Black Friday

Did you enjoy Thanksgiving as much as I did?  I love this holiday!  We had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving at our home this year.  My mom and sister and her family joined us.  I don't have a single picture because I spent the whole day soaking in every minute.  This was the second time I have cooked a turkey.  If you have never cooked a turkey- you should give it a whirl.  There are thousands of ways to do it, but my favorite is sweet and simple.  We got our turkey for free this year and he was a beauty.  I stuffed him with onions, apples, celery and oranges.  Rubbed him down with a bit of oil and salt and pepper and that was that.  We cooked it at 325 for about five hours.  I wish I would have at least thought to take a picture because it was perfect.  The kids helped me make pilgrim place cards.  Jeff got to enjoy his fill of football and I got to enjoy my delicious candied yams.  We ended the day watching Elf and looking at all of the Black Friday ads. 

Did I go out on Black Friday?  You bet I did!  But not to a single store.  Instead we went to our favorite place of all....the mountains.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

Lost and Found

(This post is for my friend Tami who fully understands:)

Our beloved little Cocoa Fudge(our hamster) got lost last night.  Ashtyn went down to get him out for his nightly cuddle and she discovered the top door was wide open and the hamster was not in his cage.  I have never before seen a little girl so panicked.  She was crying and frantic. This made Whitney start bawling and they both raced down stairs to start looking.  Our basement is full of toys, open storage boxes, food storage cans, blankets, couches- you get the idea- there are a lot of places a hamster could hide.  Not to mention that all of our walls are covered in insulation and plastic and would be very enticing for a little nest loving hamster.  Our whole family started looking.  Nothing.  We knelt down and prayed and then started looking again.  Ashtyn kept saying that she felt like he was upstairs so after scouring the basement we went upstairs.  We looked under the couches, in closets and all over.  Then Ashtyn picked up a towel that was on the couch and out tumbled the hamster. 

Earlier in the day Ashtyn had gotten the hamster out to play with him before school.  We always lay out two towels on the couch to keep them clean when the hamster is around.  I told Ashtyn to put him away before she left.  After the kids left Brody wanted to sit on the couch so I pushed the two towels to the side.  The poor hamster was still on the towel so he got buried and there he sat all day until Ashtyn discovered him.  There were floods of tears from all the kids.  Ashtyn was very upset because she had been the one to leave him there all day.  She felt like it would have been her fault if he had suffocated and died.  She said that he was like her child and so she felt responsible for him.  We told her that you make mistakes in life to learn from them not to regret or dwell or beat yourself up over them.  We said another pray to thank Heavenly Father for helping us find him and for keeping him safe.  The poor thing was so hungry when we put him back in the cage that he filled both of his pouches completely full in his mouth.  He is one loved little guy!  

OOPS

Ashtyn has spent much of her time this weekend drawing flags from other countries.  I don't know why she has become fascinated with this- but she has drawn pages and pages of flags.  Last night we were talking to Jeff's parents on Skype and she showed them all of the beautiful flags she had drawn.  One flag in particular that looks like this:

This is the flag for the country Niger in Western Africa.  However when she showed them this flag she said this is from the country Nigg** ( I can't even type that word because it is so offensive- but you understand).

My in-law's kind of chuckled- so Ashtyn asked what was so funny(or not so funny).  They explained to her it was because the way she pronounced the word was incorrect and the word she said was a very unkind word for someone with dark skin- that we should never use.

That night at dinner she asked us about it again and we talked a little bit more about why that word is so offensive.  To which Ethan replies "OH Ashtyn and you said that word right in front of Nana and she has brown skin!" That made all of us laugh because Jeff's mother is white.  She has very olive skin and compared to his dad she does look a little dark.  Here is a picture of them on their mission.  My father in law is in the middle and you can see how Ethan might think what he does:

 I am actually happy that the kids did not know what that word meant- I hope they never fully understand that word and can always treat every color of skin with the same respect because we are all from the same race- the human race.

The Zombie Song -- Stephanie Mabey

We saw this video on the news and it has become our little morning ritual. I thought after Halloween the kids wouldn't care any more- but there is a certain little boy that is especially fond of it so we play it before we go to school. It is pretty catchy :)