gingerbread houses

making christmas houses with the kids was festive and fun.  we loved all the fancy candy, even though we set ourselves up for gingerbread house failure with graham crackers and lousy frosting- 

all part of the christmas joy!

 love this crisp kringle's house and love abe photo bombing.

thanksgiving 2015

a few highlights and traditions from our thanksgiving.

this is a perfect picture of my mom.  

she loves to cook thanksgiving dinner.

seven layer jello...a haws tradition.

 thanksgiving bingo-played for gold chocolate dollars or real dollars. 

pie with the tullis side...also a tradition. 

 black friday sleep-over and dress shopping for the granddaughters.  

 the grandkids spend a day setting up grandpa's christmas village and his collections of santas.

 this year my parents invited us to stay in a hotel downtown.  we swam, went out to dinner, walked around temple square and saw the beautiful lights.  sunday morning, grandma and grandpa took the older kids to the spoken word in the tabernacle.  

i am grateful for good families to which we belong, great family traditions that keep us close and strong, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(oh yeah...and sadie's VSCO account- where i found all these pics!)

family

happy thanksgiving week!

i'm grateful for this team of mine.

 

(pics by heatherhowardphotography)

service-ing

(one of my all time favorite pictures) 

all month in primary, sharing time was about service.  i feel the spirit in primary.  it has been a good experience to ponder service and how Christ was the perfect example of accepting people the way they are, and leaving them better.  

we compared service to a boomerang.  

when you do an act of service, most often something comes back 

to you...happiness, blessings, kindness, peace in our homes.  

but ultimately, we serve because we want to show love to our Savior and Heavenly Father.

leave someone better than you found them today:)

my view

i'm realizing this won't be my view forever! 

it makes me teary to even think about it.

it's a tricky balance as a mom, trying to get everything done, while still trying to soak it all in.

it's something i have struggled with this week.

but every time i look at this picture, it just makes me happy-
this is my view, and even though it will change, it actually is mine forever and
i will do my part to make sure of it.

enjoy your view today!!

abe

sadie snapped this pic of abe at school. 

i think it's a pretty good glimpse of abe at age fourteen.

(and i am extremely curious what the girl with the kitty bag behind him is thinking!)

except, as of today, he has braces:)

 pretty entertaining, that abe.

sadie

this has been an emotional week for sadie.

she tried out for basketball and made the team, but the coach basically told her not to plan on much playing time.  when she was driving home from practice, she rear ended someone- actually it was my friend, who was SOOOO NICE about the whole thing, but it scared sades pretty bad.

she is feeling overwhelmed with school and life decisions.

sometimes life is challenging.

i am so grateful it wasn't worse and all involved were totally ok.  

she had to come home from her accident and get ready for her girl's pref date.  

it was hard for her to switch from crying her eyes out, to happy date mode.

but, i'm so glad she was going to girl's pref and not to the hospital.

her cousin tyler gave her some good advice a couple months ago

"keep moving forward, sades."

we love you.