Thanksgiving

We usually do Thanksgiving a little differently (Walker Thanksgiving on the Saturday before and then Peaden Thanksgiving on Thursday), but this year my mom's birthday fell on Thursday, the actual day of Thanksgiving. (Also, Sue surprised us with tickets to a USU football game for David's birthday, and the game was on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.) My mom had mentioned that it might be nice to have everyone there for her birthday this year, so we consulted with the siblings and we all decided to make it happen for her this year. So, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday Mom! 

We gathered together in Morgan and celebrated the things we were grateful for by eating good food, sharing our gratidude around the table, and spending time together. (In the pictures below, my dad was playing with the kids by making up silly poems and then tossing/tipping them off of his lap. They loved it. 





Lydia has been begging to go to Wyoming since August and we just haven't been able to make it happen. We had hoped to go up after Thanksgiving, but the weather was going to be SO cold. We ended up going the day before Thanksgiving and spending the day with my dad, playing on the haystack, and helping with some things around the ranch. The transition after my Grandpa passed away hasn't been as smooth as I expected, but being there with my kids and my dad - it just felt peaceful and right. I love this place, and I love how much my dad loves this place, and I love how much my kids love this place. There is a small part of me, that seems to be growing, that could picture a life here among these fields and wild open spaces. 




We helped my dad clean out the flowerbeds in front of the house, and clean out the bed of one of the old trucks in the backyard. 

We also helped the family set up for Christmas in Morgan. 

We came home to snow in our yard, and enough time left in our break to really enjoy it! 

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We missed being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Peaden Family. I don't think we've missed a Peaden Thanksgiving, ever - at least completely. We were planning to stop by after Thanksgiving, but we weren't really healthy enough (runny noses and coughs). We were glad that David and Austin had been able to go up before Thanksgiving to help Sue set up her Christmas Village. (I was home with sick kids, even then.) It doesn't really feel like 

I am incredibly grateful for the blessings we have. This year our family attempted to write/draw 100 things and hang them in our hallway of the things that we are grateful for. It has been such a great effort to think about the blessings we have and name them together as a family. 

Here are some of the list: 

David: 

-Home

-Warm Days and Warm Coats

-Pizza

-Sacrament

-People are patient with me

-Grandpa heart surgery and health

-Hiking

-Shantel

-Lydia

-Austin

-Caleb

-Lucy

Shantel: 

-My Apple Watch

-A window in my Laundry Room

-Panda Express (fast food and restaurants)

-Sunshine

-I'm grateful for the tree in the front yard. It makes me happy when the leaves turn red. 

-The blanket that Grandma Peaden made for me

-When my kids say "thank you" when I do something for them. 

Lydia: 

-I'm grateful for life 

-I'm grateful for family

-I'm grateful for Nature

-I'm grateful for the dogs in my life

-I'm grateful for water

-I'm grateful for electronics

-I'm grateful for church

-I'm grateful for animals

-I'm grateful for Polly

-Prayer

Austin: 

-Family

-Daddy

-Mommy

-Our house

-Food

-Grass

-Sun

-Frozen

Caleb: 

-Cloud

-The Hall

-The stars 

-The world

-Airplanes to Indiana

-The Ocean

-Brick and Ball

-Moms Apple Watch

-Dirt

-The Moon

-Polly

Lucy: 

-Upstart

-The light that comes from electricity 

-Playing with Austin and his robot thing

-Thankful for having drawings

-Thankful for dying and then being alive again (like grandpa great)

-Thankful for going camping

-Thankful for my job to clean the counter in the bathroom

-Thankful for clapping your hands

-When the lights turn off.- they turn back on

-Hanging up/Hanging down

Introducing: Honda Odyssey 2024

We'd like to introduce our new 2024 Honda Odyssey! However, before we do, I think we should give a quick goodbye to our 2014 Chrysler Town & Country. 

We bought the Town and Country in April 2016 when it had just over 30,000 miles. We have taken it on so many trips and been able to do so many fun things together. Some of my favorite memories are going to the Oregon Coast and the California Redwoods. We loved that it had the stow and go seating and so often used it to haul things usually done by trucks. Shantel believed that it could carry anything in it (beds, furniture and cattle guards) and was rarely proven wrong about what it could fit inside. 

