Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving time again and we are grateful for the bounties of the earth that we enjoy as a family. We have so much to be thankful for. Good friends, great family, warm home, lots of food, clothes, cars that run...., good health and the list goes on and on...... Two years ago Birch and I went to Boston just before Thanksgiving and brought back these little pilgrim hats for our little pilgrims! We are sure thankful for our Grandchildren.
Last Thanksgiving we were all together in Minnesota. Great memories! This year, we are all spread out....Jason is having dinner with friends in NYC. I am jealous that he can go to the Macy's Parade! Jolyn, Daniel and Dylan are cooking dinner at their house with Daniel's mom in Florida. Jana, Tony and Kade are in Boise ID, having Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Holt and family. Jeff, Annette, Vincent, Birch and I are going to Julie and Cameron's house for dinner. It's strange not having to cook a turkey here at our house! Maybe I'll get use to this! (maybe not!)
I spent one day this week on the new Family Search website, tracing my ancestor lines back to the Mayflower. (with some help from Mom!) I am thankful for Elizabeth Tilley and John Howland who left England and traveled across the ocean, landed in Plymouth, MA so we can enjoy the freedom of America. We have been blessed with a rich heritage.
The pies are made, (it's tradition in our house for the cook to taste the pecan pie the night before Thanksgiving......) Yummy!!! And we are ready for the big day of football, family, friends and food! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Happy Anniversary

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JANA AND TONY!It's hard to believe that our little Jana has been married for three years! She was such a beautiful bride and we enjoyed every minute of her beautiful wedding. Of course we love Tony too!!!! We are so thankful for both of them.
They were married in the Salt Lake Temple and had their reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. What a wonderful day with family and friends. We were so thankful for everyone that was there and those who weren't, that were thinking of us!!!
Brothers, sisters, cousins and nieces made up the wedding party.
A fairy tale ending as the snow began to fall and they headed off to the Anniversary Inn in their horse drawn carriage.....Three years later they are happy and enjoying life together with little Kade!
P.S. This is for my sister Patti.....her son is now serving a mission in France and she is missing him!

Retired, now Released

Sunday, November 16, 2008 Birch was released from the Anoka Stake Presidency after serving as the 1st Counselor for 13 1/2 years. He was first sustained as a counselor to President Joel Wiest in May, 1995. He was then sustained as a counselor to President Mark Paynter, November, 2002. Our family has enjoyed many blessings and have had great opportunities as he has served. We love the church members in Minnesota and have watched the church grow from 2 to 5 stakes in the 31 years we have been here.

We will miss the association with good friends but are looking forward to our new calling as Institute instructors! So many changes in our lives as we spend more time together preparing for a mission. It will be different sitting by Birch in church this Sunday, after 25 years of him sitting on the stand in one calling or another.

Mill City Musuem

While Birch's parents were here we went to the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis.
The mills used to produce more flour than anywhere else in the world. It was really interesting and very well done. We took a ride in the freight elevator to the eighth floor and then out to the observation deck. Great view!

The kids had fun playing with all the hands on displays. It was fun to see the old Betty Crocker commercials and the testing/class kitchen.

The highlight for me was finding the Betty Crocker cookbook for kids, just like the one one I had when I was little, in the gift store. Of course I had to buy it for the girls and then came home and found my original one! Baylie wants to have "Pigs in a Blanket" for dinner Sunday! It brought back fun memories of my first cooking experiences! We had fun designing our own cereal boxes too! It's nice to find things to do in our own city. We watched a movie on the history of Minneapolis and we all decided that this is a great place to live!

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa Holt

Last week Birch's parents came to visit us from Boise, ID. We had a nice quiet visit. It was great to have them join us for Halloween, Stake Enrichment meeting, church, dinners out and various activities. The weather was so nice on Sunday that we barbecued dinner and then had a bonfire. Vincent loves roasted marshmallows! By the way, they are expecting another baby in May. We can't wait........
Can you believe it's November and Julie has on short sleeves????????
The girls had fun getting to know Great Grandpa Holt better. Great Grandma was in the house with Payton.....
We enjoyed walks to the river, a drive around Lake Minetonka and spending the week with them. We appreciate all they do for us and the great example they are in our lives. Thanks for coming to Minnesota to visit us!

Halloween Parade

It's Halloween time again in Anoka, the Halloween Capitol of the World. We have had a busy week preparing for the big Parade that was today. Last weekend was the night light parade. Jeff, Birch, Cameron and Julie decided to enter the group costume contest this year as they ran the Grey Ghost 5K run at the beginning of the parade. Can you tell what they are?????? Yes! Bumper cars! Cameron came up with the idea, Julie and I went looking for supplies (thank you Ax-man surplus) and we spent the week constructing the little bumper cars. Needless to say....mom came to the rescue again....I'd rather construct than run the race!!!

They looked pretty cute bumping into each other. Birch did the license plates.

Julie was 2FAST4U, Cameron was W84ME, Birch was XLR8, and Jeff was

CUL8R.

Here we are walking down Park Street to Anoka. The cars bumping along...

Luckily they ran right past us. Sometimes it's hard to find the runners in the crowd, but we saw our bumper cars! A lot of people were shouting for them and taking pictures. It was fun for us that were watching! They were pretty disappointed that they didn't win a prize. Jeff really wanted a medal since Cameron got one last year. But there were some pretty amazing costumes.

This was my favorite. A Carousel of horses. It took 3rd place under a school of fish and Obama running with Sarah...(we thought bumper cars were much more original) It was fun anyway. We'll see what next year brings!

Halloween Con't...

We looked out the window earlier today and our little Payton the Penguin was over visiting the neighbors bunny! Here's Grandpa and Penguin Payton getting ready for the Halloween Parade.
Baylie dressed up as a Kimono Princess, Bryndie was Miss Dracula, teeth and all. She took her wig off because it itched! But she loved the makeup and had fun adding more every 10 minutes! Payton wasn't sure about his sisters!
We had fun trunk-or-treating at the ward Harvest Festival Friday night. There was a great turnout and lots of fun games, activities and food. My chili won for the "most unique and spicy". I took our favorite "White Chicken Chili"......
Jeff and Annette had a party at their house so Birch and I took Vincent with us. He wasn't sure about so many people, but loved playing in the nursery alone with Grandpa....He was more interested in looking at the scarecrow behind him than looking at the camera. He was a cute little Fireman.
We had a fun weekend. It's hard to believe that Halloween is still a week away! By the time it comes we are all worn out!