The First Thanksgiving

No, no, I'm not talking about the first Thanksgiving ever recorded in history, which there's much debate about anyway, I'm talking about the first Thanksgiving that I've ever hosted. I was so nervous. I've never cooked a turkey before and I've never been in charge of cooking for lots of people before either. Richard and Nancy and kids and Nancy's sister Ruth came from Virginia and Bryan and Anna and kids came from Ohio for the big day. We had 16 people here for dinner. Luckily the turkey turned out great for my first attempt and everything else was pretty good too. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but here are a few.

There was much pie making going on. Here's Nancy and Ruth making their family favorite, pumpkin chiffon.

Here's Richard and Roger making berry and cherry pies. Richard was helping, he was looking at recipes, promise. (Sorry to catch you at the computer Rich.) I am happy to loan out their services for a small fee...

This was a pretty standard match up over the weekend. Ashby and Asher catching a few shows during previously mentioned pie making.

And this pair, oh dear this pair, they were inseparable. I think I heard Naomi say she was ready to move in and Avery was accepting with open arms!

Of course I can't forget Luke. He participated by getting under our feet all day and pulling out all the clean dishes from the cabinets. But oh my look at that hair!

On a completely unrelated note, here are the girls today with their Christmas Countdown chains. I can hardly believe it's November 30th and they are ready to go already. Usually I forget about it and remember it sometime around December 5th. And here's another reason to pat myself on the back, see Avery's skirt? I made that out of one of Roger's old shirts. I'm as pleased as punch about it. Unfortunately Avery wants nothing to do with it and only wore it today because nothing else was clean! I really am sounding like a self centered bore aren't I?

I do just want to include how grateful I am for all my many many blessings. I'm so grateful for family and friends who are near and far. I'm grateful for my sweet kids, I'm not sure what I would be without them. I'm so incredibly grateful for Roger. He is my everything and I know without him I'd be nothing. I'm grateful for the lessons we are learning as we live so far from where I grew up. It really sucks sometimes, but most the time it's really great. We have accomplished a lot but I know we had nothing to do with it. Heavenly Father truly knows us and knows our needs. I'm so grateful.

Just a few

seconds of just a few steps. I'm so surprised at Luke's sticktoitiveness. He tries and tries and tries walking. He's getting very good. Although at times he does look a little like Frankenbaby because he won't bend his knees. He's our earliest walker by about three months. Go Lukie, go!

Hurry quick...

before the next holiday. Just when you thought you were done looking at kids in Halloween costumes, I'm fashionably late posting these. I was terrible at taking pictures, I was too busy having fun. I'm also a terrible mother because I didn't dress Luke up, he wore a costume for all of about 5 minutes. I'll pay for his therapy later.

Avery choose this beautiful fairy costume from Grandma Worth's costume store. The wings kept falling off and people would say what a beautiful princess she was, which infuriated her. Couldn't they see she was a fairy? Here she is marching in her parade at school.

Ashby chose a knight costume and I told her she had to be Joan of Arc if she was using that costume. We learned a little about Joan of Arc and she was very good at telling people that's who she was dressed as. Here she is at her parade. I was able to help in her classroom this year (thanks Maria) and I marched in the parade with her class.

This little horror will have to suffice for Luke. I've never been more grateful to be done nursing. Yes he did that with his teeth.

Seven, really?

Ashby celebrated her 7th birthday on Saturday. For those of you keeping track at home, yes all of our kids had their birthdays within one months time. I'm exhausted! I can't believe that Ashby is seven. I've said it before and I'll say it again, where does the time go? She went from this:

to this, in what seems like no time at all.

Ashby is a very good sport about her birthday being so close to Halloween. She likes Halloween themed things for her birthday. These were the cupcakes she shared with her first grade class.

This is Ashby with her cake, can you see the theme? We love you Ashby, happy birthday.

The wrath of the Jack-o-Lantern

Yikes.

Luke is 1!

Luke turned one today. I can't believe it. Time sure does fly. We love our little guy. He did a rather fine job eating his cake today. He was definitely not shy and he most definitely enjoyed it. I can hardly believe how much joy he has brought to our lives. Everyone is happier because he's here. We love you baby boy, happy birthday.

