Our Month

Morgan was a Wise Man at our Ward Christmas Party

Josh got to make a Christmas Tree Ornament

Eli was Happy about his ornament.

The Primary Kids sang a couple of songs.

Josh sang a little bit. 

Giving Gifts

Noelle loves to spit.  Here are some pictures of her spitting when she should be eating.

I bought myself a new hat. I needed one that fit well. I found this great monkey had and decided to go for it.  Yes, it is a bit silly, but it fits and is warm.

Morgan put some Christmas lights up on our tree and our fence. We also put Frosty and Santa by the fence, it is a much better spot than we had last year. Horray for new traditions.

One cute picture of Noelle playing with a toy baby bottle. She is such a cutie!

Disc Golf

Yes it is winter and too cold for the boys to be playing disc golf, but we cant' get it off our minds!  Eli has been talking about wanting his own disc golf bag, so Josh wanted one too. We told them that they had to save their money and pay for half of the cost and then we would let them get them.  We went to count their money and both boys were dangerously close to having enough.  After two weeks of doing extra chores we counted their money again. Eli had $8 and Josh had $6. Eli said he would give one dollar to Josh so that they would both be able to get their bags.  Next thing you know the boys have their own DG bags.

Opening the package.

The bags are different colors so we can tell them apart. 

Eli quickly put his discs into his bag. 

Josh is really excited to have his, too!.

Can You Make a Cross?

The Elder's Cross 

Eli's Cross 

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner. When it was time for the spiritual thought Elder Knight told a story about a man who wanted the missionaries to make a cross out of a single piece of paper with only one tear. Eli said that he could do that, so I had Josh go get him a piece of paper. I knew that Elder Knight was going to fold his paper and make a cross come from it, and thought it would be good for Eli to see the difference.

Well, Eli taught all of us. He took his piece of paper and carefully ripped it down the center and then combined the two pieces to make a cross. We all laughed and were a little embarrassed because Eli had taught us all.



Speaking of funny Eli stories, I have another one for you. Sunday was Fast and Testimony meeting and the Des Moines, Iowa mission president happened to be visiting. The first sister who got up to bear her testimony only speaks Spanish. One of our other ward members translated for her. After her testimony she shook hands with the Mission president and his wife.

Eli asked if he could bear his testimony next. We let Eli go up by himself because he is able to bear his testimony without help and without going off topic. Anyway, he bore a very nice testimony then Eli turned around and shook hands with the mission president, his wife, the deacon on the stand and continued on shaking hands with the members of the bishopric. There were quite a few chuckles from the congregation, mine included.
Later he told me that his favorite part of bearing his testimony was shaking everyone's hands.

Christmas Ready

We set up our Christmas tree and put up all of our decorations.  I love Christmas time.  It makes the house seem more peaceful and calm to have the twinkling lights and nativities everywhere. There is just something wonderful about this time of year.

Josh and the Tree 

Eli wanted to be hugging the tree for his picture. 

Noelle happily played on the floor. 

Pictures from Thanksgiving

Honey and Noelle hanging out 

Morgan modeling Oma's hat & glasses

Cousins Anne and Noelle 

The kids

BB Guns!

Eli getting a try 

Playing with leaves

Morgan shooting cans 

Noelle's new headband

Anne with her new headband made by Shannon

My three boys!

Shannon and Noelle 

Josh and Eli really love Honey.

The kids visiting Doris. 

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Morgan's birthday was just before Thanksgving.  I got him some new tires for his bike and then 3 used movies. I let the boys pick which one 'they' gave to him.  Eli chose Nacho Libre - he had seen the preview and loved that it was about wrestling.
Josh chose Where the Wild Things Are - the boys think we will let them watch the movie since they have read the book, but they are going to have to wait until they are older.
Noelle got to give Morgan Avatar by default.

I made Morgan a homemade Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and we got to have bratwurst for dinner.  It was just a nice mellow birthday.

Josh's Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures we had taken after Josh turned 3 years old.

