Come Ye Thankful People,Come

Happy Thanksgiving!  We arrived Tuesday night late at my Mom & Dad's house.  Peter drove most of the way and did a great job!  

Bruce and Rodney - brothers-in-law.

Rodney's Dad Lyle - going strong at 92, and Mary.

Alyssa, Caleb and Aunt Angie

Lorena and Angie - it's always fun to be with my sister!

Alyssa made every person in attendance a custom place card made out of craft sticks, felt and her own drawing.  They were so creative!  Betcha can't guess what mine was?  Young Living Essential Oils, of course!

The whole crew!

Our family (the boys went Indian style):  Peter, Joshua, Joseph, Dad, Mom, Libby and Mary.  We miss you Jesse!

Gettin' ready for the fixins.

We three made a lot of food!  It was a delicious Thanksgiving Dinner - I don't know that I've ever had a better one.  What a blessing to be surrounded by good food and family in warm shelter!

On Thanksgiving Day, I got a call from a lady in Jesse's mission that was in our hometown area.  Unfortunately, I wasn't there to send a package back for her, but I got to hear all about Jesse's new companion.  She is from the town right next to ours in Idaho!  When Mary looked her up on Facebook, she and Mary had 29 mutual friends!  What a hoot.  One of the mutual friends was Mary's boyfriend Chet, who is serving a mission in the Netherlands Belgium mission.  What a small world!  Jesse got called to be a Sister Training Leader, and she is excited about the opportunity to serve!

These crazies, along with Ethan, went out at 2 am and sat in front of Cabela's for 3 hours until 5 am.  The temperature was 1 degree Farenheit, but the wind chill made it -11, I believe.  And Bruce actually wanted me to go with them!  No way, no how, was my answer.  But they did it, and they did get some sweet deals that they were happy with!

This is Joseph the week before up on top of the silo at his work.

On Black Friday, after getting up at 2 am, Joseph and Peter took off to go skiing at Jackson!

They said the snow was awesome.  Peter snowboarded.

On Sunday, it was pile on the couch time.  The two little girls couldn't stop laughing at all of our kids on the couch, and they joined in the pile.  The younger of the two saw a picture of Jesse and talked to Mary all about going to the store with Jesse and coming home and eating.

After we left to drive home, Joseph settled in for a good Sunday nap!

We made it home in time for a good game of Rook, which went back and forth and all over, but Mary finally won!  We are getting to be quite the Rook players! 

I cannot end this Thanksgiving post with expressing my gratitude for profound blessings in every area of my life.  Where much is given, much is expected, and yet even then, I know that I am enabled, guided and comforted every step of the way.  What joy this brings!  Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Eagle Scout Project!

Jesse is up in the High Desert in California on her mission, and it gets cold at night in the desert!  When we planned for her mission, all we heard and thought of was HOT.  So when I saw "Hard Freeze" on my Storm app located over her town in CA, and she had written home that she was cold, I got a little stressed out.  Thankfully, this wonderful lady named Beth, pictured below with Jesse and her companion, had contacted me last month and we had written and talked to each other.  So I was able to text her and say, "Help!"

She went to the local store and bought Jesse some sweaters and tights, and Jesse was able to buy some boots.  And then she gave her a coat as well.  How grateful I am for "Sisters in Zion".  I didn't get any specifics on these pictures, but Jesse has written about Beth's daughter Hannah who reminds her of Mary.  I think this is her!

And another one of Beth and Jesse.  Beth just told me this week that Jesse is going to be transferred today, which was a total surprise.  I thought since she was training she would be there another transfer, but I guess that's not the case.  Jesse has loved this companion, so she will miss her!

Last week Jesse also had the wonderful occasion of the baptism of Rick.  When you are growing up, you want to do something that will change the world.  and how wonderful is it that Jesse is able to be on a mission and do just that - change the world of one individual at a time.  Eternity just took a different course for Rick, the man pictured below here on the right.  The man on the left is President Beazle. 

