Andrew and Courtenay arrived at our house late Sunday night (on their way to Idaho for the holidays). We kept the kids home from school Monday so they could play with their cousins. They had a great time, of course. Barney and Mary stopped by Monday afternoon, right before the Souths left, and their girls joined in the fun.

My New “All Seasons Blocks”!

Early Sunday morning, I attended my first ward council in this ward. That was nice. Primary went really well. There are just so many amazing people that serve so faithfully in their callings. It’s awesome.

We went to tithing settlement in the afternoon, and all scored a treat in the bishop’s office.

Sunday night, Amy’s Primary teachers, the Clowards, dropped by some cookies for her since she had done an act of service (which they must have challenged them to do in their class). They had their Great Dane with them, which fascinated the kids. We think the Clowards are super cool.

It was fun to hear about Molly having her baby yesterday on Ben’s birthday: a girl!

Sharon’s Week

Wednesday

Thanksgiving

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

I am in love with this set of blocks I finally finished this week. I saw them at my friend’s house (Sharlee Largey) like 8 years ago and admired them so much that I got a printout of instructions from her. I bought some plain blocks, stained them with espresso gel stain (so they will match any holiday and have a little more character than plain old paint), and then I bought some white vinyl, which my friend Sue cut out for me with her fancy Silhouette. I added a coat of Mod Podge over the letters for good measure.

There are 17 blocks total (I added one to the original), and they are all numbered on the bottom. You can configure innumerable messages - think holidays, special occasions and LDS themes. I got addicted to coming up with messages. I love them!

The Souths Visit

We love Andrew and Courtenay!

Sharon flew into town on Monday (a birthday gift from Joey so she could spend time with Jake whom she wished she could have brought to BYU to help him get settled in). My parents picked her up and she borrowed their van during the week, which was super nice! The girls moved into Mark’s room (their old room) so Sharon could have the guest bedroom. Sharon got to take Jake shopping and take care of him while he was sick. She also got to visit some of their friends and to be on campus with Jake. I enjoyed our chats, usually late at night.

Tuesday

Amy, Macey and Hailey finally got to finish the play they started in California and performed it for us. Natalie, Eric and Adam followed them with magic tricks.

motorbike rides in the nice weather

Love it.

Tyler tried out Jon’s new helmet... which sadly turned out to be much too small for Jon.

Tuesday, the kids returned to school and Natalie’s friend Natalie R. walked home with her. They think it’s so cool that Natalie R is right-handed, and Natalie L is left-handed. Their moms are both named Jennifer, and go by Jen.

Jon and I went to dinner with the Lloyds that night. I’ve never been to Zupa’s and I loved my tomato bisque soup and BBQ chicken salad! I need to go back again!

Natalie slammed her finger in a doorway, and Sharon helped relieve the blood pressure by poking a hole in her nail with a sterilized needle (hence the lighter). Natalie was brave through the ordeal. It’s handy to have a nurse around!

Andrew had his first of 3 dental appointments. This one was the major one (a big cavity). He was a great sport and didn’t complain at all. I brought him home and made him a smoothie for lunch before sending him back to school.

That afternoon, I had my 1-month follow up with Hoopes Vision in Draper. My right eye hasn’t been perfect and I was very curious to know what the deal was. I can see 20/20, but my right eye is half a diopter off. Most of the time, I don’t notice it, and I’m thrilled to live without glasses or contacts, though I of course hoped for exactly perfect eyesight.

Wednesday afternoon we did some major yard cleanup to prepare for Thanksgiving and winter. We really got a lot done!

Jon played in our ward Turkey Bowl that morning, and was pretty sore from it, but had a blast!

We rewarded the kids for their hard work with a movie that night: Monster’s University. Mark is so cute when he cuddles!

I stayed up late that night making 2 batches of rolls and my favorite Apple Cranberry Sour Cream pie.

I got Debra Garry’s advice on the turkey again, and bought a Norbest young fresh turkey. I can’t stomach prepping it, so Adam and Jon did the dirty work for me. We joked that one of the reasons the turkey turned out so tender was because of Adam’s salt massage.

Adam was totally into it, which was so cool!

I am happy with how the table setting turned out. My orange tablecloth shrunk dramatically, so I had to leave my black and white vinyl underneath it. The plates are a plastic set from Costco, which I’ve been using for the holidays because they look fancy, but won’t break and are cheap.

I cut off a bunch of rosemary from my garden, and Sharon, Natalie and Amy made rosemary wreath name decorations for each person. They were cute and smelled splendid.

I finally used this festive tablecloth and napkin set from Dian for the kids’ table. Natalie folded the napkins all fancy, and Amy helped me make a paper turkey leg for each person’s name card. All of the kids expected it to have treats inside. Not a bad idea... for another year.

I printed various placemats for each child, but most of them didn’t use theirs. Andrew and Mark both did, though. Mark has been a very safe child lately, insisting on wearing his bike helmet around.

Dad cut the turkey, Sharon helped me with the mashed potatoes, and Jon encouraged me to charge ahead and make the stuffing, which I was so intimidated to make.

Gary’s stuffing is always amazing. I am very pleased with my first attempt, though I wasn’t able to match his usual grandeur. Mine turned out a little dry, but tasted excellent, so I think I’m on the right path. Thank you Gary for sharing your recipe!!!

I made my regular sandwich rolls (so yummy!) in the shape of turkey feet.

New this year was my Plymouth Rock roll that I planted on my dad’s plate. He split it with my mom, and even though it was a bit doughy, they thought it was cute.

The Big Kids Table

(David is not rubbing Andrew’s face with a toothbrush (it totally looks like he is!)

