Thanksgiving Weekend

This year was a Call Thanksgiving, and all the aunts were bringing a turkey. So Lori promptly asked Danny to smoke her 20 lb turkey contribution. :) He was happy to do so, and it was quite the impressive amount of bird when it was prepped and ready for the smoker the night before Thanksgiving!

    

My contribution to the family Thanksgiving feast was a couple of pumpkin rolls, and they turned out beautifully! And luckily the tasted every bit as good as they looked. :)

We had dinner at our church building this year, since Great Grandma Call's building was already reserved. Bishop-perks, I guess! :) We had a good turnout of Call relatives, and it is always fun to get to catch up with some of the cousins. The most wonderful part was that our kids are old enough to watch Joseph more, and Joseph is old enough that we're willing to let him be watched...so the kids enjoyed some time "practicing their talks" in the Primary room. :) Unfortunately, I was having so much fun chatting with everyone that I failed to get one single picture...not one single picture of any assemblage of Calls, including our little family! Oh well. 

The greatest thing about the Call Thanksgiving is that many hands make for light work, so it makes for a much more relaxed holiday! After our early dinner, we came home and had nothing else we had to do! So my cute boys fell asleep watching football while I read my Sanderson book and the older kids had a "Liv and Maddie" marathon downstairs. Best. Thanksgiving. Ever!

Our Black Friday was pretty easy going too! Lots of food and football. Seriously, Joey sat in his chair for hours watching the games. He really loves his football! We were planning on buffet and games at my Mom's house that evening, so I spent the day working on my cherry pie. I was so excited to try the crust all by myself, and to attempt my first lattice crust. And it worked out pretty nicely, and was one delicious pie!! Danny smoked a turkey breast for the buffet (since there wasn't a single morsel of that giant 20 lb bird leftover from Thanksgiving dinner), and we had quite the decadent buffet at Grandma Candy's.

It was a different kind of Thanksgiving weekend than we usually have, but we needed the downtime and it was perfect. It was nice to have enough time to actually reflect on all we're grateful for! Family, friends, food, and of course our faith. It really all comes back to our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, and the gift of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Of everything I've been blessed with in my life, I am most grateful for that. 

And with Thanksgiving in the books, we're officially into the Christmas season! Buckle up!!

Calls and Robisons, Together Again!

One evening, Justin called Danny for some help with his computer. Well, due to the complexity of the issue, that simple phone call turned into a very long FaceTime conversation! Wives were involved, of   course, and there was discussion of when they'd be coming to Utah next. The didn't have plans for nearly a year, and Danny and I were so bummed. We started planning a trip to Colorado to see them, but it was still going to be months and months before we'd see them.

Well, apparently Justin and Toshi felt the same angst at the wait that we did, because shortly after the boys finally said goodbye (they're just adorable!), the Robisons made plans to come to Utah for Thanksgiving! And we made sure to clear out some time in our calendars for some time together. We had such a blast! We enjoyed sandwiches and chips for lunch, and then homemade donuts for dessert. The boys (big AND small) played a rowdy game of football in the backyard, and I don't know if the players or the spectators had more fun! We all also learned that Danny does not go easy on the little boys... :)

The moms visited, Joey and James laughed and (mostly) cried together, and the girls did nails and all sorts of girly things. We played and played until we absolutely had to let them go home. We're so fortunate to have these good friends in our life, and hope we can see a lot more of each other!

ROK Skating Night

We love our ROK nights! And the skating night is a real favorite, as it's really the only time the kids get to go ice skating. :) This year we met up with the Schultz for dinner before hand at an awesome restaurant they recommended called The Italian Village. The food was amazing...especially the pizza benders! We'll be going back for sure. :)

We always love when we take the chance to spend some time with our dear friends. It doesn't matter how much time has passed between visits, or how long it's been since were neighbors in the hospital with our boys, we are still such good friends. And oh my, but Stetson and Joseph are just a pair! As we exchanged stories of these two rambunctious toddlers, it seems that both of their older brothers instructed the to live life to the fullest! And it's just adorable that the are the same size! Like, exactly. It's crazy! They're going to be such good buds.

