Thanksgiving 2024

I failed on pictures this Thanksgiving!  I totally forgot to take any of our family.

I did get pictures of all the delicious pies the girls brought.

This year we celebraed Thanksgiving the day after, so instead of doing another big Thanksgiving dinner, we made leftover Panini sandwiches.  We took sourdough bread and buttered the outside.  Then we put mayo and mustard on the inside.  Then added a slice of swiss or provolone cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffing, turkey and drizzled gravy over it before putting the top on it.  They were DELICIOUS!  Lani brought chips, queso, salsa and guacamole, Krista brought yams, Jamie brought mac and cheese, Emily a salad, so we had a feast for sure.

Here's the setup befoe all the fun people and yummy food arrived. I came up with an idea for after dinner. I asked at least one person in each family to share a tender mercy or miracle they had seen in the last little while.  It was so nice to hear all the little miracles that Heavenly Father has blessed our family with.  I want to be more aware of them. 

We got the kids an early Christmas present, an air hockey table.  We rented a house last summer in St. George with our whole family and the house had one and the kids loved it.  We decided then, we wanted to get one for them to have at our house. It did not disappoint!  Jordan picked it up their way here with his new truck and he and Matt carried it down and set it up.  So fun!

We kept all the boys for a sleepover.  This was Zac's first one with the boys, they LOVED having him there and decided they want him to come to all the boys sleepovers.  

 

Sleepover with the Littles

About a month ago, Gabbie called me and said she wanted to go to the temple again, with the Littles.  We sent out a text to see when we could do it.  The first weekend all three were available, was this weekend.  Such busy girls!  

I picked them up and we headed to the Oquirrh Mt. Temple.  

After the temple we had dinner and then played games for about 2 hours

These girls are fun!!!

The next morning, when they woke up, I asked them if they would like to help me with a service project.  They all said YES!  We went to Kathy Plasters house and took her tree and decorated it, and her house for Christmas.  They did a GREAT job!  I was so grateful for their help and willingness to serve.  Kathy was more than thrilled to have her house looking so festive.

Then we picked up Mke and met Aida and Lani at the theater to see The Best Christmas Pagent Ever.  It was wonderful!  I had read the book to my kids when they were little and the movie was even better than the book.  We all loved it!  So thankful to be able to spend time with these sweet girls.

 

Fun times with Savannah and Zac

A few days ago, Jordan sent me a video of Zac saying he wanted to go to Grammy's house.  I immediately called and scheduled a time when he could come!  We feel so blessed to have all our grand kids  so close by.  I didn't have much of a relationship with my grandmas, since my Grandma Brown died when I was 5 and my other grandparents lived in Idaho. We only saw them once or twice a year.and didn't ever talk to them on the phone. I LOVE getting to spend time with our grandkids.

They were getting their pictures taken with Santa (actually Jamie dressed as Santa) in Draper on Thursday,  so I met them and took the two littles with me.  

They wanted to stop at the park so of course we did..

It was a pretty nice day, so we took advantage of the weather.

They loved helping Mike do the Nativity Puzzle.

We went to Dollar Tree and got several Christmas crafts for them to do. I'm always amazed at Zac's attention span.  He spent about a half an hour painting a cute Christmas truck. Savvy loves crafts too.  She painted several fun Christmas decorations for her room.  We are hoping to have their big brothers for a sleepover next weekend.

 

Skyler and Shannon's Utah wedding

I love this picture of Skyler, Shannon, and Elinor.  Such a beautiful wedding!  They gave the sweetest vows that they each wrote for the other.  So glad we could be there.

They got engaged in early spring and planned a fall wedding.  They ended up finding a house in Dallas to buy, so Shannon moved to Dallas from Utah in the summer and they had a small wedding at the courthouse with just their parents.

All of Skylers siblings and their families were able to come to the wedding in Utah.  Ricky and Becky stayed with Pierce, Tatia and Jake stayed with Krista, Charlie and Jen stayed with us and Robynn and Dick, stayed with Lani.  It was wonderful to have all of them here for the weekend.

Everything was so nice.  Congratulations Sky and Shannon!

 

Our sleepover with Zac

Jamie and Jordan took their 3 big kids to an Imagine Dragons concert and we got to have Zac for a sleepover.  We visited with Krista, who has Llamas right by her house.  He did not know what to think of them

  

He is the perfect age for our playroom, we spent hours in there playing with everything. 

This boy LOVES books just like everyone else in his family.

He cooked me some carrots and when he gave them to me he said, It Hot!

We had the best time with this little guy, he is soooo much fun!

 

Our trip to visit Paula and Bob

In October, Mike and I took a road trip to Cortez Colorado to visit Paula and Bob.  They live on 5 beautiful acres.  They have been working hard on landscaping and builing all kinds of things ever since they bought the property. They are such great hosts, we had a wonderful time! 

They are building a pool house for Bob's pool table and part of it will be an art studio for Paula.  Mike was able to help him with the siding. 

Here's a view with their carport/shed that they build using a semi trailer for their storage.

I was able to go with Paula to her belly dancing class. 

Bob has an incredible garden and has been canning tons of food from it.  He cooked us all kinds of delicious food, and sent us home with all these tasty canned goods and some opo squash for our neighbor who is from Thialand.

She made a yummy stir fry that she shared with us.  

September birthdays

Our little Zac turned 2 and Jamie did the cutest birthday party for him.  It was based on his favorite book about a very hungry caterpiller.  He was so cute, he loved all his presents.

Abi turned 15 and we got to go to her house for dinner on her birthday.  A few weeks later, we were able to find a day to take her to lunch.  We went to Wing Stop and it was so good.