Thankful

This week is Thanksgiving and today being Sunday I've had some time to ponder. We filled out an ABC Gratitude list tonight for FHE. I was surprised that Addison was able to participate and get the right words for the letter I asked. She really is growing up and becoming a smart girl and I love watching her do it! Halfway through Addison wanted to start writing the responses. I told her what letter came next and got almost all of them correct. She has a thing right now where she writes the letter "M" upside down so it is of course a "W". She thinks you can just turn the page upside down to look at it correctly:) I love her innocence and it always makes me laugh when Dave tries to reason with her and she just tells him, " It's fine!" Here is what our list consisted of:

A- Addison & Avery
B- Baby in mommy's tummy
C- Cousins
D- Daddy
E-Eggs
F- Family
G- Grandparents
H- Heat
I- Ice Cream
J- Jesus
K-Kisses
L- Love
M- Mommy
N-Nice
O- Olaf (Addison has named the horse in the back yard Olaf)
P- Prophet
Q- Quiet Time (this was my favorite!)
R- Resurrection
S- Scriptures
T- Trampoline/Temples
U-Uncles
V-very shaky (Dave and I weren't sure what this was, but the girls were cracking up laughing so we went with it!)
W- Water
X-eXtra Clothing
Y- Yummy Food
Z- Zippers ( which meant we have warm coats to wear)

We ate brownies while we complied our list and then hung it on the fridge. This has been a tough year for me in different ways than any other. Our little family has learned to grow and rely on each other for strength and comfort. Dave and I seem to always be going to opposite direction lately and I feel like with the holidays coming up it isn't going to slow down. I often feel bad that I am always toting the girls to meetings or to give people rides. I hope what they do see is that we're giving service and that they come to have a love for it like it do. My heart is especially full of gratitude this week as I've complied a wish list from needy children/youth in our ward for christmas. Our ward is doing an Angel Tree and giving christmas to 7 families. Most of the items are things like coats and church clothing. I've realized how much I have and how I've truly never gone without. This assignment is normally done through the relief society president of the ward. Our president wasn't able to take on the task this year and so it was going to be put aside. I sat in ward counsel on the week that it was announced and felt prompted to volunteer to do it. I've been trying to define what the word "charity" really means to me. This has been an opportunity for me to add to my list of what it is. I feel blessed to have the gospel and I'm realizing it makes me feel safe. Stepping out of my comfort zone has taken on a new meaning, but through acts of charity it's becoming easier to do.

Trick or Treat!

We maxed out the use of halloween costumes this year! Addison picked out to be a purple butterfly fairy and Avery was either Cinderella or Elsa just depended on the day you asked her. I think both girls were able to wear them 7 times! We went to Boo at the Zoo, Kroger's Costume Party, preschool/library parties, playgroup party, the ward trunk or treat and of course trick or treating! Both costumes are sticky and worn out by now:) I'm still bribing with Halloween candy to get the girls to pick up their rooms and the playroom. I have eaten way too many snickers and smarties. I need to just toss the candy and put it out of site! We had never been to Boo at the Zoo and it was a lot of fun. It was warm enough that the girl's didn't have to wear coats and most of the animals were still out. There were stations set up all over the zoo with candy and coupons for different places. Addison's favorite coupon was of course getting a free coney at Skyline:) I made Halloween shirts for Dave and I this year and he was less than thrilled about wearing it:) It was the perfect year to make them...mine said "Bun in the Oven" and Dave's said, "The Bun Baker". I was pretty proud of them! We did our traditional family night activity of carving pumpkins. We toasted the seeds and no one would eat them, but me! Addison still hates to get messy from the inside of the pumpkin, but Avery was all over it this year. The girls later painted pumpkins at Grammie and Papa's. Addison painted for over an hour and covered her whole pumpkin. I love that she is so into arts and crafts... girl after my own heart. We also went to a really cool activity downtown called, The Stoddard Pumpkin Glow. There were hundreds of really detailed pumpkins carved and lit up. Dave went and played airsoft wars with the YM one Saturday morning so I took the girls to get pumpkin donuts and chocolate milk. THey ended up blowing lots of bubbles and making a huge mess. It was a fun morning and we were distracted while daddy was gone. We decided to go down to my parents to go trick or treating this year. They have a quiet neighborhood and since we don't even know our neighbors it was a win win. Addison was finished going door to door after about 20 minutes and wanted to sit in the wagon. Avery on the other hand was running from house to house and wanted to keep going. Addison ended up getting in the wagon and eating her candy while we took Avery around to some more houses. Both girls made out with a ton of candy and we let them eat way too much that evening. Papa made the night really special by providing dry ice so that Addison could make "Witches Brew" for us to drink. Both girls were mesmerized by the fog and we addred green food coloring! We spent the month enjoying getting to the holiday spirit and now we're gearing up for Thanksgiving next week!

Pumpkin Patch

Dave had a scout campout so the girl's and I headed to a local pumpkin patch. We met up with some families from the ward and rode a really bumpy hayride. Avery was scared to death the whole way and clung to me. Addison had a blast and would laugh at the bumps. The girls got to pick out a pumpkin at the end of the hayride topped of by a big cookie at the end. Afterwards we enjoyed looking at the farm animals they had there and the girls played on some playgroup equipment. It was a great way to distract us from daddy being gone!

Go BLUE!

In September we had a really quick Fajen Family Reunion. We all met up in Ann Arbor including our cousins Zach and Olivia. It was the first time I think we've all been together with my Dad's family since Jonathan's wedding. Katie and Jenny both brought new boyfriends with them and it was fun for us all to meet them finally! The girls lived on cloud nine running around grooming, feeding, and riding horses. They got to play with their cousins all in their new cowboy boots from Grammie and Papa. We put pennies on the railroad tracks and then went back and found them flattened. We grilled and enjoyed the nice weather. The highlight of the trip was the siblings being able to go to the BYU vs Michigan game. BYU was slaughtered and it was actually a really bad day to be a BYU fan. There were over 10,000 fans there and I think we were among 30 BYU fans. It was an amazing experience to be with that many fans cheering. We topped the trip off with one of Aunt Tania's famous scavenger hunts with a pot of rainbow glow sticks as the prize. I grew up doing her scavenger hunts at my cousins birthdays and they were always a blast. She had us running all over and of course my team never wins! It was a fast weekend, but it was fun to see everyone!

Family Photos 2015

Dave's very talented cousin took some family photos for us this Summer. We had to be up and ready to leave by 6:30am! It was a little rough to convince Dave to be happy and smile, but the girls were easily bribed with a large bag of M&M's:) I love having updated photos of my little family. I cherish them and will hold onto them for many many years!