thanks and giving always

I absolutely love Thanksgiving.

And I love all of the traditions that accompany this glorious holiday.

I love the tradition of family getting together.

The more the merrier over here. I grew up having Thanksgiving every year with only my immediate family. That was cozy and quaint and all I knew, but for me now, extended family, cousins, grandparents and friends- that's what makes it special.

I love the tradition of good food.

Trevor and I wrestled with this bird for 2 days getting it ready for its big debut. I'm telling you brining a turkey is the way to go. Delicious. It deserved a picture. We also had a stuffing showdown as well as a sweet potato contest. The outcome was divided. All recipes will be back next year. You can never have too much food on Thanksgiving.

I love the tradition of the kitchen bustle.

Everyone working together to present the perfect meal. The smells from my house that day were to die for.

I love the tradition of gathering around the table.

Of eating and visiting and sharing what we are most thankful for. I love being together.

I love the relaxed and lazy state after the big meal.

I love that they ate so much turkey they had to sleep it off.

I love the tradition of football on Thanksgiving.

I really do. I love that my family played in 2 turkey bowls in the morning (one with the ward and one with family). I love that the boys played football outside both before and after the meal. I also love that the weather was perfect for it this year.

I love football on Thanksgiving so much that I don't even mind that it is on all day inside, while they are playing it outside. Football is a part of Thanksgiving around here.

I love the ads from the 10 pound newspaper that comes on Thanksgiving morning.

I love looking through them, circling our intended targets and plotting our shopping strategy.
(Although I did not enjoy the sales starting on what my sisters and I have now named "Brown Thursday" Where did my Black Friday go?)

I love playing games that all ages can participate in and enjoy, like an exciting round of turkey races or...

...a rousing game of reverse charades.

I love the competition, the noise and the laughter that fills my home when we all play games together. I wish we did it more often.

I love Thanksgiving.

But mostly I love the people and feelings that go along with this day.

We have much to be thankful for this year.

And this particular Thanksgiving day, filled with family and traditions and food and love did not disappoint.

sunday afternoon

Only 4 more Sundays left.

4 more Sundays of 9:00 church.

Now, I know most people like 9:00 church, Trevor being one of them, but I do not like it. And I will tell you why.

First of all, I kind of like to sleep in. But more importantly, my teenagers like to sleep in. And they need to. They work hard all week, burn the candle on both ends, stay up late far too often and they need some time to catch up on that missed sleep. More often than not, we have something going on early Saturday morning and then with early church there goes their sleep in days. They desperately need some sleeping in time, and most weekends they just don't get it.

Another reason is that getting home at noon makes for kind of a long day. A long day for 9 of us to be all together without TV or friends or outside play. We seem to get on each others nerves a lot on Sunday. I wish it were different, but it's not. By about 4:00 every Sunday Trevor and I leave for a walk, rain or shine. We just need a little break. We need to escape.

Occasionally, we have a decent Sunday afternoon. These pictures are from one of those rare days.

The mess from lunch. We get home, loosen some ties and dive in. It is kind of a free for all. There are usually corn dogs and quesadillas flying around the kitchen. The Sunday paper is strewn everywhere and it is crazy, but we can usually get it cleaned up by 1:00. And then the games begin. Sunday games, that is.

This is Alyssa's game. She plays church. Almost every Sunday. I love watching her. She gets her microphone, her props and then she gives talks. Talk after talk after talk. It is darling. And on rare but precious occasions she will throw in a prayer and song too. If only they all would join in this game with her.


The whole gang will usually break out the Legos on Sunday. This particular Sunday they made a whole town. It took them all afternoon. It was perfect. They were all together in their rooms playing quietly. It was heaven.

On Sundays, rarely played board games are pulled out of the closet and dusted off for a few good rounds of play. Just like the olden days, the days before video games and all that crazy stuff. I love watching them play together like this.

Yes, this particular Sunday was a good one and so I wanted to document it. It was relatively quiet, we had only a few squabbles, the kids got along, and Trevor and I didn't even need to go on a walk.

That is one for the books.

1:00 church here we come.

A little more time to sleep in and a 3 hour block of church to break up the day.

