Oh how quickly time goes. It seems like you wait and wait for occasions, and they come and are gone so quickly. I remember my Mother telling me that the older you get, the faster time goes. I am now a firm believer!!
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had 2 dinners. One with our family and one with some new members and friends from our ward. It was awesome. I really enjoy cooking for a big occasion. You really feel like you have accomplished something, especially when your guests eat and eat until they are stuffed. It is fun to have the kids and my sweet husband help me get everything ready. Sometimes there are little breakdowns, but most of the time is fun, as we all work together for a common goal. This time I was lucky, because Reid had 2 days off school and I had 2 days off work and so him and I worked together lots and he was a fantastic helper!! It was just fun to have 2 days just me and him!! I am thankful that at the age of 12, he still likes to snuggle up and watch a movie with his Mom.
Dallas's 16th Birthday is fast approaching. On Halloween Night, she will finally be able to concentrate on herself!! Her whole life so far, she has had to postpone her birthday because of Trick or Treating, but now that Reid has reached the cut off age of 12, we have no more Trick or Treaters and so she can finally have a celebration all her own. I cannot believe that she is going to be 16. She gave a talk on Sunday in sacrament and did such a fantastic job. I forget how mature she is sometimes. In my mind, she is still my little sidekick "Spud" and sometimes it shocks me that she is in Grade 11 and so grown up!! As she always has plans in her mind and doesn't always communicate her plans to her parents very well, maybe we should do some investigation work and find out what she has planned for her big day, in her mind???
Reid is excited for Halloween for a completely different reason, this will be the first time he gets to hand out candy. He has a special love for little kids and truly enjoys spending time with them, so he gets a real kick out of seeing our neighbours little kids come Trick or Treating. Plus he will get to dress his sidekick Gus in his Devil halloween costume so that they can answer the door together. Our next door neighbours have a little girl who comes out in the back yard and hangs onto the chain link fence yelling "Gussy, Gussy" and our little dog goes running over to the fence and she kisses him through the fence. It's pretty cute, other than the fact that he's licking her face. But she loves it and so does Gus and her Mom doesn't seem to mind, so what do you do? When she comes Trick or Treating, it is an extended Treat!!
The weather stinks! As if snow wasn't bad enough, the cold has been brutal. We just have not had time to get used to it yet. Brrr, when we leave for papers in the morning, it is just too darn cold. It is hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago it was 34 degrees above zero. No wonder we have had such a hard time with this cold snap. At least it is supposed to be beautiful on the weekend!!
Mike has had a tough couple of weeks. He has had a lot of stuff on his plate and I know that sometimes that pressure is hard to take. Yesterday he talked on the telephone to his brother in New Zealand. They haven't talked over the phone for quite a long time and it was a great visit. He sure enjoyed hearing about all of the adventures that they are having way across the ocean. We both love to hear of all the adventures that their kids are having. When your the Auntie and the Uncle, you have a completely different perspective on all of the mischief that they get into. Because we no longer have little kids we can completely enjoy all of the antics and we just love reading about them on Facebook and their Mom always words her descriptions so well. We just get the giggles!!
Thank heavens for the internet. It helps us all to keep track of one anothers lives while we are far apart. We love you all and hope that you and your families had a wonderful Thankgiving season!!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thanksgiving is here...almost
I don't know about you, but I love holidays where all you do to get ready is cook and clean.
There is nothing more fun than cooking a big meal for friends and family and having it all eaten in 1/2 an hour. I just think that it is one of my favorite things to do for those that I love. The only drawback is that we are far away from family and that is hard. We wish that we lived closer, didn't have such grown up kids with responsibilities, or didn't have church callings that kept us here. Holidays are about family, so any of you family who read this and want to be fed a good meal dinner is Saturday at 3:30pm.
One of the things about living far away is that you make friends who become your family. We have been blessed with the best friends ever, some who have immigrated here to Canada. We also have been blessed to have a new "Uncle" added to our family who comes from a Ukarainian background so we have discussed many different holiday traditions that these wonderful people have. Some of our best friends are from Russia and boy do they eat different food for holidays than we do. The greatest thing about all of this is that we have learned to enjoy new foods and are now getting braver in trying to make them on our own. Where does all of this lead...well...sour cabbage rolls. This is a new item on our Thanksgiving menu this year and we made them for the first time last weekend. We were able to freeze two containers full for Thanksgiving dinner. Now we just need to keep making one menu item each night and we will be good to go for Saturday. Just to entice your tastebuds here is the menu:
Ham- I know, I know, no turkey, but when you already have 2 big hams in the freezer how could you justify spending money on a turkey, besides Christmas for sure will be turkey.
Scalloped potatoes-or funeral potatoes as they are sometimes called.
Stuffing
Sour Cabbage Rolls
Orange Jello salad- can't do the signature Pistachio, as one of the guests will die if he eats nuts!! Maybe we could make both kinds???
Zucchini
Corn
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Fresh bread
and for dessert
Pumpkin Pie or Ice Cream, or both if you insist!!
We got Thanksgiving napkins too!!! Can't wait!!!
Again, anyone who is hungry, you are always welcome!
