sam and amanda + mack: Thanksgiving celebrations

I am so grateful to be surrounded by so much family, especially during the holidays. I know that down the road there's a good chance we won't be so lucky, I am really trying to take advantage of all the opportunities to be at family events and really enjoy all the time there

(sometimes it can be overwhelming).

This Thanksgiving season I have so much to be thankful for... so many of my blessings come from the wonderful family that I have. Both the Richards and Peterson's bless our lives so much. We love each of you and are so grateful for the countless blessing you are in our life.

We were fortunate enough to have 4 turkey dinners.

Our first feast was with our Young Men/Women. Our ward has the tradition of the youth making dinner and delivering it for the elderly in the ward. We all gathered together a week before Thanksgiving to make and package dinner and then delivered them. I wish I could have been there, unfortunately I got the sickness of the season and couldn't help, but it was a huge success as we blessed the lives of those around us. I love being in the Young Women's because of all the opportunities I have to serve those around me. As I serve those around me happiness fills my life. It's a kind of happiness that can't be purchased only experienced.

Sunday we went to the Richards Thanksgiving Feast.

Ella, Preston and Luke were our Indians during the program.

Here are some crazy pilgrims

Enjoying the thanksgiving turkey

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we enjoyed a fabulous Cook Thanksgiving dinner at the Willow Creek Country Club, thanks to Rich and Kerri for hosting this wonderful tradition. Every year the Cooks get together for dinner and bowling.

Mark jumped in on our picture, we love hanging out with the aunts and uncles.

I hope I'm as cool as they are one day

Our final Thanksgiving was on Turkey day itself. We joined my family for dinner and games. We love playing banana-grams, Ticket to Ride and Acquire. We spent every night with my family this weekend because my brother was able to join us from Ohio where he's an orthopedic resident. He couldn't be there Thursday so we had another big dinner on Friday. And a final 'get the tree ready for the festival of tree party' on Saturday.

This is a picture of about half my nieces and nephews they are all so cute and so fun. I can't believe how different one is. They are always making us laugh.

These two year olds are my favorite. They have a love/hate relationship.

Of course this weekend brought Turkey bowls, black Friday shopping, family pictures and so much more. I'm not looking forward to sending Sam back to school this week. Friday night we were filling up the car and he decided to clean the windshield. He got the brush from the ice water and started scrubbing down the windshield. He never stopped to think that cleaning it when it was 19 degrees outside wasn't such a great idea. After he froze our windshield he had to get out the scrapper and scrape off the frost. He's so much fun to live with!

Last on Saturday we layered up and headed to the Utah vs. BYU football game. I should have known not to even bother going until the 4th quarter. It always comes down to the last second, literally. Our jaws are still dropped in awe that we won.