Day 7--Temple Square

Go to Temple Square and see the lights with grandma and grandpa and Stewart cousins

Jack took this great picture of the temple peeking through the trees and lights

We went to Temple Square last night with everyone else in the valley! I wanted to go while we were still having warm weather. And I think a lot of others had the same idea. It was really crowded but we had a great time! It was a beautiful evening and not too cold (in the 40's). We were able to walk around the temple for awhile, take some pictures, hang out, see the nativity, go in the Visitor's Center, listen to the program at The Christus, watch Luke 2, and best of all -- just enjoy being with family!

Gavin & I have a picture just like this from our wedding except we are in our wedding clothes and it is practically lifesize on my mom's wall

Our family with Chad's family, Blake, grandma and grandpa

And of course--My cute family!

What happened to Day 6? It got lost somewhere between the shuffle of 3 Jr. Jazz basketball games, arriving too late to our ward Christmas breakfast, a baby shower, and planning Sharing Time and a primary lesson. We had to settle for family breakfast at McD's! The kids thought it was the best breakfast ever--"We should do this every morning!"

Day 5--Christmas Dinner

Grandma's and Grandpa's ward Christmas Dinner at Wheeler Farm and see Father Christmas

Griffin and Morgan weren't too sure about Santa and didn't want to get too close

It only took a minute for Morgan to remember how much she loves Santa

Grandpa and Mia

The entertainment was a group of bell ringers. Morgan loved it and tried to sing and dance along!

Day 4--Molly Mouse and Shopping

A night out Christmas shopping with dad except for Hadley--a night out with mom to go see Molly Mouse: A Sugar Plum Debut ballet.

We had a great time going to Hadley's friend's ballet of Molly Mouse downtown. It was fun to have some one on one time with Hadley. We don't get that very often around here. The ballet was really fun! The two of us went to dinner afterwards at The Cheesecake Factory. Hadley didn't like anything we ordered but was totally content to just eat the free bread with some butter and jelly until her oreo cheesecake arrived. I'm not sure how the shopping went with dad, but by looking at the smile on Hadley's face, I'd say she had the the time of her life!

Day 3--Shrek the Halls

Watch Shrek The Halls and eat popcorn

Our nights are so busy that the only time we are going to be able to leave the house to do a fun Christmas activity will have to be on the weekends. I had the Relief Society Christmas dinner tonight, Hadley had gymnastics, Ryan and coach Gavin had basketball practice, and Jack had scouts and basketball practice. So our exciting activity for the 3rd day of December was watching a Christmas video--a 25 minute one, at that!

Christmas cards

The Christmas season is really here. We received our first two Christmas cards in the mail today which means the season is now in full swing. It is the one time of year that I genuinely look forward to getting the mail. I love opening all the Christmas cards and seeing the cute faces of my family and friends and reading all about the latest happenings in their lives. I had our family pictures taken a few months ago so that I would be on top of things and be able to get my cards out at the beginning of December compared to our usual 1-2 days before Christmas. But I am having a hard time deciding on what picture to use. My absolute favorite is the one of just my children, sitting on the wagon. But I know I love to not only see my friends' children but also love to see my friends. So I need your help . . . which picture is your favorite for our Christmas card. And now that you've seen the pictures --not a lot of reason to make the effort of sending out the cards, right? :)

Day 2--Hot Hot Hot!

Hottubbing and Hot chocolate with whipped cream

Show me a sign

Mia is talking more and more--mama, dada, and nigh nigh (night night). Our all time favorite has been this cute little sound of "mmmmmmmm" she makes when she wants something to eat. But this morning she decided to take it one step further and signed "more" during her breakfast.

Day 1-- Advent Calendars and Star Wars

I can't believe it's already December-- which means the tradition of the advent calendar fairy is back. It's going to harder to do an activity each day with how busy all of our evening schedules are but we are going to do our best to try to get some sort of activity in each night.

Day 1

Get chocolate advent calendars and have Family Home Evening with The Prudens -- Eat dinner and watch Star Wars IV: A New Hope

I realize the Star Wars phenomenon is kinda over, but we were a little late catching it. We just barely watched the first 3 episodes of Star Wars and are now trying to finish the series. It has been really fun to watch them with the kids. They know all about them from their Lego Star Wars video games. I'm surprised how much I have liked the shows because I am NOT a sci-fi/fantasy girl. I'd much rather watch a romantic comedy, but I am loving these. I had only seen Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back when I was young and can't remember anything from either of them so I am excited to finish the series and see if Darth Vader returns to the good side and becomes 'the chosen one' again. And I don't want any spoilers. Jack has already tried his best to tell me what happens. But I'd like to wait and see it for myself.

We Believe...

Ryan earned his 'Article of Faith candy bouquet' in Primary on Sunday for memorizing and passing off the 13 Articles of Faith.