Most of us can't wait.

and one more makes 8

We were getting a little bored with just 7 kids so we decided to host a Japanese student for a week to liven things up a little bit around here.

Meet Yuya, our newest son.
He is from Hyogo, Japan and is 15 years old. He doesn't speak much English, but he sure got good at saying "nice to meet you," as he had to say it 9 times as he met and shook hands with each member of his new family. I think he was a little overwhelmed at the sheer number of us.

Apparently, most of these kids really want to eat an American hamburger. We were happy to oblige. We headed to Smashburger and treated him to a generous portion of greasy goodness. He gave us the thumbs up. We then took him to Krispy Kremes for some donut factory action. It was at this point that Ethan started to feel sick, not from the food, but burning up with a fever. Sick, how nice.

One of Yuya's favorite things to do was be outside jumping on the tramp with the boys. He told us that he goes to school for 8 hours a day with a 2 hour train ride, six days a week. My kids were floored. So I really think he liked just playing and being a boy.

And we know how to do that well around these parts.


The kids spent hours playing baseball, football, and basketball. There did not seem to be much of a communication barrier when they were playing. He was just one of the boys.
And I think he was in heaven.

This cute boy had been waiting and saving for quite some time for his first trip to America. One week was all we had to help him experience it. I took this very seriously. We had brainstormed and tried to think of what we should do, what the best American foods were and how to possibly fit it all in. We wanted to give him the best overall experience. We did fit in so many things, but one thing he enjoyed and wanted to do was watch and be a part of typical family life in America, so we had to plan some down time so he could just watch us "be." One night he sat at the table and wrote everyone's name in Japanese.

Almost every night he would come downstairs with something from his suitcase to do or show to the kids. They could hardly talk to each other, but they definitely bonded.

One night it was these string hand games. One night oragami (he actually brought us all a pack of origami paper and then taught the kids how to fold them). One night it was Japanese chess. He gave the kids Japanese money and candy and cookies and pens and books (Meanwhile, Ethan was sequestered in our bedroom behind closed doors, still totally sick. So Yuya met him that first night and then really didn't see him again until 4 days later. He was probably like, "Where in the heck did this one come from?").

At the end of the week, we asked a Japanese translator to ask Yuya what his favorite thing had been out of the whole week.
His answer: Laser tag.

We took him to Cornbelly's to experience the whole Halloween/fall stuff. We had a blast. We did a corn maze, played pumpkin tetherball, played in a giant corn kernel pit, and jumped on a huge trampoline. Oh, and we took him through some spook alleys like that giant monster in the picture. I don't think they have anything like giant scary monster guts in Japan. Aren't we wonderful hosts?

He was flying out really early on Halloween morning and we wanted to show him how the costume trick or treat thing worked, so we took him to the Riverwoods where they were celebrating a little early. He quickly learned how to say trick or treat.

Like I said, we tried to come up with classic American foods to feed him during the week. We ate hot dogs, corn on the cob, apple pie, tacos, soup in a bread bowl, spaghetti, hot chocolate, pancakes, sugary cold cereal, and anything else we could think of. The only 2 things he gagged on were black olives and oatmeal. He really didn't like those, but was still very polite about it. On Saturday night he asked me if he could make lunch for us the next day (hmmm was that a hint?). And so, on Sunday afternoon he made us some traditional Japanese soup he had brought from home (think top ramen). My kids loved watching him and gobbled it right up.

On Sunday night, his last night with us, we introduced him to the fine art of pumpkin carving. He loved it. We roasted him up some pumpkin seeds, lit up all the jack-o-lanterns and then showered him with gifts to take home to his family.

We didn't want him to go.

There is a law that you can't proselyte to these kids. But, they knew before they came that they were coming to religious families. We were told we could do everything we normally did and they could join in. And that's just what we did. Yuya knelt with us every morning and night for family prayer. He prayed with us before each meal. He read the Book of Mormon with us each night (he can read the English language very well), he went to mutual with the teens, and he spent 3 hours with us at church. We didn't proselyte, but we hope he felt the Spirit, we hope he liked what he saw, and we hope he takes a little of that home with him to Japan.

