Thanksgiving Crafting

I've tackled a couple of fun projects in preparation for Thanksgiving this year. First of all, I've wanted to make some Christmas place mats for a couple of years, but haven't gotten around to it. When we decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner here at our home, I decided it would be fun to finally get to those placemats and make Thanksgiving ones instead of Christmas. While at the craft store buying the supplies, inspiration struck and I came up with a great idea.

I chose a fall fabric that I loved, and then I chose a Christmas fabric that had a complimentary color, so the edging would match both fabrics. Then I put the fall fabric on one side and the Christmas fabric on the other:

So now I have my Christmas placemats, and my Thanksgiving placemats, too, all in one! Fun!

These were really easy to make and cost me about $2 each.

Also, Katelee and I decided to make some cute place holders / nut & candy cups to put at each person's place for our Thanksgiving dinner. We had so much fun making these darling turkeys together.

We made a small army of them for all our guests. We think they are going to look so cute on the Thanksgiving table!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Switcheroo

Today I dropped off a little girl for preschool...

...and picked up a darling little Thanksgiving indian!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Adoption Story Time

November is National Adoption Month! As part of that, the Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) group that we belong to has been suggesting a daily thing we can do to help spread the word and positively impact public opinion about adoption.

I have been helping plan some playgroups for our FSA group, and so this month I was able to organize through our local library a story hour about adoption. It was a lot of fun to attend!

Here is Gerald and Katelee listening to the story time lady read books about adoption:

The children doing a scarf dance during story time.

After the story time, we went and played at the park behind the library with our FSA friends.

What a fun morning.

And I hope it did a little good.

Grateful for Katelee

Parenthood is constantly surprising to me. I am surprised at how hard it can be. And I am surprised at how wonderful it can be. Lately, Katelee has been a joy. Well, in between the whining and occasional tantrum and mischievous trouble making . . . So, don't think she is a perfect child or that I am a perfect mommy. We are so far from that. But for whatever reason lately I've been able to enjoy her even more than usual and see her even more clearly as the amazing, smart, funny, witty, caring, wonderful person that she is.

Here are a few things that she is doing/has done lately that I don't want to forget:

• Katelee has always had a vivid imagination. She can live on her own little Katelee planet for hours, even in the midst of other people or distractions. While driving in the car the other day she was telling herself a long and detailed story. When I asked her about it she introduced me to Mr. Greet (her right shoe) and Mrs. Greet (her left shoe). Mr. and Mrs. Greet had a whole life story - a past, current jobs, even plans for the future. It was awesome.
• Katelee is learning to write. What parent doesn't love this stage? She probably goes through 10 pieces of paper a day. I find them all over the house, complete with illustrations and words or letters. She is constantly asking me, "Mom how do you spell ___________," a question that I love to answer. She also is in love with making her own books. She'll tape several pages together and create her own story with pictures and a few words. (Speaking of tape, she is addicted to the stuff . . . maybe Santa will have to bring her some for Christmas so she'll stop using up all of mine!) She is such a sponge for learning new things, and I love seeing her practice her new skills.
• Katelee has a great sense of humor, and is always trying to make a good joke. The other day she took the hand towel out of the bathroom. When I went in there, she said, "Look, mom! The towel is missing!" I didn't realize she was trying to play a joke, so I simply replaced the towel. However, when I went into the hallway again I almost tripped on the towel lying on the floor. Katelee exclaimed, "You solved the Mystery of the Missing Towel, Mom!" and then laughed hysterically for several minutes. Oh, she cracks me up!

Oh, how I love my Katie-girl.

Thankful Turkey, 2010

This is quickly becoming one of our favorite Thanksgiving family traditions.

Remember last year's Thankful Turkey?

Introducing 2010's Thankful Turkey!

I love that each year Katelee takes a more active part in our Thankful Turkey's creation. I loved hearing the things she was thankful for this year, and I especially loved how she illustrated them and even wrote her own words on some. She is getting so grown up!

Katelee is thankful for her bed,

Mommy & Daddy, the Spirit,

and food, amongst other things.

Here is the complete list of blessings that ended up on our Thankful Turkey this year.

(The organizer in me just had to alphabetize them.)

adoption

bed

books

church

clothes

food

forever families

friends

Gerald

the gospel

grad school

grandmas & grandpas

health

Heavenly Father

home

hot cocoa

Jennifer

Jesus

Katelee

mommy & daddy

music

puppets

school/Ms. Judy

spirit (Holy Ghost)

temples

toys

We ran out of feathers, and there wasn't much more room, but there were many, many, MANY more things we could have listed.

We are so blessed.

First Snow

We've had a few snow flurries in the past week.

Just small affairs, snow fluttering down for an hour or two. The first time it happened, we rushed outside first thing in the morning to enjoy the snow while it lasted. Katelee was still wearing her pajamas, and she had a ball making snow angels in the thin crust of snow on the grass and creating fresh snow trails in the shape of hearts.