For those of you that follow my blog--we are L.D.S. (also known as Mormons) and these are our beliefs.

The Articles of Faith are as follows:

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.

3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.

11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Another reason I love Thanksgiving...

I get to see good friends when they come to town to see their family

I went over to Tisha's mom's house today to see her before she flew back to Arizona. It had been over five years since we last saw each other and a lot has changed. Tisha unexpectedly lost her husband 2 years ago, moved from California to Arizona, and is now raising her three children as a single mom and doing a great job! We have been friends for around 30 years. We grew up in the same circle. And even though she was a few years ahead of me in school we became great friends. I felt like I was part of their family . . . eating graham crackers with milk in their kitchen on a daily basis, going boating to Lake Powell and Willard Bay with her family, sleepovers, swinging on her swing set for hours in her backyard, believing that she and my sister were professional swingers (a different type of swinger than this generation is familiar with) for some made up guy, and the list goes on and on. Tisha moved away 20 years ago and we have seen each other only a handful of times but I think a sign of true friendship is when you can see each other again and feel like no time has passed and begin right where you left off. And that was exactly how it was today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my kind of holiday-- full of family, love, food, laughter, pies, and gratitude. (Oh, and midnight shopping sprees)

Gavin, Jack and Ryan started off the day with a Turkey Trot 5K this morning. A first for the boys but sounds like it won't be the last!

Pre-race Turkey picture

Post-race...still smiling

We hosted the Seal Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. It was so nice to have everyone here (except Laurie and Lily who were out of town) to enjoy this time of year together.

Nan and Papa with all their grandkids

All of the Seal Family

Gavin and his 5 brothers

We spent the evening up at my parent's home for a second round of Thanksgiving dinner and more pies!

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids (minus the Rushings, of course!) Morgan and Grace had been in the dress up box by the time this picture was taken.

Grandma with the newest grandbabies--Abi, Luke and Mia

We have been talking about gratitude and 'giving thanks in all things' in Primary this month, in particular-- thankful to be a beloved child of God; thankful for my body; thankful to know Heavenly Father loves all of his children and I can show respect and kindness to all of God's children. I just want to add that I am so thankful for all of my blessings, especially my family. I have been blessed with six amazing children that bring me so much joy, the BEST husband, wonderful parents and in-laws, knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a country full of freedoms. I have so much to be thankful for this year!

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We are (definitely) in good hands

We went to the movie Bolt today with 300 of Gavin's closest friends and their families, courtesy of Gavin and Allstate Insurance. He reserved an entire theater for his clients to show his appreciation for their loyalty and business over the past ten years. It was so much fun! They even provided drinks, popcorn and a raffle. They handed out VIP lanyards for everyone to wear. Jack was so excited about his--"Wow. I've never been a VIP before!" Once we were all in the theater, Gavin took a few minutes to speak to everyone and do the raffle. The kids were so excited to see their dad up there in front of everyone. It was such a cute show and a great event! Gavin is by far the BEST Allstate insurance agent (and I am not biased)! He rocks my world!

Hadley and Rilee posing by the welcome sign

Jack and his friends helped people find the Allstate table inside the theater

Ryan and Hadley all ready to watch the show in 3-D

Counting my Blessings

I am dragging today after quite the adrenaline rush right before I went to bed. I had just finished watching a show and everyone was already asleep in the house. When someone rang my doorbell and knocked on the door. It was 11:30 at night. We had Gavin's brother Brendan staying with us last week so I thought it must have been him getting in late since he was in Las Vegas yesterday morning. I walked up to the door and had my hand on the lock to unlock it when I saw this scary guy look at me through the side lite window with this great big smile. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could and woke up Gavin. There's this scary guy standing on our porch ringing our doorbell. Should I call 911? I think he told me no, but I was already on the phone. I was so scared I couldn't even remember my house number. The dispatch operator asked me for a description. What a good test of what we remember when we see something for a fraction of a second. I was only able to remember that he had dark black curly hair that went down his neck, a baseball cap on, and probably in his 30s. He stayed there on my porch the whole time I was on the phone but I could only see a little of his jacket since he was directly behind my door. Three police cars arrived moments later and found him in the street in front of my house. He had a little boy with him too that appeared (with no coat on) when the police arrived. I watched the scene from my living room window. How did I forget his black beard?The police were out in the street with him for over an hour and had him in handcuffs while they went through all of his pockets and gave him a breathalyzer test. They eventually gave him a ticket for public intoxication (and told him he was lucky they found him walking and not driving or he would be going to jail), took off the handcuffs, and let him get in a car with his girlfriend (one of the police officers left and returned with her in his car), and followed him out of our street. Still not sure what he wanted or why he was on my porch. (Maybe our gigantic blow up turkey on our lawn made him think we would be a nice family willing to help out someone in need, not a crazy paranoid mom that would immediately call 911) . If I wouldn't have panicked so much I could have thought rationally and used the intercom system to ask him what he needed. After he left with the police escort I went to each of my children's rooms to make sure everyone was still in their beds. I was so relieved and overwhelmed with gratitude to find all of my children sound asleep, safe in their home and beds. I am also very grateful for the police officers that responded so quickly to my call.

