Much to be Grateful For!

Happy Thanksgiving from our little Indians, and Pilgrim to you! We hope that you have a wonderful day with family and friends and reflecting and all that we have to be grateful for. (These three little ones and my wonderful husband top my list! I'm glad I get to spend the day with them!)

Try These Turkey Recipes

Micaela came home from Kindergarten today with a whole book of "recipes". This book comprised 28 Thanksgiving "Recipes" that came out of the heads of kids from Micaela's class. Remember, these chidren are 5 and 6 years old. Here's a couple that cracked me up:

Recipe for Turkey
"You get a turkey by killing it. You catch it first.....probably with a blanket. Then you kill it. You cut off it's head, and you take out the bones. You take the feathers off. I don't know if you put anything on it....maybe catchup. You cook it by putting it on the grill."

Another Turkey Recipe
"You shoot one. You cut the head off and the wings. Um......you take the feathers off. You cook it. You don't add anything. You cook it in the oven for 50 seconds. You eat it!!!!"
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Aren't these so funny!? Micaela has the cutest, most creative K teacher. (She works so hard. Last night we drove by the school at 7 p.m. and she was still there at work.) Micaela said her teacher "interviewed" each one of them individually, asking them what their favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving dinner was. Then asked them how to make it. She then recorded what they said word for word and made a book out of it. Each student were given a copy of the book to bring home. It's adorable.
So if you're needing a recipe for turkey dinner.........try one of these, if you dare!

(these pics were taken a few days ago at our house. All of these children are friends/neighbors who are in Micaela's K class. We're in a carpool group. Each mom takes a week to drive. On the Friday of her week to drive, she brings all the kids home with her after school, feeds them lunch, and keeps them for a playgroup. Last week it was at our house. We made kool-aid play dough. They had fun getting messy, and it kept them busy for a whole hour! Kindergarten kids crack me up. They have their own little sense of humor and tell little jokes that they all think are funny, but you don't really quite get. It's like they're in their own little world. Aaaahh, to be a child again! This particular day at their school, it was the day before the big Utah/BYU game, who are huge rival teams. The children were suppose to wear something to school that represented which team they'd be cheering for. Micaela chose to wear a BYU cheerleading outfit. In the top pick she's doing some type of cheer she made up, thus why her hands are in the air. The poor little girl in the Ute sweatshirt got shamed too death. She was outnumbered by all the BYU fans. By the end of playgroup she finally collapsed under peer pressure and said she really cheered for BYU, but her mom made her wear the Ute sweatshirt. Poor little girl. Luckily she has a strong personality, so she still went home happy, even though she was harassed the whole two hours about her shirt.)

Final Days of Nice Weather

I love that we live somewhere that has 4 seasons, because it makes me appreciate my two favorite seasons........Spring and Summer. Even though it's Fall, the weather has been unseasonably warm lately. The kids have been able to ride bikes, play in the yard, and go to the park. I know we have to enjoy it, because soon it'll be windy, snowy and cold. Uuuug! I know winter is looming. It's kinda depressing, actually:)

These pics are from a couple of days ago. When Micaela and Anthon got home from school I packed a picnic lunch and we headed to the park to enjoy the nice weather. We have to soak all the sun in that we can, so that we can make it to April.

Spider Man Sighting

Today I looked outside in the yard and this is what I saw!

The girls had friends over and went outside to play. AJ followed them wearing his spiderman costume. It cracks me up, he's so into superheroes right now. Spiderman and Ironman being his favorite. No matter what the girls are playing (American Girl dolls, Barbie, house, etc), Spiderman somehow has to be worked into their play, because that's AJ's favorite thing right now.

When We're Helping We're Happy!

Today was Saturday. I woke up more ambitious than usual in hopes of a sparkling, organized, cleaner than normal home. My attitude seemed to rub off on the children, and even Matt. Micaela was the first to ask what she could do to help. Everyone had jobs they were doing, separate from their usual chores.

Lauren and Micaela took kitchen duty, and had fun working together. Next they tackled the baseboards, all the bathroom countertops, the playroom, and dusted hard to reach places.

The men of the house replaced all the lightbulbs and cleaned the fixtures as they went.

Hubby even tackled his own closet. Love the look on his face when this pic was taken. It's his "what the 'H' are you doing' look. Little did he know it'd wind up on my blog:) I really enjoyed our time together as a family cleaning. Unfortunately it doesn't happen enough that we're all together on a Saturday. (It seems that Matt is often gone.) It was nice to all be together and working towards one goal. Making our home beautiful.

It was nice to sit back after it was all done and admire all the sparkling glass, metal, walls, and floors. OOOOOh, there's nothing better than having a clean house. What a great way to spend a Saturday with my little family.....all of us working together. When we're all helping and working together, it really does bring happiness.

Hum.......now that I know they're all capable, even the littlest one........I'll have to rethink my children's chore charts. Maybe add a few additional items!

I've Been Tagged!

Okay, so my cousin tagged me the other day, to add 6 random things about myself to my blog. Since it's just random things, it's easy, right? Here goes.........

1) I like my children to be clean. They have a bath/shower every day. And they always have their hair done.
2) I like a clean and organized house. (not saying it's always that way!)
3) One day when my children are older I want to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (don't laugh......I'm serious. So I guess I should start taking voice lessons now:) I need all the help I can get, so I better start now!)
4) One of my biggest pet peeves is when things go flying off the seat/dashboard/or go rolling around the floor of a car. It doesn't matter if it's my car and I'm driving, or if I'm in somebody elses car. I feel like I need to start gathering everything up and worry something important got lost under the seat. (I know, a little weird. But it really is one of my biggest pet peeves)
5) When I was little my brothers had a nickname for me; it was Leneybug. Some of my aunts, uncles and cousins still call me Leney or Shirleney.
6) I'm a bit of a control freak and perfectionist. But I'm getting better!:)
7) I love to do kind things for others.

(I know I only had to write 6, but hey, there's a bonus one in there!)
And I guess I'm suppose to tag someone, so I tag everyone who reads this. There ya go. Maybe you learned something new about me.......maybe not!

A Lesson On Charity from a 7 Year Old

Today I took Lauren to one of her favorite friends baptisms. Afterwards I had to run a couple of quick errands, so I took Lauren with me. While we were driving through a large parking lot, there was a man on the corner holding a sign that read, ' Ran Out of Gas, Please Help'. I had noticed the man, but didn't say anything. When Lauren saw him she said, "how sad, that man needs help!" Then a minute later as we got closer to him she said, "I can't believe nobody is helping him. None of the cars that have passed him has given him any money." I ran inside the store to get what I needed. While I there I asked for change from a large bill I had. I then gave Lauren some money and said, "Should we help that guy on the corner?" As we drove out of the parking lot Lauren rolled down the window and handed the man some cash. I then praised Lauren for being kind enough to be concerned about the man, and told her how proud I am of the girl she is. Her kind and charitable heart made any doubts about what the man might use the money for escape my mind. I realized that my sweet daughter was teaching me how to love others unconditionally and giving me a lesson on how to truly be charitable.