Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving morning I wanted t start off the day participating in the Turkey Trot at SDRC. There are various length of races to enter, but the 5K seems just right for me. Sarah and I ran it a few years ago, and had a great time. I knew however, that it probably wasn't a good idea.

The last little while (a few months), I have not been exercising. I could get out my violin and tell you the many reasons why, but I'll spare you the boredom.  Today, Thanksgiving Day, I finally felt able to exercise again.

Katelyn and I decided to take the dog and have our own little "Turkey Trot".  I wasn't sure how far I'd be able to walk, since I'm basically starting over.  We began by walking from our house to the temple. When we arrived at the temple, we decided to walk further.  We walked from the Bountiful temple to Smith's Market to purchase some flowers for Steve's grave. Meg laughed when we called to tell her that we would be there shortly, (she lives right by Smith's and we needed some money) she didn't think we would make it.  After, a 4.5 mile walk, Kate and I arrived at Meg's condo.  What a beautiful day, for a lovely walk!

We spent Thanksgiving with Steve's family. Lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, along with my married children.  A big wonderful family feast!  Along with the traditional Thanksgiving meal were homemade pies, and candy.  Plenty of delicious desserts and treats.

The day wouldn't be complete without the ping pong tournament.  We spent hours visiting, feasting, and playing games. What a great time!

I have a lot to be thankful for!

The Turkey Trot, cutting through to get to Meg's house, and the cute little elf we found.

The Feast

Relatives, crutches (Mike sprained his "good" ankle playing basketball this morning, ping pong, and girls in purple.

The Cottle's

The Hansen's

Pre-Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving Eve festivities are in full swing.  Ben reminded of our annual turkey donation to the Utah Food Bank.  I usually have our donation ready and delivered weeks in advance, not this year.  The workers seemed extremely busy today.  Not surprising since it is the day before Thanksgiving.  I hope there is not a person out there that goes without all the fixings this year.

Lizzy has become the master mind behind Grandma Brown's famous molasses turkey cookies. There are some traditions that the kids love to continue, and this is definitely one of them.  Meg and I helped her with them, but she followed through to the end.

This year, we will be spending Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Brown's.  With 32 expected guests, my food assignment is mashed potatoes.  Kate was kind enough to peel and cut a 20 lb bag of potatoes for me.  They are mashed and ready for the Thanksgiving feast!

Thanksgiving Day.....here we come!

The delivery crew.

Up close and personal....with the turkey cookie.

Lots of Turkey Cookies, and the cute girl that made them.

My Thanksgiving Day assignment.

Dangers in Texting

I am known for my inadequate texting skills.  I am usually in a hurry when texting and don't review my message before I hit the send button.  I am especially bad at group texting, but I love it.  I can group text all my children at once rather than send messages one by one.  I use group texting to inform everyone when dinner will be served, etc.  This can be a problem.  On occasion I have sent dinner invites to people in my neighborhood rather than my kids.   If your name begins with M, S, M, K, or L, you know what I'm talking about.  Sorry friends!

Lately, I have been REALLY bad at texting.  Every time I type yes, it defaults to no, and I'd loved to, to I'd hate to, etc. etc.  Sometimes I have caught the default problem and many times I have not (so sorry Melanie Larsen).  I finally got smart and said to my kids, "Who, has been messing with my cell phone?"  I could tell my the grin on one child's face, that she was the culprit.  When I asked what she had done, she said, "Well, on Pinterest, they tell you how to change the settings in your cell phone, so that whatever you text it will default to the opposite." You little stinker!  I'm bad enough with texting without an opposite default helping me become more incompetent.

Winter Wonderland

Last weekend it snowed, and snowed, and snowed.  By the time it stop snowing, we had about 2 feet of snow in Bountiful.  There is something serene and beautiful about the first snow of the season.  I love watching the snowflakes flutter around in the sky, and lightly land on the ground, over and over again, making mounds of glistening snow. The snow makes me slow down, just a bit.

Mike built this fabulous snow cave for Ben.  After removing the snow from our driveway numerous times, a huge wall of snow had developed.  They dug a hole and made a snow cave.  Ben and Mitch loved it! It entertained them for hours.

