Sanders' Saga: Letter - Tilly's birthday, Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Happy birthday to my Tilly today! I am so thankful for Tilly and her cute, kind, helpful, fun, easygoing attitude. She is a wonderful girl with a great smile. I’m so glad she is part of our family.

Four years old!!

Last week was wonderful! I love Thanksgiving time. For the first time ever my kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving off school. It was so nice. I hope that continues every year from now on. On Monday afternoon I took the kids to Ross and we got each of their cousin’s Christmas gifts. They had a good time picking out gifts for the cousins they drew this year. Ross has nice gifts. When we got home from shopping the kids had fun wrapping all of the gifts. I was glad we got that all taken care of so we could deliver the gifts to the Flake cousins on Thanksgiving while we were all together. It sure saves a lot of shipping costs when you are able to deliver them in person. Monday evening I made up a menu plan for the weekend so I could go shopping and prepare for Amy’s and Kayla’s families to come stay with us.

Tuesday afternoon I went shopping at Walmart and Costco and got everything for the meals I planned. It made it so easy to have everything planned out ahead of time so I didn’t have to waste our time being together worrying about what to make and running to the store. Tuesday the kids and I also did some cleaning to get the house and bedrooms ready and I mowed the lawn while Bryant did the weed eater.

I gave the boys haircuts on Tuesday. Bryant had been growing his hair long, but decided he wanted it cut. We had fun giving him a tail and bangs before we finished the hair cut.

Amy and her kids got here Wednesday morning after they dropped David off at work. The kids had so much fun playing together that day. I had fun visiting with Amy all day. My sisters are my best friends. Kayla, Jeff and their kids got here on Wednesday night around 9:00pm. Our house was quite full with 13 kids and 6 adults but it was SO fun. My only regret is that I didn’t have a big enough house for all my siblings and their families to come stay together. Wouldn’t that be cool…until time to clean it anyway?

Karalee was so excited for her cousins to come and stay. She watched out the window for several minutes waiting for Amy to pull up on Wednesday morning.

Thursday was the day we’d all been preparing for. We had a pretty relaxing morning. David went to ride his bike with his brother, Chad, Jeff, Spencer and Bryant went to our ward’s turkey bowl. (Chad didn’t get the play, but was asked to get the donuts and bring a big jug of water for drinks.) Amy, Kayla and I and the rest of our kids walked or rode bikes and scooters to the park by the football games. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at 1:00pm at Celeste’s ward’s church building. I made a green bean casserole; Chad made homemade root beer and red cream soda. We brought our bucking barrel and our “quarter” horse that we inherited from Art and Brenda. (The “quarter” horse is kiddy ride like outside of a grocery store. Chad installed a button to push so you don’t actually have to put a quarter in it to ride anymore.) After dinner I put on a stick horse rodeo for they family. The stick horse rodeos have turned into a fun tradition. Everyone loves to watch and/or participate. I’m glad most of the high school and college age nieces and nephews get into it and participate. They are fun to watch. When the stick horse rodeo was over Crystal organized a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Spencer, Reggie and I were on a team together. I had fun playing. We won several games, but didn’t win the tournament.

Trevin, Natalie and Mary on the horse. Terry Sue aka Princess sitting on the corn hole game.

Tilly and Terry Sue

Shelby, Karalee, Marlee, Josh, Connor and Rachel

Trever with Jesse in the background

Connor

The grand entry

Gunny Sack Race

Tilly and Cameron in the grocery race

Me and all my siblings and their spouses

Friday afternoon Amy, Kayla, and I took our kids out to Tyler’s to ride horses. Doug and his family was there too. It was sure nice of Tyler to arrange for us to be able to ride. After that we went over to Art’s (Chad’s Dad) house to visit and to meet his girlfriend Lisa. She was very nice. We weren’t able to stay very long though. Later that night when I was thinking over the day I realized that I didn’t ask Lisa very many questions so I could get to know her better. I was mad at myself for that. However, maybe if I asked her a lot of questions she would have felt like I was interrogating her? Friday evening I made reservations for several Chad and I, my mom, several siblings and their spouses and a couple of nephews at Charleston’s for dinner. There were 16 in our group. It was a yummy dinner and fun visiting.

Tyler and Tilly

Bryant and Marlee

Marlee

This is the first time in years that I could convince Karalee to get on a horse. She is quite a cautious girl. She didn't really enjoy this ride, but when I pulled out the camer she pasted on a smile.

Yesterday morning Jeff, Kayla, Chad and I did a session at the Gilbert temple. Then we came home and joined up with Amy and took all our kids to Discovery Park. When we got home Celeste came by to give a gift to Kayla before she left town and we had a nice visit with her. Amy and David left for home after dinner last night and then Jeff and Kayla went home this morning. We were sad that everyone had to go home, but it sure was fun while there were here.

Bryant and Colt at Discovery Park

We’ve had an enjoyable Sabbath Day and a fun day celebrating Tilly’s birthday. This morning when Tilly woke up she came into my bathroom to find me blow drying my hair as I was getting ready for a meeting. I asked her if she was ready to open her presents. She said that she wanted to eat breakfast first. When I asked her what she wanted to eat for breakfast she said, “I don’t know birthday food I guess.” She is so cute. She has been SO excited for this birthday.