Giving All the Thanks

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year. Granny V is still on her mission, but her house is still the place where we all get together. We split up food assignments and all pitched in. It was a pretty fantastic meal. And the company was great as always.

Pip is always the princess when she returns to her stomping grounds. The rest of us are only there for warmth and occasional snuggles. However, with LeGrand around, all the kids just want to snuggle on the baby.

I put the girls to work in the kitchen. We made pies and fruit salad. Kathryn came up with an ingenious way to cut grapes. Rozz and Robyn probably cut apples for over an hour between pies and fruit salad.

We played some games and hung out together. Robyn won Beyond Balderdash which is not an easy game to win.

The boys are looking good as always.

Henlee is too cute for words. I love her walking in a dress and coat with a puppy to boot.

Then she instantly changes to cowboy sidekick for Pearl. All in a days work.

The kitchen was often crowded and busy, but it is the best kind of busy for a holiday and it all led to feasting.

Looks like Rozz, Jack, and Daisy are flossing to work off the extra pounds. Who am I kidding? Those kids could use some extra pounds.

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

Public Speeching

We heard about an opportunity to participate in a speech contest. I signed up Ivory and Robyn. I guess I could have signed up June as well, but at the time she was knee deep in work and stress. Ivory and Robyn didn't do much about their speeches until right before, but that is okay. They are both good enough writers that they came up with good stuff, although probably not their best.

We arrived a little early because we didn't want to be late. The girls were the first kids to pick their numbers. In fact, right out of the shoots, Ivory picked number one. Nice one. At least she'll get it over with right away.

We still had a little time to kill, so we roamed around the library where it was being held. In the children's section, we found these really cool pumpkins. They must have had a competition to decorate a pumpkin like your favorite book or book character. There were some great ones. I took pictures of my favorites.

These are really good.

By far my favorite. (If you haven't read Gerald and Piggy books, you need to.)

The speeches were great too. I won't embarrass the girls by putting their speeches on here. Plus, they would be a bit long. Just know the topic was 'America' and Robyn talked about gratitude and Ivory talked about freedom.

Thankful Turkey 2018

Simple post today. I just wanted to share the Thankful Turkey. Sometimes he gets lumped into a chatbook, but I think this one deserves a spotlight. It was Daisy's turn to do the turkey. She picked him out and together we put him together. I think he is awesome.

I have to remind myself though. Do NOT use Carol's Copies anymore for lamination. The last two turkeys have had problems. I don't think their lamination machine is any good. There are always wrinkles and bubbles. Ivory's turkey was much worse, but Daisy's still could have been better. Makes me annoyed. If your machine isn't any good, you should get a new one, or warn people. The only sign they have says they don't refund money if the machine doesn't work, which is 100% of the time, as far as I can tell. I did bookmarks there are you don't get any straighter on the edges, but they still had issues.

As my Dad loved to say: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

* I actually did not understand what that phrase meant for years of my life. He said it a lot though. Apparently we were stinkers.

October Chatbook 2018

It always feels really good to do a chatbook, because it means I have everything else done for that month and I'm just sweeping the last little pieces into a nice neat post. I am still behind but I am well on my way to catching up. It is going to happen. It has taken over a year, I confess, but I have never given up and my goal is in sight.

I also plan on going fresh in the New Year (like I did last year) and doing current while catching up. It is what saved me at the beginning of this year and I'm already in a better position. Let's just hope I can get Christmas done before August. ;)

Back to this last October. Let's check out all the tidbits of the month.

The kids did a really crazy mutual night called 'Task.' I think they all wrote down tasks for other kids to do and put them in a box. They kept adding while drawing tasks that other people had written. It was a bit chaotic, but they all had a great time. (So I hear.) June came home with this ladybug drawn on her arm. It didn't come off for quite a while. I like that the red was dominant.

Tyler had his first Real Estate Transaction. He helped his coworker Lisa buy a house. I have bought a house twice now and I never realized how much work goes in on the agent side. Tyler worked so hard to help Lisa find the right place. I'm really proud of him and I hope Lisa likes her home.

Sister Maile, who teaches June's class at church brought a cake over for Steven and June and their class. I forgot to include this picture in the birthday post. So it ended up here.

I finally made a Spikeball group. There aren't many of us but we all like to play and try to get together. And it is nice that my girls can fill in when someone can't make it. Here is Caroline, Janille, Mandy, and I playing while the weather was still okay in October.