Man Cave

Serenity

More Diligent and Concerned At Home

Morning or evenings, that is the question when it comes to family scripture study. I have wavered in my thoughts as to which time of day was best for MY family. At the beginning of the school year, I would wake up early, make my kids a hot breakfast, bribing them to come to scripture study at the breakfast table.

We are NOT morning people, and the kids have wanted to sleep a little more in the morning and have scriptures at night.  I don’t mind, evening or morning, whatever works is best. However, sometimes the evening gets away from us before we remember family scripture study.

One morning I decided to have scripture study without the bribe of a hot breakfast.  This is a picture of my kids. I had to wonder if any actual learning had taken place. 

Yes that little hand you see is a person under the covers.

Feeling discouraged and guilty, I was reminded of a talk given by Elder Bednar titled, "More Diligent and Concerned At Home.  Maybe my kids aren't "poking, prodding, or fighting" (too early for that, they leave that for FHE), but I am hoping that somehow I can be consistent, somehow they will know I loved them enough to try.

Reserved

Saturday morning I woke to the noise of Ben bustling about. I could faintly hear him watching TV, feeling discontent, and scurry to the next form of entertainment. Still longing for sleep, I was in and out of consciousness.

After a while of listening to the pitter-patts of small feet moving about, I heard the door to my room open. When I finally rolled to the other side of my bed, I noticed a plaque that had been place on the opposite side of my bed. It was a sign used at TSG to reserve Steve’s parking space. Having placed it in a storage box over 4 years ago, I had forgotten about it. It read, “This space reserved for Steve Brown, the foreman with flair.

While entertaining himself, Ben had found a storage box full of Steve’s memorvilla. I wondered what his innocent little mind was thinking as he looked through many of his Dad’s belongings. I wish I would have been there with him, but maybe it was something he needed to do himself.

Ben was waiting patiently for me to recognize his finding. When I finally acknowledged the plaque laying on the opposite side of my bed Ben said, “Don’t forget mom, this space is reserved for Dad.” He had a smile on his face, and so did I. Beneath the smiles were some unspoken tender feelings.

Bountiful High School Stomps

Wow Mike!

Really Girls?

This past week the two girls' at home, namely, Kate and Lizzy, had a huge disagreement/argument/fight, over  - what else -  clothes.  "What?", you might ask. They aren't even same size?  My question exactly!  Somehow, they share shoes, some shirts, jackets, or something like that.

Well, things got a little escalated one day, and the altercation began.  I thought they had "worked things out" when Ben came and reported, "Mom, Lizzy is locked in her room, and not I'm even kidding."  He had a grin on his face, so I had to wonder.  Sure enough when I got to her room, she was locked in her room and couldn't get out.

How could this happen, one may ask?  Lizzy, determined to protect her rights to her clothing, took it upon herself to replace her bedroom doorknob with a locking knob.  Unfortunately, she couldn't get either knob back on, so the mechanical inner portion of the knob was left without a doorknob to turn it, thus making her unable to open her door.

If I would have taken maintenance 101, I would know that you can squeeze some metals together inside and open your door.  However, without that knowledge I asked Mike to help.  Mike's solution - maybe he didn't take maintenance 101 either-, was to climb through his window unto the roof, into Lizzy's room, and both of them would climb back onto the roof, climb through his window and out his bedroom door.

Where was I when this was happening?  I'm not sure, but it definitely was not approved by the head of household!

Mike quickly figured out - or maybe he knew the whole time - how to get Lizzy in and out of her bedroom without a doorknob. Problem solved, well it depends on who you ask.  Lizzy loves not having a doorknob because her sister doesn't know how to get in.  I think it looks a little white-trashish if you ask me.

Heart Breaker

The Presidential Election is over (sigh), and it was a heart-breaker.  My main man didn’t win, and I’m trying real hard to be a good sport about it.  So, instead of ranting and raving, I’ll just say, Mitt, I believe you are a great man of integrity, had a wonderful vision for our country, and would have been a fabulous President.  That is all (not really I could say a lot more, but I won’t).

