Thanksgiving 2013: Walkers, Peadens, and Black Friday

I love fall. I love my pretty autumn decorations. I love having a piano to act as a mantle for me to put my pretty decorations on. So much to love here!

(By the way, all those who have expressed concern that our piano is sitting on an outside wall. We looked into it and we learned that because our house has been built in the last couple of years and because we upgraded our insulation it makes no difference whether it's on an outside wall or an inside wall. That rule is mostly for older houses and houses that don't have great insulation. So yay for being able to keep our piano where we want it!) 

I had to include the above pictures because A- I love that my front room was decorated for the season, and B- Lydia loved to play with all of the decorations and I would often find them in the little shelf in my new(old) sewing table. (I inherited it from David's Grandma and I love it so much that I moved it into our entry way so I could stare at it more often.)

We started off our Thanksgiving in Morgan for an event we called A Walker Thanksgiving.  Because Jenna wasn't going to be able to make it down for Thanksgiving on Thursday, and Melissa was thinking about going to Blake's for Thanksgiving (and we always try to hit both families on Thanksgiving day - which can sometimes be a lot of driving), we decided to have our Thanksgiving the weekend before. My Walker grandparents and my Knowles grandparents were both able to be there as well and we had a wonderful day eating yummy food and enjoying each others company. 

Lydia is in the picture above - I promise. She's hiding behind me. From left to right: Blake, Melissa, Grandpa and Grandma Knowles, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa Walker, Jenna, Lydia, Shantel, David. (Jacob was at the High School prepping for his school play that day, Kevin had to work, and Matthew gets home from his Mission in January. We missed them all!)

The rest of the day was spent soaking up the love that we always feel when we are at my house. Hanging some wall vinyl for my mom's birthday. Eating some pie. Taking a nap. Watching my awesome brother Jacob in the play "Thoroughly Modern Millie." He was the boss and sings a couple of really great songs - I'm so impressed with him! By the way - did you know that "thoroughly" is my favorite word? It has been for years and years. I really like it and use it as often as I can. 

Next up in the Thanksgiving Saga - Thanksgiving in West Jordan! Again, we were surrounded by great food and amazing people that we love. We loved being able to spend the whole day in West Jordan, helping to prepare the food (I even came up the day before and spent the day baking with Sue to make sure that there would be enough food for the army of people the next day. There were a few casualties, like the pie crust that I spend forever making the edges look cute but didn't realize that wrapping the edge of the crust around the pan would make the bottom shrink up so it was like a floating pancake, or like the roll dough that we had to throw out the first two times before finally getting it right on the third attempt. However, everything turned out great in the end! 

Lydia is seriously such a climber. She climbs on everything. I was sitting on the floor (why? I have no idea), and she came over and climbed up my body onto my shoulders and pulled herself up onto the counter. What can I say. This girl knows what she wants and makes it happen. 

We spent the rest of the night playing games and ignoring all of the Black Friday ads that started on 

Thanksgiving Day. However, the sales that started at midnight were fair game and we jumped on board with the idea of heading to Khols at 12:30 a.m. 

Backstory: We've gone to Khol's the last two years and not purchased a single thing because the lines are ridiculously long. Like four hours long. It's been kind of a running joke that we were all willing to go anywhere but Khols on Black Friday. However, Wendy and Sam were looking for a comforter for their bed and there was a good sale so we decided to check it out.  I'm so glad that we did because we ended up with this beauty: 

We've been looking for a new bed set for ever. I finally gave up hope of finding one that both David and I liked and we've been using the Aggie quilt that I made David for his birthday. However, when we spotted this lovely it was love at first sight. We hadn't really planned on getting anything except maybe a few things for Lydia's Christmas but we couldn't walk away from this deal. Usually almost $500, but with the deals, discounts, and Khols cash it was just over $100. I'm in love! It inspired us to get our room even more put together and I'm loving the way that it's looking. And I love the way that the bedspread matches our new towels in our bathroom. (They look really yellow in that picture, but they are actually a softer yellow that mirrors the bedspread perfectly.) It's a match made in heaven! 

We got a couple of other really great Black Friday deals. Some things for Lydia's Christmas:  a childs shopping cart, a baby doll stroller, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. A beautiful new dress for me (read about that in this post).  AND we pulled the trigger and bought a new laptop computer. 

 

Owning a business is awesome - but we pay SO much in taxes. We've been talking for a long time about getting a new laptop as a write-off so we could get a tax deduction. Apple doesn't ever have sales, but they were giving a $150 gift certificate with the purchase of a new laptop and so we decided to go for it. We absolutely love it! 

We had done a ton of research to make sure that we were getting the best computer for us. (We thought about getting an older MacBook with a CD drive that the salesperson referred to as the dinosaur.) There was so much information that it was a little overwhelming. We wrote down a giant comparison list with all of the details to help up make the decision (which really helped), but a couple days later David sent me this: 

Haha. I think we made the right choice!

So in summary - we had a great Thanksgiving. We are so grateful to be blessed with such amazing Family. We are also grateful that we were able to find some really great deals on Black Friday. 

We live such a happy life and are grateful to be where we are right now. 

Dear brother Peten,

So, our ward split today.

We knew that it was coming because our ward had around 800 people in it (and growing every week). In fact, come January there were scheduled to be 50 new sunbeams in primary. We know that the split will be good in the long run, but it's a little bittersweet. It's hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful ward family, but it will be good for everyone to have smaller (and more realistic) numbers of people to get to know and to minister to.

We are excited for the change and to be able to develop our new ward family. But there are a few things we are going to really miss, the main thing being our callings. We both LOVE our callings, but because we will be a part of the Thanksgiving Meadows Second Ward we were all officially released from our callings at 12:00 pm today (and will only have sacrament meeting for the next two weeks while they work to issue everyone callings and get a new functioning ward going).  I've been the Ward History Specialist and have loved taking pictures of everyone for the ward directory and working with the auxiliaries (and learning how to spell auxiliary) to put together the ward history. Like loved it. David has been a primary teacher for the CTR 6A class and he has also loved that. It's been really fun for him to have gotten to know his kids and watch them grow through the year. He also loves to be in primary where he can refresh his memory of the primary songs so that he can come home and sing them to Lydia. Today, after church, there was a knock at the door and it was one of his primary kids, Madeline. She had brought him a treat to say thank you for being his teacher. (We think it says "Dear Brother Peten, I will miss you 100 so's. Here is a picher of us holding hands." Like "I miss you SO so so so much - 100's SO's so much)

It was so cute (in fact, 100 so's worth of cute). Those kids really loved him. 

The other sad thing about the ward split is that one of the couples that we've gotten to know the best is in the other ward. We prepped ourselves for that eventuality because we couldn't figure out a realistic ward split that put us in the same ward, but we are sad that Garret and Karli Shields won't be in the same ward as us. Hopefully, we will still be able to get together and play lots. 

And speaking of the wonderful Shields family - they are going to add a new little baby girl to their family in January. I offered to throw Karli a baby shower and I'm so glad that I did. It took place yesterday and turned out super cute. 

 

 I'm going to miss this girl at church, but I'm glad that I have been able to get to know her and that I was able to host a baby shower for her.

Moral of the story: The church is true no matter what your ward is called. We are excited for this new adventure; to make new friends and to serve in new capacities. Although we are both hoping to be re-called to our previous callings, we will be glad to lift where we stand and step up to fill the needs of our new ward. Wish us luck as the newest members of the Thanksgiving Meadows Second Ward!