One more moment to boast....

about my kids. Jacob had a Thanksgiving program at school a couple weeks ago. On the board they had a big turkey and each feather had a saying, "I am thankful for..." and the child's name on it. All the other feathers said things like "toys" "ice cream" "candy" etc. but there was one that stood out above all the rest--"Jesus." And can you believe it was Jacob's?!? Once again, my kids are a real inspiration to me. And it gives me a glimmer of hope that amongst all my efforts (and failures) as a mother at least something is getting through!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

We've been trying hard to teach our kids, particularly Tyler and Jacob, about the true meaning of Christmas and the spirit of charity. For Family Home Evening last week each boy picked a name off the "angel tree" and let them pick out the gift for the child in need they chose. But Eric and I felt like we wanted to do more.

So, we found out about some families in need and talked to the boys about them. We talked about how blessed we are and how Heavenly Father wants us to use our blessings to help others. We told the boys that if they wanted to help these families, they could go get some of their own money to donate to them, as much or as little as they wanted. Both boys, especially Tyler, have been learning the value of money. We let them earn money in different ways, they save it up, then they get to go buy a toy at the store. Tyler is really starting to understand the value of a dollar. So imagine the pride and tears in our eyes when both our boys ran upstairs, emptied out their little piggy banks into the envelopes we gave them and handed them to me and Eric. Jacob had almost $10 he has been saving for so long, and Tyler gave all his money as well. We talked about how there were 9 families in need, and Tyler lined up 9 envelopes, one for each family, and divided up his money--one dollar in each, one quarter, one dime, one nickel and one penny. It was just about everything he had, but he wanted to make sure each family got something.

I was so impressed with my boys--I know they are young and probably don't understand exactly what they were doing, but they knew they were giving up something they wanted to help someone else. I am so proud of them and hope this season I can be just as quick to give.

Pictures pictures pictures!

So I realized I was taking hardly any pictures of Joseph (I've noticed it gets less and less with each successive child) so i've tried to ramp it up a bit.

Well, you probably guessed there isn't a whole lot going on around Thanksgiving around here. We found out about a deal to get into Knott's Berry Farm almost free but it expired Thanksgiving day--so we decided to go ahead and spend our Thanksgiving at Knott's. We went with our good friends the Larsons (remember Emma? this is her family). Well, looks like we have 2 more little lovebirds budding between our families...
That's Maggie with her best friend Ian. They are so funny together--usually get along but have the occasional love spat. They get so excited to see each other, it cracks me up. They had this mini-spin ride there and I just had images of a miniaturized date from the 50's watching these two. We had a pretty good time (Knott's is a little bit ghetto--but it is America's first--read "oldest"--theme park). The kids had fun, and being there with the Larson's was a blast. Then we had our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday over at the Larson's house (we spend a lot of time with them--Mindy and I are great friends, so are the guys and all the kids play really well together--you can't beat that!). We had a huge spread and it was so much fun. That is my favorite meal of the year!

Joey has been starting to smile a lot more, but I can't seem to get a picture of it. He loves to be held so you'd think my arms would be nice and toned but they are still flabby. Here's the little rugrat with his daddy.
Once again I couldn't catch the smile. He is even cuter in person--he just isn't too photogenic yet. His head it too floppy!

Here's Joey with Eric doing their guy thing--watching football on tv. Joey was totally into it!
And then there was Maggie. What a character. One minute you think she is the cutest sweetest funniest thing, then the next you are ready to leave her on the curb with a "FREE" sign around her neck. She looks so cute with her hair done, but she insists on pulling out her clips or ponytails. Not because she wants them out, but because she wants to look at her "pretties" (clips). Here she is after pulling one side out--she thought she was pretty special.
We blessed Joey at church today. We were going to bless him in Utah over Christmas, but decided this is our home right now--we've been here almost 4 years, this is where our friends are, where Joey was born, etc. And I am glad we blessed him here. Eric did a nice job and Joey didn't cry. Here are a few pics--they were all rushed before church so none are that great...

Floppy head....
Who's that handsome guy? Oh yeah, and Eric looks pretty nice too...
Well, I guess that's it for now. See you next time!