We were so lucky to get to spend much of the month of November at my parents' house. My husband had to take the National Dental Boards (no biggie!) just a few days before Thanksgiving and rather than being a widow while he studied ALL day everyday for a month, we decided to go to Utah where I could spend time with family and he could study away to his heart's content! I am so proud of how hard he studied and that he PASSED his boards! This is one thing I am so grateful for this season! I am also grateful that we could spend a few weeks with family and have so much fun!
To start off I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things from November -
First up: onsuttonplace.com free printables! These are so so cute and I love everything she has on her blog! Seriously!
And how cute is this turkey sandwich from Jill Dubien at meetthedubiens.com. =)
As you know, I also love ateachingmommy.com and all of her free homeschool printable activities and worksheets for kids! I use her stuff all the time to do preschool with my 2 year old and I love that it is themed into units! We loved her November themed activities this month!
And I loved these incredibly cute Thanksgiving crafts at babble.com! Super cute! We did a few and they were so fun!
As for our trip to Utah, we did so many fun things it would be impossible to give a re-cap of everything so I will just share a few of my favorite highlights!
At the top of my list, I am so grateful for the amount of time we were able to spend at the Salt Lake City LDS temple! My husband and I enjoyed a beautiful morning doing some ordinance work and then having a delicious, warm and quiet lunch together at the Lion House afterwards. Yay for dates! And yay for Grandmas who babysit!
We also took our little family down to Temple Square one afternoon to show them around and walk through the Visitors Center and Joseph Smith Memorial Building along with the temple grounds.
Then, the week of Thanksgiving we had the amazing opportunity to attend the sealing of my nephew Michael to his family. My sister and her husband adopted Michael from China last year at the age of six. He has been an incredible addition to our family and we are so in love with him!
Each year my mom gathers her children together around the holidays and counsels us and gives us a theme for the year. This year (2014) our theme was becoming sanctified through the TEMPLE and I can't explain how cool it was to end our year by ALL being in the temple together! To sit in the gorgeous sealing room with my brothers and sisters and watch Michael become a part of our family for time and all eternity was one of the most memorable and celestial experiences of my life.
One of the things I am most grateful for is the Temple. For the peace and beauty and power that resounds there and for my eternal family.
I am also grateful for all of the fun time my kids got to spend with their cousins! We went to the Curiosity Museum, the Living Planet Aquarium and the Hogle Zoo to name just a few places! And we loved every minute of the cold weather that we don't get in Arizona!
On Thanksgiving day we enjoyed a beautiful meal with my family. I always love the little finishing touches my mom puts on everything, like her beautiful Thanksgiving china and the little after-dinner mints that she puts out each year. And I love that we gather before the meal and always have a family devotional. It always brings the spirit and helps us remember what we have to be thankful for.
And I am SO thankful for this little girly who celebrated her FIRST Thanksgiving.
We also got family pictures taken by my sister-in-law Caitlin! She is always sooooo nice to do these for us, especially since I have a little somebody that does NOT like having his pictures taken. ;)
More than anything, I am thankful for my little family and the opportunity that I have to be a wife and a mother. Nothing in this world brings me more joy than this family of mine.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!
xoxo
Annie
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