Thanksgiving Fun

We've had a wonderful, yet busy week.  The kids had the whole week off of school.  Monday was still mostly laundry and grocery shopping and such.  Anna already grew out of the pants that we got her just a couple months ago, so we had to get her some new ones.  We had a fun Family Home Evening lesson about being thankful.  We made a thankful chain of all the things we are thankful for.  It was fun to watch the kids get excited about writing things on paper that they were thankful for.  

Tuesday, we went to the park.  The kids all wanted to ride bikes there, but since I have no way of taking David by bike, I had to drive and meet them there while Eileen and Anna showed the way there.  They all had a great time playing at the park and the weather was perfect for a day outside.  

Tuesday evening, I went to the church building for Stake temple recommend interviews.  The line wasn't too long, so it was nice, plus while I waited, I got to chat with a sweet older lady about crocheting.  She was such a sweet lady who crocheted blankets and doll clothes for little girls who needed them.  

 Aaron, Evie and James all had a great time building things - it started out playing blocks with David and escalated into big fancy structures that they didn't want David anywhere near....  But they had fun! 

Thursday was Thanksgiving, time to eat some of the food that we had spent the last 2 days cooking.  Sandi and Jon were having Thanksgiving with his family on Thursday, so our family all got together on Friday.  Thursday, we went to have Thanksgiving with a bunch of families in our ward who don't have local family.  It was a really nice get together with lots of yummy food and good company!  The kids had a great time too.  

Friday, we went down to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner.  Jon wasn't feeling great, so it was just Sandi and the kids, but we all had a fun time together.  Sandi and I worked some of that blasted puzzle that my parents have had out forever and it's an awful puzzle, but Sandi won't let them put it away until it's done...  We had a fun time together - the kids love playing with their cousins.  The food was great as always! 

Saturday was a crazy busy day.  When I got up to get the day started, I found Aaron reading to David - he was reading Full Metal Alchemist to him.  David was paying rapt attention and they were so cute snuggling together!!  First things first - I took Eileen, Aaron, Evie and James to the church for the Children's choir (Eileen is playing the flute for us) It went well and the kids did great!  Then I got home and sent Dan and the younger kids off while I got things ready for the baby shower.  The baby shower was great and went well.  We had a pretty good turn out considering it was the weekend after Thanksgiving.  During the shower, Dan took the kids to the library and to a park and they had a fun time playing - but their favorite part seemed to be stopping at Costco to use the bathrooms...

 After, we met up with Sandi and Jon and my parents to go to a tree farm up near us.  The place was fun and the kids had a great time playing, but there weren't really any trees that we liked, so we had a fun afternoon playing and looking around, but didn't end up getting our tree there. 

After, we headed to the house of some friends in the ward for a campfire cooking of hot dogs and s'mores.  We had a fun evening, the kids got to go on atv rides and eat junk and then we finally headed home to crash for the night! 

Church today was wonderful!  The talks in Sacrament meeting were so great!  Dan and I got to substitute in Primary for James' class, David went to Nursery with out us and seems to have done great!  We had a fun time in primary with the kids and then Dan took the kids home for dinner while I stayed for the Nativity choir practice.  The sister missionaries stopped by in the evening and gave us copies of Lead Kindly Light in Mandarin, and helped us learn to sing it in Mandarin!  It was a lot of fun and so sweet of them! 

Getting Cold in Here!!

It was so nice that Dan was able to get last Friday and Monday this week off to spend with his parents while they were here.  We had a nice morning together, then Gene and Ann headed to the airport.  We had a great time with them and can't wait to see them again.  

David is still loving hats - so when I found this cute little had and mitten set to keep him warm in all the cold weather we've been having, he loved it!!  And he looks so cute in it!  Now we can still go for our walks and keep him warm!  

Tuesday was the usual piano lessons, and Instiute.  Eileen also had call backs for the audition for Belle in her school production of Beauty and the Beast.  She found out on Wednesday that she got the part!!!!  I'm so proud of her!

Wednesday was just the usual - Young Women's for the girls.  Thursday was another massive and long rehearsal.  This group is just huge, but it's been so much fun to sing with them!

Friday, Dan took me out on a date, we got dinner at McAllister's then headed to the theater to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie.  We enjoyed it a lot and had a great time together!

Saturday morning, Eileen and Anna got up early-ish to do a temple walk with the youth in the ward.  They both had a great time - one of the parents was kind enough to send a picture for us!  I was meeting up with the children's choir at the church to practice our songs.  The practice went well - we just need to get a few more voices!  I made some announcements this week and hopefully we will get a good turnout next week.  The afternoon was mostly taken up with going to the library and getting Eileen some new glasses.

Church today was wonderful.  Dan took David into nursery to help out the new nursery leader.  David had a ball.  He's so ready for nursery!  Just one more month until it's official!!!  The Sunday School and Relief Society lessons were both wonderful!  We had practice after church again - I can't believe it's almost Christmas!!!!  

Grandma and Grandpa!!

We've had a fun week - we've finally gotten some nice weather - not quite so rainy.  David loves wandering around outside.  He thinks it's funny to pick up the pool noodle and run around the yard using it like a lance and chasing me and the dog.  