Skating was a blast, though Claire still didn't care of the experience. So she made our pins and magnets with Luke's picture on them. We all love how they turned out! We got to visit with a couple nurses and techs, and of course the ROK coordinators that are always there. We always leave these nights with hearts full of happiness and gratitude of the people that cancer brought into our lives. Can't wait for the summer party!

BYU vs UMass

With a little luck on our side, we ended up with enough tickets to take our whole family to the last home game of the season! We were playing UMass on a clear but really, really cold November afternoon. This isn't our first rodeo (or cold football game, as the case may be), so we knew to bundle the kids in their best snow gear. Besides getting cold fingers while eating our Cougar Crunch and Cougar Tail everyone stayed happy and warm. Even Joey did great! Our boys in blue, however, did not. It was a terribly disappointing loss to end a terribly disappointing losing season. Really...we haven't had this bad of a record in something like 60 years! But we're real fans, and we'll ride the lows along with the highs. Here's hoping for better football next season! Go Cougs!

Meridian Temple Open House

We've kind of become temple open house groupies...we'll travel to anyone that is even remotely close! So when they announced the dates for the Meridian Temple open house, we grabbed our tickets and planned a day trip. And it was going to be a lot of trip in one day! We packed snacks and a change of clothes, got the kids dressed in their Sunday best, and set off for the 4.5 hour drive to the Boise, Idaho area. The kids did great in the car, and were so excited to see another temple. This makes six temple open houses for Claire, Sophie, and Johnny. The are really coming to love being in the House of the Lord.

And the Meridian Temple was no different. It was a cold and wet day, but the temple still gorgeous. We all loved the unique architecture, and how the temple was situation overlooking a river. Inside the temple was beautiful, with thick wood moldings, an elegant color scheme, and incredible murals on the walls of the instruction rooms. The celestial room was, well, heavenly. Claire said that the chandelier in the celestial room of this temple was here favorite. In fact, upon completing our tour both girls declared that they would be getting married in the Meridian Temple, since it was their new favorite. :)

After the tour we spent some time in the visitor's center, getting our customary picture and letting Joey run around for a bit before getting back in the car. The kids enjoyed touching pieces of the granite and the stones used in the temple, as well as seeing door knobs and hinges. I really love how the church has added these visitor's centers to the open house tours.

With the tour complete, we had a couple more things to do on our day trip before we could start the trek home. First, Danny wanted to drive by his Lovell grandparents' old house. Danny lived there for a time, and visited often. Danny and I, along with Claire and Sophie, made a few trips up there to help clean and paint when the house was being prepared for listing. As we made our way there, Danny showed the kids the elementary school he went to for a little while, and pointed out how much the area had changed. We only got to drive by the house, but the new owners have repainted it and made some other changes and the house looks great. We promptly sent a picture to Great Grandma Lovell. :) With that done, the last thing we needed to do was eat...and we couldn't just grab food anywhere. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to try another "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" location! So we hit up the Westside Diner and everyone had a great meal!

What a great day! But we still had a 4.5 hour drive. :) The kids changed into pajamas for the drive, and we made our way home. All was going well until Joey started screaming about 50 minutes from home and didn't stop...until about 5 minutes from our front door. It stressed Claire to her limit, listening to that shrill screaming for what seemed like forever. But considering all the traveling we've done with that baby boy, and the fact that he has NEVER freaked out like that...well, I think it was fair. Plus it was a good toughening-up experience for the older kids. :) All said and done, it was a great day trip and we're so glad our kids will do these crazy adventures with us! I'm so proud of their willingness to sacrifice some comfort to see the temple, and I'm optimistic that the foundation we're laying now will keep a love of the temple in their lives forever. And that is worth every bit of effort we make to attend these open houses.