Thanksgiving 2019

Ben and Emily were kind enough to make the drive to Minnesota for Thanksgiving this year. We loved having them and the kids as usualy had so much fun playing with cousins.

One night we took them to our fun service place called Feed My Starving Children where you get to assemble, seal and package boxes of food packets for 3rd world countries. They loved it as much as we thought they would.

While they were here we got lots of snow. I have a million more pictures of the kids in the snow but I can't find them this year and it's driving me crazy.

Our annual grateful tree. I love that the kids are getting more detailed and thoughtful about what they're grateful for each year. Mallie also took this off the wall and put it on a posterboard for her family tradition's assignment. It made it easy for her and she got to share this with her class. So fun!

Ashton turns 12!

It is so very fitting that Ashton had his birthday cake in his PJs. This kid lives for the days he doesn't have to get dressed.

 There is ice cream rolled up into this angel food cake so he had to act fast to get all those candles out.

This is a picture he took of himself while out mowing the lawn while listening to science pod casts on my phone. He doesn't have one so once in awhile I'll catch a gem like this on my phone.

I can't remember why he was dressed up like this but I loved that he still looked young and playful so I wanted to capture it.

 Ashton makes me look like a better Mom than I am. He acts more mature than most 12 year old boys and he has a deep desire to connect with adults. He is respectful and understands the scriptures in a pretty profound way. Academically I never know what's going on in his classes because he is on top of it and school doesn't stress him out. The only real downfall I can say is that he loves to win games so much that he'll fudge the rules. We're working on it... and if that's the only thing that makes me nervous I'd say that's a win. I love this boy who is incredibly in tune to the needs of the family. He does like to push his sisters' buttons but he also knows when to step up and help in a myriad of ways. He's pretty much the best.