Our Thankful Tree

This was our activity for Family Home Evening this week. McKay did a great job putting all the leaves on the tree. Some gratitude favorites include the garbage man/can, who he prays for daily; BYU; disposable diapers per Burke's request; and tools, because how could we not include tools?

Happy Thanksgiving!

October Fun

I forgot about the pictures from some Halloween-ish things we did, even though it was over two weeks ago now.

We decorated cookies. MK's concept of decorating was to dump the whole little container on the cookie. He sure enjoyed it!

For my birthday we went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. It was fun, but the best part was definitely the pumpkin donuts from Lindsey's Bakery. We will be taking home a dozen next year rather than just splitting one.

Click on the picture to see the stats for this monster of a pumpkin pie. It was huge!

We went to Boo at the Zoo with some friends. M's friend was a golfer.

 M's hat kept falling off. One time, he picked it up and put it back on his head himself--backwards. It didn't fall off the rest of the night though! So we left it backwards on his head. I think he just wanted to show off the pony tail.

 I could not get this kid to stand still or smile normal for a single picture. So these are as good as they got.

 MK loved trick or treating! He knew exactly what he was doing going from door to door to put candy in his pumpkin. He bee-lined for the candy bowls as soon as he saw them.  It was so fun to watch him.

This face was his reaction when I took away his beloved pumpkin and candy. I finally settled with giving him one piece before bed.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! May you find a four leaf clover and have good luck all year long. :)

Last year you were only a wee 11 days old. You went on your first walk to the park. Maybe we'll do something similar again today, only this time we'll play a little more.

Mardi Gras in Belgium

Happy Mardi Gras! It calls for Jambalaya for dinner. Yum. It may not be a religious affiliation, but I don't mind any excuse to celebrate a holiday that sounds fun.

Three years ago I was at a most beautiful place, Belgium, celebrating this wacky holiday in a festive and very traditional way according to Binche's local customs. And today I feel like posting pictures from three years ago because I can. Lovely. It was a good walk down memory lane.

Our first real Belgian waffles. The American version is tasteless in comparison.

The countryside was beautiful. And it's a little crazy that it was normal to walk on top of ruins from centuries ago. America doesn't even have ruins from centuries ago. Okay, maybe two. and a half. centuries. maybe.

Gilles de Binche: what all the people who dressed up are called. Too bad I don't remember what that means exactly. Binche is the town though. The concept is that the rich people dress up like poor people and the poor like the rich. The rich had food, so they ate a lot, so they were fat. Get it?

These little boys were so cute. All the male children in the town dressed up.

It was a party. A great one. A unique one. One where they threw sanguinellos (blood oranges) at you during the parade. Good times.

Holidays...

Today was an eventful day with holidays galore.

Happy Valentine's. We ate a yummy pink and red breakfast.

Happy Chinese New Year! Year of the tiger--my birth year was a tiger too!

Happy 98th birthday to Arizona!! I am so excited to see you in all of your loveliness this weekend!

New Year's Resolutions

So we are over a third of the way into January, and I have yet to make any New Year's resolutions. I decided this year needs something a little more concrete to make it the best year yet, not that last year wasn't amazing, because it was. I just want some worthwhile goals to work on for this year.

Of course I've thought about some resolutions. Let's see:
Be more spiritual.
Be nicer to people.
Exercise more.

Those are great resolutions, aren't they? Well, they're great ones if I never really plan on doing anything to make anything of them. They are what I call conveniently vague (I thought that had a nice ring to it). They are the kind of resolutions that would allow me to muster up some way at the end of the year that I could say I worked my resolutions all year long in one way or another.

Suffice it to say, I think my aforementioned unofficial resolutions are fairly lame.

So I am revamping. starting over. beginning afresh. I am polling for new year's resolutions ideas. Yes, I want to hear what your goals for the year are so that I may borrow them if you will. please. :) thank you.

Or, I'm also open to ideas. They don't even have to be your goals. I am just looking for some light bulbs that are brighter and wiser than mine.

Thanks!

The Holidays

I have been going through the endless list in my head of things to do to prepare for the Christmas holidays.

Christmas shopping? check.
Family pictures? check.
Festivizing the house with red and green? check.
Writing and sending a family Christmas letter? check.
Waking up to the first snowfall of the year? check.
Figuring out what to give/make neighbors and friends for Christmas? check.
Visiting family and loved ones? planned.
Wrapping the presents? If I hadn't left my wrapping paper in Utah. . . .
And the list goes on.

So what? What is it all for? If we are just trying to cross everything off the list and be glad it's done, then what is left? I just accomplished a whole lot of things, and now they're all done. So was that it? I thought the holidays were supposed to be special.


What is it that makes the holidays special?

Is it watching the snow gently and peacefully fall, blanketing the earth with beauty and solace (until someone drives a car through it)?

Is it stressing out about making goodies for neighbors, family, and friends to show them you love them even though they already know?

Is it taking time to find the perfect gift for someone after racking your brain for what to get said person?

Is it being with family although you come back more tired than you were before because you were up all night talking and laughing?

Is it finally squeezing in a last moment of relaxation after you've spent the rest of the holidays stressing out?

Or is it the fact that you are doing it all with love? Isn't that what it's all about? Taking extra time (even though it may be stressful) to be more loving and show a little more compassion?

The holiday season is all about love, inside and out. We have the holidays because of love--the love of our Savior. He came to this earth because He loves us, and we should spend this whole season showing our gratitude to Him by loving others.

Let us take a moment in our hectic holiday schedules to remember that we do so many things because we love. If we race through all the shopping, cleaning, baking, and making, we are forgetting the whole purpose of why we are doing it. The great joy of the season is doing everything with more love.

The spirit of Christmas is love.

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving this year in Dover, Delaware, with Burke's brother and his family. We ate lots of turkey, laughed, told stories, and stayed up late. It was a fun time. Here's a few pics (thanks, Tiff).