Thanksgivings Past

At this moment, the house is really clean, the children are getting tired, Daddy is outside chopping wood, and Mommy is pooped from cleaning and cooking in preparation for Thanksgiving Day tomorrow. As I was de-shelling eggs for deviled eggs, memories of past Thanksgivings came to me. Where were we over the last eight Thanksgiving holidays? So, onward and backward we go!

My sixth grade class, 6D, came up with this activity of dividing into two teams and writing on the chalkboard all the things they were thankful for. I think I timed them. There also was a little Thanksgiving party we'd have and my wonderful room mother would help w/ the food and organization. I was always blessed with wonderful room moms. They really made me, as the teacher, feel special.

Again, our second Thanksgiving together was my second year teaching. Below is what my room mother brought in to help us celebrate! A bunch of cupcakes are frosted like a turkey. Creative...

During Thanksgiving break, Greg and I drove to GA to be with Greg's family. I think they had just moved into this house. Below is a pic that proves Big Dog does help in the kitchen!

My mother in law makes her own window treatments. In fact, when we moved into our first home, she made all of my window treatments! Big Dog and Greg playing something....probably Madden football.

Our first Thanksgiving in our own home was our third year married. We had moved into this house in Greenville and had my family and Greg's family in for Thanksgiving.

Below are the two moms in my life.

My hubby and Dad cutting up the turkey. Thaaaat's right, they're using my washer and dryer for extra counter space.

Family pic! I cannot tell you the complaints I got when I wanted to take this. I like preserving memories...sue me! My brother in law and sister in law are on the far right. This was before any of us had children.

Was very grateful to the men for putting lights on my house!

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of our last Thanksgiving in SC and our first Thanksgiving in MO. I'm pretty sure we were in GA for our last one in the South, and then at the Christensen's house for our first one in MO. So....2 year gap here.

Our second and final Thanksgiving in MO my inlaws flew in. We also picked up Grandma Baker from Kansas City so that she could be with family for the holiday. Football is a must for the Bakers...so Greg and I had to go outside and throw around the football before partaking the feast.

Greg and his dad spend an enormous amount of time raking up and bagging the wretched gumballs in our yard. The truck behind Greg is filled to the brim!

  We still had Dolly then.

Our first Thanksgiving in UT we were invited to be with the Goninos. My inlaws were here for this holiday and they came with us to the Goninos. We were asked to bring a few things, so I made sure to take a picture of our dessert creation.

Last Thanksgiving was spent in Colorado. We drove from here to my parents' house and enjoyed a few days with them as well as my brother and his wife from SC. My parents had chickens at the time, and Paton loved to go with Grampa to collect the eggs.

Dad used his smoker to smoke the turkey. Yum!

  We were happy to see my brother and his wife for the holiday. They live all the way across the country so we don't get to see them often. Paton is covered with blankets b/c he wasn't feeling well toward the tail end of the trip.

Above is my hunter husband. My dad and Greg spend a few hours hunting down coyotes from the property. Those coyotes attacked my parents' dogs a few months back, so both men had a grand time shooting at them.

And this Christmas was spent with a family from our church as well as a family from SLC. All of our kids are right around the same age and what is more fun than a house full of kids on Thanksgiving Day?!

I do have much to be thankful for. But I try to remember those things more than just one day a year. God is continually blessing our family and ministry here in UT. I love so much where He has us now!

In the last month...

So much has happened in the last month since I last wrote. Our church's annual Harvest Hoedown was the last Saturday in September. We enjoyed food, fellowship, games, and pumpkin carving! The next week I turned 31 the same day we traveled to SC and GA for 10 days. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of our trip...except 1.

This was the day of the SC vs. GA game...such a tough loss for us. Anyway, Charlotte is wearing a pillow dress that a lady in my mother-in-law's church made. Super cute!

Our reason for traveling to the South was to recruit summer camp staff for Pioneer Bible Camp. Bob Jones University holds a Summer Ministry Recruitment Conference each year, and camps around the country are invited to come in the hopes of recruiting workers. There were at least 30 other ministries looking for workers, but despite the large group, we were thrilled that the Lord brought us some great contacts! We returned home October 12.