We are so lucky to have a Temple in our city that is literally only 5 minutes from our home. We try really hard to go each week and even though the challenges of life don't change, how we handle them sure does. Recently a dear friend of ours who was less active for 30 years, just went to have her own endowments, what a fantastic experience it was to see her so ready for the covenants and blessings that she received there. This weekend the youth in our ward get to do baptisms for the dead and it will be Reid's first time. He is very excited and well prepared as Jordanne taught an awesome lesson on it for Family Home Evening this week. It will be so fun to watch the "baby" of the family perform this sacred ordinance for the first time.
Well Jordanne is, much to her dismay, officially growing up. Though she has tried to fight this, time just keeps rolling along. Today, she applied for Nursing!! She is going to proudly follow in her Aunt Jess's footsteps and become a nurse. It is really exciting to see her go forward with this endeavour. We are proud and VERY thankful to all of her Aunties who have set such good examples!!
As usual time is short. We love you all, especially the blogs and pictures. Tara, your pictures of the farm were awesome!! Jess, we love love love watching your babies grow!!
The Smiths
There is nothing more fun than cooking a big meal for friends and family and having it all eaten in 1/2 an hour. I just think that it is one of my favorite things to do for those that I love. The only drawback is that we are far away from family and that is hard. We wish that we lived closer, didn't have such grown up kids with responsibilities, or didn't have church callings that kept us here. Holidays are about family, so any of you family who read this and want to be fed a good meal dinner is Saturday at 3:30pm.
One of the things about living far away is that you make friends who become your family. We have been blessed with the best friends ever, some who have immigrated here to Canada. We also have been blessed to have a new "Uncle" added to our family who comes from a Ukarainian background so we have discussed many different holiday traditions that these wonderful people have. Some of our best friends are from Russia and boy do they eat different food for holidays than we do. The greatest thing about all of this is that we have learned to enjoy new foods and are now getting braver in trying to make them on our own. Where does all of this lead...well...sour cabbage rolls. This is a new item on our Thanksgiving menu this year and we made them for the first time last weekend. We were able to freeze two containers full for Thanksgiving dinner. Now we just need to keep making one menu item each night and we will be good to go for Saturday. Just to entice your tastebuds here is the menu:
Ham- I know, I know, no turkey, but when you already have 2 big hams in the freezer how could you justify spending money on a turkey, besides Christmas for sure will be turkey.
Scalloped potatoes-or funeral potatoes as they are sometimes called.
Stuffing
Sour Cabbage Rolls
Orange Jello salad- can't do the signature Pistachio, as one of the guests will die if he eats nuts!! Maybe we could make both kinds???
Zucchini
Corn
Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Fresh bread
and for dessert
Pumpkin Pie or Ice Cream, or both if you insist!!
We got Thanksgiving napkins too!!! Can't wait!!!
Again, anyone who is hungry, you are always welcome!
We are so lucky to have a Temple in our city that is literally only 5 minutes from our home. We try really hard to go each week and even though the challenges of life don't change, how we handle them sure does. Recently a dear friend of ours who was less active for 30 years, just went to have her own endowments, what a fantastic experience it was to see her so ready for the covenants and blessings that she received there. This weekend the youth in our ward get to do baptisms for the dead and it will be Reid's first time. He is very excited and well prepared as Jordanne taught an awesome lesson on it for Family Home Evening this week. It will be so fun to watch the "baby" of the family perform this sacred ordinance for the first time.
Well Jordanne is, much to her dismay, officially growing up. Though she has tried to fight this, time just keeps rolling along. Today, she applied for Nursing!! She is going to proudly follow in her Aunt Jess's footsteps and become a nurse. It is really exciting to see her go forward with this endeavour. We are proud and VERY thankful to all of her Aunties who have set such good examples!!
As usual time is short. We love you all, especially the blogs and pictures. Tara, your pictures of the farm were awesome!! Jess, we love love love watching your babies grow!!
The Smiths
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Leaves are Falling all Around
I don't know about where you live, but in Edmonton, we have had terrible cold wind for about a week. Brrr!! It feels like snow, and yes, I am aware that is a bad word!!
We are hoping that the "s word" stays away for a little longer, and yet, we are torn, because the land is so very dry here. On the radio yesterday they said that our usual rainfall for the month of September is 43 mm and this year we received only 9mm. So it is very dry and we know how desperate the farmers are for moisture. So if it snows, then we are hoping it is only -1 or -2. We certainly are not ready for -10.
There are some very beautiful things that we all love about fall though. The color of the leaves is amazing and as you drive through the river valley it kind of takes your breath away. Early in the morning, the stars are so bright this time of year and a big beautiful harvest moon is about to happen this week. These are all wonderful things about fall!!
September has been an expensive month for the Smith family. We didn't anticipate having to spend an extra $2000.00 on vehicle repairs!! All I can say to that is thank heavens we were able to complete the repairs and our testimony about tithing is constantly strengthened. We are so thankful for the many blessings that Heavenly Father has blessed us with!
The comments that we have received on our blog are so fun. It is great to hear from family members. We all love to read your blogs and see the pictures of your families, it sure makes everyone seem closer than they are. We need to post some pictures on our blog. One of our children will have to teach us how to do that.
