Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving was a 2 day event this year. My parents decided to celebrate on Wednesday, and Aaron's parents on Thursday. It was rather nice to spend a day with each family, instead of being rushed and trying to make it to two Thanksgiving feasts. It also helped us to not totally gorge ourselves, trying to eat two HUGE meals.

After we ate dinner, Aunt Sherry pulled out a gingerbread house kit for the kiddos to put together. It was so nice. I went and laid down for a nap while Sherry and Grandma Jackie helped my kids get crafty. They spent hours working on the cute little house. It was a fun idea, I am going to try to remember to do it again next year.

Carson and Grandpa enjoyed a little "Tom and Jerry" after the gingerbread house was mostly finished.

The week before Thanksgiving, Morgan decided to take charge and organize a family home evening lesson (since her parents don't seem to have it all together right now!) She read us a story on gratitude and gave each of us a paper and pencil. We were to work on a list of things we are grateful for and them share them with everyone. I was quite impressed with my 10 year old, for taking care of what her mother should be doing.

Paige's list: toys, books, mom, dad, DS, baby, sister, brothers, food, bed, home, friends, bathroom, room. (Let me explain- we are finishing the bathroom in the basement, because that is where the big girls live now.)

Morgan: mom, dad, sister, brother, new brother, books, food, house, room, toys, cousins, clothes, beds, piano lessons, heat, trailer, my family, school, math, dad's job, my teacher, the church, the prophet, temples, cars, swimming pools.

Carson: toys, colors, paint, ice cream, new bathroom, our house, my room, the baby.

Mom: (mine is kinda short, not because I am not grateful, but I was helping the little boy with his list.) family, warm house, the holidays, dishwasher, Aaron's job, peppermint ice cream.

Dad: health, my job, home, corn nuts, love, friendships and family, church, priesthood, testimony,temples, all my kids, 626 (his white little car, that he has had since before we met 15 years ago.)

A little random, I know!! Thanks to Morgan for a fabulous idea!!!

Photography by Carson

Carson really wanted to take some pictures, so I told him he could take just one. Here is what we got.

He seems to be getting better at taking the pictures, maybe not at listening, since I told him to take only one. I am secretly hoping that this means, that deep down inside he really quite likes his big sisters.

Halloween

Happy Halloween! Once again, the kids dressed up for the parade at school. Here is a class picture from Paige's class. I feel like a terrible mom, because by the time I made it to Morgan's class her teacher had already started class, so we were not able to get a photo for her. Paige's teacher was "Salt" and those little kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

We LOVED that Halloween was on a Saturday this year, and we didn't feel like we running around crazy all day long! We carved our pumpkins that afternoon, went to a trunck-or-treat that evening, and then headed to both grandparents houses after that. It was so nice to not have to try to get the kids home and to bed on time. In case you were curious, that spray hair color makes for some VERY colorful bathwater!! Paige just giggled and giggled at how pink her bathwater turned.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Carson's preschool went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. He had a great time playing in the hay bale maze, and riding the slide at the end.

He looks so unhappy in all the pictures. He really was happy, but the sun was shining so bright, he was always squinting and scowling. The only good one I got of his face, was his face through the cut out of the lady..oops! That little white pumpkin he is holding in his hands has made on a trip to Salt Lake and he even sleeps with it at night. He keeps waiting and waiting for it to turn orange. We keep trying to break it to him gently that it is a special white pumpkin, it is not going to change colors. Here's hoping he's not too broken hearted, when it starts to go bad and we have to throw it out.

Jackson 2009

Each year, we join up with my parents and spend a weekend in Jackson. We always go in the fall and it is almost always beautiful. Some years we get better weather than others. This year the weather was great, but we had a little issue with a fire. Here are this years highlights:

Throwing rocks into Jackson lake with Grandpa. This always has to happen. I believe their is a candy bar reward for anyone who can hit the buoy with a rock.

Hiking to a Sandy Beach along Leigh lake, a lovely spot for lunch and for the kids to play in the sand. (Aaron had to miss this day and hang out in the motel, because he was recovering from a little procedure to fix a herniated disc in his back:( Carson had a bit of an accident while trying to go to the bathroom in the woods, so we had to do a little "ee-nerwear swimming." (That is how my little boy says underwear, and it is so cute, we have not even tried to fix it.)

Watching elk each evening and listening to them bugle. We had a bit of a forest fire in our plans this year, so our plans were a little different. The first night the fire was pretty small, and we were able to watch the elk. On Day 2 the fire was bigger, so we had a lot of smoke in the air, and that evening we did a lot of fire watching instead. (That is why the pictures of my kiddos playing in the water start to look hazy in the background.) We could see the flames from our motel room, they were way across the lake, but pretty impressive at night.

The smoky air did make for some incredible sunsets in the evening! Thanks Mom and Dad for another great year, we can't wait for next fall to do it again!!

The Harvest

My husband spent the better part of his Saturday harvesting the garden. It was in pretty bad shape, considering he has had a broken back for a couple of weeks, and I am essentially useless.

It was nice to get one thing off of our growing list.

I must say, I am seriously going to miss that green grass, here's to nine months of winter. (I really hope we still get a little bit of a Fall season, even if I woke up this morning to a snow covered lawn:(

Family Fun

Tonight for FHE, we decided we would get crafty. We pulled out the paint, and decided to decorate a few of the little pumpkins that we grew in our garden this year. Carson was REALLY excited we could not get him to wait until the dishes were done before he was tearing into the paints.

We took Carson's shirt off, because he is QUITE messy, and after a while his Daddy thought it would be funny to paint a little face on my boy's tummy.

The girls thought this was funny, and wanted to give the face a name. They quickly decided to name the face Fred. (She does know how to make a correct e, she was struggling a bit, trying to paint back words!)

Now it is time to head to the bath....