Quotes of the Week

"You have to take the good with the bad, smile when you're sad, love what you've got and remember what you had. Always forgive but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret, people change, things go wrong, just remember, life goes on."
-- Author Unknown

"You attract what you are, not what you want. So if you want it then reflect it!"
-- Tony Gaskins

"Don't be too hard on yourself. There are plenty of people willing to do that for you. Love yourself and be proud of
everything that you do. Even mistakes mean you're trying."
-- Susan Gale

Festival Of Trees

Just exactly what are people supposed to do when it is below freezing outside all day long for days on end? Here is one idea...go to the Festival of Trees.

Before we went into the building, we talked about what kind of tree each one of us would be looking for. Brooke wanted to see a My Little Pony tree. Imagine her glee when she spotted this tree! Okay, continue to imagine. This face might not depict her utter delight, but she was really thrilled to find a pony tree.

 Later on she found another My Little Pony tree. Doesn't she look so happy about her discovery?

Caroline loved all trees that had dolls, and there were a lot of them.

She was hoping to find Dora and Rapunzel. 

Spencer was on the hunt for Lightning McQueen.  

 He was so enamored with the car he could not take his eyes away from it long enough to pose for a picture.

Here is something else that caught Spencer's eye when we were making a third trip to the drinking fountain for Caroline. Another cool car!

I was on the look-out for a Mickey Mouse tree. Look how happy I am when I found one--complete with a Mickey house with Mickey head shingles.

Spencer found a police car and was wishing he could climb inside with the bear.

Despite the instructions to the children at the beginning of our activity, Spencer had a hard time containing himself outside the white chain. When there were trucks and trains near the barrier, he just had to plop down on his knees and inch closer and closer to the display until he was touching the item that had gotten his attention.

He was really pretty good. There was only one runaway incident. He had his mind set on something at the other end of that huge convention center and he was off.

My vision of capturing the cutest picture of the three cute children with the cute snowman turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. Despite Brooke's preoccupation with posing her stuffed animal in the perfect pose on the snowman's arm, this is a pretty good shot of her.

It was a fun activity for a very cold winter day. The snowman reminded us to bundle up on our way out the door because it hadn't gotten any warmer outside while we were inside.

Quotes of the Week

"Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily."
-- Epictetus

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
-- Mark Twain

"Instead of putting others down, try improving yourself instead. The only person you have a right to compete with is you. In the meantime, treat others how you'd like to be treated. One trait that some of the best (communicators) share is empathy. A couple of kind words can not only make a person's day, but earn you a friend and supporter for life. For the rest of the week, whenever you see someone you want to judge negatively, pay them a compliment instead. See what happens."
-- Neil Strauss

Yummy Yummy Thanksgiving

It's been quite a few years since Mark and Michelle have been here for Thanksgiving. This year they decided to come for the holiday and the weather cooperated beautifully for their drive from Yakima, Washington and back again.

As Mark was anxiously anticipating the upcoming holiday, he sent an email that said, "Yummy Yummy! Looking forward to Thanksgiving." He had attached the following self-portrait that made me laugh so hard:

That Mark! He's a nut! Fortunately he hasn't changed quite that much since we saw him last. Here he is admiring the hot pads Sarah made for me.

The little girl cousins were excited to see each other. They enjoyed being together so much when Dallas and Rebecca tended Mark and Michelle's kids while we went on our Ward family cruise. (Nina, Kate, Brooke, Caroline)

Here are some random photos of our Thanksgiving day/dinner. Carson is trying to figure out who Michelle is.

I like the picture of Ben in the mirror as he's loading up food on his plate in the kitchen.

The candles have all been put on the desserts and it's time for November birthday recognition. 

First up is Zane. He loves chocolate Oreo cream pie which is also Ben's favorite dessert. 
Eli sees the lighted candles and needs to get a little closer for the blowing out action.

With the consent of Zane and a little help from Rachel, he gets all the candles blown out. 

I am next. Eli waits patiently while the birthday singing is going on and then takes care of the job for me.

Dennis is the next birthday person.

Then it is Cheryl's turn. Again Eli waits patiently for the singing and then does his part to help get the candles all blown out.

Next up is Preston--celebrating his 16th birthday. Surprisingly Preston was able to blow out more candles on the pumpkin pie from his distance off to the left than Eli was from his position across the cabinet.

Look who is turning another year older--Sam.

And Eli promptly removed all the candles as he had done with every other dessert the second the candles were blown out. Shout out to Jacob and Claire who also have November birthdays.

Eli having some boy bonding time with Austin, Caleb and Ben.
Next morning Hailey and Michelle were eager to be off collecting hand-me-downs and doing some Black Friday shopping. I had to get a picture of mother and daughter in their polka dot shirts.

Kate and Nina entertained themselves for a while watching a movie together.

Mark was one of the last ones to eat breakfast. Somehow he got stuck cooking his own French toast.

That night Mark, Michelle, Hailey and I had a fun time playing Rummikub together.

That is until the last game when it took me forever to be able to lay out because of all the matching doubles I had in my hand (6 of them!!!!) which were absolutely useless to me. Sheesh!! I was sure glad when that game was over!!

Next morning it was waffles and bacon for breakfast. When I asked how they liked their breakfast, I got a resounding thumbs up from Thad and Kate.

 Mark made cookies that day. Actually, Michelle had made the dough back home and Mark was getting them all cooked for a fresh-baked treat on their way back home the next day.

Hailey entertained us by playing some beautiful piano music.

That evening was a pizza party for the kids while Mark and Michelle went out with some friends. We had extra kids because Rebecca and Sarah brought their families over for pizza and playing.

It was great having Mark's family here over Thanksgiving. Hopefully they felt like the drive was worth it. I think they felt like the food was worth it. And hopefully the family togetherness was a plus as well.

I started out with a goofy picture of Mark and I'll end with another goofy picture of him with his family this time. It is the birthday greeting I got from them earlier in the month and it really made my day.

It was great seeing all you crazy people in person!!