A Gangsta Thanksgiving

This is what I get when I try to take a picture of the boys at Thanksgiving dinner:

No, we haven't installed a banquette in our home; we went out to dinner this year.  All of the rest of the Wrights of Utah had bigger and better plans and so, left to our own devices, we bailed on the prep and cooking and used a gift card to Elements.  I wasn't so sure about the whole thing but it was lovely.  We showed up, ate our food, and left.  There were even a few leftovers to take home.  The food was yummy and the kids were well-behaved.  I'm not sure I'd want to go out to dinner every year, but it was nice.

This is how polite people look when out in public:

We did get some bad news on Thanksgiving, however.  Jay's grandmother died, just shy of her 97th birthday.  She lived a wonderful life and we will miss her.  We love you, Nana!

Snow Buddies

Tessa has been excited for it to snow this year.  For some reason, she really wanted to get out and play in it.  I find this funny because in the past it has taken longer for her to get into her snow clothes than to actually play in the snow - she seems to take after her mom and prefer a climate-controlled environment.

Last Friday it finally snowed enough for her to get out and play in it without getting all muddy.  She coaxed Jay into attempting a snowman, but the snow was too powdery and not good for rolling snowballs.  So they moved onto the next activity - snow angels.

First up was Tessa.  She did a good job of making a cute little snow angel.

 Jay decided to join in and make a larger, Daddy-sized snow angel.

 Here they are - the two snow buddies.

Tessa still seems to prefer me for lots of things, but there are two things she can count on her Dad to do with her - cook and play in the snow.  Thank goodness because I'm not too good at either one of those things.

Question/Answered!

Yesterday in Primary William's class had two substitutes.  They are two wonderful ladies in our ward and I'm grateful to them for filling in for their regular teachers.  One of the ladies is married to a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Whenever we see the Choir sing, we play a game of "Spot Brother Jensen" just for fun.  I'm not sure we've ever even pointed the Jensen's out to the kids - they just know that Brother Jensen is in our ward and sings in the Choir.

Anyway, yesterday William apparently asked Sister Jensen if she was married "to the guy in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir".  She answered in the affirmative and I guess they went on with their lesson.  William didn't even mention this conversation to us - he talked more about the yeast object lesson that they did in their class.

Last night after dinner our doorbell rang.  It was Brother Jensen!  He introduced himself to William (his name is William as well, but he goes by Bill) and said that he heard that William mentioned him in class today so he thought he'd bring William one of the Choir's new CD's.  William was so thrilled.  He carried the CD around all evening and listened to it before he went to bed.  He asked me if he could write Brother Jensen a thank you note for thinking to bring him the CD.  Then he said, "well, now I'm really glad I asked Sister Jensen that question!"

I'm so grateful for good, thoughtful neighbors who we are blessed to know.  I'm grateful for people who go the extra mile to make little boys smile and feel important.  It's a cliche to say that it takes a village to raise a child, but we are sure grateful for our little village of Hyde Park, Utah.

Fall Pictorial

Tessa and I had our annual "Jay takes the boys down to Salt Lake City for a Ute game" Girl's Day Out last week.  It was a lot of fun.  After the boys left for pizza and football - the Ute's won, which was nice - we went and had a little spa day for her.  She got a haircut and cute braided hairstyle and something called Glitter Toes.  I thought it would just be shiny toenail polish but no, they actually shook glitter onto her toes.  She was looking quite snazzy.

We then went birthday present shopping for a few people we know and then went to dinner at the Olive Garden.  We topped it off with a Barbie movie and cheesecake at home.  It was quite fun and as much as I like a good college football game, I also like doing girl stuff with my buddy. 

For Halloween, the kids were Cinderella, Harry Potter and Charlie Brown Dressed Like a Ghost.  I don't know if you can tell that William's ghost costume has lots of holes cut into it, just like in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".  The idea was better than the execution and he got frustrated with the sheet pretty quickly but a good trick-or-treating time was had by all.