Thanksmas dinner and gifts.

Since Grandma Libby was in town early in December we delayed Thanksgiving and celebrated Christmas a little bit early...so Thanksmas 2017.

We had a wonderful time gathering together for our big dinner.  Of course we had Christmas crackers with the traditional hats and corny jokes!  After dinner we exchanged a few gifts and enjoyed each others company for the evening.  It was a beautiful Thanksmas night!

Sister Kathryn Smith is home!!

On Tuesday, December 5th we all gathered at the Salt Lake airport to welcome home Sister Kathryn Smith.  She had completed her 18 month mission and was coming home to her huge loving family.  It was such an amazing day and having her home is great.  What a great early Christmas present indeed!

Well done Sister Smith!!

Decorating the tree for 2017!

We got the tree up early this year because we were going to be having an early Christmas dinner at our house while Grandma Libby was in town.  It was a fun evening of going through all the kids ornaments from all the years and decorating our tree.  The "theme" of our tree is great memories and family moments.  I absolutely love decorating the tree and getting the house ready for Christmas!

I'm grateful to be able to celebrate Christmas with those I love and to remember the reason for the season...Jesus Christ!

Thanksgiving and Vegas

This Thanksgiving we were able to eat with the Smith family and then head out to Las Vegas for a soccer tournament that started the next day.  We had a wonderful dinner and visit with the family that was there at Chad and Cynthia's.  I even took my camera there to make sure I took some pictures.  I took a few and then put it away to eat my dinner and my pie before hitting the road.

We drove to Vegas in really good time and got to our hotel at 10:30pm.  Evan, McKinley and David went out to the outlet mall to experience Black Friday shopping, while I had the room to myself and went to bed!  They had a great time and got back around 1am Vegas time.  The next afternoon Evan had 2 soccer games in which he played great.  Saturday morning McKinley and I went and did baptisms in the Las Vegas temple (we didn't take a picture??!!)

 Saturday afternoon and evening we had 2 more games, and the team lost in the semi finals with PKs.  Evan scored 3 goals in 3 games and played very well.  It was warm and amazing weather and we enjoyed watching him play.

 In between games on Saturday McKinley and I went to the roller coaster inside the NY NY and walked to see the sharks at Mandalay Bay.  It was fun to be on the strip in the afternoon before it got too dark and weird.

Sunday we drove home and it was a little bit slow with all the people on the road, but we got home in time for Evan to go to work and for us to unpack and unwind.  All in all in was a great trip!

Halloween and pumpkins

With fall upon us we've been busy finishing up soccer seasons and now it's Halloween.  McKinley was the only one who wanted to carve a pumpkin this year and so she did.  She found an idea online and took one of our pumpkins and did the whole thing herself.  

Halloween was another quiet holiday...with only McKinley going trick or treating.  The rest of us had a pretty quiet evening with our home on a dark dead end...but she had a good time going around with friends.  She was a happy blue unicorn! 

Fall Break in Idaho with Grandma

For Fall break McKinley and I were able to fly up and see my mom in Idaho.  She has bought a new house and is remodeling the whole thing so it was fun for us to go and see it.  It was in the middle of being sheet rocked and we got ready for the kitchen to be taken down.  We also were able to ride her horse Carlos and do some yard work.  We had fun cooking and eating and cleaning out a shed as well.

 
We also tore down a really ugly railing from the front walkway...that was fun!!

 We enjoyed visiting and meeting Charlie, the amazing cat my mom got from the shelter.  He's a real riot and finally got used to us after a couple days.  We had fun snuggling with him and playing with the remote mouse toy as well.  I'm so glad we were able to visit.

Be still my heart...what a wonderful surprise!

On Sunday afternoon we were all just relaxing when my phone began to "ring" with a tone I'd never heard before.  I looked down at it and it showed Ethan's mission president Facebook video chatting my phone.  I didn't know whether to answer or not.  Was it a mistake?  What would he be calling for...on Facebook??  So I pushed answer and saw and heard my son playing with the choir at Stake Conference in Brazil!  Who does that?  I was so happy to hear and see him sharing his talents.  My heart could almost burst as I listened to the choppy live feed from this sweet man's phone.   About an hour later we got another "call" and it was a second musical number with the choir and we were able to grab a camera for a last 15 second recording.  What amazing Sabbath day blessings!  We love the Juiz de Fora mission!