Thanksgiving 2009

I’ve often reflected upon the idea that Thanksgiving isn’t a speed-bump on the way to Christmas.

More than getting together with family (which is important), it’s a unique time to look back on the year and give thanks – thanks for the little things, the big things, and all which falls in between.

Video from the Church:

One way to give thanks is to give: http://www.heifer.org. Heifer International is one of our favorite organizations that really helps to make a lasting, positive difference.

Read More

Fall Fun 2008

We’ve had a lot of fun this fall and are due for a few updates.

On a snowy, December evening, we visited the live Nativity at Don’s home. This year, two Roman soldiers rode up and down the line asking the ages of the little children and if they were boys to fulfill the order of King Herod. Seeing the soldiers was neat but also a little unsettling to know that 2,000 years ago, they caused quite a stir going after the baby boys under 2 years of age.

We went to Disney on Ice with the family and enjoyed watching Autumn’s and Megan’s faces light up with delight at seeing the Disney Characters.

The above picture was before it started. Her face did light up during the show.

Autumn had her birthday and had lots of fun at her first dress-up party with friends.

Megan had fun too!

For Autumn’s birthday dinner with the family, we went to the Mayan Restaurant.

We drove to St. George for Thanksgiving and went to Jumpin Jacks with the kids.

We also held a surprise part for Grandma Betty.
Halloween was fun with Glenda the Good Witch and Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ.

Read More

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a fun day with family. We took a picture of Megan on a little chair at the Thanksgiving dinner.

Read More

Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

We had fun this Thanksgiving weekend. Angie’s family came up to visit and stay with us at our home. We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner with the extended family. We rented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and watched that with the family. The movie was fun and it was even more enjoyable to watch the family learn the Umpa Lumpa dances.

We had a great Thanksgiving with the family. If you want to know a little bit more about Thanksgiving and its history, check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving at the Wikipedia. You may learn some things about Thanksgiving that you didn’t know before.

During the Thanksgiving week, we had quite a few projects going on at home. We had a gas fireplace installed in the house. When we moved in, we removed the old fireplace, and it’s taken us a while to get a replacement. We’ve put up backer-board around the fireplace so that we can put up tile and will then secure a mantel that we have. We’ll post pictures when we have the project completed and will show the various remodeling stages.

We also had a bit of plumbing fun with a saddle valve that needed replacing. The swamp cooler has a metal tube that caries water from the basement of the house up to the swamp cooler for operation. When we attempted to winterize the swamp cooler by disconnecting the tubing downstairs, we found there was a small drip coming from the saddle valve. Well, to make a long story short, we went through a couple cycles of draining the pipes in the house so that we could work on the saddle valve, and finally ended up replacing the whole valve mounting bracket and all. It seems that plumbing is more of an art than a science.

We purchased and hung some new blinds for the living room, and it’s so nice to have that done. We also filled up some gaps in the wall where the gas line was taken for the fireplace.

Our garage door stopped working the other day. The motor would run, but the door wouldn’t move. We called a garage door repair service and the quote was nigh $200 (You can buy new garage door openers for less than that). So that wasn’t too exciting. I did check the motor box and saw the part that needed fixing. I went to eBay, and found a replacement part with instructions for $15. Thank goodness for eBay.

So the work on the home presses on. We’re doing a little bit at a time.

Read More