Thanksgiving Week

November 21-25, 2016

Thanksgiving week is my favorite.  The kids don’t have school all week and it is pretty low key.  Isaac gave the Family Home Evening lesson on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  He used Elder Anderson’s talk about missionary work.  In his talk Elder Anderson used the visual of a puzzle.  So as the activity portion of his lesson Isaac introduced a new puzzle for us to put together. 

It was the beginning of puzzle season!

We spent some time at Granny and Grandpa’s house one day.  Isaac took this picture of me.  I look old. 

We took advantage of a beautiful day and played with friends at the school playground.

Isaac and Grace had been dying to show me their new skills on the monkey bars.  They are finally starting to get the hang of it. 

We finished that first puzzle pretty quick.  Isaac and Grace put the last pieces in.

We loved putting together that puzzle!  It was a fun one.

I started making pies the day before Thanksgiving.  Grace was my helper for a little while.

We also started another puzzle.  It was a puzzle of Portland.  I wish I had a picture of the completed puzzle.  It was so fun to see landmarks that we know.  Every time we have gone to Portland since we finished it Isaac and Grace have pointed out buildings they recognize from the puzzle.

Isaac, Grace and I followed a youtube tutorial for drawing a cornucopia.  I love how they turned out!

Tenley stayed with us and she and Isaac did Harry Potter drawings.

I really wanted to find a way to be of service.  We are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for and I wanted the kids to be able to show thanks by helping somebody else.  I called our local food bank to ask if they needed any help that day.  I was worried that I was calling way too late and they would have plenty of help.  Instead the woman I talked to got teary and said I was an answer to prayer.  She was out of town and so were several other of their usual workers.  She wasn’t sure how she would get enough people to help that night. 

I am so glad I made that call.  We had a great experience.  Just wish Lee could have been there with us. 

Isaac and Grace stocked shelves like crazy. Everybody was so impressed with how they worked.  Emma and Tenley got to take people through and fill their orders.  We will be back!

We ready for Thanksgiving when it finally came!  Our thankful tree was full.  I love looking at the leaves and being reminded of all we have to be thankful for, from big things, to small things.

 

I had finished all my pies.  The coconut cream and the apple cranberry were my favorite this year.

Then we got to gather with family and eat from an amazingly delicious spread of food.  Of course the members of my immediate family think they have to pull faces when I get the camera out.

Seriously??

We hung out and played games for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately Joan won our annual Phase 10 championship. 

She was pretty darn happy about that! 

She only has a year to gloat and she better not get used to it!

It was a great day.  I even finally got a decent picture of my family.  I am so very thankful for this family of ours. 

Breakfast the next morning was pie.  My favorite!!  The apple cranberry was even better the next day.

We watched a pair of doves in our back yard as we ate breakfast. 

I did a little shopping at Fred Meyer that day.  I refuse to go early in the morning, but I like to hit the sock sale.  Grace was finally able to take out her earrings and put new ones in.  She was so excited!  Emma helped her.

She chose cute owl earrings as her first pair.

As a family we went to Costco that evening.  Emma had saved up her money for her own nice camera that was on sale for Black Friday.  She was so excited about that purchase and held it on her lap the whole way home.  Can’t wait to see the pictures she takes with it!

Now we were ready for the Christmas season to start!

Basketball vs. Friends

November 12, 2016

Basketball was in full swing by the middle of November. 

Both Isaac and Grace really like basketball. 

This was their last year being able to play on the same team.  It was so fun to see several Evans, to Evans, back to Evans and score plays.  They watch out for each other on the court and I love that!

Grace’s one disappointment this year was that her besties were both on a different team.  So excitement was high when we finally played their team.

I had to laugh though because those girls got a lot of talking in even in the middle of a basketball game.

They obviously enjoyed playing each other.

Love these kids.

Thank you Kelly for most of these pictures!

Lee Flies!

November 11, 2016

For Christmas last year the kids gave Lee letters telling him how he has helped them to fly.  Along with those letters came a gift certificate to iFly.  It took us almost an entire year to finally get Lee there!

Before it was his turn we watched the employees doing tricks.  They were amazing!  It was super fun to watch.  Emma is now determined to work there.  :)

Once he was all suited up and given instructions, it was his turn in the tube.

He loved it!

In fact, he was surprised at how much he enjoyed it.  He was amazed at how the slightest movement of his hands would change how he flew.  The second flight was better than the first because they gave him a little more freedom and took him higher.

We liked watching him. 

While we were there a Boy Scout troop was there for an aeordynamics class.  We got to watch the demonstration part of the class where they put different kinds of balls in the tube.  It was fascinating.

Our favorite part was when he squirted water and we watched the droplets fly.  It was so cool!  Even better, the guy used himself as a towel and wiped his body all around the tube as he was flying.  I wish I had a good picture of it!

But watching Lee fly was definitely the highlight of the day. He is such a good husband and dad.  We are lucky to have him!  Now he wants to go again.  I think next time we all might have to fly!