Turkey Day 2012

A great Thanksgiving this year! We celebrated the day with Brian's parents and our friends Ben and Ashley Jones. I really enjoyed it.

I'd have to say we really celebrated Thanksgiving the entire week, as we spent time with the kids each morning around breakfast sharing things we were grateful for and reading scriptures from the Book of Mormon that taught Thankfulness. Some of my favorite things the kids mentioned were: Eli shared he was grateful for "Jesus Christ." That was the only thing he said, but he said it every morning, and totally unprompted! Jackson shared he was grateful for hot air balloons on the fourth of July, the mountains and God's creations and Zoey shared she was grateful for blessings and prayers and family home evening. I loved starting our day that way.

In the morning of T-day, a little football for Brian. A friend I had grown up with in Texas (Jim Bassi) was in town and played ball with Brian. It was a great game...


Mostly, these pictures some it all up! A little time with family and friends:

 And a lot of food and cooking:

(Brian cooked and carved the Turkey and made pies...it's great to have a wonderful cook in the kitchen!)

And that was that! We enjoyed our company and the food and the great weekend!

Princess Party

We celebrated Zoey's 4th Birthday today! 

She started the day by opening one gift from mom and dad...a princess computer! 

She asked to have a Princess party and so we invited her friends from church and school and her Grandma's. Since I only have one girl, it was fun to indulge in this fun stage. They all dressed up as their favorite princesses. We had a pizza party lunch, cupcakes, and princess games (pin the crown on the princess, "princess-princess-frog", musical chairs, piñata, and a twirling contest)! Thanks to Brian,  Grandma's and Aunt Whitney for help (I couldn't have managed it alone!)

 It was madness with 12 young girls squealing and giggling, but I hope they all had fun! Each got to decorate a tiara and went home with a princess cup and lots of princess goodies in their party bag (every thing from lip gloss to jewelry and mini purses)!

Like one of Zoey's shirts says: 

It's so great to be a Girl! 

We're so glad Zoey is a part of our life! 

Like a bowl full of chili...

With the snow, it's hard not to feel a bit of the holiday spirit! You might recognize the journal title taken with some liberty from "Twas the Night Before Christmas" :)

Happy to say we've got all our holiday shopping done already! I always like to get it done early so I can enjoy the spiritual aspect of the holidays... and to avoid the shoppers. While getting certain not-to-be-mentioned items, the clerk said she loved early shoppers "because they are nice" but hated working retail during the season because everyone "turns mean." Why is that?

Anyway, I made some vegetarian Chili yesterday. Great Recipe from a book by Scott Jurek called Eat and Run. He's a vegan ultra-marathoner and this was one of the recipes our family has really enjoyed from that book. Since I'm too lazy to retype it, I just snapped a photo of it. Hope you can read it , and if you can, give it a try! We also like to top it with fresh avocado chunks and shredded cheese, and I have to leave out the hot peppers for the kids sake, but Brian likes it hot!

Hand Turkeys

This is a favorite Family Night activity we do in our house each Thanksgiving. I just love to see what the kids are thankful for. It evolves each year as they get older. We usually just write a few things, but Jackson couldn't stop naming what he was grateful for, so we went until his Turkey was full.

 Jackson: totally unprompted! I was impressed with his list

 Zoey: toys, crafts, daddy-daughter dates and sunrises! This couldn't be more Zoey!

 Eli is grateful for each of his family members

 Brian and I participated in our own hand Turkeys. We are trying to encourage the kids to be specific in what they are grateful for as they say prayers. What a fabulous time of year!

I loved seeing the "thankful spirit" light up in the kids, where they began to realize how blessed they are and be grateful for what they enjoy in life.

Calvin is 6 months!

He's scootin' and crawlin'! Here's his famous smile with the tongue hanging out...so Calvin.

 He's seemed to grow overnight since he's started solids! He hasn't had any teeth break through yet, but we think it's getting close. He likes to eat solid foods with his hand in the air like he's riding a roller coaster. He is exploring his voice and has a lot of fun calls. He still spits up frequently, and I'm looking forward to the day when that stops happening! He's very social and loves being around people! 

We love our BOY!!

Half Marathon

I stepped out my front door Saturday, 6 months after having a baby (after having 4 babies really close together!), and with very little training, and ran a half marathon! I guess I'm not doing so bad for a 32 year old! It was a beautiful fall day. I'll always remember it! 

