Thanksgiving update

Well, my goal was to post something gratitude-themed every day until Thanksgiving, but obviously that didn't work out. I was too distracted by being around my wonderful family! Here's what I did instead:

Monday, November 24th: Waited anxiously for by brother and his family to come to Provo. They live on the other side of the country, and I hadn't even met my little 14-month-old nephew Andrew until they walked in the door. We took a walk down memory lane to BYU campus. Here's their cute family:


Tuesday, November 25th: Packed up everything but the kitchen sink (it really felt like it) and drove to my parents' house. Trev came later that night with my younger brother. I left my parents' house while Cassie was napping (oh, the perks of having so many people around during the holidays!) to shop for an umbrella stroller, which we used to walk the kids to the park that afternoon. Cassie got excited just seeing all the older children on the playground and was itching to go play. Grandma was happy to have her grandchildren around. She kept saying, "I'm in Grandma heaven!"
Wednesday, November 26th: Hmmm....I can't remember. Maybe this was the day we played some tough games of Mexican Train dominoes and Ticket to Ride. I'm sure there was plenty of lounging around, too.

Thursday, November 27th: Food, glorious food! We ate a lot of it.
And after Thanksgiving:

Friday, November 28th: Woke up at 3:30 am to go shopping, of course! Actually, this was my second year participating in Black Friday, and I really couldn't pass up the amazing deals. I think I'm hooked. It's just so satisfying to look at your receipt and know you paid about a fourth of the normal cost. Some advice for future Black Friday-ers: don't bother going to Walmart. It's absolute madness and the first people to walk in the door buy an armful of whatever is on sale, so you're lucky if you find anything. There were no parking spaces, no shopping carts, and the main aisles in the store were jam-packed. Anyway, after Kohl's and Walmart, I got home before anyone else was awake and went back to sleep. Trevor and I went out shopping again later and bought our Christmas gift: a 32" LCD High Definition TV. Woohoo! Our extended family Thanksgiving party was Friday, too. It was fun to see so many cousins and shower my sister-in-law Sarah with baby gifts for number 3, who's arriving in February.

Saturday, November 29th: Trevor and I attended the temple together for the first time since April. (again, the perks of having babysitters during the holidays) It was so nice to be together and feel so peaceful. We met Trevor's family on Temple Square in Salt Lake that night and looked at the beautiful Christmas lights. My favorite addition this year is a white nativity right in the middle of the reflecting pool by the temple. Beautiful! Here is a picture of the nativity from behind (we were in a hurry and didn't go to the other side of the pool):

Our little family

Sunday, November 30th: Took pictures of the grandkids in their Sunday clothes. How cute!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week:
Cassie grinning for her Daddy

Lucy making a delicious cannibal soup on the play stove (yes, those are little people in the pot)

Thanks: day 4

Today I'm grateful for my current calling. I serve as the Primary president in our ward.* Probably the best part of working with children is that I laugh a lot. They do and say the funniest things. For instance, since when is it normal to take your shoes off during a church meeting? But at least one child exposes his stocking feet every week. And I love their automated responses, especially when they have nothing to do with the question: "the Gospel!" "Jesus!" "Saying my prayers!" "Be nice to my sister!" They focus on getting the right answer by trying to guess what the teacher wants to hear instead of thinking about the question. For instance, a few weeks ago I asked if they should be nice to ALL of God's children. They glanced around nervously at each other, then one child blurted, "no!" and several other children followed suit. What cute kids. Sometimes they like to say prayers without help. Here is a typical example:
"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank thee that we could come to church today. Thank thee that we could...come to church today. Please bless that we can have a good day and that we can...have a...nice day..." You get the idea. It's hard not to laugh out loud.
Being Primary president has been a lot of work, but I'm surely going to miss it!

*For more about wards, Primary, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, click here.

Thanks: day 3

I am grateful that life goes on even after BYU loses to Utah. Here's to better times.

Thanks: day 2

Some of the sweetest thank-yous I've ever received were from middle-school students when I was teaching. Here are some excerpts from their notes:

"Thank you so much for being my choir teacher this year."
"I love singing."
"I really don't like singing that much, but you made class fun."
"You have taught me so much."
"This experience has been so much fun!"
"I love you!"
"I thank you with ALL my heart."
"We pulled it off, and most importantly, we kicked butt!"
"You are my hero."
"You're just about the coolest teacher ever."
"Thanks for being so nice to us."
"You deserve the best."

I know. So sweet. Their notes always gave me more credit than I deserved, but I definitely appreciated them because middle school students aren't always as nice in person. :) I'm going to track down one of my middle school teachers and send them a well-deserved thank you.

Thanks

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm setting the timer for five minutes and typing what I'm thankful for. On my mark, get set, go!

Trevor: he makes me laugh, he works so hard and is really smart, he's so patient with me, he thinks I'm funny!
Cassie: Good sleeper! her smiles and giggles (especially the way she smiles at me when she wakes up), she loves solid foods
my parents:
mom- good example, such a good friend now, always held me to high standards growing up, really sensitive and thoughtful, so sweet
dad- calm, sincere, really hard worker, level-headed, I love his laugh
Thanksgiving is coming and I get to see my new nephew! And my entire family will be together!
we have everything we need and so many of the things we want
I get to stay home with Cassie
pianos- I love playing the piano
blogs: I can keep up with family and friends
good friends. I have been incredibly blessed with good friends my whole life
the Gospel, modern day prophets, the scriptures, and the organization of the Church. Relief Society. Primary!
computers
the tree right outside our window- perfect for privacy and it's so beautiful during spring, summer, and fall
good neighbors
immediate family- all active members of the Church
water. I love to drink cold water
pasta
Broadway musicals and the piano/song books that they release

Wow. Five minutes sure is a short amount of time. What are you thankful for?

Tag: 5

Okay, so technically I don't think I got tagged. But Wendy tagged someone named Emily (it may have been me, but I think she knows a few Emily's) and I kind of wanted to do this. I was supposed to find the 6th picture in the 6th folder. Unfortunately, that was a picture of the bathroom in my last apartment. I was trying to sell my contract to someone who was studying abroad and couldn't come see it in person. I figured that picture was much too useless and boring to post. I've seen a few 4th picture 4th folder tags going around, so I decided to try that one instead...and discovered that there are 3 pictures in my 4th folder. So here is the 5th picture in my 5th folder. :)

This is Trevor and me with my parents right after I went to the temple for the first time. Trev's family came to Bountiful for the occasion, so we all went out to eat afterwords. Good memory!

I tag all my cousins and Aunt Lonna. Shelly, you're off the hook since you might be a little busy with the twins.

V-I-K-I-N-G-S!

For my fellow 2002 Viewmont graduates:
Some of our classmates got smart and created a class blog! Mostly it's a place to leave your blog address and find other people with blogs. Good idea, I thought. I'll see you there!