Happiness

 Thanksgiving was great! We had a fun Charlie Brown picnic at school for Arlis and Declan where Declan showed us his artwork. We had great food and everyone was healthy and well! Asher is doing so well in Youngstown and teaching a lot. He’s been out 15 months. My favorite picture is the zoom call with all 4 of my favorite boys and Josh! I love these guys so much and am such a lucky Mom !  

The kids with their before-dinner craft. We ate outside this year- the weather was perfect! Ethan and Jonah did a 4th Grade Thanksgiving Program. They did an awesome job on their speaking and singing parts! (Jonah is on the left and Ethan is on the right- Ethan snuck the red shirt out of the house- maybe he thought I wouldn't let him wear it?)  Our big Smalley Cousins- Andrew, Daniel, Tim and Allison (missing Sabrina)- they have seen 2 Episodes of Studio C (a hilarious comedy troupe on BYUtv) live and we love their great taste in TV shows! They also like Dr. Who-which my kids like (when I let them watch it).  Josh prepping the turkey- he does the turkey whenever we make one and I am thankful I don't have to mess with that large, slippery thing! We soaked it in a brine and it turned out delicious! The Smalleys at the Riparian Preserve  For Thanksgiving this year, our family stayed at home and Josh's sister Emily and her husband and five kids ...

For our Thanksgiving 2012, we decided to make a trek up to Utah! Since we had been living in Maryland from 2007-2011, we hadn't seen much of our Utah cousins or Utah itself. We made the 12 hour trip up there in 11 hours and celebrated by eating at In n Out (one of my favs!). It was so good to see Marrisse, Aaron and their 5 kiddos. The kids had a wonderful time- playing legos inside, jumping on the tramp, staying up late and of course, eating yummy food (the food was seriously very good!). For Thanksgiving most of Marrisse's family came over, as well as Josh's sister Emily and Troy and their 5 kids as well. Emily and Troy have twins that are 13 now and it was fun to see them. Hannah, Marrisse's oldest is 13 as well and has grown taller than me! We also hit our 2 top thing to hit in UTAH (besides family and In n Out): BYU and TEMPLE SQUARE. The weather was gorgeous (in the 60's- no snow for us!). We took the kids by the hospital they were born at (Utah Valley f...

Before Christmas starts in Full Swing, here are some more pics of our Thanksgiving. Highlights included freshly grilled lobster and rib roast, going tide pooling, going to the Santa Barbara Zoo and touring Downtown Santa Barbara on the Trolley. We love Santa Barbara. Always have, always will. And Doug and Sheelah were the perfect hosts! They even babysat for us one night while we went out to dinner and movie. It was all very wonderful! Us at the Santa Barbara Asher surfing at the Santa Barbara Zoo. A Flamingo at the Zoo- love that pink! My Parents Uncle Doug and Aunt Sheelah Cousins playing in the back yard! Lobster ready to be par-broiled and grilled!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Santa Barbara, California. How about you? This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Asher came home from Kindergarten today with such cute books, I had to share! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I am thankful for the green grass. I am thankful for the brown hills. I am thankful for my family and myself. He threw in an extra girl in our family. There is still someone to come to our family. It made me smile! Happy Turkey Day! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

via internet Ok. One more blog post about this past couple of weeks, and then I am done. In the midst of this trial, I had a dream. In it we had moved close to the Kleinmans and the Andersons and Ellen and Jason were visiting with their two kids. There was bread dough rising on the counter and I was tickling their baby boy, who was about one, and making him laugh. I laughed and people were in awe of how happy I was. I was truly happy and I realized- there is more to life than just ourselves. We are entwined with all the people we love- mostly family. I saw MaryRuth, her hair up in a long ponytail, and gave her a big hug. This week Diane Hill, my visiting teacher, came and brought us a banana cream pie. People in your ward can act as your surrogate family. They can love you, watch over you and make you happy. From this dream, this is what I know: We feel our Savior's Love when we spend time with our families, when we serve others unselfishly and when we use our talents for good (bak...

Happy Late Thanksgiving! It is the end of Thanksgiving weekend. Josh is headed back to work tomorrow, the kids are going back to school and I'm sad to see this weekend end. We had a great Thanksgiving! In the morning I baked and we went for a hike. In the afternoon we took naps and went over to Josh's Aunt and Uncle, Craig and Ellen for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was all very yummy, as was the company. Asher didn't eat much of the food, except for the turkey, the marshmallows off the sweet potatoes and the red jello off of my Mom's famous jello salad. I guess two and a half year olds can be pretty picky. We told the kids that Christmas was after Thanksgiving, so what do you know but the moment they woke up on Friday they wanted to know if it was Christmas yet. I had to explain that it is Christmas season, not Christmas day. We put up our fake tree that we've had since Elizabeth was little and they started wrapping their toys up with Christmas wrapping paper that ...

Everyone has posted about their Thanksgiving. Ours was wonderful as well! The weather was gorgeous- 73 degrees! The family friendly and helpful. The food out of this world! Happy Thanksgiving 2007! Here's our Thanksgiving in pictures. The challenge for you: guess which twin is Ethan! Let me know in your comments! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.