Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving; I didn't take many. We were at my brother Mark and Miriah's home. It was a wonderful meal and wonderful company.

It has been a very fun and busy week with lots of different things to do. It was nice to have Spencer home from SUU for over a week and great to see Lindsay too.

We have a couch in the upstairs family room slash playroom. I never, ever look behind it. Truth be told, when I'm in that room I don't even let my eyes wander anywhere in the vicinity of the couch. It's where the girls and their friends hang out. Thus, I'm scared of what's back there. The other day, I was brave enough to move it:

We have a rule that food is not allowed out of the kitchen. So, imagine my surprise (not) to find mass piles of dry noodles. There were also half eaten suckers, used bandaids, gum, chapstick, endless garbarge. Oh, and a glove. Not a pair mind you, just one. Are they really that lazy? Just shove it all behind the couch I guess. Ask any one of them who shoved all this crap back here, and I get my favorite response, "I didn't do it."

I think from now on I should just start shoving everything I pick up behind the couch. I'm so tired of bending over to pick. up. one. more. thing. So, I'll just kick it to the couch instead. When the girls ask me where their backpacks are, I'll just say, "I didn't do it."

Happy Thanksgiving

We just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and let you all know how grateful we are for you, our friends and family, who impact our life so greatly. You are each a blessing in our life and we learn so much from each of you.

The more we obey God, the more we desire to help others. The more we help others, the more we love God and on and on. Conversely, the more we disobey God and the more selfish we are, the less love we feel. John Groberg

Happenings this week!

Colton gave a talk on prayer on Sunday and he did such a great job. It was the best talk he has ever gave and he got so many compliments and I did too for him! Matt was extra busy adding another High council meeting that day so we didn't see much of him. Luckily I didn't have to go and visit people in the ward this Sunday! But we were lucky enough to have our home teachers come over; they are awesome.

Yesterday we were able to have the missionaries over for dinner. Our missionaries cover 22 wards so it is hard to schedule a day with them.

Today, I went to bishop's storehouse to work to help fill Thanksgiving orders for our area. It is amazing to me how organized that place runs. The people that work there are so helpful and made it easy. It just amazes me how efficiently the LDS church runs all of their programs. Right now Matt is at the Jazz game with his friend Jamie sitting in their cozy suite with delicious food.

Tomorrow is our schools Thanksgiving dinner so I get the opportunity to go and help serve and then I also will have a minute to eat dinner/lunch with Kara. Tomorrow is also the Reflections award assemble and Kara got a letter that she is getting an award tomorrow. I was really proud of her because she wrote a song and worked hard.

Tomorrow night I am going with my girlfriends to my first midnight movie Twilight. It should be interesting because I am supposed to go and help Friday at Colton's school, so hopefully I won't be too tired. And Friday is also the day that Spencer comes home for Thanksgiving break. It will be so nice to have him home for over a week; I have missed him so much.

Saturday Kara and I start our 1st day of ski lessons together. It should be fun and she is especially excited.

This Sunday I have the opportunity to go to a missionary (non) homecoming talk. It is a friend of Coby's from high school, and he also happened to be on the same mission as Coby. So it will be so cool to hear about his experiences serving in the same mission. The following Sunday I am going to another non homecoming talk too. Coby's friend Jake is getting home from his mission. I sure have missed Jake and it will be so great to see him.

Family Portraits

I mailed each family member their picture TODAY from the family reunion! I can't express how glad I am that the pictures are finally here and the order was finally right this time. I have had so many different problems with this particular picture group that I just have to laugh.

We did get all of the photo shopping done for free because of all of the problems so that was one bright spot, especially since he did 11 different photo shops. Basically he did one member or more from every family. I just forgot to photo shop myself if you can believe it because I really am not smiling in the picture, but you know what I decided, it is really not a big deal.

We all need to become

"The purpose of life is not to do. It is to become. To become more of who we are is perfect success, no matter the end result. " Heather Madder

I love this quote as it reminds me that we are each creators of our life and each individual has a central purpose differently tutored for them individually.

Happy Veterans Day!