I think he had a good time. I think he liked Utah. I think he liked being 1 of 8 kids. There was never really a dull moment. We were all exhausted. But he left with a smile on his face and a tear in his eye and a whole week's worth of American memories.

We won't ever forget him.

We miss you Yuya!

preference

She did not get any pictures of the horseback riding day date. Nor did she get any pictures of the dinner out at La Jolla Groves, or the trip to the old fashioned toy store where they played with toys in their formal wear.

But she has a great mother who did manage to get pictures of:

the girl

the dress


the shoes

(red sparkle vintage 90's ones, courtesy of Aunt Sarah)

the boy, Silas

the couple

the group.

There is really no denying it,

he is the one she prefers.

(and that's ok with us, because he is a roofer and is going to put up our Christmas lights.

Oh, and he's also a really great kid)

1 little, 2 little, 3 little turkeys

Is there anything more nostalgic,

more precious,

than the first grade Thanksgiving program?

Nope, there is not.

I could just gobble this one right up myself.


I was taking a million pictures of Ethan, the same pose over and over again.
Trevor leaned over and said, "Why do you take so many pictures of him?
Isn't one enough?"



All I had to do was show him this.

That's why.

Sure do still love my little cock eyed turkey!

(look how hard he is trying to smile and look cute)

Precious, I tell ya.

when I die

Kara thought she was so funny taking this picture of me one Sunday afternoon.

"Blog that", she said.

And so I am.

It is not a secret that I read obituaries. I admit it freely. I read them every day.

The habit started years ago while working as a nurse on the critical care unit. You see, back then I practically knew all of them. Okay, not really, but very often I saw the obit of someone I had taken care of, one of my patients, someone I knew. Sadly, when you are a nurse you are connected to death whether you want to be or not. And so, I read about death and the lives behind those faces, and the people they left behind. And I continue to do so today, even though I don't know as many any more.

My one pet peeve about obituaries is when they don't say how they died or what they died from. I know it is a personal preference, but every time they don't mention it the nurse in me screams,

"What did you die from? I have got to know!"

And so Trevor has been given very strict and specific orders. He knows that no matter what I die from he will print it in my obituary. I have told him that even if it is something really embarrassing (like an infected pimple on my hind end) it will be there, loud and clear, so no one is left wondering.

And then I can be buried in peace,

me and that darn infected pimple.

Oregon

In March, Ashie and I packed our bags and hopped on a plane bound for Oregon.

It was the first flight for Ash and also for Belle and Aurora. They all enjoyed it very much.

We had such a great time and I learned so much in my short 4 days in Oregon.
Here are just a few of the things I learned:


*leprechauns can be tricky, no matter where you live
*bunks beds are actually pretty comfy
*my daughter is a quiet mouse


*how to do my hair so as not to look so old fashioned
*oregon garage sales, which are supposed to be the best, actually aren't in March
*i don't appreciate having the fat grams of the meal i ordered printed on my receipt


*cousin time is precious
*i am fascinated by the show "hoarders"
*a quiet night of laying on the couch and watching tv does exist


*it's lucky to have multiple cousins in the same place
*jimmer can be incorporated into a Sacrament Meeting talk
*in oregon popcorn AND taffy are passed around in Relief Society


*that the boy on the right is not only a Dodger, but a great Michael Jackson impersonator
*little plastic princesses apparently prefer to hang out in the freezer
*it is bone chilling cold in Oregon, to me at least


*i love wickles, and am now addicted
*i really enjoy Dave's bread, it's "killer"
*brian makes the best grilled cheese sandwich....ever!



*there are lots of different causes i could donate my money to
*oregon has a lot of diversity
*it is not uncommon to wait over an hour to get some donuts


* having just one kid is pretty easy
*how to add more than 5 pictures to my blog posts, finally
*apparently I can be mistaken and introduced as my sister's mother


*you can never have too many elephant ears
*if you give a silver statue man some money, he will dance for you
*you can do prom jewelry shopping with a cell phone camera




*i love my sister and her cute family so so much
*4 days just isn't long enough to totally catch up
*i miss her a lot but can see why she likes Oregon

We liked it too!
Thanks for a fabulous and educational trip.
I still miss you.
(why isn't layla in any pictures?!?)