Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving this year my Parents had dinner at their house with just my sister and I, and our families, attending. So it was a smaller bunch, but we had a fun time together. My mom made the turkey, potatoes, gravy, and rolls. Charyn made a relish tray with the very important pimento stuffed celery, and pumpkin pies. I made the stuffing and the sweet potatoe casserole. All of the food was so delicious and we were all so full afterwards. It made it very easy to all contribute to the meal and not at all stressful. We played a few games together and then Matt and I went to visit his mom who is staying with his brother Jared right now because of a knee surgery. While we were there visiting Josh and Lydia came to visit and Brad and his boys. So we were able to see 3 of his brothers in one visit. We had good intentions of making it out to Moreland to see the Keller clan, but time got away from us and we didn't make it out there. It is getting hard to split the day into thirds and I am sure we are going to have to start rotating holidays soon, but how do you choose. We have such wonderful families, that we are lucky to get to spend time with all of them.

Family Photos

I like to take a few family snapshots at Thanksgiving time each year. These are the ones that I was able to get in the short amount of time the kids would cooperate. Notice there isn't an individual of Paxten, because he would not stand by himself to let me take a picture. He is at that age, and I didn't want to fight him for a bad picture of him crying. It was freezing cold, so Parker and Paige didn't last long outside either. Nevertheless, we got a few good ones! Matt 30, Erika 30, Parker 7, Paige 4.5, Paxten 20 months.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving Day full of great food and fun. We stayed home this year, well we went next door to my Parent's house and my sister and her family came. I was in charge of the stuffing and sweet potatoes. Charyn made the potatoes and rolls and my mom did the turkey, gravy, corn, and veggie tray, and pies. We al ate like kings and then decided to play some card games. It was a fun day and nice to be able to relax. We decided that it is getting hard to always pack up the kids and go to the next house every holiday. So we are going to spend Christmas day with Matt's family and try and rotate some of the holidays from now on. We had a great holiday and have so much to be thankful for.

I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting this last week and in part of my talk I listed some of the things that we should be thanking our Father in Heaven for. After I got listing things, I was truly grateful for all that I have and enjoy. I think it is a great activity to jot down every now and then, in detail, all the many things we enjoy and take for granted. It doesn make you very thankful.

Here is a list of mine, in now particular order:
My Savior Jesus Christ, the gospel, the scriptures, prayer, Matt- the great husband he is,Family- each one of my kids, Parker, Paige, & Paxten
My parents, Matt's parents, my sister and her family. Matt's siblings and their families, Friends, Health, Love, the seasons, clean water, clean air, indoor plumbing, heat, a home, a car with gas, clothing, warm blankets, good food, a store close by to get the food, both arms, my hearing, sight, smell, taste, books - my Kindle :) , a camera- to capture memories, blogging - my journal, my scrapbooks- to look at all the memories, money to provide for our family. I could go on and on about everything I am truly grateful for. I hope all of you have a great holiday and that you were able to look back and reflect upon the things you are grateful for as well!

Snow, Snow, Snow

Matt has decided that in addition to lawn care in the summer he will be doing some snow removal as well. He just has three buildings he is doing right now, but when it does snow he has to get up early to get it done. Some mornings when he has to be to work, he leaves to do snow removal at 4:30!! That is really hard for Matt. But it gets him going for the day and he seems to enjoy it. With all the snow we have gotten the last few weeks I think this Winter is going to be a cold and wet Winter with lots of snow. I think we have more now than we got the entire year last year.

Matt had to work on Thanksgiving this year so the kids and I enjoyed turkey without him. I was a little bummed that he didn't get to spend it with us, but I guess everyone has to take a turn working holidays. His family had a Thanksgiving dinner the night before so we (the kids and I) got to have 2 dinners and enjoyed every minute of it. We had received a bad snow storm earlier in the week and the roads were horrible. I was a little nervous to be on the roads by myself with the 2 kids, but we made it home safely, it only took us 3 times as long as usual.

The day of Thanksgiving I went with my mom out to my grandparents house and once again enjoyed good food and company. Matt was able to join us later in the afternoon once he got off work. We were all stuffed as we played a few games and visited with each other.

We put our Christmas tree and decorations up the next day, no early shopping for me!! The kids were eager to help decorate and are excited for Santa to come. I am almost done with all my shopping and I think I will enjoy the month of December not having to be in the busy stores. We are excited for Christmas to come and then the arrival of our new little baby. I am already counting down the weeks, I think more with anticipation than misery. I am feeling good and staying busy. Can't wait for all the Holiday fun to begin!!

Thanksgiving

Well we had a great Thanksgiving with family this year. We spent the day with Matt's family this year. We managed to sneak in 2 dinners, way too much food, and were able to visit with his aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings. It was a fun day to be together. Yesterday we decided to do a little shopping. I was not one of the early birds that were in the stores at 4 a.m. but I did manage to get a few gifts on my list bought. I only have about 3 more thing to get then I will be finished. It will be nice to be all done so early this year. I will even have everything wrapped and ready to go. It makes life easier for me if I don't have to stress about gifts for a long time. We got our tree up a few days ago and "It's begining to look a lot like Christmas" we are enjoying having the holiday decor out to look at and Parker loves to turn on the lights on the tree. I think Paige has some motivation to begin crawling. She sees all the ornaments and decorations and somehow manages to scoot her little body closer and closer until she reaches them. One of these days she will discover how to crawl and realize it is faster to get where she wants to go if she crawls. It is going to be such a fun Christmas with these two little kids in our home, I can't wait to see Parker's reaction on Christmas morning. Tonight I am going to dinner with a few friends from high school and I am looking forward to some alone time and adult conversation. It will be so much fun. I'll post pictures later!!!