I am so grateful for those Veterans that have served our country and made it the safe place it is today. I can't express enough gratitude for the time they gave to their country and the countless times they put themselves in harms way to protect this country. I am so glad that I live in this free country!

This last weekend we had a great stake conference! Our theme was Love one Another. And then our Saturday adult evening meeting was about preparing to go to the temple, particularly the Draper temple which will be having an open house for 54 days. Our stake has the opportunity to participate in helping with the open house. I am so excited for this! That night we also went to the high councilmen and wife dinner. This is I must admit is a time where I realized that I was getting much OLDER! I remember when my parents use to go to these.

On our Sunday morning session every talk was about Loving one another. They talked a lot about forgiveness too. It was all beautifully done and to top it off we had a primary choir that sang beautifully and brought the spirit more strongly through their sweet spirit and music.

We have had a great week and Kara had a sleep over with her friend and it was fun to hear giggling girls. We got to talk to Spencer a lot so that made for a great week and I was able to help at the school with Reflections, feeding the teachers and I made Grandma Przybylski's Chicken noodle soup thanks to Aunt Julie's cook book and it was a big hit. One of my great friends is the PTA president and I am very inspired by her dedication to the school and the countless hours that she serves. She just amazes me.

We had a lot of rain on Monday and it was so nice as it reminded me of home. In our letter from Coby this weekend he mentioned how grateful he was that it wasn't time to come home from his mission yet. His current companion is going home today so I am happy that he is loving his mission so much. I love having a missionary out spreading the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. I need to mail him a package as his bag was ruined, and his shoes are ruined again and he needs a new journal!

Election is over!!!!! Yeah :)

I am so glad that the election is finally over. Here at our home we were disappointed with the results for the president. But now that Obama is the president we will stand behind him as our American President.

I was so grateful that Proposition 8 passed in California. This is something that was extremely important to me. I am grateful for all of the voters in California who got out there and voted! I can't express my gratitude enough. Thanks for allowing marriage to continue as the Lord intended between one man and one woman. I am so grateful for marriage and the opportunity I have to be married to a wonderful man who makes each of my days brighter!

Colton has been sick with the flu today. He woke up in the morning throwing up on the carpet of all places. Not a great way to start the day, but I was blessed that my husband got up and cleaned it up for me before I realized it. And in talking to Spencer today he had the flu today too; how interesting that living so far away he had it the same time as his brother.

I talked to my sister Katie on the phone yesterday. It made me miss her all the more. She is so fun to talk to. I wish we lived closer as I miss her a lot. She mentioned coming to visit in Utah and I hope that she is serious because I would love to see her. We always have so much fun when we are together.

We went to Kara's parent teacher conference tonight and she has a 98.8 percent overall which is wonderful. She puts a lot of pressure on herself to do well and sometimes she is way too hard on herself.

I started a face book page as a better way to keep connected with Spencer and in the process I have found out it is kind of fun too. Some of the avenues of the Internet are so amazing. Please have a Happy November!

Halloween Fun and Grandma Mackey's 90th birthday

Halloween was great this year. Kara was a 50's girl and she looked so cute. And Colton was a CIA agent at least for our ward's trunk or treat.

One big thing is the fact that today is my Grandma's 90th birthday. My grandma is an amazing person who I love and admire. I am so blessed by having her influence in my life.

The elementary school didn't have school on Halloween so we celebrated it on the 30th. That is the day we had the school parade and all of the Halloween parties. This is my last year having a child at Edgemont elementary school. So my 16 years of watching my children in the parade is coming to an end with I am sure great things in store for the future.
After the parade I put on the Halloween party for Kara's class. I had three moms that came to help and my husband Matt came too. One of the games I picked out was a flop, but the rest were great. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Kara said the funnest game there was the one her dad did. After the party and while her class was at lunch and recess I prepared caramel apples, and put together root beer floats and then we all went home.

Colton didn't have any parties or dress up at his school, but he took it right in stride. This is the first year I didn't take my children trick or treating. Kara went with her friend for the first time without me and Matt and I stayed home (it was our date night) and answered the door and spent time with Colton. I hope you all had a very Happy Halloween.