Gratitude Sunday

I am thankful for

1) The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today at church we had a "Come and See." It was a special sacrament meeting where we were encouraged to invite others to "come and see" what we are all about. There are still so many misconceptions about the church and I think that it was a great opportunity for people to see our service. I take for granted the joy that the gospel brings into my life.

2) Games. I love to play games. I always have. I love to win even more. We were able to play games with friends this weekend on a date night anddI won the game (Ticket to Ride, European edition) Gavin has been really enjoying the game "Go Fish" lately. It has been nice to play it with him.

3) music. Today at church, the music was beautiful. Our organist is incredible and he makes me want to sing at the top of my lungs. He has brought me to tears several times. We also had some great musical numbers today.

4) Great reality TV. I know, pathetic. But, I love my reality cooking shows. Top Chef is my favorite, but The Next Iron Chef is pretty good too. Maybe I will become a chef some day.

5)My friends. Past and present friends. They play such an important role in my life right now. I am grateful for their examples, their support, their humor, their friendship.

Family Pictures

We finally have some updated pictures of the family. Thanks to Minna again. She is an amazing photographer and I highly recommend her. Check out the rest of her blog here and website here, so you can get an even better sense for her work. Here are some of our favorites.

11- 21

So, I skipped a few days? Oh well.. Here are a few things I am thankful for today..

1) fun filled weeks. I don't get the opportunity to go out all that often in the evenings, but this week for whatever reason there was a lot going on and so I was able to enjoy some great girls' night outs and a great date with my husband and some friends..

2)Gavin's example. The other day Eli pulled all the books from our bookshelf. Boyd had not gotten a chance to clean them up yet. Boyd was working on something else, but when he came back into the room Gavin was cleaning up the books. Eli started cleaning up as well.

3)Patience.. I don't have much of it, but I am working on it.

4)Eli's cuddle. He doesn't do much cuddling with me these days. I don't get a lot of cuddles from Eli these days, but this week I did.

5)My mom and dad. They are serving a mission in Mexico and I am so proud of them. We are excited that we will be getting to see them in February!

11.11

I am grateful for

1. good friends who open their home and their backyard for a city escape.

2. big piles of leaves to play in

3. 2 days of no school

4. my husband who made dinner for the family

5. All those who are serving our country and who have served our country

Thankful

I am following the lead of some friends who are posting the things they are grateful for everyday for the month of November. I missed several days already, but I am going to start anyway!

1) Boys who wake up happy
2) A Husband who makes breakfast
3) brothers who play happily together
4) a clean house
5) Spending time in the park on a mid-November day that reached 68 degrees.

Go Yankees

As the Yankee's are poised to win the World Series tonight, I decided I better post a blog about our visit to the new Yankee Stadium before baseball is old news.

About a month or so ago some great friends were given 4 tickets to a Yankees Game and so they invited us to go along.

We arrived at the new Yankee Stadium and attempted to find our seats. We are used to going to the very top to the cheap seats so we were confused when it appeared we didn't have to make our way to the very top. It appeared that we were supposed to go to something called the Delta Suite, but we thought that there had to be some confusion and apparently the guy taking the tickets thought we didn't look the type, so he told us to go upstairs. It turns out, our seats were in the Delta Suite. One of the workers there, informed us we were in for treat. He excitedly informed us "that there are really nice bathrooms!" He was right. It was a real treat. We were directly behind home plate on the second level. We had waiters that served us personally, nice seats, a deck with tables and chairs and nice bathrooms.

The best part of the night was that because we were behind home plate, there were several foul balls that came our way and that added to the excitement. We hoped for a chance to catch the ball and Boyd got the chance!

It was even an exciting ending with the Yankees winning in the bottom of the 9th.

The weather was perfect, the game was exciting, but the company was even better. The Nixons made the night so much fun. Thanks for the free tickets and for allowing to spend the evening with you! It was exciting to go in the inaugural season of the new stadium and possibly in the year they win the World Series! Go Yankees!

Happy Halloween

Gavin as a SCARY Bear and Eli as Elmo.


Can I just say that I actually made Gavin's costume this year? Gavin and his buddy Lucas wanted to be bears so Mackenzie found a do-it-yourself kit on Etsy.com. So, it was semi-homemade. I was very proud. :) Eli was Elmo and it was a hit. Everyone loves that costume. It almost always brought a smile to someones face and random people would yell, "ELMO!".
Especially, when Elmo rides his scooter.

Can you believe that is a 2 year old riding that scooter?


Our festivities started last week at the ward Halloween activity which was fun for everyone! T

Then Gavin had a Halloween Party at school (Healthy snacks only. HA!)

Today, we carved pumpkins for the first time as a family. I even roasted the seeds.

Then tonight we went down to 69th St. where they close 3 blocks down and all the apartment buildings and brownstones decorate for Halloween and where there is trick-or-treats. We met up with Isaac the Lion and Brandon (I mean Max!).

Then we headed up to Lucas and Mackenzie's apartment building for more trick-or-treating!

What a fun, sugar filled day!