St. Louis | Thanksgiving 2011

One of the things I am grateful for is that my family, who lives all over the U.S., gets together often.  Twice a year we all converge on my parents house at the same time.  Someone else may call it hectic, chaotic, loud, crazy, but we call it PERFECT.  I love my family, they are perfect for me.  I love the feeling of being surrounded by them.  It makes me feel really, really happy.  This year, we traveled there the Monday before Thanksgiving. Most everyone else had gone home by the weekend and the kids and I stayed another week.  We:

 

Pet the goats while wearing crowns with veils, and carrying bananas for them to eat out of our pockets {Angi},
 

Participated in some cage fighting,
 

Showed off our muscles,

 

Practiced our gingerbread house skills (and covertly took a picture of Grandma in her curlers so we will always remember it.  Such a fond memory for me),
 

Had beautiful make-overs performed by all of the neices,
 

enjoyed {some} down time,
 

Lots of good time with Grandma JoLynn,
 

Went Geo caching,
 

Competed in races while holding small children,
 

Took Great Grandma Stratton out for sushi (where she unknowingly ate the entire glob of wasabi in one bite all by itself and didn't even complain, GO GRANDMA!),
 

Enjoyed the kids almost completely entertaining themselves all day everyday,
 

Spent some one-on-one time with G G Stratton,
 

Played school at the Magic House
 

Learned about Static Electricity
 

Played games with Grandma and Papa,

Swung on Papa's Famous Tire Swing (Some of my earliest, and most vivid memories are of my dad pushing me in a swing just like this one!)
 

went for walks in the clearing,

and played in the tree house.

and had one big week long sleep over, and had a talent show, and laughed and talked. . . oh, and ate thanksgiving dinner.  

In the mean time.

I have a million pictures to upload from our Thanksgiving trip to St. Louis.  BUT in the meantime I want to write down a great Gwen story.

About 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, Gwen expressed that she REALLY wanted her own scriptures just like Olivia.  So, I gave her a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon that I had in the closet.  She LOVES her scriptures.  She can be found "reading" them all of the time, insisted on bringing them to St. Louis with us and almost always sleeps with them by her head.  Last Sunday she got them early in the morning and kept them close at her side so that she would for sure have them ready to bring to church.  She of course brought them with her, and looked at them and talked about them all the way through the meetings.  When I went into the Primary room (where the children meet for the last hour), Gwen was sitting in the chair at the front of the room indicating she was going to read the scripture to the rest of the children.  One of her teachers, Lisa, was talking with her and they were obviously getting the details worked out just fine.  Gwen then informed me that she would be giving the scripture and Olivia would be helping her.  The time came and Gwen got up to the front, Olivia came right up behind her and whispered the words into her ear while gwen enthusiastically repeated them into the microphone.  Their delivery was perfect.  That part had nothing to do with me laughing until I cried.  It was the innocence and enthusiasm and complete obliviousness to the content of what she read.  It was a long scripture about Captain Moroni and Zarahemna having a confrontation. . . then them fighting with swords. . . then more details.  Quickly, I realized that Gwen had obviously chosen the scripture and obviously at random and had no idea what she was saying as she repeated it loudly and clearly.  The whole time holding a smile that let me know how proud she was of herself and how pleased she was to be giving the scripture out of her own Book of Mormon.  I couldn't stop laughing for the next 20 minutes.  I had to leave the room to compose myself and breath deeply not to burst out every time I thought of it. At the end, I asked Lisa what had happened.  Appharently Gwen had walked in with her scriptures open, walked right up to her and told her she wanted to give the scripture, this was the one she wanted to read and Olivia would help her.  Lisa said she was so cute she just agreed and announced it as Gwen had described.   What a cute, cute girl.

Just us on a hike.

Over the last year, BR and I have been trying to have a weekly date. . . just us.  Lately its been REALLY hard to fit it into our schedule.  After 3 weeks of things getting in the way, we found time on Friday Morning.  We went on a great {short} hike up Chick Hill.  I love our time. . . I missed it.

