Decking the Halls!

We have a tradition of decorating our tree on the first FHE night after Thanksgiving. This year was no different. The house still isn't unpacked but we have our tree up. Priorities people! Mom and the kids "fluffed" the tree. Dad got the lights working. And then the ornaments came out! It's so fun to see the kids faces light up as they dig through the ornament boxes and find familiar ones. Our tree is loaded with ornaments that we have made in years past at school or home and ornaments that Grandma makes for them each year. The tree brings back sweet memories of Christmases past. We love our tree!

We Moved!!

Things have been pretty hectic around here. We recently sold our home and over Thanksgiving weekend moved into another. We lived there for almost 5 years. Gage was only 3, Amberly 1, and Carrigan a brand new baby when we moved in! Crazy how quickly time goes by. We will miss our home but look forward to making new memories in our new home.

GoodbyeHello.

Thanksgiving 2009

We are stuffed!!! That's what you're supposed to do on Thanksgiving right!?! We started out the morning with a turkey pancake breakfast. Kimball then went off to play football while the kids and I watched the Parade on TV. They love watching it as much as I do. Then off to Mommer and Papa's we went for a day filled with fun!

Our Turkey Pancakes. Gobble Gobble!Uncle Jay brought rockets! The kids loved running after the parachute man that came out of the rockets. It was windy that day so they did ALOT of running! They were good and hungry for Thanksgiving dinner! Cousins!!!!!

Emmalin cuddling with Mommer. So cute! (Thanks Ash for the pictures)

After dinner Papa brought out huge trays filled with candy! The kids (and adults) were in heaven. It was a fun and YUMMY Thanksgiving!

We are Thankful!!!

It's the night before Thanksgiving. My Candied Coconut Sweet Potatoes are baking in the oven for tomorrow's feast. Everyone else in the family is sound asleep. The house is quiet and I can sit and reflect on the many things I am thankful for this year. Life hasn't been perfect. Who's is!?! But, even with it's ups and downs I can say "We have truly been blessed"!!!

This is "Mr. Gobble". He is a turkey we made a few weeks ago during Family Home Evening. We drew pictures and wrote down things that we are thankful for on the feathers. Things like food, home, family, temple, Dad's graduation, Dad's job, the scriptures, friends, school, and more. He has been sitting proudly on a shelf reminding us to be thankful for our blessings. We are looking forward to tomorrow -- a day of Thanksgiving! Parades, football games, family gatherings, fabulous food. Lot's to be thankful for...

Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange

Last night the Wilkins Family held our 2nd Annual Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange. A few years ago my Mom thought it would be fun if each family made an ornament that reflected a scripture or gospel theme important to their family that year. For our November FHE we explain our ornament and give each family one. At the end we all have 9 new ornaments. We have enjoyed this new tradition and hope to continue it. 1. Mom and Dad -- D&C 64:9-10 (4-give and 4-get)
2. Kimball, Tiffin and family -- 2 Nephi 2:26-27 (Don't leave life to chance. Make good choices.)
3. Rob, Heidi and family -- Genesis 1:27 (Adam and Eve, the Creation)
4. Nathan, Amanda and family -- Mosiah 4:13 (Live peaceably)
5. Michael, Allison and family -- Ether 3 (The Brother of Jared, Faith)
6. Scott, Katie and family -- Galations 5:13 (by LOVE serve one another)
7. Ben and family -- D&C 121:34-36 (Keys of the Priesthood)
8. Patrick, Kelli and family -- Hymn #294 (Love at home)
9. Mike and Kristi -- D&C 85:3 (Tithing)

Carrigan's 5th Birthday!

Carrigan turned 5 today and she couldn't be happier! She has really gotten into Country music lately. In fact, she has decided that she wants to be a Country Music Star when she grows up. So...she decided to have a "Pink Taylor Swift" birthday. She could hardly wait until her Dad, brother, and sister got home from work and school. She wanted to open her presents so badly. She was desperately hoping for a guitar! Yay! A Tinker Bell blanket. She was excited because she loves Tinker Bell but it wasn't the guitar she was hoping for...She tore into another gift and there it was. Her much anticipated guitar. She screamed she was so excited! Can you see it in her face how excited she is?!