He was not shy and he's a shover. I think he thought it was a contest, who could shove the most in their mouth at once. You won Luke, you won.

And of course it's so darn good that you must lick the plate and then rub it on your head.

What do you suppose

we could do with this? It's for sale and maybe if we all pool our resources it could be OURS!

My vote would be a giant and fantastic game of Red Rover, Red Rover. What's your vote?

Did you know?

Roger and I watched a few minutes of National Parks on PBS the other night. I know the show is getting good reviews and I'm ashamed to say we haven't really watched it. Although in the few minutes we were watching they mentioned how a Joshua tree got it's name. Did any of you know how? Obviously I knew about the U2 album and have seen a Joshua tree, but I didn't know how it got it's name. Apparently Mormon pioneers saw the tree in their travels out west and likened the tree to the prophet Joshua; his arms lifted up in prayer. The name stuck. Now you know...

Why do I do this to myself?

I've had all kinds of things to blog about, yet I haven't, so now I have to play catch-up. For my own sake I wanted to record all this, so you are all free to tune out.....................................NOW!

Kevin and Kelly were here over Labor Day. Kevin motivated Roger to get a project done. I'm happy to say that our kitchen is finally done. Before: no quarter round.

After: lovely quarter round. (It only took 2 years)

I hate and I mean really hate acting, any kind of it, like role playing, acting out stories, you name it, I loathe it. I forget that the girls don't feel the same way. They love it. They acted out the story of Abinadi and King Noah for Family Home Evening, it was great. I definitely have them do that more often, as long as I can stay out of it! Avery is Abinadi in chains and Ashby is evil King Noah.

Avery celebrated her 5th birthday. Where does the time go? I love you my sweet Avs.

The day of Avery's birthday we drove to Virginia to see our friends the Ellsworth's, to visit with family and to go to the National Book Festival. We had a great time. The girls saw Arthur

and Ruff Ruffman. (by the way, may I just say what a lovely accomplishment this is on Ashby's part, she used to be horrified of people in costumes.)

Luke and Blythe became fast friends.

I had to include this picture because it's what I like to call, "Washington Monument you are much to tall to get good pictures of, but we tried and look at the awesome results"

We had so much fun in VA. Thank you to everyone. And Chris and Kim, thank you a million times over for making the trip and for finding those awesome parking spots, let's do it again soon.

What I read

My friend Kim asked me to put up a list of books that I've read on my blog. I debated about doing it for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I'm a little embarrassed about the books I read and they probably aren't blog worthy. With that in mind probably don't take my list too seriously. I haven't been able to think of a new top five for a long time, so it's time to retire it. Although I do like remembering that I shouldn't get any fatter this year when I see my blog (I know it doesn't seem like I should need my blog to remind me, but there's something about seeing that sentence on the internets that makes me not want to refute it). I'll start the list with books I've read recently or some that I really liked. I'm also kind of a neurotic or obsessive reader. Once I find an author that I like, I don't rest until I've read almost all their books. I'm weird like that, but I've found some gems that way too. I'd love to hear if you've read any of these books and what you thought... Happy reading!

Do you love it?

I love and I mean love fall in Pennsylvania. The weather has been awesome and humidity almost non existent. Roger keeps saying that there's love in the air, what I think he's really trying to say is that it's football season. Is there anything better than fall and college football? Little, very little I would say. Go Cougars and all I'm asking out of this weekend's game is that you not totally humiliate yourselves OK? Good.

Also, I don't get it. What do you ask, well I'll tell you (it's my blog right?), women that walk around in workout gear. Am I to believe that these individuals just got done working out and needed to hurry and run some errands before they could change? If that's the case where can I sign up for the non-red and sweaty post workout face? Or is it because there's nothing else to wear? Or is it just because these people plan on eating lots of cookies so they need an elastic waistband? I can't figure it out. Anyone have any insight?

I'm not really sure

when this happened. I mean, look how big these girls are. Good grief.

Ashby and Avery on their first day of school.

Sweet Ashby's face. Oh yes I forgot to mention that Ashby lost her seventh tooth last week. She was very excited about it, more than any of the other lost teeth I would say.

My sweet Avs. Did you know her favorite color is pink?

Avery getting off the bus after her first day. Avery is in the preschool program through our school district. They bus all the kids in the program to their building that is only about half a mile away. Ashby's school is just up the street so we walk, but the little one has to ride the bus!