10 months already?

My sweet little Mimi

You have grown up so much in these past few months, busy discovering so many new things. You are now crawling everywhere and just today discovered the stairs and showed interest in falling down them. You are able to pull yourself up to a standing position and love to pull yourself up to me wherever I am. Your sleeping habits prove that you are our last little one--very spoiled even in the middle of the night. We finally moved you into the big crib out of our room this month. It is still an ongoing process. You still like to wake up several times in the night and we are trying to break that habit by letting you cry it out. It was the sweetest thing though to go in your room the other night when you were crying and find you standing up in your crib like a big girl (even though you didn't know how to get back down). You are a great eater and yell whenever someone is eating and not offering some to you. You love to wave bye-bye and night-night and just learned how to wave with opening and closing your hand. You are trying more and more to 'talk' to us and mostly say ma-ma all day. You are still a great nurser and haven't wanted anything to do with a bottle these past few weeks. All these new milestones make me realize that my little baby is growing up very quickly . I love that you still adore me and always want me near! I hope that bond remains strong throughout our lives!

I love you, Mia!

Mom

The real deal

I don't remember Halloween being such a big deal when I was little or lasting for so long. My kids always get so much use out of their costumes during the month of October with all of the pre-Halloween festivities that the costumes usually look quite used by the time Halloween actually rolls around. I do remember trick or treating when I was little and all of us emptying out our pillow cases when we got home to see who got the best and most items (and always looking for that hidden razor blade inside the apple), but I don't really remember any of my costumes. Guess I'll have to dig through my mom's pictures to help stir up some memories.

We just got in from a beautiful (warm, with a little wind and rain) evening of trick or treating. We started the night with a neighborhood get together/dinner at the Wilko's house. Which is always a great time with all the families.




The hosts of the neighborhood get together--looking GOOD!!

Apparently trick or treating is a learned behavior which we forgot to teach or explain to Griffin. We went up to the first house with Morgan and Griffin and when the lady came to the door Griffin managed to squeeze by her and walked right inside her house and headed towards the kitchen. Meanwhile Morgan was acting like she was taking the sacrament at church (she always grabs a handful of bread) and grabbed handfuls of candy and stuck it in her bag. Griffin got the gist of it after a few houses! Jack and Ryan went on their own with their friends and then Jack ended the night at a friend's house for a Halloween party (makes him seem so old!)

Our first house--she has no idea what Griffin has planned!

Ryan with his friends out trick or treating

Trunk or Treat

We started the Trunk or Treat with a chili cook off

I am not sure what I am dressed up as...some old lady with great hair!

But Gavin's and Jack's hair is even better!


Ryan and Hadley hanging out in the trunk

Morgan LOVED the trunk or treating

Halloween parade

There was no school on Halloween so the school Halloween parade was yesterday. This is one of the disadvantages of having Morgan at a different elementary school than the other kids. Both of the parades were at the same time so I wasn't able to attend both of them and missed my cute kitty cat in the parade!

Griffin participated in the preschool portion of the parade

Hadley with her fun 2nd grade teacher--a flower hippie

Ryan with all of his hippie buddies and one joker



Jack loved all the facial piercings--maybe a little too much!

Seal family pumpkin carving

The Seal gang-- Griffin had better things to do than pose for pictures!

We had our annual pumpkin carving party for the Seal family at Chad and Jill's house this past Sunday. This event has been a family favorite for many years . . . it goes way back to my dating days with Gavin. The best part of the activity for all the boys, or um ... the dads, always seems to be the pumpkin seed fights. It got so bad over the years that Lolly finally started to have us carve our pumpkins outside in the cold in an attempt to save her carpet and walls from pumpkin seed splatters. Jack was commenting last week how he misses having the pumpkin carving contest at nan and papa's house now that they've moved. Luckily Jill is very brave and has been kind enough to host this party the past few years.

Jack- guitar hero guy; Ryan-hippie

Hadley is a cheerleader this year but not one from the UofU because obviously she is a BYU fan. I've at least done a few things right with raising her. So this is her 'in-between' costume. She has a different cheerleading costume for the actual trick-or-treating event!

Morgan makes such a cute little kitty cat. Her favorite part of the costume is the tail and her least favorite part are the ears (she doesn't like things on her head).

And this little monster is a skeleton

Jack and Gavin take their pumpkin carving duties very seriously!

And our sweet little Mia is Minnie Mouse