Posing with her Taylor Swift poster and her pink guitar cake...

Blowing out candles!

While eating birthday cake we discovered that we have quite the talented family. Check us out!

Happy Birthday Carrigan! We love you 5 year-old!!!!!

The MBA Graduate!!

We are so proud of our Dad! He had earned his Bachelors Degree in Communications from ASU but wanted to further his education and get his Masters Degree in Business. The University of Phoenix was the perfect fit and so off to school he went. It's been a long haul and alot of time away from the family, so we are looking forward to him being home more. He won't miss the all-nighters or the worrying about papers and grades, but he enjoyed learning new things and will miss school. Here are several pictures from the day (thanks Bryan for being such an awesome photographer).

Holy Hot Peppers!

So the other night during dinner Gage asked, "Mom, what will you give me if I eat this pepper?" I responded, "a dollar". He didn't like that plan and said he wanted a new toy. I came back with, "two dollars". Amberly then jumped in and said how about something from the dollar spot at Target. Gage agreed to this. I love negotiating with younger children. I'm sure one day they'll get smart about it, but until then...

So here's one of the peppers...Gage taking the first bite as Amberly anxiously watches... and Carrigan taking her first bite. Amberly was really nervous about taking a bite. Her face cracks me up! But she did it!!!

Amberly's reaction. She was the only one who cried. Gage was pretty proud of himself!

Even though his lips were burning, he was ALL smiles! They all GUZZLED milk afterward!! I guess were making a trip to the dollar spot at Target!

Wilkins Family Halloween Party 2009

Halloween fun! We started at Grandma and Grandpa's with dinner and then moved to the church building so that we could have lots of running room. We bowled, pinned the nose on the pumpkin, the annual sack race, trick-or-treated, ate yummy treats, and the new favorite-- glow in the dark tag! Ben brought glow-in-the-dark bracelets for everyone and off we ran. The kids LOVED it! What a good time. Thanks Uncle Ben for putting on a very fun Halloween party! Click on the picture for a bigger view

Clark Family Halloween Party 2009

What a fun time!! After arriving and unveiling everyones costumes we devoured chili, cornbread, Janell's famous little smokies, chips and salsa, and much much more. Soooo yummy! Then the games began-- cake walk, creepy feely box, who's the ghost, bobbing for doughnuts, digging for worms, passing the apple, and trick-or-treating through the house. Everyone had such fun costumes again this year. Kevin and Britney even announced the arrival of new little one in May! Yay! Thanks for the good time Clark Family!
Click on picture for a bigger view.

"Spooktacular"

Our town puts on a Halloween Spooktacular every year. We had so much fun!! We were warned that the Maze of Mayhem was pretty scary (I'm a wimp and don't do scary) and so we avoid that but enjoyed many of the other attractions. This was the favorite-- the Krazy Kars! The tractor pulled these cars and they bounced and wobbled every which way. They had a blast!! They were bouncing so much I couldn't get a clear picture. I need to figure out my camera!

Emmalin is loving Halloween. She has been given a lollipop at evey party or event!

Bummer, he missed!Amberly was the big winner tonight! There was a Ring Toss game where you got to keep the bottle of soda pop if you hooked a ring around the bottle neck. Amberly was the only one in the family who could do it. Kimball tried several times with NO luck!

Amberly with her prize!

Carrigan playing more games. All the kids walked away from this fun night with stuffed animals, fun glasses, and tons of candy.

The girls LOVED this PINK firetruck. The firefighters were even wearing pink uniforms. It was for breast cancer awareness.

Another fun "Friday Family Fun Night"!

Pumpkin Carving

This year we let each of the 3 older kids design a feature on the Jack-O-Lantern. Carrigan did the eyes, Amberly the nose, and Gage the mouth. It turned out pretty good! They sure are proud of their creation and can't wait to put it on the porch Halloween night! Our glowing Jack-O-LanternWe also did some cookie decorating...

I love nights like these when we can just enjoy being together as a family and having fun!