What to do

The girls start school tomorrow, seriously? I can't believe it. I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about it. I didn't think it would be so hard to send your second baby off to school. The thought of Avery getting on that school bus and driving away is almost more than I can take. She's been with me always and now she'll be gone every day. Yes it's only 3 hours and yes it's only preschool, but still. I'm going to miss those monkeys. Luke will too I'm sure.


I had a rather humorous experience last week and since I have no dignity, I thought I'd share. I have been trying to get into running. I've been running a couple of times a week since April. It hasn't delivered all the promises to me though. I'm not super fit and skinny yet (what, it's only because I average twice a week? well OK then.) I've been going to the track for the last couple of months. I do like it because it's easier on my knees, but holy cow it's boring. So last Thursday I went running out in the neighborhood. I got started a little later in the evening than I would have liked, so it was getting dark. It was quite dark under the big trees. That's my defense for what happened. I had been running for about a mile and I fell, that's right folks, I fell all the way down. I tripped on the uneven sidewalk then I had some serious windmill arms and then had to catch myself with my hands. There's nothing like doing that on a busy street, let me tell you, I felt like a million bucks....


I finished reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle yesterday and I really liked it. After I finished I thought to myself what I often think to myself when I finish reading a novel; why do the "good" books always have to be sad and am I the only one who doesn't get everything in the book. I find that if things aren't spelled out, I don't get it. That's one of the many reasons I'm not a literary genius. I will tell you that it's possible to still love a book even if you don't get everything.


When was the last time you ate with this much reckless abandon? Yet another reason why babies are great... (does he need a haircut?)




Luke is also not a big believer in child locks.

I forgot

I met a friend at the park today. This friend has one child, a daughter that's about six weeks younger than Luke. I remembered some things while I was talking to her. Do you remember how lonely and how different than your current life it was when you were the stay at home mom of a very young child? I had forgotten what it was like until today. The days seemed so long and could be so monotonous. Remember? Your baby can't do all that much yet, so it was so hard to entertain myself and the baby all day. It's a time I remember with mixed emotions, fondness and a little sadness. I really enjoy our current stage of life. I like having kids in school. It seems like we'll be doing this phase for a while, but I can be sure I'll be looking back in no time at all wondering when everyone moved out.

I'm also contemplating embarking upon the humpback whale diet. What you haven't heard of it? We were watching Blue Planet yesterday and here's the scoop. When the ice breaks up in the arctic the humpback whales come and feed for four months. They fill up their fat stores to last them the rest of the year. So you in? Gorge for four months and then fast for eight months. I couldn't not lose weight right? What you don't think it would work, well OK then, back to the drawing board I guess.

And last, have you been watching Better Off Ted? We love it. I laughed myself silly last night. We had two episodes on the DVR and I laughed a lot. I'm pretty sure that means it's going to be cancelled any minute, especially because there was a stint with magicians. That seems to be a common element in our favorite no longer on the air shows. "It's an ILLUSION, Michael."

All that jazz

For some reason this summer is weird. It's almost over which I have mixed feelings about, but I also kind of feel stuck in limbo. There's not much going on, not much I feel like reporting, but we aren't miserable either. It's just weird. This is kind of what we've been doing.

We've been trying to do a few projects. These took a couple of days, which was nice. The girls painted the faces and picked out the clothes. We're still working out what to do for arms. Right now they look like the less glamorous neighbors of Higglytown.

I found this plain white tray at Ikea. We decided to make a project out of it and send it to my mom for her birthday. The girls had a good time cutting up old magazines. I really liked how it turned out, I hope my mom did too.

The girls made a mailbox that unfortunately only kept them occupied for one afternoon. They love the mail, I thought for sure they would play with this for a couple of days. Oh well, we'll try something else.

We have been gardening again this year. It was amazing and slightly alarming how much our plants grew while we were gone for two weeks. This was our most ingenious idea this year, plant zucchini plants on our unused hill that used to house an apple tree. Last year this hill became a trash heap, we dumped all the yard debris and rocks from around the yard here. Roger and the girls worked hard getting it cleared out this spring and the zucchini have been incredibly happy here.