Now that September is over, we feel like we can relax a little and spend some time together without everyone running here and there non stop. Between Youth Conference, the Relief Society broadcast, and Stake Leadership we have had every weekend booked and we need to stay home and clean our house. We were able to get the yard ready for winter though, which is always nice, as there is nothing worse than trying to clean up the yard after it has snowed and all of the perennials are mucky and wet. Much to Mike's dismay, we did get more perennials and so we spent a couple of hours last Saturday planting them. I think that sometimes it is hard for him to vision the picture of our yard that I have in my head. Maybe I don't explain my vision good enough???
Mike has had a very busy month. As part of his High Council duties, he is over Relief Society, so last weekend he spent countless hours helping the Relief Society prepare for the meeting and dinner that we had before the broadcast. He also is over a ward that has huge needs, and so he attends that ward and all of their meetings each week. This includes weekday meetings scheduled by the Elders Quorum and the High Priests. Once a week he does try to go play what we call "Old Man Basketball" and he loves it. I think it gives him the stress relief that he needs to survive another busy week.
Maddy has received a new calling in her YSA ward. She is in charge of literacy, so she gets to write the monthly newsletter, start a book club, assist anyone who is learning English and promote the usuage of the Church manuals. This calling is right up her alley and I am excited to see her "dive into" this new challenge. We are sure happy to have her home. Reid loves the fact that she will go and watch him at Tae Kwan Do. He missed her alot over the summer.
If any of you need a good laugh, watch Jordanne's video on Facebook of her "cooking adventure" it will totally brighten your day. Just for the record, we do still love her!!
Dallas is awaiting Halloween, as it is her 16th birthday. I cannot believe that my youngest girl will be 16. It just seems like yesterday that we were just hanging out together. She was the best little tag along...that is until Reid came along and "ruined her life". Whenever he makes her angry, she gladly reminds him of that fact. He of course thinks that is hilarious and tries to bother her more. Kids!!!
Well we hope all is well with you all. We love you all.
We are hoping that the "s word" stays away for a little longer, and yet, we are torn, because the land is so very dry here. On the radio yesterday they said that our usual rainfall for the month of September is 43 mm and this year we received only 9mm. So it is very dry and we know how desperate the farmers are for moisture. So if it snows, then we are hoping it is only -1 or -2. We certainly are not ready for -10.
There are some very beautiful things that we all love about fall though. The color of the leaves is amazing and as you drive through the river valley it kind of takes your breath away. Early in the morning, the stars are so bright this time of year and a big beautiful harvest moon is about to happen this week. These are all wonderful things about fall!!
September has been an expensive month for the Smith family. We didn't anticipate having to spend an extra $2000.00 on vehicle repairs!! All I can say to that is thank heavens we were able to complete the repairs and our testimony about tithing is constantly strengthened. We are so thankful for the many blessings that Heavenly Father has blessed us with!
The comments that we have received on our blog are so fun. It is great to hear from family members. We all love to read your blogs and see the pictures of your families, it sure makes everyone seem closer than they are. We need to post some pictures on our blog. One of our children will have to teach us how to do that.
Now that September is over, we feel like we can relax a little and spend some time together without everyone running here and there non stop. Between Youth Conference, the Relief Society broadcast, and Stake Leadership we have had every weekend booked and we need to stay home and clean our house. We were able to get the yard ready for winter though, which is always nice, as there is nothing worse than trying to clean up the yard after it has snowed and all of the perennials are mucky and wet. Much to Mike's dismay, we did get more perennials and so we spent a couple of hours last Saturday planting them. I think that sometimes it is hard for him to vision the picture of our yard that I have in my head. Maybe I don't explain my vision good enough???
Mike has had a very busy month. As part of his High Council duties, he is over Relief Society, so last weekend he spent countless hours helping the Relief Society prepare for the meeting and dinner that we had before the broadcast. He also is over a ward that has huge needs, and so he attends that ward and all of their meetings each week. This includes weekday meetings scheduled by the Elders Quorum and the High Priests. Once a week he does try to go play what we call "Old Man Basketball" and he loves it. I think it gives him the stress relief that he needs to survive another busy week.
Maddy has received a new calling in her YSA ward. She is in charge of literacy, so she gets to write the monthly newsletter, start a book club, assist anyone who is learning English and promote the usuage of the Church manuals. This calling is right up her alley and I am excited to see her "dive into" this new challenge. We are sure happy to have her home. Reid loves the fact that she will go and watch him at Tae Kwan Do. He missed her alot over the summer.
If any of you need a good laugh, watch Jordanne's video on Facebook of her "cooking adventure" it will totally brighten your day. Just for the record, we do still love her!!
Dallas is awaiting Halloween, as it is her 16th birthday. I cannot believe that my youngest girl will be 16. It just seems like yesterday that we were just hanging out together. She was the best little tag along...that is until Reid came along and "ruined her life". Whenever he makes her angry, she gladly reminds him of that fact. He of course thinks that is hilarious and tries to bother her more. Kids!!!
Well we hope all is well with you all. We love you all.
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