There's something magical about the first snowfall of the season. It always brings on a rush of emotions for me; I feel excited and peaceful and happy and a little sad all at the same time. It makes me want to turn on Christmas music and bake something.

Instead we played outside until we'd had enough and then went in to enjoy some hot cocoa.

Cemetery Search

I love cemeteries.

Is that a bit morbid?

But I really do. I think they are peaceful and interesting places to be.

I love walking around a cemetery.

Which was why I was excited when one of my great-uncles called me up with a favor. He is working on a project to gather photos of headstones of all our ancestors, and he discovered that a few of our ancestors were buried here in the Denver area. He asked if I could visit them and take pictures.

The search included two different cemeteries, both of which I've never seen the like of! They were enormous. No really, truly immense . . . blocks and blocks full of an eclectic hodgepodge of tombstones and headstones that faced any which way - like something right out of a Halloween movie. (In fact, Halloween was one of the days we ended up walking around searching for them - fun!) It was fascinating.

The hunt ended up taking longer than I expected, involving quite a bit of driving, three different afternoons, and help several times from the cemetery offices. But that made it even more rewarding when we did finally find them. :)

And the search, while sometimes a bit frustrating, also ended up being a lot of fun!

BOO!

Cleo & Ruth Frehner

Leroy & Ann Hafen

(Their daughter Norma is also buried here.)

How are you Feeling Today?

Have you ever seen a chart like this?

Well, while taking our long road trip to the wedding last week, Katelee and I invented a new game to help kill some time. I named an emotion, and Katelee did her best to display that emotion on her face while I took pictures. It was so fun and funny! Here are her best ones!

SAD

STARTLED

HAPPY

DOPEY

BASHFUL

SNEEZY

(Yes, the 7 dwarves began to play a part in this game. :)

CONTENT/PEACEFUL

SURPRISED

SLEEPY

EXCITED

NERVOUS

LOVING

I love this girl! She is so hilarious and fun!

(we had just stopped for lunch, and I especially love that she has ketchup all over her face. doesn't that just make it even better??)

Tyler & Taylor's Wedding Day

My favorite brother (okay, he's also my only brother) Tyler married his sweetheart, Taylor on Saturday! It was an absolutely beautiful day. Tyler and Taylor are so sweet and so perfect for each other. In the sealing room, Tyler couldn't take his eyes of Taylor. She looked gorgeous! The sealing was made a bit more sentimental to me in the fact that it was held in the same room Gerald and I were married in almost 9 years ago. In fact, Tyler is the final sibling in my family to get married, and each and every one of us were married in the exact same room in the St. George temple. It's a room off the celestial room where everyone has to wear white, and it's such a special and beautiful place to be married.

I love Gerald so much!

Katelee has a blast playing outside with cousins while we were in the temple.

Katelee and my darling niece (above) and my studly nephew (below).

The grandmas. :)

Coming out of the temple!

My good-looking parents.

My dad has been getting sicker again lately, and unfortunately ended up in the hospital for a day this past week right before the wedding. There were a lot of prayers said on his behalf; everyone loves my dad so much. He was out of the hospital and doing better for the wedding day.

Peek-a-boo!

It was truly the most gorgeous day! We couldn't have ordered better weather.

My handsome brother!

My parents with their children.

Because the cute couple were married in St. George, they had the 'open house' by the groom's family that same night. The wedding reception will be held next week near Taylor's home in Springville. Because it was the actual wedding day, my parents wanted to make the open house a bit more special than usual. In fact, it really was a full-blown reception. :) My parents have always given all of us kids beautiful weddings; they are so sweet and generous and really want things to be nice. The open house was held in my parents' backyard. It turned out simply exquisite. My mom did a great job of planning out the decorations. Everything look romantic and perfect.

The wedding cake.

(Yes, I did make it!)

Two little princesses. Grandma bought the girls these gorgeous cinderella dresses for the wedding! They felt like princesses in them.

And Wyatt looked so handsome, too, though he did not appreciate being called a prince. :)

The pretty dessert table. Cupcakes were served. Brittany and I decorated the rose frosting on the top of each cupcake.

As the sun set, we turned out strings of white lights, little candle lanterns hanging in the trees, and these darling paper lanterns hanging above the tables. It was the coolest effect - absolutely beautiful!

The kids spent a great deal of the reception time hanging out on the porch swing. :)

Cutting the cake.

And this is when my camera died. :)

What a beautiful day!

Now all my siblings are married and so are Gerald's. In a way, it's nice to know that we are all married to wonderful people and settled down. But I do love me a wedding! I'm a little disappointed we won't have any more of those to help with in the near future.

A note to Tyler & Taylor Thurston

Tyler and Taylor,

We love you both so much! You are such a beautiful couple. We feel like Taylor is already a natural part of our family, and feel so blessed to add her as our sister. Your wedding day was so special; everything was ideal and simply perfect. Thanks for letting us be a part of it. We are sure you have many wonderful things to look forward to and experience together, and we are excited for you and feel blessed to be a part of your lives. We love you!