Snippets of Our 2013 Thanksgiving via Instagram Photos

We are so grateful for wonderful full lives that we live.  Sam and I have been truly blessed being raised by amazing families.  We now have our own family of six to raise up in faith and righteousness.  We are so thankful for our home, Sam's job, and our 4 healthy children.  I could go on forever on what I'm thankful for, but the photo below will give you more of an idea of the specifics.

Our Uncompleted Thankful Tree! We are thankful for so much more than what this tree shows. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  #webelieveinblueleaves #usewhatyouhave

We had a very nice Thanksgiving this year.  We left our house about 10am and drove 2 hours to Orem.  We spent our time at Sam's parents' home.  Dinner was at 2:30pm and we had 15 people total eat together: our family of six, Sam's parents, Rosanne, Rafa, their two girls, Zoey and Sadie, Rafa's dad, Laura, and Laura's boyfriend, Josh.  The food was excellent!  The kids were in heaven playing with all the toys downstairs.  After the kids went to bed, the adults played a round of Apples to Apples and watched a little Harry Potter on TV.  The next morning, we just spent some quality time hanging out.  I took Julia on a morning walk around the neighborhood.  The weather was perfect this weekend!  Good food, good company.  Life is good!  

And now for some snippets from our time in Orem:

Sam and his dad are ready for turkey.

Julia's cousin, Zoey, wanted to feed her.  Zoey fed Julia for about 2 minutes and then she said she was all done.  As I took Julia from her, Zoey stood up, swiped the back of her hand across her forehead, and said "Whew!  Hard work!"  How adorable is that!

Grandma Ward is having some quality time with Julia & Tyler.

Playing the made up "Lego Train Game" with my boys.  We each strung some Lego train cars together, made a huge long trail of Legos around the room, and raced to see who's train could hold the most cargo.  Tyler won!  #somanytoysatgrandparentshouse

My boys insisted on having a string of Christmas lights on their bed at Grandma and Grandpa's place like they do at home!  #lovemyfestiveboys

Old Classic Game #boardgamemarathon

A sweet dollhouse with all the accessories you'd ever want.  #grandparentshouseistoyheaven

Dream dollhouse #playskoolrocks

Sunset on the road home

I love this quote!  It is a perfect thought to share with the Relief Society sisters since I'm serving as the Compassionate Service leader.

How We Spent Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent several hours in our van.  Here I am with our fearless driver:

I spent most of my time sitting next to Tyler on the middle bench seat trying my best to keep everyone happy.  What do you think everyone wanted most?  Food of course.  When we couldn't handle the whining anymore, we stopped for lunch.

We stopped at a famous yummy burger joint (first time for me and the kids).  

Then it was on the road again.

We spent our Thanksgiving weekend at a place with trees that look like this:

In a home that looks like this:

And cousins that look like this:

Ben - 4 1/2 years old 

Sarah - 2 1/2 years old

Emma - 8 months old

 The cousins got to know each other better.

We visited some fun parks, one of which had astroturf instead of grass!

Ben and Tyler
Ben LOVED riding in our van!  

We went to a couple parks with him as well as a fun bounce house place.

Another fun thing that we did was go to Bounce U, a kid paradise filled with bounce houses.  

We also spent a day at Lied Children's Discovery Museum.  Fun fun fun!

Getting these kiddos to bed at night was interesting.  

They were just so excited to be together and it took them awhile to calm down.

I don't blame them one bit though, cousins are so fun.

More to come on our trip soon... including videos!  Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving 2011

"I doubt there is such a thing as a measure of spirituality - but if there is, gratitude would be it.

Only the grateful are paying attention.

They are grateful because they pay attention, and they pay attention because they are grateful."

- Barnes, the Pastor as Minor Poet, quoted by Douglas Wilson

 Tyler's Preschool Turkey

I had a delightful Thanksgiving weekend with my family.  We had a scrumptiousThanksgiving dinner at Sam's parents' house.  I brought some rolls and our famous homemade chocolate chip cookies.

I finally got to hold our niece, Zoey.  She's 12 weeks old.  I promise to get a picture of me holding Zoey when we're back down there over Christmas break.  Sam and I stayed up late watching the newest Pirates of the Caribean movie with his parents and sister, Laura.  I fell asleep towards the end of the movie.  We stayed over one night.  The next day, the boys helped Grandma set up for Christmas.

On our way home, we stopped in Salt Lake for a little Christmas shopping and to show the kids the Christmas lights on Temple Square.  It was our kids' first time seeing Temple Square all lit up for the holidays.  We almost didn't stop because we couldn't find a decent place to park.  On our final lap around the Conference Center block, the stars aligned right when Brian started bawling in the back seat from severe frustration and disappointment.  A car was just leaving and it was the most perfect spot.  All we had to do was cross the street.  

 This photo was taken from our parked van.  From this angle, you can't see the how lit up Temple Square is.  

But trust me, it is magnificent.

We didn't have the double stroller with us, so I knew that with our two crazy boys, it'd be ridiculous to try and bring the camera along.  Katie did just fine in the umbrella stroller.  The kids LOVED the whole experience.  It wasn't too cold out there.  It was actually quite pleasant (for November in Utah).  I did snap a couple of bad quality photos of the area around our van right before we drove away.

I am thankful for my life.  My little family loves having a home of our own that is filled with love and laughter.  I feel so blessed to be married to my best friend and to have three adorable kids.  

Another beautiful sunset view right out of my front door!  Love it!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

We spent Thanksgiving with most of Sam's family up in Idaho.  Sam's brother, Kevin has a beautiful home up there.  There was a "blizzard warning" the day before we left for Idaho.  Some of the roads that we needed to travel on were closed but reopened before we left.  Our drive up took longer than anticipated, but we just drove slow and made it to Kevin and Becky's home. 