10. (which is really #1) I'm grateful for my husband/best friend/team mate/ favorite person ever =0).

I am grateful | 2011 |

7. Since the time has changed we are all waking up earlier, The girls have a good chunk of time before they get on the bus, and especially that we all get to spend more time with BR before he goes to work.
8.  Beckham's little voice.  That he says "I YUB-OOO"  and takes on the role of the rule police but we don't figure it out until we decipher what he is saying =0).
9.  That Olivia is really catching on to the piano and having fun with it!

Happy Birthday to my Dad. The Best Dad Ever.

He's 60 today.  Boy do I wish I were there to celebrate!
I'm a lucky girl to have you!

God speaks to us.

It comes to my attention periodically that many people are unfamiliar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  That there is some uncertainty of our beliefs and teachings.  Specifically, that there are questions of, "What is the Book of Mormon?"  The Book of Mormon is scripture that, hand in hand with the Bible, teaches us the mind and will of God.  As I have read the scriptures, the Bible and the Book of Mormon, I have felt the peaceful, enlightening influence of the Holy Ghost in my life.  These thoughts and feelings always lead me closer to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon is a testament of Jesus Christ, meaning that it's pages testify over and over of Jesus Christ.  It's entire purpose is to bring us closer to Him so that we can rely on Him and put our trust and our faith in Him; so that He can redeem us from our sins.  Also, so that we can find a fulness of Joy and Happiness.  When I am lost, afraid, confused, or hurt, I know that I can always turn to the Lord.  As I follow Him, I always come out on top, with answers to my questions and guidance of where I should go.  Those answers and guidance often come through scripture, including the Book of Mormon.  This is an insiteful video about a man's thoughts on the Book of Mormon.  As an added bonus, the cinematography is creative and beautiful.

Trick or TWEET

Happy belated Halloween from US and our flock of birds!

Halloween Facts:

• The girls each picked out their own bird.  Gwen is a humming bird, and Liv is a Scarlet Macaw.  If you guessed Parrot for Liv, she would tell you that you were wrong =0).
• The girls especially loved singing and dancing to songs from Rio while flapping around.
• Beckham perfected his "Tick o' teet. . .Tank-oo (thank you)" after the first time he said it and someone gave him candy.
• We went to 5 halloween parties, I had 2 costumes and Brad had 3, pictures of us may be in your future. . . if I get around to it =0).

A great low-key, quality time Saturday

Gwen Ran errands and went to the dump with BR in the AM.  As she walked through the door she reported that, "Mommy, I love going with Daddy to the dump!"  Then Liv got to ride with BR on the tandem to meet the rest of us at the pumpkin patch.

After they left, Gwen and I planted nearly 100 tulip bulbs!  A job made SO much better by having this girl as company!

Then we met over at the pumpkin patch. . . Where we fed the goats and navigated through a corn maze.

Good thing we had Olivia with us to answer the questions we needed for the maze.  She new that Alexander the Great's horse's name was Bucephalus, and that Black Beauty's friends name was Ginger!  Both answers she claimed to know from books she's read.  Good thing, because I had no clue what the answer would be.

After the maze, we headed to the girls' school Halloween party, complete with a haunted hallway, trunk or treat, halloween crafts, and a pulled fire alarm, and much more.  Then we came home and put the kids to bed.  BR and I had a date in (since all of our babysitters were busy on a temple trip) complete with Chinese food a la Chef BR (and the freezer section at our local grocer) and bonding time while hanging insulation and sheet rock in our garage. . . And there you have it. . . thats how we spent our day.

(P.S. Oh, and I got lost for nearly an hour on my way to meet BR. . .)

A couple of weekends ago, we got to spend a fun afternoon on a walk with family.  Brianna and Jon and Royce came up from Portland which made it extra great.  The kids chased and chased and chased Royce.  Such a good dog!