November Blessings!

November was full of scout campouts, family reunions, Battle of the Books, reports and lots of fun! Not to mention Thanksgiving. Here is how our November went:

Taylor completed his first competition for Battle of the Books. John was able to make it since I was unable to. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

These past two weeks have been a blur for me. Between company, holiday get togthers and everything we have been busy!

My visiting teacher brought us some pumpkin bars. Rebecca LOVED them!

Thanksgiving & House Update 11/25

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We hope you had an exciting relaxing day.  Apparently we did nothing but "work" all weekend long.  This according to our children.  We were able to work on the house three whole days minus our two Thanksgiving dinners.  A lot got done on the house, and yet there is still so much left to be done. First some pictures of my kids.  Thomas made this turkey hat in school and wore it everyday until his sister destroyed it.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  We spent Thursday with the Black side and Saturday with the Skabelund side.  Besides that, John worked on his last paper for law school on Friday and Saturday.  The older boys got all of their jobs done on Friday so I took them to Best Buy where they got a loan on their State Fair money and purchased Lego Star Wars, the Clone Wars III video game.  They were in heaven the rest of the weekend.

Rebecca is really trying to move around.  If we forget to buckle her in the swing, she will scoot herself out.  Here is a picture we have caught of her:

See how she has herself stuck?  I am glad that the swing is close to the ground.

She is still our happy baby though!

 Thomas came up to me and said, "Mom...I was your grumpy baby right?"  I smiled and said, "Yes Thomas, you were a grumpy baby, but you are a happy big boy now right?"  He said, "YES!"  When he is tired though, he tends to revert back to his grumpy self though...

We took some pictures with my sisters while they were here.  It was really nice to spend time with Kathryn & Lindsay.  I know they were beat from traveling, and it was a short trip, but it made our weekend so much better!  We were able to get some pictures before they left.

 Kathryn, Sarah, Lindsay

 Mom, Kathryn, Sarah, Lindsay

 We decided to add Rebecca to the picture.  Thomas was trying to make her smile.

 Mom (Grandma), Kathryn, Rebecca, Sarah, Lindsay

Dad, Kathryn, Sarah, Lindsay

So after looking at these pictures, I have realized that I am shorter than my sister Kathryn.  I also can see that I have lost weight.  Especially when you compare it to pictures from two years ago:

I am pleased to say that since January 2010, I have lost a total of 70 pounds.  It feels great, and I love fitting into smaller clothes and donating old clothes.  Don't forget I had a baby in there too!  Now I just look forward to healing myself and starting that healthy chapter in my life!

Thanksgiving Day

I failed to mention anything about our actual Thanksgiving Day this year.  (Sorry John.)

We had a very excited Taylor who was looking forward to playing flag football this year.  He had John teach him the rules and how to throw and catch a football.  He had Jonathan practice with him numerous times before Thursday morning.  They were up early and it was like Christmas morning.  They could hardly wait to go and play.  John said that Taylor did a good job too.

We went to John's brother Russell's home for dinner.  We were concerned about the 22 kids and 8 adults fitting in their place, but it all worked out.  The adults sat at one end and the children at the other.  I ended up bringing most of my dinner.  It was really good.  John was so tired that he fell asleep on the couch after dinner.  Amber had her baby Sunday and brought her.  She is adorable and slept most of the time.  Thomas loves playing with Jack.  He will be 2 in January.

After visiting there, John and I took a nap!  We went to my parents for dessert.  I made a gluten/dairy/egg free pumpkin pie and something in it still made me sick.  I had a reaction the rest of the night and Friday.

We had a wonderful holiday.  John was up bright and early the next day to go and study!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The boys decided to do a "Night before Thanksgiving" sleepover last night.

I have a little time to sit and write about Thanksgiving.  This year has been different for one main reasons:  I have to make food for just me now which meant 2 turkeys and 2 stuffings and 2 pies...  you get the idea.  That meant I was extra busy in the kitchen this week.  At some point I realized that I cannot cook two turkeys in my oven at the same time, so I ended up cooking my turkey the night before and then just carving and reheating it on Thanksgiving.  Everything worked out, but the word of the day has been WORK!  For my stuffing, I made my own bread and then dried it out.  It was SO GOOD when I ate it today.  I made a pumpkin pie using pre-made ginger snaps that were gluten and dairy free and then my pie was sugar and dairy free.  I am saving that for my mom's later tonight.  I am going to post the recipes on my recipe blog if they were a hit!

On to some Thanksgiving funnies.  Earlier this week, Taylor asked me what a Father-in-law was.  I explained that when you get married, the father of your wife will be your father-in-law.  I thought that he got that until we were in the car yesterday on the way home from school.  Taylor was telling me the 4 things he was most grateful for.  (One of which was "TV:  So I am not bored.")  He then said his other list.  As he was reading, he said, "Mother-in-law, Father-in-law..."  I said, "Taylor, you don't have a Mother-in-law, unless you got married and forgot to invite me to the wedding."  He said, "You are right mom, but I do have a Father-in-law.  It is dad's grandpa."  I laughed and said, 'Sorry sweetheart, that would be your great-grandpa, not your Father-in-law."  It is so confusing to children.  Just trying to imagine your own parents had parents and grew up like they did is hard enough!

This morning Thomas woke up late.  (Thank you!)  The turkey was done already and cooling on the kitchen table.  I asked Thomas if he had seen the turkey yet and he said no.  I took him to the turkey and his said, "WHOA!  That is a BIG TURKEY MOM!"

