Gobble, Gobble

Thanksgiving 2012

We were invited to spend Thanksgiving this year with a family who lives in our ward.  They are an older couple, and one of their daughters was visiting (along with her husband and little boy). We were so grateful to have been invited to spend Thanksgiving with them.  They were so sweet and hospitable to our little family.

The property they live on is similar to a ranch so there are many acres of beautiful land (except it is not as pretty right now because all the leaves are off the trees so it is pretty barren).  They have two dogs (beagles) who are friendly, yet gentle.  Hannah fell in love with them right away and the dogs were pretty friendly with her as well.  But Hannah's favorite part of the day was seeing the horses (she is obsessed with animals).  She would 'neigh' like a horse, and we taught her how to gallop like one too.  It was pretty funny.

But the highlight of our Thanksgiving was Hannah getting her first pony ride.  To say she loved it is an understatement.

When Hannah's pony ride was over we told her it was time to get down and she said "No! No! No!" Then Hannah immediately started saying "please, please, please," because she wanted to keep riding the pony.  At least she asked politely, right?  I can't remember how, but we somehow managed to get her off the pony with no real struggle.  Afterwards, Hannah wanted to help Shawn put the rope away that was used to guide the pony during the ride.  Hannah is always trying to help and put things away.

After the pony ride we went in to eat pies -- yummy pies!  After some pleasant conversation and waiting for the dessert to settle in our tummies, we packed up and headed for home.  Upon reaching home, we changed into our comfy clothes, skyped with Nathan's family, put Hannah to bed, and then I put up and decorated the Christmas tree (it's much easier to do without Hannah).  Those were our Thanksgiving Day festivities.

Fun Thanksgiving Joke

When I got my church assignment to work with the youth, I decided it was time to start reading the New Era magazine (the LDS magazine specifically for the youth).

The magazine has a fun section called "the extra smile," and it has a few comics displayed.  I thought this particular comment was funny, and appropriately timed for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy.

Comic picture courtesy of November 2012 New Era magazine

Secret Prayer

Some of you may remember that Hannah's first word was "amen."  Hannah often times will just stop whatever she is doing, get down on her knees, and want to pray.  She has done this many times as we have been on walks outside in our neighborhood.  She also did this in the middle of a car dealership when we had to get an oil change. But recently she has been wanting to pray in her closets.

It is so cute, and it has reminded me of the scripture Matthew 6:6 (see also Alma 33:7, and Alma 34:26):

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

A tiny little person, but such a BIG example of prayer.

Young Women in Excellence

**I thought about doing this post on my private blog for journaling purposes, but I decided to make it a public post because I know that there are many women out there who need ideas for these types of events in the LDS church.**

Last Wednesday, our ward had our Young Women in Excellence event.  This is an evening where the young women (ages 12-18) can celebrate their personal progress accomplishments they have done throughout that year (leaders included).

We had a pirate themed evening so we decorated the tables in a pirate theme, along with desserts/refreshments that were pirate related.  One of the girl's projects was making the pirate themed cupcakes.

One of the young women advisers got these anchor bracelets for the girls (which is why we wanted to do a pirate themed night).  Yes, the bracelets were a HUGE hit and the girls have worn them many times this last week.

Our young women's president related her message about having our ships anchored in our testimony of Jesus Christ, and that each time we look at our bracelets we should try and emulate Him.  She also tied in several other analogies, like making sure there are no weak links in our chains so that we don't loose our anchor when the storms of life come and make us drift away at sea and get lost.  The entire evening was a huge success, but I am glad that it is over because it was a lot of work for the leaders.

Caterpillar

When the weather was nice a warm a few weeks ago, Hannah and I went on several walks in our neighborhood.  One day we found a fuzzy black caterpillar.  For about 30 minutes we watched this caterpillar move from the middle of the road to the grass in our neighbors yard.  She was totally engrossed with it.

Needless to say, The Very Hungry Caterpillar has become Hannah's new favorite book.  She'll bring the book to us to read with her, and when we open the book she points to the caterpillar on every single page.  When she fines the little critter, she says "capriar" and does the sign for it too (which is really cute by the way).

The Very Hungry Caterpillar picture courtesy of wikipedia.com

Halloween Part II

This last weekend Nathan and I got to attend a Halloween party where it was just for adults only, and we had a blast! I have not had that much fun in a while. We ate great food, socialized, and played lots of fun games.

I made our costumes and it only cost 30 cents per costume.  How awesome is that? I bought the balloons at Walmart for 30 cents, the clear bags are from the dry cleaners (I got them for free), and I drew the logo on myself with permanent markers that I had here at the house. I'm quite proud of myself for spending so little effort and money on our costumes. Plus, we got tons of compliments too.

This photo is of me doing a word search for a game. I had to find the word "candy" in this ENORMOUS dictionary as fast as I could. For those who are wondering -- I won!

This is Nathan trying to back-crawl in a relay race. He lost due to a slight technicality, but he came in 2nd place (out of 5 competitors).  Look at his face.  Competitive?  I think so.

And this is the big group shot that we took. Many thanks to the Edwards for their hospitality and for all their hard work. The party was a success and we look forward to attending it again next year.