David decided that he wanted to use mommy's computer too - so he sat down where I usually sit when I'm going to use my computer and got himself all set up!  

David also likes to raid my closet - that is my shoe rack - and since it's devoid of shoes, you can guess where those went.... 

Koopa found Anna's fake vampire teeth and we found him carrying them around - he looked pretty funny with his extra set of fangs!  

Our week has been busy - Tuesday I had institute.  Wednesday was the youth activity and a meeting for the Nativity we are doing in our Stake.  Thursday, Grandma and Grandpa Jones arrived from Idaho to visit for a few days.  They got in just in time for me to say hi before I had to run off to a very long rehearsal for choir.  We had a long, but good rehearsal!  The concert is getting close - it's very exciting!  

Friday morning after taking the kids to school, we dropped David off with a friend to baby sit and all the adults went to the temple.  We did a session and then got to do some sealings - we had a family to seal together and got to help some others with family names seal their family names too.   It was a wonderful morning!  We had a fun afternoon and evening together, and finally crashed after a long and wonderful day! 

Saturday, we had my parents come up so we could take a family picture with all the kids and both sets of grandparents.  We tried outside, but it was really cold, so this was what we ended up with.  But we got a picture and everyone is looking at the camera and almost everyone is smiling!  

Dan also took some pictures of the kids for his parents to have - David's pictures were just adorable!!  He is such a ham for the camera!  Grandpa Jones put his hat on David's head right after they got here and he's been LOVING wearing hats ever since.  He wants to wear them all the time! 

Sunday our ward choir sang in Sacrament Meeting and it was a great day at church followed by a stake choir rehearsal for the Nativity Concert. 

14

We've had a fun and busy week.  Monday morning, I got some grocery shopping done and tried to get some pumpkins to carve, but Walmart and Brookshires were both out of pumpkins!!!  Dan managed to get some on his way home, so the kids were still able to carve pumpkins for FHE that night.  They had a great time, and I had fun walking up and down the block with David to look at Halloween decorations.  

Tuesday was a typical day, David and I had a nice morning and the kids had a good day at school.  In the evening, i had institute and that was it - I was beat! 

Wednesday was Halloween - but it was a rainy day.  :(  It drizzled/rained/poured all day long.  I watched a friend's daughter for her while she had her doctor's appointment, she's a sweet little girl, and she fell asleep near the end.  I made some lunch for my friend since she had to fast for the doctor's appointment, and we had a nice time eating and chatting together.  After dinner and scriptures, we set off around the neighborhood ready to pass out candy - and thankfully, the rain let up just enough for trick-or-treating!  It was still chilly, but the kids had a good time.  The neighborhood was just full of kids walking around with their families!  Our last neighborhood had plenty of people handing out candy, but not a whole lot of kids trick-or treating, so it was fun to have so much of the neighborhood out and about to meet with and chat with!  After making the rounds, we headed home for a good nights sleep.  The kids all wore the same costumes as for the party last week, but David looked so cute and ready to go!  He was so happy to get to walk around the neighborhood, but didn't really care about the candy.  He LOVED a big inflated, moving black can on someone's lawn.  He kept crouching down and growling at it!  It was so cute and so funny!  Plus he didn't want to leave it!

Thursday was a nice quiet day for recovery!  And a bit of a crazy kid day after all the excitement.  I had choir in the evening which was wonderful - then home and to bed!!! 

Friday was Eileen's birthday.  I can't believe that my oldest daughter is 14.  She is really an amazing young woman.  She wanted a Voltron cake for her birthday, so Dan made that for her Thursday night, and she wanted Chicken Roll-ups and brussel sprouts for dinner.  She got a cute shirt from us and a really cute skirt from Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  All in all, it was a nice evening. 

Saturday was rather crazy busy.  In the morning, The girls and I set off for the church for a women's 5K run.  They were giving out Tiaras for the first 60 people - and Anna wanted one, so we headed over a little early.  Then we did the 5k.  Anna heard that they were giving out sashes to the first 3 places and she really wanted one, so she headed out strong and managed to be the 3rd finisher!!  She was so amazing!  Evelyn also did a great job!  I walked with Eileen and we walked and chatted the whole way, we fell in with another sister near the end and finished last together :)  We had a fun breakfast together, then headed home.  At noon, we headed back to the church for a baptism for the daughter of some of our friends, then we got home in time to get things ready for family coming over.  

My parents and Sandi and her kids came over to celebrate Eileen and Mom's birthdays.  We had a yummy lunch followed by opening presents.  Eileen got a bow and arrows and target and she was so excited!  She wants to be an archer.  :)   After, we had cake, then Dan took Eileen to go shoot for a bit, then we all just had a fun afternoon playing and chatting and the kids had a blast riding bikes in front of the house.  James finally started riding his two wheeler!  He still needs a bit of help to get started, but once he gets going, he does great!!  He is so proud of himself!  

This is just a cute picture of David after baths.  :)  

Church was wonderful.  The testimonies were wonderful, the lessons were wonderful!  After, we were all starving and ready for dinner!!  It was a wonderful day for fasting together as a Stake and fasting for a purpose.