13.1 miles! I can't believe I did it! I ran from my front door towards Harmons on 8th North and then mostly along the Provo River Trailway until I reached Lakeshore Drive, which is 2 miles from Utah Lake! 

I couldn't have done it without a super supportive husband and family! They were my cheering crowd, my support crew for snacks and drinks, and they made the run so enjoyable!  It was a goal I set in January to do before my birthday. But I never expected it to be so hard to get back into running after having a baby. And then just as I was getting into a good running routine, I'd get sick and progress would stop (this happened 3 TIMES!!). I was discouraged that I might not get to meet my goal. Brian had more faith in me than I did in myself, and promised he'd support me. Since I was running out of time and the good-weather days are quickly leaving, I decided I'd just do it! 

The Thursday night before my run we decided to do it that Saturday! So we did it! I woke up that morning really excited for it, it was a great day, and I felt mentally charged. Plus we took it at our pace, so I could work around Calvin's nap and nursing schedule. I only had to nurse him once along the run.  

This finish sign was such a welcome sight! I had no idea they were going to do this for me! It was the first time I got to run through the finish line ribbon....it's the best one I've EVER seen! The last mile was the toughest and seemed like at least 3 miles itself.

Brian asked me at the finish if I thought I could turn around and run home...and the answer was NO! My body was spent. My lungs and leg muscles were OK but my joints were getting a beating. That, the full marathon, I'll have to train for :)

At the 7.6 mile mark, Jackson became my pacer. He was a perfect running companion and great to talk to. His little legs biked nearly 8 miles that day with me and for me (since he'd have to back-track quite a bit to not get too far ahead of me, so a lot of his riding mileage was doubled up)! He was so fun to have on the journey! He would always point out things along the path, the river, or mountains and comment on how beautiful they were. he said once, "Mom, doesn't that River sounds so peaceful?" I loved that comment from him....that he could feel and enjoy the beauty of where we were.

I'm so glad I did it. Few things feel quite as good as reaching a goal! The first 8 miles when I was running solo, the thought of my family cheering me on and waiting for me at checkpoints and the finish line brought tears to my eyes! I felt so blessed to have such a great group helping me achieve my goal!

13 Days of Halloween 2012

Rather than do the 13 days of Halloween all consecutively right before Halloween, we just did 13 Halloween related crafts and games throughout the month. Here are a few things we did: 

1) Leaf place mats...always popular with the kids, they love to go on a hike, collect and dry the leaves, then remember their own special leaves throughout the month as we eat meals together.

Calvin made such a cute presence this season!





2)  Pumpkin silly face books. Totally fun...the eyes, nose and mouths were all interchangeable, so the pumpkin faces they could create were almost limitless!

3) Spooky Halloween House...lasted a day. We did this with our home fire drill FHE, which was totally fun.

4) Face Masks

5) Halloween straw cups, made to go with our annual Halloween dinner of meal in a pumpkin, but I didn't catch a picture of the meal this year. We like to set the table all Halloween-y, which is fun, and the kids each had their own fun cup.

6) Halloween story books....cute and fun stories the kids enjoyed this season

7) Visit to he pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin for carving, Jackson also painted his our ghost from a gourd as a kindergarten project. It was cute! We grew huge pumpkins this year and had fun on carving night! 

8) Cheesecloth ghosts...this year we skipped the starch and made them from bouncy balls. Still cute and fun and less messy!  

9) Decorating Halloween cupcakes....usually we do cookies, but this year it was cupcakes! We got gifted a cute little decorating set from our neighbors.

10) Family Halloween Party! Zoey and I were witches, Jackson was a robot, and Eli was a monkey. Calvin was the cutest little turtle.

11) Movie night... this year it was Where the Wild things Are. A favorite bedtime story, but not so favorite movie. Brian and I were bored out of our minds. Jackson liked it though. 

12) Game night- Monsters. Totally fun dice and draw game. Kids loved it and played it all the time! we went through a lot of paper, Jackson has a pile of favorite monsters he's drawn! We also did the pumpkin balloon game where the kids pop a balloon to find a prize inside. It was a hit.

13) Halloween! We had school costume parades (Zoey's picture is on another camera and will be posted soon) and went trick or treating with Grandma and Grandpa Gray. It was a blast! The kids turned their candy in for cash and toothbrushes at our dentist the following morning...and then I took them to Target to get a toy with their earnings (plus some help). Love Halloween , but Glad it's over and looking forward to Thanksgiving! The Halloween decorations are already down!