Abundant Recompense Copy

Congratulations to my brother Russell for finally popping the question to his sweet Emilee! They're planning on a wedding in the temple in March.

We started what I hope will turn into a yearly tradition this past month with our "thankful tree." I saw a similar idea on someone's blog (I can't remember who - hee. Whoever you are, I think you're a genius.) Addison and I braved the cold to go fill a grocery bag full of fallen leaves. We brought them in, dried them off for a day, and then Mod Podged them onto paper rectangles. Then we punched holes in the paper and hung them on the tree. Each night we (and whoever else happened to be over at the time) took a leaf and wrote one thing we were thankful for on the back. It ranged from things like "family," "deodorant" (from a guest who had forgotten hers) and "Jesus" to the more surprising (and entertaining) ones that Addison came up with: Ninja Turtles, balloons, gingerbread boys and fire, to name a few. I loved it. I usually get so caught up in Christmas that Thanksgiving is just a hurdle to jump on the way, but it was wonderful to...

Heads up: I almost titled this post "A Big Fat Brag on Natey." So get excited. Nate is insanely busy these days. It seems like we are always thinking our lives cannot possibly get busier and then they do. I daresay, however, that Nate is really becoming quite a pro at balancing all his responsibilities. He's taking two graduate classes on top of a full-time work week plus a daily commute time averaging two hours and twenty minutes. And he's the elder's quorum secretary at church. I'm ready for bed just thinking about it. As far as school goes, we're beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. One more semester. One more class. And it is NOT a night class. HOOrah! He met with the graduate advisor a few weeks ago and he has officially applied for graduation in May! I will now insert a shameless brag: She did a double-take when she saw the results of the portion of the MA exam that he took last spring. Apparently he passed with honors, which is quite u...

Michelle is a stellar mom, and being a mom is about the most important thing she can be. It takes an awful lot of her time and sanity. But let's not get any ideas out there that there's nothing more to her life. (I'm looking at you, Michelle...) I'll let the blog itself serve as proof of her stunning accomplishments as a mother in Zion. Instead, I'd like to record in this post the other pies she has her fingers in. (I first wrote "the other fingers she has her pie in," but fortunately corrected myself.) About a month ago, Michelle was put in as the president of the young women's organization in our ward. If you ask me, she had it coming, since the week before the call came, she bore a beautiful and emotional testimony in church about going to the temple with the young women and feeling how special they were. Guess the bishop was listening, eh? Anyway, I'm really proud of her for stepping right in and getting to the heart of it - not programs or me...

Generally speaking, I think the best thing about Halloween is that it signals the start of the holiday season. Forget all the gross severed limb decorations, scary gorilla costumes, etc and just give me some fun sized candy bars and we'll call it good. We did, however have a great time this year. Addison "got" it, which is fun. We got our costume box out about a week before and played with the different costumes. He loved it and wanted to be a duck again, just like last year, which was just fine with me. Bryn recycled Add's snail costume from a couple years ago. We had a fhe "party," went to our ward's Halloween parade/hot dog dinner, carved a pumpkin, and are still eating way too much candy. Experimentation with costumes. This one = cowboy duck. Halloween sticker book from Grandma. A BIG hit. FHE partay. (Which followed the WORST temper tantrum Addison has ever had to date.) Cute lil' pumpkin Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern Addison teaching us a...