids at least :) um...and husbands. See, we've had a new someone roaming around the yard (and house) for the last couple of days.

I knew this was going to be the 'year of the dog' and have been trying really hard to gear myself up for it. So, to 'throw them a bone' so to speak, Saturday I agreed to go to the animal shelter and look to see what it was like. The kids were not expecting anything that day. Nor was I. In fact, I was really good at telling them 100 times that we were "just checking things out".

I was a little unprepared for the smell first, superbark X 100 second, and then third, all the dogs in little cell-like rows that don't have families. After 2 mins or so I had tears streaming down my face unexpectedly. Those sad puppy eyes are quite effective on me! Finally, I snapped myself back into shape and started looking for the things we might want in a dog. Truth be told at that point I wanted to rescue one of those dogs.
Then we found "Scout" and asked them to take him out so we could see what his personality was like. Right off we could see he was easy-going and sweet. And loved exploring (where we got his name). And unlike every other dog barking their heads off in there- he didn't bark once. Amazing right? We thought so.
We went ahead and adopted him and then picked him up Monday after he was neutered.
All I have to say is that he could not be easier so far and of course the kids ARE IN HEAVEN. Since according to Emma she's been "wanting a dog since she was like 3". This is a fact. And since then I've been saying "probably like when you're 10" And she never let me forget that number. Another fact.
His info said he's a Beagle-mix and 1 yr old. I'm not sure how they figure out their age. Does anyone know? He was 28 lbs when I picked him up Monday so he's small to medium size which was another requirement we had. And loves to be outside so hopefully he can go on runs with Dana.
And he's quite cute don't you think?

Welcome, to our new family member :)

"This is Halloween"

Wow! I can't believe Halloween has come and gone! What a fun weekend :) As typical, we had lots of different Halloween events this year.

First, Sadie's preschool party. She was sooo excited this year to be "Holly's old witch".
Miss Rhonda has the mom's go down to a park near preschool and the kids come trick or treat to us. It's so fun to watch them parade up the street :)
Sadie with her friends/carpool buddies.
The next day was Kindergarten's Fall Festival. There were lots of mom helpers and we had so much fun "ahhh"-ing over the cute kids' costumes. Holly decided like 2 months ago she was going to be "Cleopatra" this year.

The AM and PM classes got to combine for the party so Holly was excited to see some friends she doesn't see as much as she used to.
Later that day was the parade at school. This is Emma's teacher saying "Weeee! Weeee!" (per funny commercial of a pig in a car doing the same thing).
Perseus and Cleopatra.
Saturday morning pumpkin carving.
Sadie mustered up the courage to touch the "goop" this year.
Emma and Holly took on the 30 pounder together :)
Eli turned his Elizabeth Blackwell project from school into his jack o' lantern.
And Dana (and Sadie) used his artistic skills to create this guy.

Saturday night was the ward Trunk-or-Treat party.
Ooooo- LOVE that argyle sweater!
Cutest ninja in the world :)
Eli wanted the Harry Potter symbol on his head at the face paint booth. He also told everyone he saw that he went through the haunted house 4 times!
My only picture of them all together in their costumes this year! oops.
Halloween night, being Sunday this year, we went to a friends house for dinner which was super delicious and I forgot to bring my camera, then we came back here and the kids passed out candy on the porch in their skeleton PJs. It was a nice mellow Halloween night. Since then I've been eating way too much candy. I need to get that stuff outta here!

Holiday Season- full steam ahead!