Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun.

We celebrated with the Trickett side at a beautiful cabin just outside of Cokeville Wyoming. We stayed there together for 2 nights having an endless amount of fun! ;)

We decorated cupcakes to look like turkeys, handed out advent calendars, played LOTS of games of all kinds, had an impromptu exercise class put on by Kesslyn and Eila, did puzzles, went sledding, ate lots of yummy food, danced, built a human pyramid, and even got in the middle of a cattle crossing on the way home!

 It was a beautiful holiday except for the fact that I was missing Kierra and her family in Hawaii, and Carew and Kara who were on there way  when Kara got sick with the flu, and had to turn around and go back home. Anytime spent with family becomes a treasure.

I am SO GRATEFUL for this family of mine, that we are eternal, and that we have the knowledge of where all of these amazing blessings come from.

I'll let the pictures do the talking now...

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Waterproofing and Underground Plumbing

This week on the house we have a nice and clean foundation where all of the forms have been removed and taken off site.

The basement foundation walls are 18 feet high, and so this foundation is very deep and looks massive when you are standing next to it, so I think it will be very interesting to see what it look like after they do all of the backfill and cover up that foundation.

The foundation has been waterproofed to mitigate all of the mountain runoff from the snow that is accumulated up there, and they also completed and inspected the underground plumbing too.

Tomorrow they are on schedule to run the drains and utilities and to start backfilling the dirt by the foundation.

Next week, if the weather permits, they plan to begin putting in the steal beams, and then hopefully start framing by Christmas!

What a wonderful gift that would be! :)

 

Activities For Today

It is so fun getting to be an activity day leader for Kesslyn and her friends!

We stained these cute little nativity scenes for our last activity, and we have another activity today! (More to come on that...)

I was also practicing being a responsible adult, and went to have my mammogram!

Everything is normal there, which I'm happy to hear!

We are also in the process of building our new house!

I had my sister Tiffany drive up to the lot to be a spy for me since I couldn't get up there the day they were pouring cement.

27 truck loads coming and going ALL day long!!!

Also, I'm LOVING the look of this rock called Wind River!!!

What do you think??

 

Grateful

This is a picture that I took when we were at the cabin about 5 years ago on Thanksgiving morning.

We woke up to the most beautiful dusting of snow, and a whole flock of turkeys walking up the driveway! ;) We laughed as we hollered out to them, "Hey! Don't you know what today is??"

I love the picture SO much that I had it enlarged and framed to hang in my house during the Thanksgiving holiday.

It makes me so happy!

Another thing that makes me so happy is spending time with family.

Each year we trade back and forth between which family we will spend the holiday with. But this year we finally got smart and decided to have an early Thanksgiving with my family since we would be with Clint's family ON the holiday.

I loved having time with BOTH families and feeing EXTRA blessed.

We hosted my family on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and Kambriella helped me by writing these beautiful name place cards. She is so talented! (But then again so are all of my children;)

I also made some homemade cranberry sauce and recorded it on Marco Polo for all of my children to see and learn. I'm not sure if anyone watched it, but I sure had fun doing it!

There were 19 of us total. 

The food was yummy and the company was fun!

I love watching these little cousins interact with each other. ;)

Raelle is always trying to give kisses to Rodney. :)

We had this fun puzzle out for everyone to work on, but Kara was the real champ and completed at least half of it by herself!

I LOVE these little name card holders that I also found for only $1!

I went to so many Hobby Lobby stores to buy all they had so that I could be stocked up for our ever growing family...I bought 53 of them!

It was fun having everyone over, and also made me miss my family that is not with us right now.

Gavin is in the Dominican Republic serving his mission, and Kierra and her family are living in Hawaii until the summer of 2026. We miss their presence, but feel them close, and are SO GRATEFUL for the gifts and blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and eternal families.

I am so grateful for this mortal experience that I get to share with  my people!

Happy early Thanksgiving!