Roger spotted this in the yard a little while ago. Can you tell what it is? I really couldn't at first, but it's a baby rabbit. That's one of the funny things about this area, we have bunnies everywhere. They're just the wild ones, but i get a kick out of them nonetheless. We have never seen one this tiny though. I was really worried about it because they usually don't come out of their den until they are bigger. I think we've had at least 4 bunny holes in our yard this year. One day the girls and I watched the mama dig her hole for the babies, we saw this a few days later. I hope this little one was OK.

I had the very fortunate experience of getting a new calling at church on Sunday. I am now the Sunbeam teacher (teaching the 4 year olds). I'm so excited I can barely take it. We'll see how Sunday goes, hopefully I'll still feel as excited about it on Sunday evening.

What we found

We found a fun place to swim last weekend. It's a local reservoir that has a little beach. When I say little I mean like you can only swim out about 100 yards before the buoys tell you that you cannot pass because there are boats. It was perfect for our little family. The price was right too, only $2 for the whole family.

This is what Luke did the entire time. He's absolutely fearless and really didn't care when the water got too deep. It is worrisome indeed.

Ashby enjoying the lake. I was standing on the sand and took her picture, you can see the you cannot pass buoys in the background. It was small indeed.

Avery preferred digging in the sand over swimming, I can't say I blame her. The water was a little too murky for me too. On a side note, what happened to me? I didn't use to care about murky water, now it kind of gives me the heebie jeebies.

The kids getting ready to pull out.

I also wanted to include these pictures from the fourth of July. We have a new point and shoot camera and I won't ever be able to use more than half the functions on it, however I did find this cool night scene setting and it was good for catching some sparkler action. The best thing to do with sparklers? Write your name of course, this is Ashby's y.

Avery was fixin' to lasso her something good, probably a candy bar or some lip gloss.

Mediocrity

I had a discussion with my sister in law this week about being mediocre. I am the definition of mediocre and I'm totally OK with that. Every now and again, especially when I get sucked into the blogosphere, I wish I was or could do something really outstanding or tremendous, but then I remember I'm totally OK with mediocrity and I carry on. I've been feeling so guilty about not posting anything in a while, but the truth is, life has been mediocre. Which isn't a bad thing. I prefer stability to the wild swinging of ups and downs anyway. Things are going just fine. We are going to the library, a lot, which means we are reading a lot and that's great. It's been raining so we've been watching TV, a lot, which really doesn't bother me that much (I'm totally over feeling guilty about that). I haven't been taking a lot of pictures for a few reasons: I'm too lazy, I've got my hands full of Luke and nothing seems that picture worthy. I guess my one real complaint about the mediocre life I lead is that time seems to pass more quickly. The girls start school in about a month and when they do, I'm sure I'll look back on the summer and have nothing to remember about it so therefore will wonder what happened to it. Were you wondering how many more times I could say mediocre? Well I think that was the last time, for now.

A month really?

As I'm looking through pictures I haven't posted yet, I can't figure out how to catch up, it exhausts me to think about it. I'm going for highlights here and hopefully for my own benefit, I'll fill in more details later. We had a wonderful time in Utah. It was too short. We spent so much time with my parents and my family, it was so great. I still can't get over the injustice of the swine flu though. Our very good friend Brittany contracted said illness while we were there which limited our time with her family, how dare she right? Here we go.

Ashby graduated from kindergarten on June 11th. Here she is with her teacher Miss Galie, we will miss her next year.

We had breakfast up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I love that mountain air.

We went swimming and barbecuing with my Ricks College roommates. Look at all those kids, the five of us have been busy. I love this picture because it illustrates how difficult it is to get kids to do something all at the same time. Thanks again Jill for offering your house and pool. The party is something the girls still consistently say was one of their favorite things about the trip.

Luke and the other little ones were busy with this chair at Jill's house. Isn't is just the right size?

We were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. I remember going to the Bountiful temple open house; I hope this is something my kids will remember for a life time. The view from the temple grounds was truly amazing.

We were able to celebrate Kid's Day while in Utah. We took the kids to the Children's Museum. This was one of the few activities they did together.

Did you know a kiddie pool was so fun? Swimming on Kid's Day.

We try to ride a carousel on Kid's Day, here's Avs.

Here's Ashby. She chose the dragon, man I love the dragon!