Happy Thanksgiving!

And don't we have a lot to be thankful for...We had a wonderful turkey day and hope you all did too! Ethan's cousin Devin (and his wife Amanda) invited us to Amanda's parent's house in Daytona Beach. We also got to see Ethan's cousin Shannon and meet her husband Tom. We haven't seen Shannon for about 3 1/2 years, so it was a real treat. Emily, Jay, and Dana (Amanda's family) were very kind and welcoming, special thanks to them!

Bryant claimed it was "the best Thanksgiving ever!" Now before any of you that we've had Thanksgiving with get too offended, just realize that he has been asking to go fishing for about 6 months and he finally got to on Thanksgiving. Amanda's parents live on a golf course with a bunch of ponds around, we bought him a little fishing pole at Goodwill last week (its a Barbie pole, but he doesn't care, its his very own fishing pole!) for $3 and ever since he's been adding to his prayers, "thank thee that we get to go fishing on Thanksgiving." He was more excited for Thanksgiving than he will be for Christmas is my guess.

I got to make rolls, pie, and sweet potatoes. I tried a couple new recipes and the sweet potatoes were DELICIOUS!! I got the recipe from my sis-in-law, Brindy-what a treat! Last night we were eating leftovers for dinner and Levi ate all of his, then he moved to Jonas' place and ate all of his, then he moved to Bryant's place and ate all of his. He was hilarious! His mouth was so stuffed full and he just couldn't get enough. Here he is on plate number 3, he was so busy posing for the camera, that his mouth was no longer full. Oh well, he's still cute!



I also tried a Pumpkin Chiffon Pie recipe I got from my sis-in-law Adrienne. I got it all made on Wednesday night and I realized a couple hours later, that I forgot to add 1/2 cup of sugar! I was so distraught! However, it turned out OK-I guess the 2/3cup of brown sugar and the gingersnap crust came to the rescue!

Jonas was, of course, the life of the party. Everyone loved him! I think most of them would have taken him home with them, if we'd given them the chance. :)

We unfortunately forgot to bring the camera with us, so you'll just have to picture Bryant's excitement as he cast his line into the water; Jonas' antics; and Levi's mess.

For an activity earlier in the week we built a model of the first Thanksgiving. It was pretty fun to talk about the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We made a little Pilgrim house and a teepee and a couple tables, then we added the food, turkeys, corn, and apples. It was kind of silly, but the kids had a lot of fun and then eating it was a great treat!



Also for another activity early in the week we did alphabet thankfulness-something we did last year with our great friends the Schneiders. So, if you're interested, here is the list from A-Z of what the boys and I are thankful for. It was surprising to hear all that they came up with, I would generally get them started on a letter and then they'd take it from there. By the very end of the alphabet they were pretty distracted so the list dwindled, oh well!

A- alligators, apples, airplanes, air, animals, arms
B- Bryant, bones, brothers, balls, bikes, beach, books, bed
C- cats, crocodiles, cars, chocolate, cookies, clothes
D- Daddy, dog, dolphins, diapers,
E- eggs, energy, egrets, eyes, exercise
F- friends, family, food, fishing
G- gospel, grapes, green, geckos, grandparents, guitar
H- Holy Ghost, Heavenly Father, hugs, hats, holidays, Hollidays
I- ice cream, igloos
J- Jonas, juice
K- kangaroos, kites, koalas
L- Levi, love, Lego, lizards
M- mom, music
N- naptime, nests, night, NASA
O- Spaghetti O's, oranges, orangutans
P- petunias, pineapple, parents, pirates, prophet
Q- quiet, quilts
R- running, reading
S- sun, superheroes, surfing, scriptures, Scripture Scouts
T- teeth, turtles, Teen Titans, toys
U- umbrellas
V- vanilla
W- water, waves, Woodburys
X- x-rays, xylophones
Y- yellow
Z- zoo