The Brooke family photo shoot

Fun family. Darling kids!! More to come.

Anna's Mini Photo Shoot

Our record 15-minute shoot because it was COLD and windy here in AZ! But all she needed was one good photo. Lucky for me there were a few favorites. These are some of them.

Sneak Peek: Kristie's Cute Fam

Fun photo shoot! Of course it helps alot when you have a good looking family to photograph. :)

My Little Christmas Elves

Every year the kids look forward to decorating the tree. They waited all night Thanksgiving night (which is usually when I get the ornaments out), but this year some of the lights weren't working so we didn't get to decorate the tree until the day after. I replaced a few hundred that had burned out (they have been on the tree since 2002, I am surprised half of them are still good!), then the boxes of ornaments came out. The kids were all giddy about opening each box -- pretty soon we couldn't see the floor with all the bubble wrap, bows, ribbons, balls, and ornaments that flew out of the boxes!

It was so fun to watch, I had to stop tying bows to videotape them and snap a few photos of them admiring each and every ornament and finding a special place for each one on the tree, getting up on the ladder so they could put them up high. They hung all of the ornaments that we have collected over the years (they get a special one every year!), and they did a great job! Thanks Allie, Collin, Jasmine and Dylan! (oh and Anna whose extra eyes and hands were very useful!).

Thanksgiving 2008

The centerpieces and place cards

Our Thanksgiving Book (which I forgot to get out :()

The little shoe people

The crowd
More of the crowd...

We had a great Thanksgiving with everyone present (well, almost - minus Grandma Beth and Pappi who are in the Bahamas, and Anna's family who spent Thanksgiving with the Dickerson fam -- they came the next day though, it was almost like they were here!). Archie came in from Las Vegas, Jake and Abby from Cali, & Aireen, Danny & Andrea from Utah. It was nice to have all my siblings come and join our already big Harris clan from around here.

In total, we had 25 people (including the little babies, who had their own places). I have been doing our own Thanksgiving dinner every year for the last five years so this year was less stressful since everyone brought something and Lorraine and Jack made the turkey, noodles, and dressing (the major stuff!). The double ovens came in handy though, now I can't remember how I used to do it with just one. It was an afternoon filled with lots of laughter and good conversation. After dinner and clean-up, I got our Christmas tree out and went late into the night trying to figure out the lights and decorations.

Here is my personal list:
1. I am thankful for my family - Kevin and our three kids who are healthy and happy and always makes us smile. Also Kevin's fam and mine. It has been so nice to live close to family -- having dinners together and having our kids play together.
2. I am thankful to have the gospel in our lives, and for the hope and comfort that it gives us especially during this terrible economic downturn and many other uncertainties.
3. I am thankful to be in Arizona and to be with Kevin all 7 days of the week. It is so nice to be able to eat at the dinner table together every night, and to enjoy the many other simple things that you do as a family that we only got to do on the weekends last year.
4. I am thankful for Kevin's job, our house, and that we have the things that we need. I am thankful I can stay home with the kids.
5. I am thankful for friends, blogging, coupons, my camera, my preschool, FHEs, chocolate, and all the other little things that make life a little more interesting!

Thanksgiving Traditions

One thing I forgot to get out was our Thanksgiving Book (see photo above), which we get out every Thanksgiving (almost, I didn't get it out last year either) and write things we are thankful for on paper leaves or on the back of the place cards. By the time I remembered the book, everyone had left. But I am still making a list of things we are thankful for this year, and adding it to the book. So if you were at our Thanksgiving dinner, please comment - tell me 2 things you are most grateful for this time of year. I will type it up and put it in our book.

A tradition I want to start for next Thanksgiving is to put together a Thanksgiving Alphabet Book. I saw this on one of my favorite blogs the day after Thanksgiving! - and want to copy it for my own family next year.

To make the Thanksgiving Alphabet Book (from My Montessori Journey):

You will need 28 tags (you could do really cute ones!) and place a letter of the alphabet on each of 26 tags using letter stickers. One blank tag will be the title page - and you can spell out "Thankgiving" or "We are thankful for...". The other blank tag will be the back cover on which you would write the time and place of your Thanksgiving dinner. On Thanksgiving, you pass out the tags (and pens!) and directions that each person think of something they were thankful for that begins with the letter on their tag. They would then write what they're grateful for as well as their name on the tag. After everyone is finished tie all the tags together to make a "book". It would be fun to look back at this in the future years and see what everyone was thankful for and their handwriting.

Maddie is 1!

Our cute little Maddie turned 1 on Saturday. We had a big party with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! We had pizza and root beer floats, opened presents, and then watched her birthday photo slideshow that I put together that morning. The kids had fun opening presents for Maddie. She got a bunch of fun toys but she was mostly excited about the baby doll she got from her Aunt Kristie. Kevin and I can't believe the year went by so fast. She is the sweetest baby and we have enjoyed having her in our family this past year. Time needs to slow down just a little bit so we can enjoy her baby self just a little longer. Now on to the toddler years!