What are YOU thankful for?!

On Sunday night before Thanksgiving we had our Family Home Evening and talked about Gratitude. Ty gave us a great lesson on being thankful. We discussed President Monson's conference talk on an attitude of gratitude and decided that we would strive to have an attitude of gratitude this Thanksgiving season. We put together this turkey and every day I would ask the kids "What are you thankful for today?" Then we would write the things we were thankful for on the feathers. Our goal was to 'count our many blessings' and get to 100. But we only got to 50! That's pretty good!
I would name all the things we wrote down, but I'm afraid I left our turkey at Mimi's house and I can't remember them all off the top of my head and so I'll just have to say that there were many things we were grateful for. And when you write them all down you realize how blessed you truly are. I also noticed that since we wrote them down and the kids were constantly thinking about things they were grateful for their prayers were more sincere and they started saying more thankful prayers.

The day before Thanksgiving is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving: making pies! I love making pies. I really should do it more often than just Thanksgiving! I especially enjoyed it this year working side by side my mom! We had a good time preparing the meal together. It brought back many good memories of me helping her with the dinner preparation and it's probably because of her and that time we spent together that I have such a desire and love for making good food.

Ty looks like a Thanksgiving bandit! We better start working on the manners thing again!

This was quite the spread! I wouldn't have changed a thing...except maybe had a bigger stomach so I could have enjoyed more food.

Ty & Kate had the best time together! I still can't believe Kate lost her first tooth on Thanksgiving! Both cousins had wiggly teeth and right before Kate went home her tooth just popped out!

It was nice to have papa join us at the table. He just had ankle surgery and hasn't gotten up much. We were glad that he was feeling pretty well and could be with us.

As long as he had his foot propped up a bit he was okay. He ate as much as he could and then went back to bed!

Caleb's favorite thing was the mashed potatoes and gravy!

I tried getting pictures of everyone around the table, but I was just too hungry and my plate of food was getting cold so I had to stop with the photos and start digging into my scrumptious dinner!

Here is our traditional photo of our feast! What is not shown in this picture is on the plate above, cranberry jell-o salad, artichoke dip, and let's not forget the sparkling cider! Pretty darn tasty!

Our finished creations! This year we outdid ourselves on pies! Nate & Mara made the almond, Ty & I made the pumpkin, Mimi made the coconut cream, and Erin made a banana cream and apple! For dinner instead of turkey sandwiches and chips we just had pie! Nate's plate had a small piece of every kind of pie to taste. That alone made his Thanksgiving very enjoyable!

Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without an almond pie! This is one of our favorite traditions. It is the most delicious pie I think I've ever eaten. Just looking at it makes my mouth start to water and I think we might just need to make another one for Christmas!

After we ate as much turkey as we possibly could we made just one more turkey this time on the sweet side: an edible craft! Aunt Erin found the idea and the kids had such a good time putting together their turkeys.

Ty was pretty excited about making his turkey, and more excited about eating it!
(*Why is Ty wearing his spiderman costume you might ask? Because he LOVES it and wears it nearly every day--sometimes even under his normal clothes!)

Mara wasn't quite sure how to eat this kind of turkey! But she started with the oreo and went from there!

Ty devoured his in one bite! He didn't even leave a feather!

Caleb wasn't sure what to do with his turkey! He just looked at it. Later he came back and decided to eat the candy corns!

Here they are: The 5 cute grandkids with their papa!
Papa couldn't do much wrestling and playing around with them as he usually does, but he still had a nice time watching movies and hanging out with the grandchildren!

When we asked the children what their favorite part about Thanksgiving was they said:
Ty: "Being with family"
Mara: "Watching basketball with daddy" (She watched the Aggie game and the Jazz game with Nate! Go Aggies!)
Caleb: "Papa" This kid gets such a joy and kick out his papa! Since papa couldn't get up and be in the kitchen with us Caleb would yell "PAPA" from the kitchen and Papa would respond "Caleb!" and they would do this back and forth several times! When I asked Caleb if he was a mama's boy he said "Papa" then I would ask him if he was a daddy's boy "papa". He truly is a Papa's boy!