Evelyn and Jillian’s table

Counter Boys

I don’t think my gravy was fantastic, but everything else was really yummy! Chantel brought delicious holiday Jello and pie, and Kevin and Whitney brought the green beans, corn and pie. I also threw in an apple kiwi strawberry drink.

Jon’s view (I forgot to take off my apron)

Right after dinner, I snapped a picture of Brian and Chantel’s family. Though I’m not a photographer, I’m happy with how theirs turned out! This was the second of 3 pictures I took.

Chantel also wanted individuals of the kids. The boys were a cinch, but Evelyn took a long time and magical Jake to get her to look and smile. We were really lucky to get any of her!

Brian returned the favor and took one of us. Though our clothes aren’t coordinated, I’m grateful that we have a decent photo of us! You’ll probably be seeing this one again (wink).

While I was involved with pictures, all the adults pitched in and cleaned up the meal mess, for which I was very grateful, and the kids played outside in the perfect weather.

The kids played all sorts of games in the backyard involving balls and inevitably kicked many over the Benches’ fence.

Andrew was so good to stay with Mark, who kept trying to ride into the street.

After pie, we all tried out Dad’s new game: Super Big Boggle: a 6x6 board, with minimum 4-letter words. That was really fun, and we laughed pretty hard when Adam and Andrew found legitimate words that crossed off words that adults had found! (We let them find 3-letter words too, and they crossed each other’s off for that, but they found 4-letter words that only 1 adult would find.)

The rest of our time together was spent talking, which is always a treat.

Friday was Kevin’s big move from Lehi to Spanish Fork. I knew Jon would be driving his enormous trailer and helping with the move, but wasn’t sure what the kids and I would/should do. That morning, Jon told me he thought we should all go, and I’m so glad that we did!

I worried about how effective I would be with Mark and Tyler there, but the little kids entertained themselves (see Jillian and Tyler hiding inside some furniture). The older kids ran around together and helped where they could, and also took turns watching Mark for me. I was able to carry a few things and clean some bathrooms and appliances. I was also able to run to U-Haul when we first arrived (borrowing Whitney’s van) to pick up some moving blankets for them.

They filled up Jon’s trailer all the way (and took another full load of furniture later). Jon was worried about the weight load on his trailer tires, and since Kevin’s air compressor hoses were packed away, the guys took turns pumping up the tires with a bike tire pump. That helped a bit until Jon could make it to a gas station. Luckily, Kevin followed us and had a tire gauge.

Jon drove his trailer around to the back of the house where we unloaded all of their stuff into their basement. Their house wasn’t ready to move into yet because the carpet wasn’t in and several other things still needed to be finished before they could get their certificate of occupancy.

This time, all of the kids joined in unloading the stuff. They did a great job and had fun working together. Barney also came over and helped. After that, Sharon took my kids and me home while Jon drove the trailer back to Lehi where they filled it a second time with furniture. It took them a long time that second round because they didn’t have the help from their ward that was there in the morning, and the furniture was all big and heavy. I’m glad Jon was able to help!

He and Jake earned a movie night, and we watched Wolverine, which was a little disappointing, mainly because of the really slow plot (slow for an X-Men movie, anyway).

In Spanish Fork, we all took a pizza break and took a tour of Kevin and Whitney’s house, which is beautiful. Here are the kids doing a toast with root beer.

Mmmmm!

Jon drove our family up to Bountiful for violin and piano lessons. Since Rosalie moved to Bountiful (technically North Salt Lake, but she’s a 9- minute drive from Gary & M’Jean’s house), we are trying out coupling both instrument lessons on the same day.

We dropped off the girls first and took a quick tour of Rosie’s new house.

Andrew had his lesson with M’Jean, and he seemed so tired that day!

M’Jean worked with him on dotted quarter notes and eighth notes. She’s a great teacher!

I ran back over to Rosalie’s to pick up the girls and found Amy holding cute little sleeping Sadie.

The girls were put right to work on the piano.

Meanwhile, the boys watched a movie in the basement with Gary. Gary earned points with Mark by scratching his back. When he stopped, Mark looked up and said, “More?”

Jon and I went and bought some Little Caesar’s Not-So-Ready Hot and Ready pizza, and then pushed the kids to finish more quickly than normal so we could make it to the lights on Temple Square with everyone else.

We used Squawk! to help us easily find Kevin. (That was cool. We haven’t used that app in a while.) We bundled up the kids and met up with my parents, Sharon and Jake who had been at City Creek mall.

We cruised around Temple Square, and also hit the candy windows at Macy’s.

When we were all satisfied with the lights, we walked to Mom and Dad’s apartment in downtown Salt Lake for some hot chocolate (with peppermint marshmallows), cider, and donuts. Mom had the water heated in her crock pot, which was so slick! We were all in heaven!

Mom and Dad showed the older kids how to play Super Big Boggle. They really caught on and loved it.

Mom was super nice to play Uno with the smaller kids.

We had a nice time talking, chatting, and warming up. Jon sniffed out the dog poop on Amy and Peter’s shoes, which we had been smelling the entire trip. (They stepped in some grass before Temple Square.) I joked that Jon was a bloodhound.

Before leaving, Sharon taught us to play a Disney character game, which was really fun. The whole evening was kind of magical. We’ve never had such a great hookup as Mom and Dad’s nearby apartment right there in Salt Lake where we could just walk to, warm up in, and enjoy yummy hot chocolate and treats along with great company. It was awesome!

We dished all the kids up first by walking around with the pots of food.

Andrew kept trying to photo bomb people, and had success in this one. You gotta love what Studio C teaches kids.

We played The Name Game with all the adults, and then The Animal Game with all of the kids Andrew’s age and up. Dad then voted for pie