Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was wonderful, stressful and fun.  I thought that I was so prepared but once again, I got things done just in the nick of time. And I am especially grateful to Weston and Wendy for all the help they gave me. 

Thing year I saw this super cute idea on pinterest from a blog entitled "Can't Stop Making Things."  I just loved the pilgrim shoes and moccasins, and I just had to make them for my Thanksgiving table.

I put a reddish/purplish leaf under the pilgrim shoes and a green leaf under the moccasins.  Then inside I put candy corn and chocolate gold coin. 

I just love the way they turned out.  And I think my family thought that they were pretty neat as well.  They made several comments about them and several of them asked if they could take their shoe home with them. 

Here is a picture of the whole table before all the guest showed up.  And then a picture of my last minute centerpiece.  I had to add the smaller table on the end after I got a text from my cousin early in the morning asking if she could invite three of her friends that didn't have any plans for Thanksgiving dinner.   I originally had the small pumpkin and two clay turkeys on the big table but I moved those to the small table.  Weston asked me what I was going to put on the big table and I told him I would have to think of something else.  I remember that I had bought this small fake pumpkins for a craft project that I never got around to making and the berry twine I got just because I thought it was pretty.  As it turns out I like this centerpiece a whole lot better, so it was a good thing that we had some last minute guest. 

 I forgot to take pictures of the spread and of us seated around the table, I was enjoying the feast too much.  I hope that another family member took pictures that I can share. 

After dinner the girls did a small Christmas craft. 

While we painted the men washed the plates and then played a board game "Ticket to Ride"

This years craft project was much better then the one I picked last year.  Everyone was able to finish with the exception of Wendy who had to go to work, so I finished her for her.  I think that they turned out super cute.  Simple and fun. 

The kids were watching a movie during all of these.  After the kids were done with their movie I had a Thanksgiving craft fo the kids to do and the men helped them with it. 

Brian with Ethan

Josh helped Walter as Gabriel looked on. 

And Weston helped Hunter

Afterwards we played the game "Turkey, Turkey Who has the Turkey"  which I found here.

My Uncle even got a nap. 

Overall I think every one had a great time.  

And we even had a little dancing

Time to Catch Up

It has been a while since I have written a post about our day to day activities.  I actually haven't taken that many pictures lately, so this is going to be a short post. 

 

Halloween Fun

The Friday before Halloween we got together with the cousins and went to a carved pumpkin display and then we went to Andrea's ward Trunk or Treat.   The kids has so much fun, they just love spending time with each other. And the best part for me was that I ran into one of my former students. 

Then on Monday night we went to a friend's home in the ward. We had a potluck dinner and then afterwards the kids marched in a costume parade. Then each family had a carnival like game followed by a Halloween story. Then the last thing was a Trunk or Treat, but instead for cars, we just lined up along the sidewalk and had the kids go around.  It was so much fun to get together with friends in the ward. 

BYU Basketball
Weston's parents gave him an early birthday gift -season tickets to the BYU Basketball game.  He takes turns taking the boys and every once in a while I get to go.  For the first game we were able to take the whole family, because we were able to get two extra tickets.  I only got a quick picture of Quincy, since it was he first basketball game. 

 

Random



The only other picture that I took the last couple of weeks was of Walter reading  Jesus the Christ.

 

 



 

 

Where is the Pavilion? - President Eyring

What an awesome talk to review.  I don't know if this is the first year that the church has put out these Conference Highlights, but they are perfect for kids. 



As we were watching the movie clip I had to stop it several times to ask the kids questions to make sure they were understanding the background and the details.  Some of those details included: Who is Pres. Eyring talking about? and where is this person?  After we answered these basic questions, we discussed what a pavilion meant.  When we think about a pavilion, the first thought that springs to mind is of course what shown in the Sound of Music (Ok, maybe that is just what I think about) . . .like this . . .

I wish I was still 16 going on 17

When I reviewed this talk earlier, I asked Weston if he thought that a pavilion in Joseph Smith's time is the same as it is now.  We thought that it might not be so we took that thought to the dictionary and we found this definition: "A large often sumptuous tent"

So for our activity we took a sheet that I purchased at DI and we wrote some of our desires that cover us from God's view like we are in a tent. 

God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,”create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time.
- President Eyring

 

Afterwards, we placed the sheet on top of the kid's train table and had the boys crawl underneath.  I held a picture of Jesus Christ in front of the covered opening in the train table and asked if they could see who was in the picture.  After hearing a chorus of "No's" I took scissors and cut out some of the words that we had written.

 

The boys had fun peering through the holes and they could easily identify the picture of Christ that I was holding.  Both of the boys seemed to get the point that if we cut out certain bad choices or worldly desires from our lives then we begin to remove the cover of the pavilion that impedes our view and understanding of Jesus in our everyday lives.

It was a lot of fun doing this activity and the payoff was later that night when Hunter prayed that he "could cut out whining from his life so that he would be able to see Jesus".  Ironically, I think that if he could actually cut out whining from his life, I could probably see Jesus a lot easier too.  Consider my fingers crossed that this prayer becomes reality.

Here is a picture of Presient Eyring with the card to remind us of this talk and activity:

 

 

Earlier last week I added vinyl to the wall, I think it adds a nice touch.



Here is the whole talk: