Thanksgiving Time

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I love being able to focus on gratitude and I love to eat and it’s also not as stressful or busy as other holidays.  During our first Family Home Evening of November we started our Thankful Tree, which is my favorite Thanksgiving tradition.  That tree sits on our table and gives us a visual reminder of all we have to be thankful for.  We also discussed Pres. Uchtdorf’s conference talk Grateful In Any Circumstances.  It was such a good one, full of advice on how to be grateful in all things no matter our circumstance.  We specifically talked about this part:

“It might sound contrary to the wisdom of the world to suggest that one who is burdened with sorrow should give thanks to God. But those who set aside the bottle of bitterness and lift instead the goblet of gratitude can find a purifying drink of healing, peace, and understanding.”

To illustrate the difference between the bottle of bitterness and goblet of gratitude each of the kids took a drink out of a jar of lime juice.  The reactions were pretty great. (Even Emma’s although I didn’t get a picture of it!)

The goblet of Crystal Light was much better received.

Gracie made the cutest turkey to add to our Thanksgiving décor.  Thank you Pinterest for helping me give Grace lots of craft project ideas!

She Gracified her turkey by adding beads and bling.

We had our traditional thankful rolls (aka bum rolls) for dinner one night with two sets of missionaries.  They got a kick out them and we had fun asking the questions inside the rolls.

We read a different quote or scripture on gratitude at dinner every day of November.  They made for some good discussion material.  My favorite was from Pres. James E. Faust: “A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness.”  Good stuff!

I love that the kids have the whole week of Thanksgiving off.  This year the week was a little busier than I like, but we still managed to fit in some fun.  One night all three kids stayed at Granny and Grandpa’s house.  Lee and I went on a gift card date and did a little Christmas shopping.  The next morning we went on a run together.  We don’t get to do that very often.  It scares me to run with him because he makes me run longer and faster than I like.  :)  When we got home this time we took off our jackets and realized that we were wearing matching shirts.  Ahhhh….

My mom texted me a picture of Isaac and the puzzle he put together.  He wanted me to see it.  I’m glad they had a good time and that Lee and I got some needed time together.

We kept adding to our Thankful Tree right up until Thanksgiving. 

For some reason I only have pictures of what Grace wrote on her leaves.  I guess I liked that she has so many people in her life that she is thankful for.

We were ready for Thanksgiving!

The Day After Halloween

We woke up on November 1st exhausted.  But we pulled ourselves out of bed to get Emma to a swim meet.  She did great and we had fun watching her.  She was excited that her Ma & Pa from The Journey, the Lopez’s, came to cheer her on as well.

Then we went home and started Leap of Fright clean-up.  What a job.  I was so ready for it to all leave my house.  I had already started taking down my own Halloween decorations on Halloween night, I was done!  I was especially ready to get all this out of my living room.

Thankfully some very nice friends came to help take it all down.  The cardboard and visqueen come down much faster than they go up.

Then it was time to dry off and roll up that big piece of tunnel visqueen.  It takes several people to do it!

Then all the props are carefully organized and put away.  There is a method to it!

It was so nice to have it all down, but it was all still filling up the garage.

That’s ok, by the end of the day it was all out of my house.  Wahoo!  Unfortunately, it took two more weeks before the garage was cleaned out.  It all got loaded on a truck and taken to the Sunderland’s where it belongs in their big shop.  Our garage was finally empty and we could park our cars in it again.  Happiness!

Now if only our back yard grass could have recovered so quickly.  It might be officially done and is a big mud pit.  Sigh.  Like I’ve said a million times, it’s a good thing the haunted house is fun! 

Current Evans Events—October 2014

Lee’s job search continued into October which was a little later than we had hoped.  He finally got a job in the float pool at the Parry Center, a mental health facility for children.  Lee started training there in October and he really enjoyed it, it didn’t hurt that Peter works there too!  I took advantage of those days before he had a job and put him to work.  Actually, he had his own to-do list and asked me every day what he could do around the house.  One day I put him on the fridge.  Worked for me!

The twins and I went to my favorite farm stand to pick out some pumpkins to decorate with.  This place has the best pumpkins for super cheap.  I was so sad to hear that the owners are retiring and won’t be opening again.  We’ve been getting pumpkins there since we moved to Canby.

Emma had a Gators swim meet at the beginning of the month.  Isaac and Grace made friends and found things to do under the bleachers.  They better get used to that.

We had some pretty great weather at the beginning of the month.  It was nice to enjoy being outside a little bit longer before the rains came.

We were extremely lucky to not have one rainy soccer game!

Lee and the kids even washed the cars!

We got to babysit our favorite twin babies which our big kid twins loved.

Brenna and I put together a simple and cheap craft for RS in October.

Isaac and Grace started getting creative with their dishwasher emptying job.  Made a little nervous a few times.

Grandma Dorothy had surgery in October and was in the hospital a couple times.  She didn’t like that one bit.  We visited her when she was home.

Isaac finally got to go on his long awaited Father Son Campout.  Lee didn’t take any pictures but they had a great time.  Blowing up tannerite was the hit of the whole campout.  I saw some great videos of it and Isaac loved it.  Emma, Grace and I had a bunch of girls over for a girls night.  It involved good food, nail painting, a performance put on by the little girls, zumba from some big girls, and good conversation.  Brenna and I even put the ladies to work on a haunted house prop.

Grace got a sleep mask for her birthday and she has worn it to bed every night since.  So cute!

Isaac has gotten really good at putting together Legos.  He was so proud of himself when he put together the fire engine set he got for his birthday all by himself.  Legos are the one toy I don’t mind buying!

Isaac and Grace were invited to a birthday party at Pump It Up.  They were so bummed when I told them they couldn’t go because it was the same day as their soccer party, their birthday party, and a major haunted house work day.  Joo Lin was nice enough to take them.  They had a blast and slept really well that night.

The Parker’s came over for FHE and an early, private run through of the haunted house.  They gave us good feedback and we had fun.  Christian and Josh were so sweet with all the little kids.  Isaac especially was in heaven. 

Grace and Seoul love to sit by each other on the way home from school on the bus.  They plan all sorts of crafts and activities they want to do.  One day they planned outfits they wanted to make for their little stuffed animals.  They made it happen and ended up with animals all decked out in matching ladybug outfits, complete with a skirt, scarf and antennae.  Love their creativity!

Then it was on to November!