A Happy Thanksgiving!

Greg took Nathan and Joshua to the "Turkey Bowl" at the church on Thanksgiving morning.  They each made some "great plays"...and had a really good time.

 

I'm in the Primary with Laura (left above) and Greg is in Young Men with Adam (right below).  They and their children have become dear friends this past year.  We were excited to be invited to Thanksgiving at their home...with another wonderful family in the ward!

One of the best parts was getting to play games!  One of our new favorites is Pandemic!  It was such a luxury to have enough "adults" to play with and enough "kids" to keep ours busy and give us a chance to play!

 

Thanksgiving Memories

Two things that added a bit to the "meaningfulness" of our Thanksgiving this year:

Reading this out loud during breakfast several mornings before Thanksgiving.

 

I can remember putting feathers on a turkey at the Isaacson's house growing up!  It's a tradition I wanted for my own family...and this year did not disappoint!  So fun to have two boys who can carefully think of and spell out things they're thankful for!

One Last Swing!

 

A Last Warm Day...

Making the most of one last warm day!

DATE!

Greg and I got to go on a fun date this last week. Because Greg's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, it was "Part 2" of the celebration. We went to see "Harry Potter" in the theater. It was especially fun because Harry Potter has been part of our relationship from the beginning. When we were dating, Greg would read the books out loud to me...with all the voices. Mostly just nice to get a little time away together!

A Daughter in the Kitchen

 

Today I was trying to get some food preparation done for tomorrow.  Elizabeth was everywhere!  Wanting to be held and in every way slowing the process down!  In the middle of trying to "shoo" her away, I realized that my most fond memories of Thanksgiving are not the feast itself, but being in the kitchen with my mom.

For me, Thanksgiving is all about mothers and daughters in the kitchen. 

I realized that really this is the first of what I hope and pray are many years of sharing the kitchen with a daughter of my own.  I'm so grateful for happy memories with my mom and grateful for a daughter that's already a "helper" and friend to share the holiday with.  

My Welcome to the Day

I had snuck downstairs early one morning to start the day...and the next thing I knew I'd been hit by a hatchet! 

Nathan narrates:  "The evil, Zader, was ruling the universe with his side-kick, Army-Chomper."     

 

Beautiful Nieces

Sarah

Joanna

My niece, Katherine (pictured at the bottom) is a budding photographer.  She created this cute backdrop and used some fun accessories to give her sisters Sarah and Joanna a fun "vintage" look. 

Isn't Katherine a beautiful, talented girl!  (Not to mention her two cute "subjects"!)

 (When I saw the pictures in my email this morning, I couldn't help but try out a few of my photo-editing actions.  Kind of fun!)

Christmas Projecting Begins!

It's hard to fully believe that the holidays are on their way when we're still enjoying 50 degree weather most days...and we've had no snow!  But, we're trying not to let that slow us down from making some early progress.  =)

Someone to Look Up to...

Two of our boys' favorite boys in the world...Ben and Jacob!  Joshua watches Ben pass the sacrament every Sunday, carefully keeping track of his every move.  Mostly he's waiting for Ben to sit back down in the "family pew"when it's over so he can reverently dash over to sit by him.  Joshua is a pretty rascally boy, but when he sits by Ben and Jacob he can spend an hour very contentedly playing tic-tac-toe.  We're grateful for a bit of peace in sacrament meeting, but even more grateful for two awesome young men that our boys want to grow up to be like!  (And we hope they do too!)