Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving was one for the record books!  We decided to capitalize on it being a major holiday and scheduled Grace's baptism for the Saturday afterwards in order to accommodate family who were coming into town.  Scott's parents flew in from Utah on Tuesday and his sister Kristin and her family drove down from Indiana on Thanksgiving day.  The kids had a BLAST with their cousins, and it was really nice being surrounded by friends and family for Grace's baptism yesterday morning.

In an effort to maintain a record, here is a brief recap of the goings on of the past month leading up to this weekend -- starting shortly after Grace's birthday with the taking of her birthday pictures for the mantle.  In a very last minute and under-the-wire photo shoot session, I utilized the 15 minutes we had left of sunlight on a Wednesday evening to snap some pictures of my little birthday girl.  I wanted to have a picture to display for Grace's baptism and luckily managed to get a winning shot despite the shortness of our shoot and the silliness of my child.  It was a modern miracle.  Hahaha.

Once the Baptism pictures were done, the main thing left to do was to CLEAN the house.  And boy did it need it.  In the last week leading up to the holiday, I created a day by day itemized list of everything that needed to be done, from the upstairs to the basement and everything in between.  It was intense.  The hardest part of it all may have been containing Alex and Jane!  I can't even tell you how many times over the course of those few days that I would finish cleaning up one mess to turn around and see a brand new one courtesy of the destructo twins.  It was insane.  

A close runner-up in the hardness department was the effort it took to clean up the basement.  I kid you not that it took the better part of an entire Saturday even with everyone in the family pitching in to help out.  I earned my stripes that weekend in the creative mom department by coming up with various "games" to play to make the cleaning fun.  Because as Mary Poppins would say, "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.  You find the fun and -- SNAP!  The job's a game!"  Hahahaha.  I think every single toy, puzzle, and game we own was lying on the floor of that basement along with tons of books, clothes, dishes and crumbs.  I would have taken a before and after but it was too embarrassing.   And I doubt a photograph could have taken in the scope of the scene and done it any justice.  

By mid-day, I had resorted to out and out bribery by telling the kids I would buy them Just Dance 4 if they would just finish cleaning it all up before the end of the day.  This was sufficiently motivating for Ethan and Grace, but for some reason Sophie got it in her head that she really wanted a sorbet from Maggie Moo's to sweeten the deal for her.  Fine by me!  By 4 o'clock in the afternoon we were FINALLY done.  Oh my goodness was that an ordeal.  Even more of an ordeal?  Getting that Maggie Moo's.  Hahahaha.  After a wild goose chase {and 30 minutes or so} of trying to even find the place we arrived to see THIS:

What a bust!  The kids were all upset {and tired and cranky} and so was I.  We managed to salvage our outing on the return trip home after stopping at the Costco to buy Just Dance 4 and treating the kids to ice cream and smoothies from the food bar on the way out. 

 Just Dancing it up.

Scott's parents got here on Tuesday afternoon and once the kids got home our holiday officially started!  The weather was unusually warm and gorgeous for a few days there and we managed to squeeze in some play time at the park and a few walks as well.  I feel super lame about not taking any pictures of our actual Thanksgiving celebration, but suffice it to say that there was good food and good company in abundance.  Kristin and co.  arrived on Thursday afternoon and the festivities continued to ring out in full force.  Despite a nightly battle of the bedtimes with my kids {particularly Grace} and more than a few meltdowns we still managed to have a really good time with our extra full house.  It's always so much fun to have family in town that we just don't want it to end!

Grace's baptism day dawned bright and early on Saturday morning and was a really wonderful event.  Having so many extra helping hands around was a blessing as we were trying to get everyone ready to go and out the door on time.  Everything went really well aside from the one glitch I had in forgetting to take a picture of Grace and Scott together before the baptism took place.  Actually, I would have liked to have gotten one with me and Grace as well, but you live and learn.  Perhaps by the time Sophie's baptism rolls around it will be old hat and I won't be nearly so frazzled and forgetful.

I did get a family picture taken before everything started but the results were semi-successful.  It is pretty much impossible to get a decent shot with everyone looking at the camera and looking good.  Hahaha.  I was planning on using one of these for our Christmas cards this year, but decided to give it another go this morning before church.  For the record, Jane is entirely too opinionated on what she is willing to wear for pictures and Sophie is not so cooperative in a group photo setting.  Just so you know.

As for the program itself, Ethan had been practicing for the last month to play the piano for the opening song -- "When I am Baptized" -- but at the last minute got a little too nervous and asked me if I would just play instead.  Of course I would.  As a trade-off, he agreed to lead the music for me.  Scott's parents gave the talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost and Scott baptized and confirmed Grace.  It was really sweet to see her all dressed in white and taking such an important step in her life.   When the time came to be baptized, I could tell she was a bit nervous about being dunked completely underwater.   Nevertheless, I saw her take a deep breath and square her shoulders before entering the water and I was so touched by her courage.  She is my ever-surprising surprise.  I just love her.  She is a beautiful and tender soul.

While Scott and Grace were changing into dry clothes, we had everyone fill out little cards for her with memories of her big day and after the baptismal service was over we busted out the now traditional CTR cookies and oreos for some refreshments for the crowd.  They were a big hit.  

A Group Family Shot

 A present from the Primary.

All in all it was a good day.  The only sad part was when it ended.  The cousins had to go home yesterday evening and there were tears all around.  Grace ended her day by crying in my room that everything was terrible.  Apparently we forgot to have a family birthday party while everyone was still here and I forgot to present her baptism quilt to her at her actual baptism.  She didn't want the journal that I gave her as one last present because she "already has too many journals," and nothing could make her happy.  Oh well.  I'm pretty sure it was the tiredness talking.  She seemed fine enough this morning and was possibly the only child cooperating for Family Photo Shoot: Part 2.

 Look at that angel face. 

As for the rest of the group, Sophie was losing it over her placement in the picture -- she wanted to be right in the middle and someone told her she couldn't so she threw a melt-down fit about it --  Jane just doesn't listen {period} and Alex wanted his plug.  It was not the most ideal setting but it will have to do!  You'll just have to wait until you get your Christmas card from us to discover which one makes the cut.  Hahahaha.

 Our cute little runaway didn't want to sit still.

And that's a wrap.  Church is infinitely easier to handle with two extra adults helping out and we are really going to miss having Grandma and Grandpa around when they go home tomorrow!  It is always such a bummer when vacations end, but at least there are only 4 more weeks until Christmas.