Thanksgiving

This week has been a lot of fun. I was able to go to Toquerville to visit my family. All of my siblings and their spouses came, so it was a real reunion. This year, we had Thanksgiving with the Amy family and Christmas will be with the McPhauls, next year it will be just opposite.

Sunday we had Stake Conference in Springerville, AZ. It was good. They spoke on every member a missionary and upping our fast offering. Our friend that is a convert to the church also spoke, she did a very good job. They sang “How Firm a Foundation,” and Denim sang at the top of her lungs since it was a primary song this year-very cute. Ace drove us to Flagstaff afterward to meet mom and dad. Denim and Blazen were very excited to see Grandma and Grandpa. We ate a bite at Del Taco, and switched vehicles to head on to Toquerville. Ace went back to Pie Town to finish some work. He came to Toqerville on later in the week. Syringa and Greg, and Sierra and Preston had driven to mom’s and dad’s on Fri and Sat, so they were waiting. Trujillo, Charlotte, and the kids had come over Sunday to visit and were waiting for us. It was a lot of fun when we finally got to the house. A big welcoming party.

Lots of hugs for us when we got to the house. Everyone ran outside to greet us and get the kids out of their seats. Ralayna, Denim, Abraham, and Blazen started mauling their Uncle Greg and Uncle Preston. Good thing my brothers-in-law were good sports.

Syringa loving on Abraham and Denim.

Baby Nathan. Getting bundled up to go home.

McCarty has been practicing for a play (Beauty and the Beast) for 2 months. Her play ended on Tuesday and I really wanted to be able to watch her. This is the main reason why I came earlier than Ace. Thanks to him and mom and dad, I was able to go to the play. It was so neat to see my little sister, she is quite the little actress and singer. I know she really enjoyed it. They had the high school band play throughout the whole thing. Some of the cast members couldn’t sing at all. We made fun of parts of it, but for the amount of time they had to prepare, it was pretty good. We had a lot of fun.

McCarty in one of her costumes. She was a Gaston girl in this part. She also played a wolf, and different cast parts. Denim thought she was fabulous, but wondered why she liked Gaston and told her she was on the wrong side.
Denim sat on Preston and Sierra’s lap throughout the show. Special time. During the show McCarty jumped on Preston’s lap as part of the show. It was funny. She said, “Please save me Masseur.”

Blazen lovin the show. He actually did like it, but it was nearly 3 hrs, so he crashed.
Mom bought the kids roses for the show. They light up at the end and the kids got to help “save” the beast.

After the show Denim just had to meet everyone. Sierra and my mom, separate times, took her to meet different individuals. She thought they were the real deal. She talked to Bell. Bell asked her name, Denim said, “ I am Denim Bleu and I am from Far Far Away - a different kingdom.” She went by Lumier’s girlfriend, and told her she was very pretty too. She met the Beast, and was scared to death of a friend of McCarty’s that played the asylum guy. I was so glad that we got the whole experience. McCarty was so cute.

Denim really liked her uncle Greg this trip. He is so good to her. He snuggled up to her one night and they watched her movie together.

Mom had a gumball dispenser this week. She taught the kids that if they would do a chore, she would give them a penny to get a gumball. Blazen really figured this one out. He was asking to do jobs all week. He would say, “gama, me job fo penny?” He dumped the little garbages about twice a day, dusted, ect. Needless to say he ate lots of gumballs.

Blazen is helping haul garbage out with grandma.
Duke, Syringa’s little dog, thinks he is part of the family. Maybe he wants a gumball too.

McCarty singing. She is picking out a song for something she has to do as the Queen. She is Miss Toquerville this year and has different responsibilities.

Mom made homemade chicken noodle soup, so we killed a few older chickens and roosters to make a really big pot.

Sierra, Preston, Abe, and Greg.
Cleaning and preparing the chickens. Preston, Syringa, and Dad. This was a first for Preston, I don’t know that he loved it. Welcome to the fam.

Abe helping out and chewing on a piece of straw. This week was Charlotte’s birthday. Smile!

Denim came up to Sierra one day and said, “Sierra will you play barn with me?” Sierra said, “Well what am I going to be?” Denim, “A cow of course, so I can milk you.”
Later that day I was playing memory with her. I purposely let her whip my butt. At the end of the game when she had a big pile and I had only two matches, she shook her head, pursed her lips and with tender eyes said, “Mom, that’s ok, that’s just how the game goes sometimes.” I tried not to laugh.

Sierra and Denim playing games.
Making pies. JoAnn is bringing some. Charlotte is making a couple too. We made pumkin, pumkin turtle, pecan, chocolate pecan, double chocolate cream, and real mince meat.

Blazen playing in the mirror. He loves his “spikey” hair. Syringa was playing with him here.
I trimmed Sierra’s hair. She has such thick beautiful hair, it was fun. She felt really good.

We all decided to go to New Moon. Syringa was bent out of shape that I had already seen it. I was sworn to not say anything. We got all dressed up. Charlottes mom watched her kids, Lukas and Brittney watched mine.

Lukas and Brittney with my kids. Blazen and Denim just love Lukas. One morning Blazen wouldn’t hug anyone, then Lukas came in. “Wukas,” Blazen screamed, he ran into his arms. My mom said he was a little turd. Lukas and Brittney are engaged to be married in the end of December.

