Holiday Highlights

Here are some highlight pictures from Thanksgiving. We had a nice, relaxing holiday. I still love that I don't have to host or cook much (this year I only did a pie and a green bean casserole). I have to take advantage of that while I can, which makes me very thankful for my mom and mother-in-law who do go through a lot of work to have a nice family dinner. This year, my mom, sister, niece, Ashley, and Amanda all started Thanksgiving morning running the Turkey Trot (a 5k run along the Columbia River). My mom and Ashley walked, Mindy got sick partway through (still finished and did great) and I capitalized on everyone's weakness and did well--three minutes faster than the last race (this is not hard to do when you run as slow as I do). Amanda also did awesome! She ran the whole time and was such a trooper--it was very cold! Nate and Jared went to play some football with a bunch of families and then we headed over to Papa and Nannee's for dinner. Megan and her cousin, Jordan, are pictured doing a "Thanksgiving play" which was a short narrative about the first Thanksgiving, I think. They looked very cute! Amanda and Kayleigh and Nannee are in the next picture. We also spent an arduous two hours getting family pictures taken. At this point, I'm grateful they are done, we survived and we were all in the same place at the same time so just keep that in mind when you see your Christmas cards this year. We rewarded the kids by going to the Bee Movie and then spent some time getting some Christmas shopping started. Above is one Santa picture and all the kids are pictured with him near the heading of the blog--kind of unplanned, as we were there to see the Festival of Trees but I love the classic "baby traumatized by Santa picture." We kind of predicted Bradley would be my one kid who didn't care and would like Santa--he's not shy and will go to ANYBODY. I guess we're 4 for 4--all of my kids thought Santa was scary initially. Well, we're forging onto Christmas and it feels like it's coming too quickly. I hope to be able to step back and enjoy a little this year--I was too pregnant last year to enjoy much!

Thanks and Stuff

Every once in a while, we actually get a productive Family Home Evening lesson in on Family Night. We've done a few variations of a "being thankful" lesson over the years such as paper chains, lists and leaves on trees. As I looked over the feathers, I realized we all feel thankful for many of the same basic things (which is a good thing). Since then, I have thought of a few more that wouldn't quite fit on a feather in one or two words:

1. The 24-hour flu bug only lasts 24 hours or less.

2. No one wanted to show our house during the flu outbreak.

3. Carpet cleaning products that work pretty well.

4. Football playoffs ended before the cold weather began.

5. The policeman who this week let Nate know his tabs expired on his truck--last June! (I'm not really thankful for the $216 ticket, however).

6. Elementary school conferences where kids are home and want to play.

7. Everyone who cares about our lives and reads our blog! = )

8. By popular demand (i.e., inquiring grandparents) here are the latest schedule's:

1. Nate's 7th grade boys' basketball (B white)http://www.rsd.edu/schools/carmichael/pdf/winterIsportscarmichael2007.pdf

2. Nate and Jared Richland Storm AAU basketball http://http//www.ieaau.org/yakimaleague/2007/fall/4boys.pdf

Thanks for being so supportive and coming to our activities--we love it and all of you!

Halloween Fun!

Of course I have to post some Halloween highlights--These are from our church ward chilli feed and trunk-or-treat, family night carving pumpkins with several families at our friends' dentist office, and trick-or-treating at Uptown in Richland. The kids and their cousins--Ashley, Tyler and Maddie are in the top picture and our friends, April and Sierra, are inadvertantly in there, too.