And thanks to the wonderful mother that raised me and taught me most everything I know. I’m so greatful for you and appreciate all you have done and still do for me. I love you.
Evan helping Gama blow out the candles on her birthday cake.
The boys show off their birthday cards.
]]>We also went to our ward Christmas Breakfast on Saturday. We had breakfast and some crafts for the kids. We had cooking decorating to make snowman faces and paper snowflake making. Being in the Primary Presidency, I spent most of my time helping all the kids with the crafts and a few minutes with my own kids. Jonny had to wrangle the boys for most of the time. At the end Santa came to visit so we all lined up to see him. Evan willingly sat on his lap, but Seth wanted nothing to do with him. As soon as Santa came in the room Seth had a meltdown and was crying like crazy. He just wanted to go sit by himself in the other room far away from Santa. I forgot to get a picture of him, but I snapped a cute one of Evan. Afterwards a lot of people went to our city holiday parade, but we decided not to brave the very cold weather and just go home to warm up. Maybe we’ll go next year when Levi is a little older.
The tree decorating experience.
Some of their favorite ornaments.
Daddy helps Evan put the star on top.
The boys and their masterpiece.
The “before” picture when the boys were done decorating.
The “after” picture when I fixed it a little.
The boys and their snowmen cookies.
We invited our guests (we switch off Thanksgiving and Christmas every year between our families and this year it was my mom’s turn for Thanksgiving) and I planned the dinner, got down the good dishes, cleaned up the house and got everything ready for the day. I even used a couple of Evan’s preschool crafts as decorations. I always make a pumpkin pie - from scratch I might add, no canned pumpkin here – so that was no different. I made the pie and the rolls the day before. Then on the morning of Thanksgiving I got the turkey ready and put it in the oven. I prepped the rest of the dishes and waited for the guest to arrive. One of my sisters got sick, my brother had to work and Papa got the flu (and Grandma went to North Carolina to spend the holiday with Uncle Andy and his family) so our numbers dwindled a bit. Despite all that, we had a wonderful and intimate holiday dinner. There were a couple improvements to the food I noted for next time, but overall everything turned out beautifully, and tasty too. The turkey was pretty good, if I do say so myself.
So thank you to my wonderful husband and kids as well as Gama, Aunt Kiwi and Great Gama, for coming to my first Thanksgiving dinner and making it a special day. It is so fun to spend time relaxing with family over good food. I’m so appreciative of all my family does for me and I’m so happy to have them in my life. Isn’t that what this holiday is really about?
The Food
The People
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Look at me. I love to punch and kick and make you look at me.
A little sleeping angel.
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He loves to try on glasses and wear them around. Here he tries on Aunt Melanie’s glasses and mommy’s sunglasses (I think it’s even cuter that they are upside down).
He recently tripped and fell, which gave him a swollen and bloody lip. I tried to get him to pout a little to get a good shot of the injury, and this is what I got.
Between the sealing and the blessing, we were on a spiritual high all weekend. What a beautiful thing to be surrounded by family for such wonderful reasons.
The proud parents and baby Levi.
Here is part of the family. We all miss having Andy and Jamie live locally.
The man of the hour.
]]>On Friday night the family went out to dinner to spend some time together. It was great to see people we haven’t seen in awhile and introduce Levi to his aunt and uncle. Then on Saturday we drove to the Temple to watch the sealing. The Spirit was so strong as we listened to the officiator talk to Andy and Jamie about love and marriage. Like the song says, “the spirit of God like a fire is burning…” The Spirit was certainly burning in my chest and bore witness to me of the truth of His word. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room as we all watched them receive this most precious blessing to be sealed together for all eternity. As beautiful as a wedding is, I always feel a bit of sadness when the mnister gets to the “until death” part. What a wonderful gift we have in the abilty to be sealed and joined together in God’s house not only until death, but for all eternity.
Afterwards we took some pictures then we all went to a celebratory lunch.
Andy and Jamie at the Temple. It was a beautiful sunny day. The sky was so blue, it looked almost unreal. Jamie even got to wear her wedding dress again. She looked so beautiful, and they both just glowed with happiness and joy.
Later that night we all went to Big Corona beach in Corona del Mar for a bonfire. Even though it was late, the boys were so excited to go. They had a blast playing in the sand and making smores. Although they didn’t really care if the marshmallows were roasted – they just wanted to eat as many as they could. And even though it was a little chilly, we had to drag the boys home to bed well past their bedtime while the rest of the group stayed to play.
(I’ll post some more pictures of the kids when I get them from others that took some really good ones)
On Sunday, Andy and Jamie visited their old ward in Fountain Valley then came to our house later that evening after we got home from church. We were able to bless Levi while they were in town, which was a wonderful bonus (but more on that in the next post).
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