Thanksgiving Fun

We have been enjoying our time in Chillicothe with Morgan's family. Tonight we went to see Breaking Dawn, Part 1.  I really enjoyed it. I think that it is my favorite adaptation so far. I can't wait to see the next movie and will get my fix by reading book 4 of the series again.  The inevitable changes to the plot were the least frustrating, and I liked seeing Stephanie Meyer at the wedding.  (If you see the movie, she is the first wedding guest you see, and wearing purple.)

I also did some Black Friday shopping today. I waited until Noelle woke me up at 6am and then leisurely ate some breakfast and went out around 7:30am. I found some great movies, a waffle iron, and Morgan asked me to buy him a BB gun.

We played a couple of games; Uno, Lucky Down and Bohnanza. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to go play some disc golf.

I hope that your Thanksgiving is going as wonderfully!

Thanksgiving

I have hesitated posting, not really feeling that it was my place. But, on November 16th Isaac and Porter Palmer entered and left this earthly life.  I never got to meet my sweet nephews. I am very grateful to their mother, Kim, for updating her blog with pictures and the talks from the funeral. I am so thankful for her testimony that she freely shares.

I am so thankful for our loving God who takes care of us. He knows how to comfort us and give us strength.

I am thankful for my children and my husband. Morgan does so much for me, and is a wonderful husband.

I am thankful for our home and the comforts we have. I love having a working toilet, internet and tv. I like being able to microwave food and make a good loaf of bread.

I am thankful for my friends. My life is so much more full because of the relationships I have. 

I am thankful for family. I think I have the best mother-in-law in the world. She is so giving and such a wonderful example to me.

I am thankful for my parents. They really sacrificed so much in raising my siblings and I. They are truly great people whom I love very much.

I am thankful for the scriptures. I love to read my scriptures first thing in the morning and the peace and help that it gives me through each day.

I am thankful for prayer. Heavenly Father hears us. He loves us. He answers us. I look forward to see Him again. I want to be worthy to enter his presence and feel his love surround me.

Commercials

Morgan and I were sitting in the office working on the computer tonight. Eli comes running into the office asking us to buy some sort of magic ball that you can do tricks with all over your body.

Morgan reminded Eli that commercials try to get you to buy things, and that E doesn't need that ball, but is saving up money for a disc golf bag.

Eli responds that he doesn't want to buy the ball, he wants us to buy it for him. 


Later he comes running in again saying, "Mom, Dad, do you know what the best bed in America is?"  He then goes on to explain it is one where you can jump on the bed and have a glass of juice on the bed too and it won't tip over. He thought that we should buy that too.  

Our son is definitely influenced by commercials. It just gives us one more reason to not let him watch very much T.V.

This Month So Far

It seems like I am using the camera less and less and so I don't update the blog as often.  We are having beautiful Fall weather and so yesterday was a raking day.  Morgan and the boys rakes most of the yard (I helped with a little corner).  I also worked on trimming the grapes and vacuuming the whole house. Morgan helped a family that was moving take loads to the dump so the day was very full. 
The boys surprised us by coloring all over the walls. They have never done that before and I hope they never do it again. 
I have been getting ready for the Primary program, it is going to be next week.  Hopefully our chorister will be back by then.

Mostly we are doing every day stuff all the time. We're trying to get ready for Christmas and hope to get all of our shopping done by this time next week. 

Here are the few pictures I've taken lately.

I came to the Living room one morning to find that Josh had put the lifejacket on himself. He is ready for a Flash Flood.

Noelle, cute, with her bow and pacifier.

She is getting stronger and almost ready to start scooting!

As ever, she is almost always happy and smiling.

I tried a new recipe and made Seafood Lasagna.  It turned out pretty well, although next time I would change the cream of mushroom soup to a cream of chicken and see how that goes.

Halloween Boys

Eli was very serious about being a Ninja.  Josh described himself as a Ninja Lightening McQueen.  They both had a really good time Trick or Treating.