Monday

Nov. 21, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

This is throwing me off a bit-writing you on a Monday night, but I'll try to get over it. We just finished with FHE where I gave a short lesson on gratitude, then me and the girls went around the house looking at things through the eyes of Giovanni and Jen's son, James since he's going to be here this week and our house is not exactly baby proofed. We moved a lot of things. He shouldn't be afraid of dogs since Tofu lives with them. Then we made a new treat called Pizzookies. Kristina said they are now her new all time favorite. Here's a pic:

This week we have Steve and Carolina, Kassie and Dakota coming tomorrow, Kirk is coming home tomorrow as well as Sean. Then on Wednesday Gio and Jen fly in. Sarah comes in late Wednesday night. That's our group. Sean says he'll organize a Turkey Bowl. We're not having pie night until later Thursday night this year in order to have everyone here. Bill and Nancy are coming for pie night too and hopefully a few more. We'll have plenty of pies, so we'll definitely need some help eating them. I'm buying most of them from Diane Beagley, but I'll be making 2-3 French chocolate pies.

I'm hoping to hear from you that the Taylors got baptized. I've been thinking about them and hope everything went well! Last week I gave a Book of Mormon to one of the ladies who cleans our house. We had a nice talk about families beforehand. I kind of decided at the last second to give her a book so I'm kicking myself that I didn't highlight Moroni's promise.  What was I thinking...Obviously I need to brush up on my missionary skills. I can't wait to see her again.

Our ward choir is in full swing now practicing several songs for the season. Jan Leifson is our director and she always makes great treats for each practice, so we've been getting a good group coming out to sing. We're such simple and easily bribed people! The songs we're doing this year are different but very pretty. 

We've been busy here getting the house ready for guests. We've got Christmas lights up outside and the basement got a deep cleaning, yea. The dogs will be getting bathed tomorrow. This is the house before dad put all the lights on the trees. I'll send more photos later.

Saturday night we went to 2 receptions. Tyler Yorgason had his reception here and also Mary Thompson. It was fun seeing the Yorgasons. They are here for the whole week so hopefully we might see more of them later on for the Turkey Bowl and they are going to come over for a visit too. Tanner is a senior now and still a brainiac with a sense of humor. Samantha is beautiful and is just about 16. The 3 younger boys still look young and Sydney too. Kristina went with a bunch of friends today to take Samantha out to lunch at the China Palace in Eagle.

Eagle High was in the state championships over the weekend, but they lost to Coeur dAlene (had to look up the spelling on that one). Kristina went to the game and said it was pretty sad cuz it wasn't even close. At least BSU womped on SDSU this week and are now back up to #7. I just love watching BSU play.

Our ward is continuing to grow, not because of baptisms, but lots of people are moving in. It's hard to keep up with all the new people and get to know them, but I love hearing them speak. Everyone has a story and I love listening to people's life histories. I'm slowly but surely getting my dad's life history typed. He talks a lot faster than the patriarch. I can type a patriarchal blessing without ever having to rewind the tape. It's nice. But with my dad, I'm constantly rewinding to catch up. But I'm loving listening the stories all over again.

So how did your meetings go on Monday? Did you have to travel somewhere for them? What are your plans for Thanksgiving, in other words, how many Thanksgivings are you going to be having this year??

Grandma and Grandpa Thompson are getting their kitchen redone. Sounds like it's almost finished now, so when it is I'll have Sean send a picture and I'll pass it along so you can see it. It will be so nice for them to have their upstairs kitchen updated.

 We'll miss you this week but I know you are in good hands. Remember we are always praying for you.

Love you,

mom xxoo