Thankful!

Jake is Thankful for...his family, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his job, his health and that his wife still laughs at his jokes! :)

 Vanessa is Thankful for...family, good parents, Jesus Christ, good health, beautiful children, hard working and supportive husband, a free country, a cozy home, the beauty that surrounds us!

 Sierra is Thankful for...the Gospel, family, friends, food and water, a house, a great school, loving parents, a brother, all of my stuff and the time that we live in!

 Ashton is Thankful for...his family, food, water, friends, my toys and my parents!

 Kitty is Thankful for...a wonderful family that takes great care of her, kitty treats, lizards and birds, being able to flop anywhere her little heart desires!

Our day was so beautiful so much to be thankful for! Woke up early to get a jump start on making rolls! They turned out beautifully golden and so fluffy and delish! Ashton slept until 8:30! That is unheard of! The day was cool and overcast, LOVED it! Dropped 6 rolls off to my mom's friend Cheri for a Happy Thanksgiving and then we headed to Terry and Janelle's. We enjoyed time with Jake's sister Crystal, her family; Travis and Miriam; Terry's brother, Uncle Chuck; Janelle's sister, Aunt Pam and Uncle Richard; Jake's cousin Becky and her family! We ate yummy food, of course! :)

Then we headed over to Grannie's house to spend the rest of the day with my family. My mom got Grannie a new TV, a giant flat screen, the boys even tore down half of her built in entertainment center to fit it on the wall. :0 Grannie was at the temple all week! Everyone, especially the boys, loved the TV and loved watching football on the TV! :)

 Stuffing ourselves silly!

 We enjoyed time with the Lawrence's, McKeon's, Dunn's, Bergener's, Whitmore's, Mendenhall's

Remembering Sam!Talking about him, reading poems Aunt Ruthie wrote, looking at pictures and memorabilia.

 Kids playing!

 Girls chatting!

 Loving! Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Randy celebrating 32 years of marriage! :)

 Lucy gobbling!

 Weekend continues...Norris and Brenna and Bergener's stayed all weekend! Friday Jake's bro-in-law came over and put on a new front door handle for us and helped Jake put up Christmas lights. The kids and I decorated for Christmas. My whole family came over to our house and my mom made soup and brought Stonefire salad and breadsticks. Saturday we cleaned house and then made a big salad and went to Dad and Tori's for Thanksgiving Dinner! We enjoyed time with my siblings, Tori's parents, the missionaries and Tori's brother, Ron and his wife. We watched Tangled too!
Sunday we went back to Grannie's and ate short ribs and yumminess for dinner. Gave hugs and kisses cuz brother and sister are leaving to go home!
LOVE this time of year when we get to spend quality time with those we love most!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks Aunt Pam for the picture! I will blog more about our day tomorrow, I'm tired! :)

Friday was Thanksgiving Feast at the kids school. We brought rolls and they were so yummy! It was multi-cultural so it was fun to try all the different food that families brought. Grammy even came to feast with us! :)

Friday night I went to the temple with the youth and when I got home my whole family was sleeping! I felt like such a party animal! :)

Saturday morning it was raining and we served! Jake was in charge and I have to admit he did a great job, ran so smoothly and we accomplished our goal of clearing off the ivy on the fence line at Placerita very quickly. Teamwork!

Jacque's shower was in the afternoon. She's having a GIRL! :) Sophi, Lucy, mom, Sierra and I went and enjoyed yummy food and company! I loved having Sierra there with me, she's so grown up! She is such a love! When we got home I needed to run to the store to get food for Sunday dinner. Mom said she would go with me and Ashton wanted to go too! He was SO happy the whole time! I think it was great that he had time alone with his dad! Time with daddy is so important!
Made pumpkin bread for my beehives. Taught them today! I love them!
Had Janelle, Terry, mom, Miriam and Melanie over tonight for dinner. Jake even started a fire in the fireplace, the first one of the season. It's been raining today, I LOVE IT!

A good deed

In Ashton's class they are collecting canned food for the Food Pantry...

Ashton came home on Monday, he and his friend, Collin, had made a sign...

