Thanksgiving

We started Thanksgiving off with a little Ab Ripper X

Trust me, this was Mike's idea all the way :)

I was participating, but grabbed my camera for a few pics though.

Later on we went and had a delicious feast and fun time with family.

Here's the yummy berry pie I made.

I think that one of my big thankful fors this year is that Mike is back.

He wasn't here last year at this time and it's just nice to be together as a family

...even if he makes us exercise!

Thankful

*Etch A Sketch artwork by Grace*

Thanksgiving has come and gone...here is how we spent it.

In the morning, Mike and Noah went paintballing with some other leaders and young men in our ward. 

They had a great time...Noah came home with blue hair and a smile on his face :)

After I finished making 2 batches of rolls, rainbow jell-o and 2 pies, we went over to our friends, the Volk's, house for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful low key day, filled with delicious food, games, conversation, and laughter.

The kids (and the adults) had a ton of fun with the X box Kinect and the Spirograph. We also played Apples to Apples and the name game.

Boomer and Sasha were very attentive while Duane was picking apart the turkey.

I love this picture of Anna relaxing with Sasha :)

It was also Grace's birthday and though we had already spoken to her and decided to celebrate on another day, we still put some candles in one of the pies and sang to her :)

(Yes, that is more than 10 candles...Grace got a little carried away putting them in!)

Thanks Duane and LeeAnn for opening up your home to us...having great friends to share holidays with makes it a little bit easier to not have family close by. 


We are blessed and thankful for so many things. Family, friends, the gospel, work, health and so much more!


...and I'm thankful for technology, we were able to Skype with some of our family...that was really nice!

Thanksgiving

This year we were blessed to have family come for Thanksgiving. I didn't take very many pictures, but I did get some.

 We also were able to share Thanksgiving dinner with some friends too. We had my Mom and Dad, my sister Jan, my cousin Aric and his wife Melissa and their 4 kids, Mike's brother Joe, our friend Tami and our friend Ana and her 3 girls. We had a full house with 22 people, but it was great!

I'm so thankful for family and friends, and no Thanksgiving would be complete without some fun with dry ice, knitting lessons, reading, cell phones, naps under the table, jell-o, push ups and piggy back rides, a little chess, some Indian burns, a lot of mustard, holding babies, and glitter lotion, not to mention silly faces!

On a more serious note...

Our Thanksgiving morning was saddened by news of a good friend of Aric and Missy's passing away and my Uncle Joe having a heart attack. The comfort of the Spirit and the peace the gospel brings are wonderful blessings. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Jones family and the Elmer family.

So Much To Be Thankful For

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We did not have any family come in and we didn't travel anywhere for the first time in probably 8 years. It was the perfect opportunity to get the kids involved in all the preparations. A few days ago I made a list of everything we would have at our feast and I let them all choose what they would like to make. We started bright and early in the morning and were able to eat at about 4 o'clock. We all had a great time and the kids were so impressed with everything they made. It was fun to listen to them "advertise" at the table.

"Have you tried the mashed potatoes that I made? They are so delicious."
"Did you get some of my strawberries that I cut with a knife...by myself?"
"Mmm, this stuffing is so good."
"I think the gravy is yummy, you should try it."
"Wow, these rolls are the best."

I was especially tickled at Grace's mashed potatoes comment, my kids are famous for hating mashed potatoes...but I love them, so we had to have them. She told me she wanted to cook them because she liked to peel things and mash things. I didn't expect her to eat any, but she did and she raved about them. I told her she could be our official mashed potato maker from now on.

The kids enjoyed it so much, Noah and Dallin suggested that we make it a tradition for them to all help cook on Thanksgiving...sounds fine to me. Oh, and by the way, Mike took care of the turkey, while I supervised all of the Little Chefs! Thank you honey, it was delicious!

Earlier in the day we had everyone take a piece of paper and write down or draw pictures of things they were thankful for. Later when we sat down to eat our delicious meal, we read from the bowl. We had some wonderful moments of gratitude and some laughs too. We are truly blessed and have so much to be thankful for. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving too.