June was working most of October. (She actually was let go with many seasonal people in November, but she was happy to have some free time back.) One of the jobs that she didn't love was sign spinning. But we sure got a kick out of seeing June on the sidewalk in funny costumes. Some costumes kept anonymity. (The baby costume was the funniest, but June felt so hot and gross inside.) This ended up being June's favorite although you could tell it was her.

Daisy and I went on a date. She wanted to sample the Cone of Wonder. I have decided for sure that I don't like them that much. But I am also positive that I love dates with Daisy. We went home and watched a movie together. Super chill.

What would a chatbook be like without a picture of Robyn sleeping?

The littles had a mustache day at school. Luckily, we had plenty of mustaches on hand from when June asked Steven to Sadie's. Daisy is rocking the stache.

Pearl looks so cute, but I have to admit, I laughed really hard at the picture Robyn edited.

Ives continued her speech therapy at the Junior High, but she has gotten really good at saying her 'R's and she graduated in only a couple months. Good job!

Over Fall Break, June became an official driver. It is weird because they take their driver test during the class now. I thought she would have to take a driver's test when we got there, but we only had to pick up her temporary license. Sweet. So beware, driver's. June is on the road...in a truck no less.

As the weather got colder, we moved Spikeball indoors. It is actually really fun to play inside too. You just need to be more careful when you dive.

Pearl still sleeps with her eyes open. And it is still pretty creepy.

I woke up one morning and there was an amazing rainbow. It went across the whole sky. The funny things about rainbows is that they only last for a short time. Ten minutes later it was completely gone. Good thing we can take pictures.

I really liked Robyn's simple design for the window this month. She let me help paint.

Robyn has also been doing some painting at school. It seems she practices on her arm. Must be sad to wash a masterpiece off your arm.

We all made it to the dentist in October. (Actually, I think Tyler was sick and missed until November, but we were close.) I liked this little picture with all the teeth dressed up in Halloween costumes.

Speaking of spooky, check out Ghost Pip. She haunts our carpets.

Camie made cookies for us. She decorated them herself and I have never seen such cute cookies. She could go in to business. I have never made cookies that look this professional. I'm going to need to take some lessons.

Robyn did MUN at school. She got an award for outstanding delegate. She may have gotten it for just learning how to say the name of her country.

And we finish up the month with a very cute dragonfly. It seemed a bit cold for dragonflyies and perhaps that is why he held still for so long. We took pictures for twenty minutes. But he did leave eventually. I hope he found a good place to hibernate.

Second Sundays

Second Sundays are the best Sunday of the month because we have the college kids over to play and eat dinner with us. They are Camille's cute nephews and nieces that we met at Lake Powell over the summer.

Shall we meet them again? There's Zach. Right off his mission heartthrob. Sorry ladies. I hear he is waiting for a sister missionary to come back.

But he has a TWIN! Meet Josh. Red headed, tall, and  super responsible. He works as a RA (Resident Assistant) at his building.

We saved the best for last! Maddie. She has it all. Beautiful, funny, and killing it at college. We love Maddie.

There is also lovely Audrey, but she hasn't been able to come as many times and I don't have a picture of her. She turned in her papers and is leaving on a mission in February. We are going to miss her muchly.

We try and make yummy food for the kids since college kids are not known for having a lot of variety in their diet. We mix it up. One month we had calzones. I made the kids assemble their own. That was actually quite fun.

Tyler might have gotten carried away.

We've had some fun times. We've played lots of games. Introducing them to Moods was pretty funny.

Check out Zach doing yoga. This guy is amazing.

We've taught all three to saber bottles. I don't know what happened to Zach's video, but you can check out Maddie and Josh. They are pros now.

It takes Maddie a little longer to get it, but it was because she wasn't holding the bottle quite right. One adjustment and she is a pro.

December was really fun. We did a White Elephant Bingo game. June was ridiculously lucky. She bingoed right away and picked the only gag gift. Hahaha.

Zach, I'm so sorry that I missed getting your unicorn horn in the picture. It was a great night and it was really fun to play and unwrap. I definitely want to do that again next year. My favorite was Josh getting the small kitty purse that was actually a steal because it was full of random small gift cards. I loved to see him wearing it later. Better keep that thing close.

Second Sundays are the best. Everyone looks forward to them and the good news is that there is always another one right around the corner.