Thanksgiving Day

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. My parents and my brother and his wife came over. It was a wonderful day. My sister in law, Lyndsey made these awesome rolls. I think between my two girls, they at least ate half of them themselves!

Mike loves to cook the turkey, and used a great rub on this one that made it so juicy and yummy. The stuffing balls that my mom made are around the edge of the turkey. Next to the pie, the stuffing is my favorite.

Here are the girls just before eating dinner. Mason was sleeping.

This is my dad, my mom, Lyndsey, and my brother, Darin.

I love Thanksgiving Day. I look forward to it for weeks. There is nothing like a turkey dinner to make the day just about perfect.

When we were in San Diego, we went to the Air and Space Museum. We did not go inside the museum, just to the gift shop where Mike found this astronaut costume. Mike has always been interested in space, so he had to get this for Mason. Now you all know what he is going to be for Halloween next year! It may even fit him for the next two Halloween's, we had to roll up the legs on it so he would not trip.


This picture is so funny. Mason sat on Darin just like this for at least 5 minutes, which is a long time for a 20 month old! He was in typical "man" mode.

When we were little, my dad would have us step on his back to pop it. Now, my kids are doing it to him. They thought it was so much fun.

Even Mason got in on the action.

There is so much to be thankful for. This year, we had a box that we put slips of paper in with things that we are thankful for written on them. Last night for Family Home Evening, we opened the box, and read what everyone wrote, then we made it into a Thankful chain, and put it on our Christmas tree. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. We hung it on the Christmas tree with a picture of the Savior at the top and talked about how we can link ourselves to Christ by being thankful for all of the blessings that he had given to us. My sister in law, Rachel gave me the idea about linking ourselves to the Savior, thanks Rachel! It was a lot of fun, and it helped us all to focus on the blessings that Christ has given us.

Forgive me for the following, but these are just some things that I have been thinking about lately.

I've really been struggling lately on weather or not we are doing the right thing by not taking Mason and Ivy to church. Ivy will be in Primary in January, so I will feel a lot better about her going to church then. Mason on the other hand, I don't know when I will be ready to take him to nursery. I know I'm being paranoid, but honestly, I can't help it. Either Mike or I are there every week. When we move to 9:00 church in January, we will all at least be there for Sacrament meeting. I keep thinking that if my faith were stronger, maybe things would be fine, on the other hand, I know that the Lord understands our situation. I know he knows that the reason we stay home is not because we have lost our testimonies, and don't believe in the church anymore. There could not be anything farther from the truth. I feel like my testimony has grown so much in the past couple of years, and I know that the church is true.

I even have a hard time taking the kids with me to the store, (I will still do it if I have to) knowing all of the germs that lurk there. And yet, even taking all of these precautions, Mason still ends up getting croup this week, but luckily, no fever. I know they will still get sick, I know there is no way possible to avoid it, but I guess I feel like if there are things that I can do to try and lessen the possibilities, then I will do it. I often wonder what would other people do if they were in our situation. I guess I just feel bad that we are not all there every week together as a family. When Mike was released from the High Council in the Spring, I thought that we would be able to sit together as a family every week, but it was about that same time that Mason started having problems. I also realize that this is just a moment in time, and that it will pass quickly, and the kids will be grown up. If Ivy and Mason follow what the doctors think will happen, they will be grown out of their seizure activity by they time they are 6.

I've been thinking about Elder Wirthlin's talk that he gave this past General Conference, ever since I found out he passed away last night, about the same time Mike took Mason to the doctor to have a steroid shot. What an amazing man he was, and it got me thinking that no matter what we face in life, we can enjoy the journey. "Come what may and love it". We are so blessed to have the gospel, and I realize that what we face is small compared to what others may be going through at this time in their lives.