Moving forward, I really hope we can become more united and work together in politics.  America is a great place to live!  I’m proud to be an American!

The end.

End of the Pee Wee Football Season

The Pee Wee Football Season came to a close on Saturday.  Ben's team made it to the play-offs, and were crushed by Alta.  So sad!

Ben and his besty.

Ben's fans.

Football! The "big" guy for Kearns weighed 230!

More Fans!

Halloween 2012

I went to the market early Halloween morning since I hadn't pre-ordered my scone dough or glazed donuts.  Customers were already bustling about, and standing in the long bakery lines.  I was glad to get their early, get my purchases and start cooking before participating in the elementary school party.

As tradition has it, I make homemade chili, chicken noodle soup, scones, and had glazed donuts for dessert.  I try to lure my kids and their friends to my house for dinner with lots of food.

My first trick-or-treater for the night was my adorable little grandson, dressed as a giraffe.  He was so happy, and fun!

The older kids stayed throughout the evening watching the Jazz game and helping attend to the trick-or-treaters.  I was glad that I had bought extra candy.  It came in handy.  I have never had so many trick-or-treaters.  I am sure it had something to do with the extremely fair weather.  It happened to be a record breaking warm Halloween night.

Another successful Halloween!

The eatins'.

Adorable little giraffe!

Manly Hunter

Using the camouflage.

Punks treat-or-treating. (Ben and Mitch)

Grandma Brown's Halloween Party 2012

Football and dance delayed our attendance at Grandma Brown's Halloween Party.  We might have been delayed, but in NO WAY were we going to miss one of our favorite parties of the year.

Hot scones,  soup, and chili, awaited us to satisfy our appetites.  Even though the weather was every mild for this time of year, we love this meal.  Each family carries on the tradition of bringing one of Grandma Brown's traditional soups or chill.  They have all been tweaked a little, but are still wonderful.

The kids fish for prizes over the deck railing,  This game is still a hit, even as the kids are starting to get older.  The pinatas are hung over the basketball hoop and both young and old grand kids are able to show off their skills.  It's amazing who seems to be the most aggressive of the bunch.

The parade wasn't officially organized, but we were able to get a good look at all the great costumes. My favorites (that were not in my immediate family) were E as Cleopatra, and James as a mummy.  Of course, my top choices would be Mason; the little giraffe, and Ben the Hunter.  Ben took his character quite serious, hiding everywhere and wanting me to come find him.

The donut game is always a hit!  It's actually harder than you would think.  Even Aunt Jen took a turn bobbing for a donut. What a good sport!

Ben said it was the best party ever, I'd have to agree!

Camouflage-working well!

Cutest little giraffe!

Girls'

First Halloween party.

Fishing

Pinata 

Bobbing for donuts.

Guests - Uncle Pete and his girls'.

Bountiful High School Halloween Dance 2012

Several adorable cheerleaders appeared at our door to ask Mike to the Bountiful High School Halloween Dance.  After a clever and captivating performance, a Halloween container of candy was left for Mike to figure out who had asked him to the dance.  It didn't take long to determine that Nikelle Lonnecur would be his date to the dance.

Mike, his date, and their group, went to the dance as scrabble.  Nikelle provided his costume, which is always a plus for the date and his mom.

The ACT test happened to fall on the day of the dance, which required a few adjustments. Their "day activity" was dinner at the Pizza Pie Cafe the night before.  

The night of the dance the scrabble team ate dinner at the Pie, ran through the SL Cemetery, and tried to go to Hobbit Ville.  Scary activities, on a scary Halloween dance night!  

Ben was asked to participate in the spook alley at the school.  He went in old jeans and a T-shirt, and within a few minutes they had him looking like a scary zombie.  I walked through the spook alley with him, and was so impressed with the amount of time and effort that went into the entertainment for the dance attendees.

The dance floor was also incredibly decorated. Kudos to the officer's and their parents for providing the students with a fabulous night!

Asking to the dance.

Scrabble

Bountiful High School Dance and Spook Alley