The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend

Sean and Heidi came to visit us again over the weekend, staying Fri and Sat nights.

It was so fun to visit with them, although it was brief. Sean was Elder McQuay at this time last year. He served in our Spanish Branch for 7 1/2 months, and spent Christmas Day with us last year. We feel like he is part of our family, and have been delighted that Heidi has fit right in and made herself a part of our family too!

I've been extremely grateful that during our years in the Spanish Branch, our children had a chance to see some absolutely stellar missionaries come through our branch. They were zone leaders, and they would stay for 6+ months, and they worked very closely with the members, so we knew each one really well by the time they left. Each one - Elders Zarco, Lazara, Marshall, Robinson, McQuay, Pace, Tims, Coello, Cortez (and his companion) - left a great impression on our family!

Last night the children put up the Christmas tree - and they did it all by themselves, as I sat on the couch and nursed a burned finger from the hot oil the scones were cooking in. (It's much better today).I was so impressed they did that by themselves!Jesse has also been spearheading the wrapping of presents, since she went shopping with me early Fri morning and knows what most of the presents are anyway. The thought occurred to me last night that if Jesse is on my side, she is one good cookie to have around, because she just goes at it and gets 'er done.
Josh gets the honor of putting the last branch on at the top. And he doesn't even need a stool!And tonight, for family home evening, Bruce transferred the measurement chart from the old dinosaur one that was all beat up, to a nice wooden board, and we had the annual measuring of the heights.
Bruce even pulled out a level this year to make sure we were right on. Joseph grew the most this year - 4 1/4 inches.
Josh only grew 1 inch and he was perfectly disgusted and said we didn't know how to measure. Ha ha He does still hold the record for the biggest growth spurt in a year (besides the first year) with 4 3/4 inches from 2006 to 2007. So he shouldn't be taking this so badly. I think he thought he would grow more because of his broken leg stimulating growth, but no such luck. That must be something that only happens to the cousins!

I am truly grateful at this Thanksgiving season, for all of our blessings.