I guess there was a small communication gap when I originally brought home the turkey last week and John put it in the freezer and not the fridge to defrost.  So Monday when I found it in the freezer, I put it in the fridge to start defrosting.  Wednesday, it was still hard as a rock so I put it in the bathtub with cold water.  Thomas heard the bath water running and came to see what I was doing.  He wanted to know why a turkey was in the tub.  I told him I was trying to defrost it and make it not frozen.  About 30 minutes later I found him naked trying to get into the bath tub with the turkey.  My first clue was the scream, "COLD MOM!"  I told him he was not allowed to take a bath with the turkey.

This morning, I asked Thomas if he knew what special day today was.  He said, "YES!  Pack meeting!"  Ironically, he would be right any other month.

Jonathan helped me make lemon pie yesterday.  I had him stir the mixture until it boiled while I was getting the meringue ready.  Jonathan was starting to grow impatient and said, "Can't we just turn the heat to high and get this over with mom?!"  I explained that cooking is not like that and we needed to let the mixture come to a boil slowly.  He said, "But if you turn it up it would happen quicker."

Earlier this week, as I was making dinner, Jonathan made banana bread by himself.  John thinks he left out an ingredient, and I have to admit I was not watching him the whole time.  I did however here a "Whoops!"  He missed the bowl and the egg fell down in between the stove and the cabinet.

As for me, I am very grateful this year for many things.  My family, home, job, testimony, vehicles, food (that does not make me sick), health care, internet, the opportunity for John to get an education, temples, friends and many other things.  I am a much better person this year than last year and have hope in tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Taylor made this thankful turkey at school. I was impressed by the things he wrote, so I am sharing it:

I am thankful for:

My friends

My grandma

My grandparents

My grandpa

My teacher

My church

My Heavenly Father

My Family

My home

My food

My brothers

My parents

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2008

YES!!! John found the camera cord!!! I am so excited and spent all morning creating everything I have needed to over the past month.

Thanksgiving was great yesterday. John took Jonathan & Taylor to his brother Russell's house to play video games. (It rained the night before so flag football was out of the question.) Kathryn came over and went with me to CVS!

We went to my sister Jen's house and my entire family was there. It was nice to be together. After that we went to John's brother Russell's home and ate dinner with Russell's family, Chris' family and then David & Toni came for dessert. I was able to get some pictures at each, but was too full at the Skabelund's to get a lot of pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is coming!!!!!

I think this is one of my favorite holidays. I love all the smells and baking. I guess I love cooking with my children as well - passing down those traditions to them. John looks forward to flag football each year. Every year he is sore the next couple days...

So if you are looking for some recipes, here are some of my favorite for Thanksgiving! I found a new one that I will have to try out soon- pumpkin rolls! They are a wheat/white roll with pumpkin in them, but people say you can't taste the pumpkin. I can only hope one day that if a recipe starts with my name that they will know it is a hit like Grandma Walker or Grandma Black...

Pumpkin Rolls

Grandma Walker's Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin Cake

Turkey Stuffing/Dressing

Lemon Pie

Sweet potato Casserole

Yam and Apple Casserole

Winter Salad

Faye's Pumpkin Pie

Easy Homemade Rolls

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It was such nice weather today that we left the door open most of the day. John went and played flag football with the ward while the boys helped me make the stuffing. Poor Thomas did not understand why mom would not pick him up. It was a non-stop morning though. The boys cleaned their room and Thomas' room, showered, put their clean clothes away and vacuumed before dad even got home. Best part is we are HEALTHY! Thomas found a granola bar that Jonathan had stashed away under the couch.

We got everything ready for our families dinner. We even used our Spode Christmas dinnerware and made a special drink for the occasion. John went around and asked everyone what they were thankful for. John mentioned families, Taylor said he was thankful for babies and that we were here on earth. Mom mentioned the gospel and Jonathan was grateful for temples. Thomas just wanted food...

After dinner, dad and mom took a nap and the boys entertained themselves. We got up and went to my parents home for dessert. My brother and sister and their families were there along with someone from my mom's ward were there. Every year, my mom buys an ornament for everyone that signifies something that happened during that year. John asked Jonathan yesterday what part of Thanksgiving he was looking forward to most of all, and it was "Grandma's ornament." He really hoped that she would not forget. Like any grandma, she did not forget. John got one for graduation, Taylor got a snowman fishing since he went the first time this summer. Jonathan got a rowboat, Thomas got a cookie monster and I got an angel holding a baby. We had dessert there, and then my mom wanted help with her Christmas tree. John and Steven helped put it up, and then the grandkids put the ornaments on.

At one point, my mom was holding Thomas for quite a long time, and then I walked back into the room and Thomas did this:

I think he does this to me on purpose... I know my mom feels bad, and unfortunately there is nothing I can do right now. We also got a picture with grandpa and grandma and the boys.

John was holding Thomas and a cup was very entertaining. If you listen close you can hear Thomas talking.

As for me, I am thankful this year for my family, my health, the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life that gives me strength to go forward each day. I have three wonderful boys that love me and are the light of my life. Taylor the other day asked me, "Mom, are we living the good life?" I asked him what he meant by "good life". He said he did not know. He heard it on a commercial and wanted to know if we were living it. I told him that we were. We had things that a lot of people in this world did not and if we are happy we are living the "good life"!