Making Memories

Having kids is all about making memories. From the moment of birth we are recording even the tiniest of experiences either in our minds and hearts, in a journal, by photo, or any of the combined. The past few days we've been making some fun memories of our own. We took pictures for these moments. Come...take a look.

First up........Clark on Thanksgiving. After a nice, big, and tasty dinner he promptly fell asleep. Katelyn was heading out the door to help my sister walk her dog so she stuck her bear in daddy's arms and told him to baby-sit. In his sleep, he cuddled with it. Isn't he just too cute for words?! :)

On Saturday we had both the elders and sisters over for dinner. Katelyn and Laura had found out earlier in the month that Elder Anderson had a birthday on November 29th so they insisted we have them all for dinner to celebrate. Clark grilled up steaks and made salad and mashed potatoes. Thanks to his sister, who is on my facebook list, I found out Elder Anderson loves cheesecake so that was what we had for dessert. We got him a small journal to record addresses of members and missionaries and for them to write notes in as well. We left the first one. I had one on my mission and still love to pour through it now and again. That's where I got the idea. The sisters got him a mini football and birthday masks. That's Elder Anderson there with the girls and with his mask on.

While they were at our home on Saturday, we kind of told the girls at one time to settle down or we wouldn't go get our tree yet. Elder Slade (shown here in the red hat) was like "Christmas tree?! Can we help decorate? I haven't done that in a long time!" Later before they left, when they ask the typical missionary question of "is there anything we can do for your family this week?", my husband said "Sure, come by tomorrow night and help us decorate the tree." They were totally excited and even double checked on the time at church the next day.

Elder Slade saw we had a couple of Santa hats. Red and pink. As senior comp he made sure to wear the red hat. What they didn't realize at first was the hats say "princess" on them. They quickly turned them around. haha! Elder Slade made sure to put the breakable ornaments on top. Not bad for an elder who hasn't been around kids much it seems.

Laura gets a boost up to the top from Clark. She had a blast getting hoisted up a few times.

Here is Katelyn putting hooks on some of the ornaments. This is the first year I've had them help. Normally I do it but this year I just let them have fun with daddy and the missionaries. They had a blast and I think it's a tradition I'd like to continue from now on.

Laura and Elder Anderson pause for a photo.

Elder Andersn got the pink hat. A little girly but hey he would have voted yes on 8 if he was a California resident so it's all good. LOL!

The girls and the elders in front of the finished tree before they left for the evening.

And this entry wouldn't be complete without a picture of the finished tree. Everyone did a great job and the tree looks the best ever! I can't wait for family and friends to see it so we can tell them all about our fun evening.

Oh and if you all are wondering where I was during the all the fun........I was in the kitchen heating up some my mom's hot apple cider mix (1 gallon apple cider, 2 cans pear nectar, 3 cans peach nectar, 3 cans apricot nectar, handful of cloves, 6 cinnamon sticks and heat) and baking chocolate chip cookies to warm everyone up. Yum!

We had fun making our memories and look forward to making many more this month and throughout the coming year.