Trujillo had to home teach before the movie. Charlotte and the kids were at the house visiting. Trujillo came back and told Charlotte to get Syringa to answer the door. When she did, Trujillo was standing outside dressed like “Edward” and said, “Hello Bella.” It was so funny, he really looked like a vampire.

On the way we had such fun jamming out to Miley Cyrus, In the USA, and other songs. It was crazy. My dad even put his ball cap on sideways and acted like a rapper. My mom is our hero, she is crazy. My dad cracked me up because he knew the books and was telling us different parts. Finally I asked him, “Dad have you read these books.” He said, “Well kind of.” Mom said he listed to them book on tape. I couldn’t believe it. Charlotte had two brothers with wives and a sister-in-law that came the same night too. Her one brother said, “It’s a good thing that you guys don’t drink.” There was one seat short right by us, lucky for McCarty two rows up was one empty seat by a really cute kid from school. I don’t think she minded. We all loved the show. The consensus, again, we all love Jacob Black.

We had to all sport the “vampire.” McCarty is my date. Ace wasn’t back yet. He told me he was sooooooo heartbroken to have missed the movie.

The girls. Sierra, Timber, Charlotte, Syringa, McCarty, Mom.
The boys. Greg, Preston, Trujillo, Dad.

So afterward we jammed on the way home. Trujillo and Charlotte got on top of their car. Charlotte turned and did a major bootie jam. She knows how to shake it even with 3 kids. Wild.

When we got back, Ace had made it. It was good to see him.

Mom and Dad cooking hamburger.

Thanksgiving morning it has become tradition to have a football tournament at the park. There was enough for two full teams. JoAnn and Evan arrived too, so we were all ready. James and Sally Nef came and played, as well as Jeremy.

The kids all played on the playground and rocks

Football time.
Ace playing QB.

Last week dad got smashed by a horse and his knee is completely gone. He will have surgery in December. He was the ref this year.

Mom did a really good job on Thanksgiving dinner. They clean out the garage and set several long tables up to accommodate everyone. They always invite friends from the community. Fred, who works for Diamond G, and his wife always come.

Evan visiting at the kids table.
McCarty and all of the kids love to eat olives this way. It makes it taste better.

Ralayna and Denim watching a movie.
Charlotte and Syringa playing on the dance pad.

We just have to make a human pyramid.

I had to post this picture of Blazen (in witch hat) and Abraham. These boys fought over this gun and sword all week. They are both pretty feisty. Abe is really a rough player, now Blazen is learning to protect himself. They scared poor Bridger to no end. I think he got beat up a little. One evening we were eating dinner and Bridger started crying. Evan said, “What’s wrong,” Bridger pointed to Blazen and said, “He’s looking at me.” I guess it must have been a pretty scary look. Poor guy. I thought my kid was sweet, maybe I need to take another look.

Yeah, that part is over! Mom in her apron.

On Friday and Saturday Mom and Dad had to put on the Dixie 6. (3 weekends of high school rodeo near St. George. Diamond G has the rough stock animals contracted. ) They had their crew all set up, so Sierra and McCarty were the only kids that went to help. BreAnn went every day also. I think she likes to learn. We fed the crew one day afterward. Mom deals well with the stress of it all. She is an example to me.

We went swimming in Charlotte’s grandmas pool. There is an indoor pool for all to use in her subdivision. She let us in. We ordered pizza afterward.
Evan and JoAnn pulling the dance moves out.

We went to the temple to see the lights and watch the Thomas S. Monson show. The show was a bit long for most, so some just looked at the lights. Trujillo and his family watched the show. Ace and I sent our kids home with aunts and finished the show with Heo. Trujillo and I did not see eye to eye. I was really cranky. I have repented and apologized, so hopefully I am still loved. It isn’t a very good excuse but the only one that I have is that I am pregnant.

By the lights. When we were looking at the nativity, there was a bull my the manger. Blazen started climbing the rope fence. I stopped him, he was upset and turned to me, “Mom, I ride the bull.”

Blazen got into lipstick in mom’s playclothes.

Evan and JoAnn, and Greg and Syringa went at 3:00 am to St. George for Black Friday shopping. They got lots of good stuff. Greg bought a wii and some games. It was a big hit

Preston, Trujillo, Ace, Blazen,nd Greg playing Zarahemla. Evan had just left.
Mom showing us a record that she had found at the DI. It was her seminary music in high school. She had to play it on the record player and sing. She also found an old primary record that had “horsy horsy” on it. That’s how we all know the song.

Leaving is always hard. It is the hardest on McCarty because we all leave with our families and she says we leave her alone. We love her tons though, and we all come back, that’s the best.

Family picture. JoAnn has the best pictures on her camera, and is going to e-mail them. She had the one’s with her family in it too. This is the only one that I had on my camera. L to R. Ace, Greg, Preston, Trujillo, Timber, Syringa, Sierra, Charlotte, Mom, Dad, Blazen, McCarty, Abe, Denim, Nathan, Ralayna.

Well it is always so awesome to come home and be with family. I just love everyone and all they do. Evan and Jo and kids, Heo and Char and kids, Syringa and Greg, Sierra and Preston, McCarty and Mom and Dad. It is neat to see everyone with their own trials. Everyone is inspiring to me. Having positive attitudes, working hard in often times not the perfect job situations, yet staying true to the faith and true to their families. I guess that is why the Lord places us in families. To learn and be strengthened by one another.