American Thanksgiving 2010

When Grandma and Grandpa Wood got their mission call we knew that this year's Thanksgiving celebration would be a special one.  G and G have been assigned to the Alpine Germany mission and were to report to the MTC on November 29, 2010.  We all knew that this Thanksgiving would be the last opportunity for our Wood family to be all together for at least 18 months.  Bring on the chaos!!  Having five of the six Wood children and all their families were together in one house for the weekend was CRAZY!!  11 adults and 13 children  and we have a party! It was perfect!  The dinner was amazing (as always) and the games and fun to be had was great.   Every year we are together for thanksgiving you can see the kids off in one room playing games, the mom's in the next room browsing the Black Friday ads, the men sleeping or watching football, and Grandma in the kitchen making a pie or watching the kids.  This year, though, there was that resounding heaviness that was weighing on all our minds that our special parents would be leaving all this craziness to serve their mission.  I think we all are so proud or them and their willingness to serve.  The Sunday that the family was there we were all able to go and attend their setting apart with the Stake President.  What a great experience that was!  While we miss them, we are so happy that they are serving in Germany and even more happy that we will get to go see them in a year!

So here we go with the pictures:

Dan spending his time with Sam watching football

Me holding Olivia.  (One of the only times I didn't make her cry!)

Cousin time!

Sam helped set the big table.

They all thought it would be fun to do family yoga.  Why?  I dunno

The yearly traditions continued with our trip to Spaghetti Factory

Awww.  How cute are they?

Rachel was offended that the waitress gave her a kiddie menu and cup. 

Somewhere in this weekend I managed to sew a couple of skirts. 

I thought they turned out pretty nice :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Kelsey, Rachel, Riley, and Sam.....

Well, my girls, remember back a few entries ago when I was so excited to start a blog to record our lives together???  Well, once again your mother has fallen short.  It has been four months since my last attempt at posting a blog and ,well, there really are no excuses.  Have we been busy?  Yes.  Have there been big events occur in the past four months?  Yes.  Have I been writing them down?  No.  (*hanging my head in shame*) Even though the past four months have come and gone without a post all I can do now is just push the rewind button, pretend that I never skipped out in my commitment to record the cool and meaningful things that have happened in our lives together as a family, and re post some of the great pictures and events that have happened lately.  It may take a few entries to catch up but...lets just do it, k?  I figure it will take about three entries to update Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our Disneyland trip.  And just to keep you interested, here are a couple of pictures from the past few months.

Thanksgiving with the Wood Family.  This was right after G-ma and G-pa were set apart as missionaries.

Building "gingerbread" houses christmas eve

The girls standing in line waiting to see the Disney princesses.  Can you see the joy?? :)

 

 

 

 

Belle and the girls 

So girls, I am a slacker when it comes to this stuff.  I would like to say that I am going to be better but, really, I am only going to commit to doing the best I can.  Thats all any of us can do, right?  Just know that our time together is precious and I love every minute of it!
Love, MOM