Thankful on Thanksgiving!

This year was our 10th annual trip to the Sea Mansion ~ our yearly Thanksgiving tradition where we do nothing for 5 days but sit, eat, talk, play, dig in the sand, and swim in the freeeeeezing cold water!  Our Galveston beachhouse is one of our family's favorite things to look forward to.   Non-stop football throwing, cooking, singing, playing cards... and ofcourse getting sick.  This year, only 2 went to the ER -- Kenny for the worst strep case the dr. had ever seen, and Cannon for poison ivy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids caught sand crabs and put them in buckets, then the bigger crabs tore apart the littler crabs piece by piece. Kassie’s dead serious prayer that night: “Heavenly Father, we pray that Shrimpy (the small cannibalized crab) will be received into your highest kingdom.” 

And the best Thanksgiving present ever... welcome home to cute Michael! We were so excited to welcome him homeWhat a darling missionary -- all of Daron's brothers look so much alike, it's amazing!  He was just a little boy when I married Daron. How time flies.

I came home from our fun church event last night... (here's me with cute Emily) and found 3 of my 4 siblings waiting for me, in their swimsuits ready to hot tub and watch a movie at 9PM. What a hoot - I LOVE THEM!

We also recently celebrated Dad's 70th birthday -- love that man!

We had a fun surprise when we got back from our vacation  -- a young man 5 doors down was driving and TEXTING and smashed our  brick mailbox to pieces... glad no one was around. Bricks flew everywhere and damaged our neighbors car and driveway; Stephen's here holding the flattened metal box that was inside the bricks. Driving texters = deadly.

 

 

 
Kenny recently asked me, "I wonder if Geneve got hurt when she fell out of heaven." Shows how highly they elevate their dog... she came straight from God's side. A few minutes later, it was ~ "What would have happened if you didn’t show up on the day of my birth?" Well, I had to be there, I’m your mom. "But what if a criminal came and took me out of your tummy, what would you do then?"

"When I grow up to be an Old Grandma...

I'm still going to be a rock star."  That was Kassie's comment to me last night before going to sleep. Love that girl.

It was a hard day yesterday, taking down the Mitt Romney sign from the yard.  We'll all keep praying for President Obama to make wiser choices than he has in the past.  We're still the greatest nation on earth, and I just hope that our families will be safe living here in America.

But regardless of who's president, we'll still be drawing on the driveway with chalk...

Swimming with Sarah Rosenlund's family ~ we heated up the hottub for her.

And thanks to Tiff's generous gift of a GARDEN box, we now have sweet potatoes!

 

Having fun in YW... here's Daron teaching self-defense to the girls.

Things that make me happy today...

1.  Daron being on vacation this week... he's much more awake and interactive in the mornings when he doesn't have to go to work...

2.  This cool, inspiring graphic ~ "step forward"

 

 

3.   My friendly neighborhood Kroger store.  I bought a load of groceries today, and came home to discover I had a whole extra bag of expensive cut deli meats and cheeses.  When I called the Store Manager to tell him I was on my way back to the store to return it all, he happily said - 'Ah, no problem, miss - just keep all that food and enjoy it today -- I'll be sure to replace all that food for her if she comes back to the store!"  I love good, kind people!

 

4.  Kassie's new "Sego-Sister" business - she looks so cute doing her door-to-door schpiel: "Hi I'm Kassie, the Sego Sister - I'm earning money for school. May I trim your sego palms for $5?" The first day she did 2 houses and made $17 -- wahoo!  (I trim and she runs the fronds to the car) Mike was her first customer. 8-)

 

5.  Bionic dog.  This is the face I see at every moment of the day when Geneve is around.  Always looking at me with these big huge eyes, saying "when are we going on a walk? Please take me on a walk.  I want to go see my friends, Buddy and Sparky."  And even when we return from a walk, this is STILL the face she wears, because she NEVER tires.  After running for 1 hour, she sprints at every squirrel and dog.  Then she takes a running leap into the pool to cool off, then bounds out and says, again, "when are we going on another walk?" It's pretty darn cute.

6.  Kenny's bedtime chat.    Putting Kenny to bed last night, he was full of questions. I can remember being little like that and having my mind just GO at night time, and Mom and Dad would always just lay on the bed and chat and listen.   I'm not sure the train of thought between all his questions... "How long ago did HP start? Is it hard being a mommy? I can't wait to be a daddy. If you and Dad and Stephen and Kassie all died, do I call 911? When can we go back to Switzerland?"  Bless his little heart, with all his little thoughts.

Lovin' Fall!

 

DREAM come true to have Kas and Mike move to Houston! Here we are chaperoning a quad-stake dance together since we're both YW Presidents for our wards... so fun!

 

 

Carving the season's first pumpkin...

 

 

A local pumpkin patch... smores, hayride and dancing!

 

 

 

Church trunk-or-treating

 

 

 

Sharing pumpkin love with her Avengers legos... very important.

 

 

Poor, poor Geneve.

 

 

The fencers.  Their favorite sport, twice a week!

 

 

The HP Fall Picnic!

We love HP and the fun events they host for us!

(At the Oil Ranch, about 45 minutes away)
 

 

 

While I appreciate where milk comes from, something just feels wrong about this...

 

More fun times last week... a girly jewelry luncheon ~

 

Kids playing dress-up in Aunt Jenny's Renaissance costumes...

Muffins with Mom day at Theiss Elementary!

 

Fun things we're excited about...

 

1. Watching General Conference with our dog. She was very tired the whole time.

 

 

2. Hanging with cousins.

 

 

3. Being YW President! Getting to attend youth firesides with Stephen, (maroon shirt, middle right)

 

 

 and doing fun outings with the cute girls!

 

4.  Having a cool surprise this week!

 

 

5.  Enjoying Kassie's LOVE for fencing, and awed at Jenny's graphic design talents!

 

 

Why we have a dog...

Nuff said.