November

November here we come! I love Thanksgiving and while the delicious food certainly plays a roll in why I love this day so much I also love the chance to be reflective for the things I am most thankful for. To start out the month of November I gave a FHE lesson on gratitude on November 1st, it was so nice a Monday was the first day of November so we could get the month started out right with lots of gratitude! As part of the lesson we made a Thankful Tree, and hung it on the living room wall. We wrote things that we were thankful for on leaves and taped them on, we continued to add leaves throughout the whole month. Audrey and Savannah loved grabbing leaves and writing down thankful thoughts and taping them on the branches. Grace couldn't write words so she drew pictures of things she was thankful for to add to the tree. It was really neat to read and look at all of their sweet sentiments. It was a really wonderful project and helped us really think about all the blessings we have to be thankful for. In that same spirit of being thankful, I want to share just a few of my top blessings. I am so thankful for my sweet children, the bring so much joy and happiness to my life. I am thankful for a hard-working husband, who does so much for me and the kids. I am thankful for my home, although I gripe at times, I truly am thankful that we have a home of our own. I am so thankful to live in Idaho Falls, so close to family and a great place to raise a family. I am especially thankful for the gospel and my testimony of it's truthfulness, it is the greatest blessing in my life.

Our Thankful Tree. It was completely full by Thanksgiving, so much to be grateful for!

Celebrating Grandma's birthday surrounded by all her grandkiddos! So much fun to be able to gather together to celebrate special occasions.

Savannah working hard getting all the leaves raked to get our yard ready for winter's arrival. She was so much help this fall, what a great girl!

Grace jumping is all of Savannah's hard work, Savannah was so patient with her as she repeatedly jumped in the piles Savannah was making. That is the super fun thing to do in a pile of leaves of course!

Kaylee and Grace trying to pull a fast one on me, cute little sneaky girls. Lisa had been under the weather for several days, eventually resulting in surgery, poor thing- so we had Kaylee over quite a bit so Lisa could rest. On this particular day I let the girls know that it was almost time to take Kaylee home and they both ran off to Grace's room and shut the door. I could hear giggling so I listened at the door to their conspiring. They thought that if they fell asleep quickly I certainly wouldn't have the heart to wake them up to take Kaylee home so they could have a sleepover. They kept trying to shush each other and settle down but that was an impossible task for two giggly girls! In the end Kaylee did have to go home, they had an excellent plan, just failed in execution! They are so cute together. I am glad they are so close and enjoy spending time together.

Usually the first snowfall of the year is just a skiff, not this year though winter roared in with a vengeance! We were hit with a blizzard, it was crazy!! The winds during the blizzard were so strong that it created huge drifts all over the backyard. The kids loved climbing on them and playing in the snow. Ashlyn came over to join in the winter wonderland!

Lounging on the drifts in the backyard. They were all frozen solid when they finally came in from the cold. They loved warming up to hot chocolate with marshmallows. It was a really fun way to kick off winter though for kids, so much snow all at once!

A new tradition for Thanksgiving!! Emily, Lisa and I collaborated to make Our Book of Thanks, a book that everyone will get to write the things they are thankful for each Thanksgiving. I hope we will keep this tradition going year after year. Those that couldn't write this year drew pictures of what they were thankful for. It was so cute. It will be so neat to look back over the years and see all of our thankful thoughts. I love the idea of have a record of all that we are grateful for years to come.

Look at that delicious Thanksgiving table! We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! It was at our house this year and things were cozy, well downright squishy really, but wonderful nonetheless! We had 20 people at our house! Our family of six, Mom, Dad, Emily, Ronan, Lisa, Mike, Kaylee, Lydia, Brent, Laura, Steve, Rena, Maddie and Demery! Steve and Rena had Thanksgiving plans that were interrupted due to the bad weather, too bad for them but lucky for us because we got to have them join in on our festivities.

My favorite part of the day is definitely making the dressing with my mom and sisters. We make an absolute ton, we have to practically mix it in a 50 gallon drum! My dad makes the same remarks year after year about our quantity, that we'll never eat it all, there will be a ton leftover, it is so funny! He's right of course about all of it, but making too much is the fun of it! The recipe is so good and it is so fun to make it together, such a fun project each Thanksgiving!

The kid table- look at all those sweet girls ready to dine together!

Most everyone getting ready to dive in to our wonderful meal! It was delicious food and wonderful conversation- a blissfully perfect day!

The kids did it again! They found our perfect Christmas tree! We love going to Town and Country Gardens each year and picking out a beautiful tree for our living room. This one was so full and pretty and made our house smell perfectly Christmasy! I love starting the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving, such a fun tradition!

Jonas was fascinated with the setting up process this year, he was in the thick of it with dad. It was so cute to watch him "helping."

Christmas Magic struck at our house again this year! I just love this tradition! After the kids went to bed- Larren, Savannah and I got to work like busy little elves transforming the house into a Christmas wonderland! Larren and I decided that once the kids reach age eight they can stay up with us to decorate the house. This is Savannah's second year staying up with us, it was so much fun to have that time with her. We listened to carols, drank hot chocolate and generally had a blast. Mom and dad even came over for a while to pitch in on our Christmas Magic. It was so much fun! The house is all Christmasfied and I must say our house looks so pretty with a little Christmas Magic.

Christmas Magic breakfast this year, the kids loved the Santa pancakes.

The kids seeing their Christmas Magic breakfast. Look at those cute reactions on their faces! I just love surprising my kids!

The finished product! The tree is so beautiful all decorated in the window! Now we just need some brown paper packages tied up with string under that tree! I just love Christmas!