Thanksgiving

This weekend we were able to reflect on just how blessed we are. We had a great Thanksgiving day. It started out early, getting the house set up for family. We put the turkey in the oven at about 9:30 but at noon the bird was still cool to touch! Yikes, so we cranked up the heat to 300 and let it go another couple of hours. Good thing dinner wasn't planned until 3:00. We were so happy to have both my parents and Wayne's parents join us for dinner. My mom made my favorite Thanksgiving treat - home made macaroni and cheese. She puts grated cheddar and milk in between layers of macaroni. The top layer gets a little crunchy and that's my favorite part. Everything was so tastey this year. Jocelyn and Brandon peeled 1o lb's of potatoes. We love potatoes!! Tyler and Karie brought the rolls. They were HUGE! Karie also brought us a bit of her first ever homemade lemon meringue pie! It was really good and not at all runny like mine always turn out. (sorry Grandma Larsen, I guess I didn't learn very well!). Zach and Hayan brought a Korean dish similar to orange chicken only made with pork. It was so yummy. It was a great addition to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. My dad made his famous dressing and Wayne's mom brought the yams and pumpkin pie. Wayne and I made 2 apple pies, 1 banana cream, 1 coconut cream and 1 raspberry cream. After dinner Sydnee insisted on helping with the dishes. She said she loves to wash dishes so if you ever have dishes that need washing "she's your girl". We played disney yahtzee and Zach and Brandon had a challenge to ping pong. I think I heard Brandon "kicked butt!" Is that right Zach?? Lots of food, lots of fun and lots to be grateful for! Zach got a new job after graduation working in a lab is SLC. He graduates in December with his Bachelors in Microbiology. Wow, way to go Zach!!

Another Sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa

Syd and Savannah came to the house last weekend for another great sleep over. Syd is such a great big sister and she loves to help her grandma. We played and laughed and giggled. We read the story "Tubsy" an old book that was mine when I was a little girl. How funny is that? Savannah has turned into such the talker! She loves to play on the new bed in the guest room. She thinks the new bed is hers specifically and she even said to me "Gramma - I love my new bed". It's still pretty high off the floor, so when it's time for sleep, Savannah sleeps on the floor - next to her new bed. Here she is playing with her blocks on the bed. I am so blessed to have these little girls live so close to us so that we can enjoy them! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and all of the kids are going to be here for dinner. This is the first time in a long, long, time that all the kids will be around for Thanksgiving. Working in healthcare it seems that one of the kids has had to work on Thanksgiving for the past few years.

I will post pictures tomorrow of all of the fun. We are having both my parents and Waynes parents over for dinner as well. It's so nice that the girls have been able to get to know their Great-Grandparents! Age is not kind and unfortunately we all must get older. It's sad to watch our parents get old and struggle with their health and their mind. It's nice when the little children can climb up on their laps and give them a big hug. Nothing melts your heart quite like the unconditional love of a child!

45 days until Christmas!

I absolutely LOVE Christmas! So as far as I'm concerned, bring it on! I'm not finished with my shopping but I'm working on it. I have some of my kids but I still have a couple more to go. Wayne and I won't exchange real gifts this year. We had an amazing summer of travel and fun and we are counting our most recent trip to Hawaii as our gift to each other. Not to mention the new entertainment center and the new 55" LCD TV!
Not to forget Thanksgiving and the need to be grateful for what we have. We are so blessed to have all 3 of our kids living close to us. We enjoy their visits and love having our 2 darling grand-daughters near by. Wayne and I are very blessed to have 2 amazing daughter-in-laws and 1 equally amazing son-in-law. We wouldn't trade any of them. We enjoy great health and the ability to go to work every day and earn a living. We are ever grateful for this. I'm grateful that we still have the company of both of our parents who live near by and we are able to visit them every Sunday. Some people think we are crazy to drive all over on Sunday visiting our parents when we could stay home and just have our kids visit us. We say we are blessed to have them and to have our children and grand-children know them and love them all so much. Family is very important and we cherish our visits with all of our family.
Thanksgiving will be great this year as we are celebrating at our home with all of our kids and my parents. Waynes parents are invited and they may come as well. The more the merrier, and the more great food! (Everyone is bringing something to share). Friday after Thanksgiving Wayne and the boys along with his brother Mike and his boys and my dad will all drive to Idaho near Soda Springs to cut our Christmas tree. Then on Saturday I will decorate it and I'm so excited! I bought new ornaments this year. Haven't done that in a long, long time. I painted our last ornaments and we've had them proabably 10 year or better. I was excited to do something a little different this year.

Trick or treat

Trick or treat! What a wonderful trick or treat night. It was one of the mildest halloween's I remember. We had lots of trick-or-treaters, but none as cute as these two! Their grandma Kathy made these darling witch costumes.