"Please donate canned food to K-1 for a Thanksgiving Meal!"

He asked if for Family Home Evening we could go around to our neighbors with his sign and ask for canned food donations. Great idea! So, at about 7:30 our family went all together around to the neighbors to ask for donations for school for the Food Pantry. Ashton was so nervous, daddy helped him! :) But, he held up his sign at every door, very proud! He had great success! Everyone was so nice and told Ashton it was so kind what he was doing! A neighbor even came over tonight with more canned food. We drove to Grandma and Grandpa's and Grandpa gave us some canned food too! We brought in 2 full brown bags of canned food this morning to school. Ashton's teacher was so proud of him!

stats

Just looked up half marathon stats:
me: Time 2:03:01.5 / Pace 9:23

mom: Time 2:03:43.8 / Pace 9:27

Primary Program 2011

Yesterday was our Primary Program. All the children did such a beautiful job on their parts and the singing was angelic. These children carry such a sweet spirit with them, it was a beautiful program. My kids had invited their teachers and were disappointed cause neither of them came.
Sierra's part: "We are richly blessed in these latter days to be given a prophet to lead and guide us. I hear a living prophet speak the things that Christ would say and I fell the Holy Spirit as He teaches truth and right."

Ashton's part: "If we listen for the voice of our Father in Heaven. He will lead us on a course that will allow us to experience the pure love of Christ."

The Half

13.1 miles

Yesterday was the Marathon in Santa Barbara and me and my mom ran the Half. My time was 2 hours 3 minutes. I ran to the finish lightening speed, my family didn't even see me! :) But, they saw my mom running to the finish. We stayed together the entire time until about 2 miles before the finish there was a good size incline and that is where I lost her. I kept turning around to see where she was, couldn't see her. She said she could see me the whole time. She was only about a minute behind me.

It was SO much fun! All the people that came out to cheer us on, didn't know any of them but I loved giving all the kids high 5's. Well, I did see Blake Webster and the Malloy family and I loved the fact that my family was waiting for me at the finish line. Looked forward to seeing them. Then when I reached the finish line I didn't even see them, there were SO many people everywhere.  SO cool! Thanks for coming my family, for your love and support, love you SO much! xoxo
About 1 mile before the Finish a girl was running in front of me and she peed her pants. It almost got on me cause I was right behind her. Totally just peed! GROSS! All down her legs, into her shoes but she kept running like nothing happened. YUCK! I sped up and passed her, I didn't want to be down wind. :P
This was my first Half, hopefully many more races to come! :)

11/11/11 and tomorrow we race!

Jake's Great-Grandpa Elmo is the only Veteran in our family that is still alive. Yesterday Ashton was supposed to bring the star back to school with a veteran family member, their relation to you and what part of the armed forces were they a part of. He was excited to put his Great-Grandpa's name on the star and draw a picture of him on the ship.

We called Great-Grandpa tonight and wished him a Happy Veteran's Day! We are grateful to all our Veterans, their courage, bravery, sacrifice to keep us safe as we continue to enjoy our freedoms.
And tomorrow is our (me and mom's) Half Marathon. YAY! We're ready! We even ate a big plate of spaghetti for dinner! :)

Sweatshirt Weather

We are finally amidst the colder temperatures and I just love it! I love being cozy in my flannel sheets! I love wearing my uggs, my sweats and taking hot baths! This morning it was 57 in our house and it was the first time since last winter that I felt like I needed to turn the heater on just to take the chill out of the air. I was in the kitchen putting lunches together and Ashton came out and immediately smelled the air and said "ooohhh, it smells like Christmas! I love that smell!" :)

This is Halloween...

The King of Knives is ready for school.

 Little Red Riding Hood is ready too.

 In the school parade with fellow Police Officers, Princesses, Kitty Cats, Army Guys, Baseball Players, Wolves, Zombies, Mummies, Saloon Girls...

 Gumby was running down the street.

 I picked up a Pirate.

 Picture with cousins.

 Ate homemade Cafe Rio.
Ready to go Trick-or-Treating with Halladays, Dunns, Harris' and Whitmores!

Recovering from sugar coma!