 Peter and Travis participated in the local Honor Choir this week!  Of course their favorite part was eating at the all-you-can-eat buffet at the university!  I asked Peter if he me any cute girls, and he said, "All the cute girls were from _____ (our home town)."  Ha ha!  That cracked me up.  Give him a few years...

Travis, Kevin and Peter.  

Peter also completed his Eagle Project this week!  The project was building shelves at the High School for the soccer team closet.  They started at home in our shop by cutting wood and painting shelves.

Then they met together last Saturday and completed the project on site.

Thank you to these fine gentleman who came to help!  Braden, Devyn, Gary, Bruce, Isaac, Parker, Todd, and Jay; Jacob, Peter and Brett.  Now for the paper work...

AND (this has been an eventful week for Peter), guess who has their driving permit?!

Watch out world!

I fell asleep after family scripture study last week (which begins at 6 am), and had a dream that someone was playing the piano.  I looked over the stairwell to see who it was, and found that Libby was at the piano, but she wasn't really playing, it was a player-piano and it was playing by itself.  I was SO disappointed in my dream.  I thought, "Oh, I would give anything if Libby could really play that piece.  It's so beautiful."  And then I slowly came to a waking state and realized that Libby was in the living room playing the piano, and it was her!  It was her song she is getting ready to play at the Recital next week.  And it was Libby - and she could play it!  I was SO HAPPY!  :)  Love this girl!

Mary got registered this week for 16 credits at BYU-Idaho!

High on the Mountain Top

Bruce and Peter went elk hunting this week.

Peter eating a snack.  (You should see all the yummy food they take up hunting...)

Mackee and Strawberry got to go on this trip.  Bruce said they did awesome.

They rode about six hours a day.

There wasn't any snow up there, which made it nice.

They saw a ton of deer, but only two elk cows, so needless to say, they didn't get anything.  They went to bed at 7:00 pm every night and got up by 5 or 5:30.  These are Bruce's ideal sleeping hours, and Peter didn't think it was too shabby either.  He was in bed tonight (Sunday night) by 8 pm!

The view from the top!

They took Achacachi and Huanuni, our two llamas, but Bruce said they were no good.  The horses basically had to drag them along.  Sad!  (They are old).

Libby joined a local swim team!  This is her on the right, and on the left is her friend Ellie, who recruited her to come and swim.  I love it that she is swimming.  I swam for a year my senior in high school, and it was by far the best shape I've ever been in.  Libby, Peter and Mary are also doing Ballroom dance once a week.  They have managed to recruit new people from Middleton, so it's a ton of fun! 

Joseph cooked breakfast for at least two different girls this week.  Way to go Joseph!  I'm not supposed to know that, because he hasn't told me, but I have my ways of knowing.  I'm sure he'll marry one of them.  (I said that just to bug him).

Here is Jesse with her companion that she is training!  They are doing great.

We got to see Dan and Jessica last night at Brighton & Wade's reception.  We had a good laugh over the "I Got Bills" dance.  Dan is a good sport!

Mary and I had good discussions about what we would do and not do for her reception.  No, this is not an announcement, just a general discussion.  (Well, sort of...  ha ha)

Check out this video that my nephew Kaleb made of Josh and his a Capella group, Apollo.  So fun!  Between speaking at Stake Conference and singing at I-Cover last night, Josh had a busy and productive night!

Tonight we had Gerard & Michelle over for dinner, along with Daniel (who likes to be called Dewey), Nicole & Shawn, and little Emma.  We are back to family dinners on Sundays.  Yeah! We have really missed that, and are glad to be back doing it again.

One last note on the recent handbook changes by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints having to do with same-sex relationships and children from those relationships: I'm so grateful to the Lord for giving his prophets and apostles guidance on how to protect children and teach adults everywhere to focus on giving children the right to be raised in a home and family with a mother and a father.  And where they are not, giving them space to be raised without conflict and confusion until they are able to reach adulthood and can decide for themselves what they want their own family to look like.  Rather than persecution, it is protection, and I see that as a real beacon for adults who truly care about the long-term rights of children.