Sam, Kevin, Becky, Staci, and Fred all got up early on Thanksgiving Day to run in the Feed the Hungry Race.  Everyone but Sam ran the 5K.  My man ran his first ever 10K! 

I felt kind of bad that I wasn't there to cheer on my family, but I was home helping with the kids.  Sam tells me that he didn't quite make his goal, but was proud of himself because he never stopped running.  That's quite the accomplishment and I'm very proud of Sam.

Thanksgiving dinner set up was very nice. We had two adult tables and a kid table.  There was more than enough food for us to feast upon.

I helped make these cute turkeys on the plates.

Sam's sister, Staci made this gorgeous flower arrangement:

The boys loved playing with Kevin & Becky's boys, Owen and Wesley.  Owen is the same age as Brian and Wes is 3 1/2 years old.  Little Tyler kept up with the big boys.  They played all day every day we were there.  Grandpa Ward and Sam took the boys out to play in the snow too.   

Tyler, Wes, Brian, Owen

Owen, Brian, Wes

And here's my sweet little niece, Madalyn.

Thanks to Kevin and Becky for having our family over for Thanksgiving. 

We had a great time.

I know I do a 'Thankful Thursday' post on most Thursdays, so because I missed last Thursday's post, I'll post a few things that I am most thankful for:

1.  Being a wife and mother.  Taking care of my family of 5 is so much work.  I'm so glad that I am able to take care of everyone and raise my own happy family.

2.  Being married to Sam.  It's great being married to my best friend.  I feel that he understands me very well and that we get along (most of the time.)  I love Sam so much.

4.  My three incredible kids.  My kids are my pride and joy.  I try to study each of their personalities and habits and embrace the joys and challenges that come along with their traits.  (Tyler is still trying my patience with his destructiveness.)

5. Photography and how it helps me notice the beautiful people and world around me. 

6.  The Gospel.  I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I'm so glad that I was raised in this church.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house. It was the fourth year in a row that we've hosted. Grandma Hallstrom helped a ton. She brought some extra chairs, a table cloth, fancy china, silverware, and goblets, and lots of food. Our guests were: Grandma Hallstrom, Joyce Jacobs (Grandma's friend), Uncle Calvin, Nathan (my cousin), Amy (my sister), Mike (Amy's boyfriend), and Laura (my sister). It was fun being together as a family. The meal was so tasty and definitely worth all the time in the kitchen. We were in charge of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, drinks, corn, and a dessert. For dessert, Grandma made two apple pies and Sam and I made a pumpkin roll. Here's a picture of most of us enjoying a conversation over dessert:After dinner, we enjoyed a power point presentation by Nathan. Sam hooked up Nathan's laptop to our big tv so we could see larger pictures. This past July, Nathan returned home from a mission to Mozambique. He is a funny guy and told us about the culture in Mozambique as well as several mission stories. After the presentation, we enjoyed our dessert and then presented Grandma Hallstrom with a few early Christmas presents. The gifts were from her whole family and I put the gifts together. You can enjoy the video a little later once I get it posted:

In addition to the large collage frame full of family pictures, I made Grandma a scrapbook version of family photos. I also created a slideshow of family photos that I posted on my blog recently. Grandma was very touched by the gifts and can't wait to get the collage frame hung on her wall.

After our boys went to bed, we rearranged the furniture in the family room and Sam set up our Christmas tree. Then, Sam and I watched the new Pixar movie, 'Up' with Laura and Nathan. It was my first time seeing that movie. I enjoyed it. I could tell that the people who created the movie had big imaginations. Laura, Nathan, and Amy spent the night.

The next morning, I did a portrait photo shoot of Amy. My Mom wanted a good picture of Amy to hang on her mantle above her fireplace. Here are some of my favorite photos I got of Amy:

Amy and I stopped by for a quick bite to eat at McDonald's. We had chicken nuggets and chocolate milkshakes. It was fun to hang out with my sister.

Like last year, Laura is performing in the church production, "Savior of the World." Sam and I were lucky enough to get to see Laura in the play over Thanksgiving weekend. We drove Laura back for her Friday night performance. Sam and I were lucky enough to get standby tickets and awesome seats (3rd row from the front on the left hand side of the theater). I was hoping Laura would look out into the audience and see us. At the very end of the show, Laura glanced over and gave me a big smile. It's such a great show! We wandered over to Temple Square and saw all the Christmas lights before heading home. Thank you, Amy and Mike for babysitting for us!

On Saturday night, I hung out with my second cousin, Angela. She lives in the same town as me. I picked her up and we headed off to see the new movie, 'The Blind Side.' We arrived at the theater and found out that the tickets were sold out. So we went to another theater. The movie was sold out there too. We purchased some tickets for the 9:45pm show and did a little Christmas shopping for a couple hours.

On Sunday evening, I went on my date with Brian. The two of us drove to Layton to visit my cousin Jerry's family and my cousin David's family (who were visiting from Arizona). Brian loves playing with Jerry's son, Hunter. Hunter and Brian are only 10 days apart in age. Brian wasn't as interested in playing with Hunter this time. He was more interested in the food and the fancy bathrooms they had. Oh well. I had fun catching up with my cousins. The last time I'd seen my cousin David was in 1998 at the Van Wie Farm in New York. Anyway, here is a picture of the Van Wie Cousin Reunion of 2009:

Jerry & Marla's kids with their Arizona cousins

David, Amy, Lisa, Jerry