Thanksgiving

I love all holidays. I enjoy decorating, creating traditions, and celebrating in fun ways. I especially love Thanksgiving because of what it represents. I love focusing on all my blessings and expressing gratitude for them. I believe that true happiness comes from gratitude. This year I heard a Relief Society lesson given by Sister Mack on gratitude. I loved that lesson and tried to carry it in my heart throughout the entire holiday season. The lesson was based on President Monson's talk, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." This year we were able to watch Cameron perform in a kindergarten Thanksgiving program. Al the kids looked so cute dressed up as pilgrims and Indians.

After the program all the students enjoyed a "feast."

Conner and I enjoyed seeing Cameron's Thanksgiving celebration. Cameron loves kindergarten and we are so grateful for his amazing teacher.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at my mom's this year. We were so grateful that Bryce and Chareen were expecting their first baby in April.

Of course, my mom and Jay prepared a wonderfully delicious meal. They are both such talented cooks!

I consider my marriage to Lloyd one of my greatest blessings. He is such a loving, righteous, hard working, and sensitive husband. I am truly blessed!

Young Women In Excellence

On November 3 we had Young Women in Excellence. This was my third one since being called to serve in Young Womens with Sister Regina Reavill. I made a very simple invitation that focused on this year's mutual theme. Actually, we tried to make the entire evening simple, yet spiritual. We held it in the chapel again this year. I love having it in the chapel because it really invites the spirit and you don't have to worry about decorating. Each of the girls either gave a short talk about a value experience or project they had worked on this past year, or they shared their projects with a table display. Courtney and Katelyn both chose to give a short talk. Courtney talked about a value experience for Good Works. She explained how she served our family by making dinner for us for a week. Katelyn spoke about the importance of Virtue and learning what it means to be virtuous. I was so proud of my girls and all of the Young Women. My favorite part was when they sang "I Am His Daughter" for the closing song. The young women are so beautiful, unique, and righteous. What a privilege it is to work with them.
The Young Women of Modesto 8th Ward

The Young Women leaders. I am so blessed to be able to serve with these amazing women.

My two "favorite" young women.

After the program we went to the cultural hall to enjoy mini fruit pizzas, the table displays, and the video slide show. I was so grateful to Lloyd who helped me make the video slide show that showed pictures from all our activities this past year. We made copies for each of the girls too. What a great memento of their young women years!

Halloween

We were so excited when Brad and his family surprised us with a visit on October 16. We took their family to Del Osso Pumpkin Patch in Lathrop. We had a lot of fun at the petting zoo and on the hay ride.
Cameron and Cayden are only a couple months apart. They loved laughing and playing together.

Conner and Dylan are six months apart and they also loved being together. Dylan is such a cute chatterbox. It's too bad the boys only get to see their cousins a couple times a year because they really do love playing together.

For Halloween our theme this year was to try not to spend any money. The only costume I had to buy was Conner's Buzz Lightyear and I got it pretty cheap off of ebay. Courtney and Katelyn used my cheerleading uniforms from high school. Kylie wore a pixie fairy costume we already had. Cameron was Woody last year, but he didn't mind being Woody again. Halloween was on a Sunday this year so we celebrated by going to the ward party and handing out candy. We also had our traditional dinner of beef stew.

I think my Woody and Buzz were pretty cute!

I joined in with the girls and wore one of my old uniforms.

Lloyd and I got to go to a party at our friends' house. It's always fun to see how the couples dress up. We used the costumes we had from our Peter Pan year.