November Narrative

November....the month of Thanksgiving, of reflecting on all of the many things we have to be thankful for.
Family is at the top of my list---

Nate and Kim celebrated their 3rd anniversary of blissfull marriage. Nate's still hitting the books and Kim's doing photography for the newborns at the hospital as well as doing photo shoots for weddings, families, Sr. pictures, etc. They both are managers for the apartment complex that they live in. Nate's "Tool-time" skills are growing as well as his "foot" skills.

The Mallorys are loving their new house, Jaxson still loves school and Kennlyn is in a pre-school group. Matt and Amie "team coach" the 7th grade girls basketball team at Oakley Jr. High and are starting to see some success. The girls won their last game by 14 points!! I'm sure having Jaxson and Kennlyn as cheerleaders has helped as well.

We get to see Andrew, Lindsay and Titan at least once a week. Andrew has his official license to fly helicopters, Lindsay is honing her homemaking skills and Titan is growing like a weed. He has an infectious smile and is just a pretty good kid. It appears that Lindsay's mothering skills are working and Andrew jumps in when he can. Andrew's "Shear Force Detailing and Pressure Washing" business has been keeping him busy. He's not afraid of a little hard work, and it's paying off.

Garrett has been walking in the clouds since he got engaged-----he has managed to focus on his school work and job however still. He's been pretty blessed to find a deal on a car as well as some much needed furniture and household goods to fill the apartment he'll be calling home after Dec. 30th when he ties the knot. Garrett and Zandra are pulling things together to make their big day a special one for them.

Danica closed her soccer season with a team banquet where she recieved the hustle award and MVP award (she shared each of these with another team-mate). She also got first team all-valley defender recognition and they had a little write up about her in the local paper. WAY TO GO DANICA!! She's been applying for colleges and is seriously considering playing soccer on the college level. We'll have to see what comes from that.

Danica went to the schools Sadie Hawkins Dance (girls choice) with some of her soccer friends and had a fun time. They cooked breakfast for the guys at our house and then went and played Fear Factor where they ate worms, crickets and got pudding licked off their face by a dog, just to name a few of the events. After the dance her carload slipped away from the group and went to see the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn. Fun times----

Dale went muzzleload hunting with some friends up on the Uintah mountain range. It snowed the day they went in and the day they left, but he didn't let that slow him down. They saw a fair amount of elk, but never were able to get off a good shot. In my eyes it was a successful hunt--he had a good time in the outdoors and didn't bring home the meat!!

We had my brothers, Kim and Danny and their families at our house for Thanksgiving as well as our WHOLE family!!! We had a houseful, but it was a great day, tastey meal and fun times. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Terry, made cookie turkeys, ate, visited and played games. Then we headed to Dale's folks and tied a quilt for Garrett and Zandra as well as had a family bridal shower and visited with family. It was a full, fun day.

Nate even got some back-country skiing in before we ate. He was bound to make the most of his time here.
Amie and I braved the cold and the crowds and hit some of the Black Friday sales staring at 10:30 pm. I've never seen so many people crammed into a store (thank you Wal-Mart employees for the crowd control). I'm still wondering how some people were able to stand in a line for 2 hours waiting for the store to open, when 20 min. out in the cold waiting for Old Navy to open at midnight was enough for me!! While waiting for Smith's Marketplace to open at 5:00 am, we tried to sleep in the car for a bit but after getting too cold decided to go get an early breakfast to warm us up. Thanks Angies for opening up at 4:00 am the hot chocolate hit the spot!!! Well, Amie got most all of her Christmas shopping done and I got my eyes opened on how crazy some people can be. We both got 3 hours of sleep, but it was an adventure.

The guys, Kim and Danica went skiing at Snowbird, leaving Friday morning as Amie and I were coming home to hit the sack!! We hooked up with the whole group at the Eccles Ice Arena and did some ice skating. We were ALL on the ice, even Titan!! (They let us push his stroller on the ice) Zandra gave us "spinning" lessons and we tried, but it will take practice.

Saturday the Mallorys headed back to Idaho and the boys went back-country skiing while the girls went to The Nutcracker at the Eccles theatre. We all ate and played games after.

Andrew turned 24 years old on the 29th and to celebrate we had a nice Sunday dinner with his favorites and played games. We even got Grandpa and Grandma Hansen in the game.

Kim helped me get the house all decorated for the Christmas season, it's the fasted I've ever got it up---thanks Kim, you're hired!!

Our Californians left us Monday night and now the house is back to pretty quiet.
I did some ushering at the Eccles and saw some fun shows--The Golden Dragons, AFC Veterans Concert & the Nutcracker twice. I'm gearing up for the holidays as well as the wedding and am trying to make it so I can enjoy them both.
November's narrative leaves me feeling pretty blessed. I am so grateful for all I have been given-----