'Twas 3 Days 'til Thanksgiving

We wrapped up our thankful lists tonight at Family Home Evening. The boys were struggling a little not to repeat the same thankfuls. Nash is thankful for the good days and the bad. He is thankful for his wife, even though she is invisible right now. He is also thankful for sidewalks, blankets, and comfy things. Atley is thankful for being flexible, ice skates, submarines, and surviving tornadoes. We also watched this video about the first Thanksgiving. It is great for kids and full of all the important stuff that is THANKSGIVING!!!



What was on my thankful list? A wonderful family that challenges, teaches, and makes me laugh everyday. I am grateful for this great nation that I am so blessed to live in. I am thankful for my mother and all she does for me. I am very grateful for both sets of my grandparents and for the lessons that they taught and are still teaching me. I am so thankful for a warm home and a belly that is always full. I am thankful for the opportunities that I have been given-opportunities that include the gospel, an education, work, and knowing all of you. I am grateful for prayer and the knowledge that HE is always listening. I am thankful for the atoning sacrifice of my Savior who makes up for my many shortcomings. I am thankful for chubby baby girls and naughty little boys, indoor plumbing, and chocolate chip cookies. I am thankful for good music, e-mail, General Hospital, and Lucille Ball. I am especially thankful for Thanksgiving, a time to reflect upon what we have been given and express that gratitude.

Family Pictures

This weekend we bravely went where many other parents have gone before--to the mall, for family pictures. Our experience was similar to all of our previous family picture days, full of stress, tears, yelling, some disappointment a lot of frustration and of course a whole bunch of wondering why the heck we do this in the first place. But, we survived and we will always look at these pictures and remember how neither Nash's nor his mother's pants fit and how Nash also refused to wear anything but his cowboy boots. We will remember how the sleeves on Harley's dress nearly cut off her circulation, but that she learned what all women must, comfort is secondary to beauty. Scott will be reminded how grateful he is that I don't pick out his clothes everyday. And Atley will probably remember this day as the day he really began disliking his parents. What kind of people get mad at their kid for being too happy at the picture place? As always it was definitely a pleasure making these lasting memories!!!

Enough Said

"Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable."
PLATO

OWLeluja it's Turkey Time!

I have an ENORMOUS list of crafts on my TO-DO LIST. Each day that list grows longer while my time seems to be more and more limited. A small miracle happened today. I had nothing important to do. No appointments, no groceries to buy, no laundry, no school or church stuff, and my house wasn't even that dirty- so, I went on a craft marathon. First, I made Harley this turkey shirt with some fabric scraps, heat 'n bond, a ONESIE, and some embroidery thread. I thought it was adorable. Nash did too, even though he didn't know what it was. He called it a STAR POTATO. Hey, I like to craft. I never said I was good at it.

Every turkey princess needs a matching bow for her turkey outfit. I love this flower pin/bow tutorial at this BLOG. I would have loved to take a picture of her with the turkey shirt and the hair bow, but alas her bowels were not so cooperative today.
She is my little muse and because she already had a shirt, and a bow, and I still had left over fabric scraps, I had to make her something else. I opted for a trendy owl toy. I stuffed a crinkly grocery bag inside to make him nice and noisy, plus I added the tags to make him irresistible to baby.

Now, a little something for momma! I call this my TEN MINUTE T-SHIRT PURSE. Why, you may ask, because it obviously only took me ten minutes. My most favorite T-shirt, my KILLERS shirt, had a small tear and a big stain but I could never bear to part with it. Here is my solution. First, turn the shirt inside out and cut across, just under the armpits.
Sew a 1/2 inch stitch, just below your cut. Turn right side out and make two-slits in the hem of your shirt on opposite ends. This is the bottom of what used to be your shirt. Be careful to only slit the hem.
Next,take two LONG pieces of ribbon. Fasten a safety pin on one piece and slip it through one side of the hem of the shirt. Repeat with the second ribbon.

When both ribbons have been pushed through the hem tie a knot in each ribbon, creating two separate straps. Then hide the knot in your hem.
If you want you can add a flower. I made this one following this TUTORIAL.
Finally, (are you as tired as I am), I made this OWL BUNTING. I used pinking shears to cut out the shapes of the owl, owl belly, owl eyes, and beak. I glued the pieces onto the owl body and then the entire owl onto a piece of card stock. I added buttons for eyes. I sewed the owls together and added ribbon to hang.

Tomorrow, I have lots to do. It is truly amazing what a disaster your house becomes when you take the day off.

Showing our Gratitude

It being the month of Thanksgiving, last night's Family Home Evening consisted of ANOTHER lesson on gratitude. We seem to have this lesson frequently at our house. Maybe because we all, parents included, take for granted the bounteous blessings we enjoy. Each November we list the things we are grateful for and we are doing that again. So far, the boys are thankful for jellyfish, the basement, heater vents, dad, and leaves. I decided to take it a step further. I realized that it isn't really difficult to list a bunch of random things that we are thankful for, but it's a little harder to actually show our gratitude each day. We decided to come up with an even more important list. This list reminds us of how we can show gratitude. I wanted to always remember what the kids came up with, so I thought I would share it.

WAYS WE CAN SHOW THAT WE ARE GRATEFUL:
Be happy with what we have!
Love God!
No Whining!
Love Nash!
Take good care of the things we have!
Be nice!
Share with and help others!
Keep our bodies healthy!
Love Atley!
Be happy!
Keep the commandments!
Always say thank you!
Love Dad & Harley!

A Bug's Life

Atley had a holiday from school today, partly for a teacher workday, but mostly so that everyone in the area could vote and then bite their nails in worry for their favorite candidate. We headed to the Museum of Natural History!

While the boys love exploring the Hall of Mammals, seeing the dinosaur bones and the giant squid, their favorite part has always been the insect zoo and butterfly pavilion.


Today they held some giant cockroaches, a millipede, and some caterpillars. We also spent a long time visiting the butterflies. The boys were like magnets for these flying wonders. Atley walked around with a Blue Morpho Butterfly stuck to his back for at least 10 minutes. Tragedy struck when a Monarch Butterfly landed on Nash's head and with her lightening fast reflexes Harley reached for it and crushed it between her chubby little fingers. The docents were completely horrified and I had a hard time keeping a straight face as I peeled butterfly guts out of her little hand. I think they would have prosecuted her for butterfly murder if they could have, instead they settled on complaining about my inadequacies as a mother. "How could a six month old possibly harm an innocent butterfly without her mother's knowledge?" I wonder the same thing. When Atley accidentally stepped on another unfortunate butterfly, we knew it was time to go. Is it morbid to still call our visit a success?









In the end the excitement of all the bug crushing proved to be too much for Harley and Nash.