Unfortunately over time the van ended up having a lot of repairs. In 2021 we had to replace the transmission and there were constantly other repairs. In August it started having issues and we took it in and it had another major repair to replace a cylinder. We really wanted it to last a few more years, so we went ahead and did the repair. But we also wanted to have a reliable vehicle for Shantel and finally decided we needed to go ahead and get a new vehicle. The kids were sad that we were getting rid of the van that they love so much. [Update: As a side note, we had hoped to get $7,000 or $8,000 for the van, but were only able to sale it for $3,900. It took a few months to sell it since we tried posting it higher, but are glad to have it sold and so excited for our new van. It had about 120,000 miles on it]. We are grateful for the many memories we made together in this van and all the trips and running around and going places together as a family. 

With that - I'd like to introduce you to our new van! I have been doing research for about the last 3 years to figure out what we want in our next van and what price range we thought we would look at. Used cars are really expensive right now and we wanted something with very few miles because we had experienced how expensive repairs can be. Based on that, it did not really save money to buy a used car and we decided to purchase a brand new car. We ruled out Chrysler because the van we had did not last as long as we wanted it to with such major repairs. 

We narrowed it down to either the Honda Odyssey or the Toyota Sienna. I really like my Honda Civic, so we were leaning to staying with Honda. In September while our van was undergoing a major repair we rented a van to go to San Diego and it was a Toyota Sienna. It worked out that we got a long test drive with it and we liked a lot of the features (hybrid - so great gas mileage and the front console). However, we like the seating arrangement in the back better in the Honda. Shantel and I spent months doing shopping and test drives. The Sienna was not going to be available for 6+ months and the Honda we could probably get in 2-3 months. We already liked the Honda better and so we decided to go with that. We decided we liked Black and initially thought we would have to wait 2-3 months, but the dealer made a trade and we got a black one that was being built in the next couple of weeks and would be there in less than a month. 

The day finally arrived and we were able to go sign the papers and pick up our van. The van cost was $46,500, and then we did about $2,000 in a few upgrades (for example rails and cross bars on the top to put on the kayaks). Then we had taxes and we did some warranty packages, so the final cost of the van was $57,918. It is a bit jaw dropping that it was so expensive. However, it is important that we can go places together as a family and this van will be so good for us. Some of the favorite features: It has a entertainment package so it has a DVD/Blu-ray player and a TV. The kids really wanted the TV and Shantel really wanted to still be able to do books on CD for the kids. It has a sun roof and heated leather seats. It also has seating for 8 and that was the big selling point for Shantel so that she can carry our kids plus two extras. 

Shantel and I went do do all the paperwork in the morning and then went and got the check and the kids to do the pickup of the van. Caleb was excited to hand over the check for $30,000. The original loan was about $27,000 (we had hoped not to do a loan, but just couldn't wait to buy it as long as we wanted). However, we had a bit of other funds to pay and then the $3,900 from selling the van means we have a loan of about $20,000. We think we should be able to pay that off in about a year and then we can start saving for our next vehicle. 

The kids were so excited to get to ride in the brand new van!

I really like the van and am happy with it. Shantel really was resistant and did not really want a new van. She just wanted to keep driving the van she already had (but not have any issues). However, since that was not a choice she finally relented to getting a new van. It was probably about a week after that I was talking to Shantel and she said something about how much she was loving the new van and how nice it was. She listed off a bunch of features that made it so great and it made me happy. I can't wait to make a lot of memories with our family in this van. 

Fall Football

We were able to go to a couple of football games this month and it was so fun. 

Shantel got some free tickets for me to take Lydia and Austin to a BYU football game and we had such a great time. We went to some of the activities beforehand where the kids could go play on the bounce house. It was particularly cold that night and so we dressed really warm. We had a great time together, even though BYU did not play very well. We were able to see Wendy and Sam at halftime and then they also came and sat by us during the 4th quarter when a lot of people had left early.  

After the game the kids went down to give the players high fives as they left the field. 

For my birthday my mom gave Shantel and I tickets to go to the USU vs. Boise State game. We had not been back to watch a game since we were in school and I was really excited to go. It is always so amazing to be back on campus with Shantel. Unfortunately this was also a blow out loss, but just being there with Shantel and being able to sing the fight song and the Scotsman made it fun for me.