The next week I had the opportunity to attend a pastor's wives retreat for a few days and had a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual refreshment. Since that meant that Greg was home with the kids, I did my best to find sitters so he could get some things done while I was gone (sermon prep and the like).

This morning has been a little rough. Charlotte is struggling w/ a pink eye variety and Paton threw up all over himself. So, needless to say, we're staying home from AWANA this evening.

We got a terrific snow storm yesterday! The before pic and the during pic are below!

Paton was so excited about the snow that he begged me to go outside with him and build a snowman. I bundled him up and away we went!

I had to bribe him to come inside later since both of us were soaked due to the wet, heavy snow that came down while we were outside.

Little brother turns 30

My little brother turns 30 today. I say little in that he's younger...he's certainly taller than me and has been since he was a teenager. I'm not sure if it had to do with how close we were in age (he's only 11 months younger than me), but Kenny and I were pretty close beginning around junior high. Before that time, I was slowly but surely emotionally pulling away from my brothers. By the sixth grade, I really didn't want them around me and my friends. There was no hatred or animosity. It was more like apathy towards them.

After I graduated from the sixth grade, the Lord moved my family to Idaho where I didn't end up having any friends. That's a pretty shaky time in life--brand new junior high girl but with no friends. As I'm sure the Lord intended it, my brothers became my friends.  Whatever the Lord's purpose for moving my family, I'm certain one of the reasons was for me to become closer to my family. From that point on, my brothers were no longer bothers that I didn't want around. Mind you, we weren't perfect. We had our fights. But now my brothers were my friends.

Kenny and I enrolled at BJU as freshmen together. We worked in the same department at school for our first two years there. I remember many a late night talk between us during those two years we were town students. After that we lived in the dorms and obviously started to grow towards our own separate ways.

That's inevitable...siblings are closer when they're under the same roof. Now we both have our own families and live many miles and states away from each other. But the bond will always be there. One of my favorite things about getting together is reminiscing about the past. Memories that will never fade no matter how far apart we are.

Happy Birthday little brother.

Kenny's about 2 1/2 months old here. That blanket he's sitting in became his most special blanket when he was little. As most treasured toys/blankets do...it became a ragged mess! That's me, of course, giving him a kiss.

Another picture of Kenny. I had not seen this one until recently. Dad had a bunch of photos of us kids on slides. This may be one of the slide photos.

I've always loved this one of the two of us. One of our tender moments.

My brothers and I on our couch at home in NH.

And my favorite picture from our college days. A friend shot this and gave it to me later. We had no idea that it was being taken. If I'm remembering right, it was taken while Kenny was playing on the BJU dining common softball team.

Happy Birthday, brother!

Since 2008

Greg and I have had family pics each fall since I got pregnant with Paton in 2008. Above is our first family pic when I was about 4 months pregnant. Our photographer friend offered to do family pics before we started having kids. He said we'd appreciate it later....he was right! Ever since that year, I've made it a priority to get our family pictures each fall so that we'd have something to use in our Christmas letter. So now it's tradition, and it's one that I love.

This same photographer friend took next year's photo when Paton was about 4 or 5 months old. Our family dog, Dolly, was still with us then.

Next year's photo was taken in Utah a few months after we moved here. We didn't have a photographer friend in UT yet, so I set up our camera on a tripod and tried to get the mountains in the background. I remember Paton being particularly naughty that morning.

The next year we had made a dear friend in the church who took our family shots. I didn't actually plan our outfits to match...that just happened. I was 4 or 5 months pregnant with Charlotte. Though it was October here, the weather was rather warm.

This year, the colors in the mountains were beautiful! Not sure why this turned out so blurry on my blog. Paton is three and Charlotte is 7 months old. Love our photographer friend!

We're definitely going to keep this tradition alive. I really love looking back and seeing how our family has changed over the last few years. The Lord has been so good to us.