THE BEST, BY PAR

Gary was in town.  He is my sister's son... and an amazing nephew!  He invited all of us to go to Top Golf for Family Home Evening.  In all honesty, I've been wanting to go to Top Golf because I thought golfing looked like a sport I could get into.  I wanted to see if I liked it.  And I was TERRIBLE!  But I had SOOOOOO much FUN!  Thanks, Gary, for including Scott and me!  It was one of the best - by PAR - activities ever!

Here's our crew!

Me, Scott, Sheila, Gary, GJ, and Ken

The food (which was incredibly delicious) was terrific!

But I must say the outdoor heating and heated seats really won me over!

Scott was really good - but he had a handicap, as he played a more difficult game.

Sheila really entertained us by playing the guitar on her club.

My nephew ROCKS!

I really love this kid!

GJ won, but was in the beginner category with all of us girls.

It's hard to see the board above us... But we played Angry Birds.

GJ took first place.

Sheila took second place.

And I was third.

Go girls!

Thank you, again, Gary!  I'd go again in a heartbeat!  I'm a lousy golfer, but I had fun cheering, eating, visiting with my family, and attempting to hit the ball/angry bird.  (If we had scored like golf, my score would have been astronomically high - so I would have been in first place.  Right?!  Ha ha ha!)

In the mean time... we are looking forward to this in 2 weeks:

Seeing my Red Skittle with his new haircut... AND

my oldest son is graduating!

He had to try on his cap and gown.

He REALLY cracks me up!

I LOST TRACK OF "THYME"

 I have "pumpkin" to talk about... the last few weeks of my life have been a whirlwind.  Scott was out of town, and I was booked solid while he was away.  Then... Thanksgiving!  And of course... I have to talk about the other "turkeys" in my family (ie. the Lillywhites and the Browns and the Hondas!)

"Feast" your eyes on this little walk through my past few weeks.

GJ and I kidnapped our sweet niece and took her to see the musical: 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.  It was a wonderful production!  We all loved it and left singing at the top of our lungs, "Bless Your Beautiful Hide!"  The young man in the picture was one of the young men I subbed for in seminary.  He played Ephraim.  And he was perfect in the role!  

Me - Juju Fruit - Seester

Ephraim and Me

Then... GJ and I picked up the pottery we painted.  Here's my nativity:

My youngest son hosted a huge event.  According to Katia he was the "baste!"

Skylar is the apple of my "pie!"

Then I got to play mom for a few days as my dear friend went on vacation with her husband.  I had so much fun with Bael and Lobster!  (Bael is a fruit.)  We went to see the lights.  We made turkeys out of Oreos.  We got peppermint milkshakes from Chick-fil-A.  Lobster and I played a lot of pick up sticks, Uno and sword fighting.  It was really fun!

The tunnel of lights was spectacular!

Lobster and Bael

Rolling down the hill is a right of passage.

These two raced.  Bael won once.  Lobster one once.

Bael ate her turkey before I could get a picture.

Lobster ate a cookie just before the picture....

One night, Berry decided to entertain all of us on his make-shift drums.  My favorite part of the performance was the sincerely deep bow!

Bang!  Bang!  Bang!

Encore!

And my good friend sent me a photo of herself with a few of her students (whose permission I don't have to post - hence the edit) with blue tongue disease!  It made my day!  Thanks, Nicole!

Nicole!!!!

Here's a glimpse of Kiara and Cody's unusual Thanksgiving!

I love that they kept one of our traditions... but made it their own.

Cody wanted to run a 5K.  Kiara wanted shirts.

She died t-shirts and they went to the track.

Cody ran a 5K.  Kiara walked 1 1/2 miles.  Skittles almost made it an entire mile.

But he ran for a moment with his dad!

Dinner was NOT traditional.

They made everything for their feast from the Dungeons and Dragons Cookbook.

And Katia and Skylar have a new addition:

Meet Jude!

And here's a glimpse of my sister's Thanksgiving!

Zane's crew, Dad, GJ, Ken and Sheila

Gary and Berry ran a race too.

Shanae went hunting.

And Sheila hung out with the pigs.

Thanksgiving for us was a hit!  We spent the day with the Browns and the Salisburys.  (Skylar's family)  They are truly awesome!  We had so much fun: visiting, eating, playing games and crafting.

I'm grateful for Scott!

I'm grateful for my daughters and sons!

I'm grateful for Red Skittle!

I'm grateful for my sister and her family!

I'm grateful for my dad!

I'm grateful for the Browns!

I'm grateful for friends!

ENERGY TO MY SOUL

Last night I attended (and helped on the committee) to put on a Relief Society gathering activity.  And I made new friends!  I'm so excited for this new adventure with a new tribe of women at my side.  I miss my Kentucky friends.  And I'll ALWAYS love them and be grateful for their friendship through the years.  But it's time for new adventures and a chance to add new memories.  

Here's the committee and a few of my friends:

Debbie (I teach her son cute son in primary), Laura (our fearless leader, who has more love to give than anyone else I know), Me, Pineapple, Melissa (who has 3 sons including a young man in my Activity Days and one daughter: Pineapple), and Gina (who is kind and fun and positive!  I can't wait to get to know her better!)

Jill, Me and Aaralyn

(They are super creative!  Jill makes gorgeous cards!

And Aaralyn made our tables look like a autumn wonderland!)

Here are some more new friends:

These are the ladies I sat with for dinner.  They are all amazing.
The three on the right are all related.  The two on my left on top are sisters.  And Marilyn is the dark haired beauty on the bottom right.

Heidi is amazing!  She homeschools.  AND I love her two beautiful daughters, 

whom I've already had the privilege of teaching in seminary and primary!

I got to give a short message about friendship at the event.  Here are a few of my thoughts:

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism.’” That quote has always inspired me because I believe that friendship is a fundamental need in our world.  I think that we all have a profound longing for friendship and a deep yearning for the satisfaction and security that close and lasting relationships can give.  In fact, I would consider friendship to be a first cousin of charity.  And to paraphrase the Apostle Paul slightly, friendship “suffereth long, and is kind; [friendship] envieth not; … seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; … [friendship] never faileth.”

AND

BUT If we truly want to be tools in the hands of our Heavenly Father in bringing to pass His eternal purposes, we need only to be a friend. Consider the power of each one of us reaching out to love and support each other in unconditional friendship. The power is in each one of us to be a friend. Old and young, rich and poor, educated and humble, in every language and country, we all have the capacity to be a friend.

Our Savior, shortly before His Crucifixion, said to His disciples: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends.” Having been so richly blessed by Christ’s friendship, I pray that we will now be to others what He is to us: a true friend. At no time will we be more Christlike than when we are a friend.

Speaking of friends, our monthly date nights with the Browns (Katia's in-laws) have been some of our favorite activities since coming to Idaho.  They are the greatest friends!  We sure love hanging with them.

Ian, Alicia, our server, Me, Scott

And they are even willing to play games with us!

Speaking of Alicia, she was kinds enough to invite me to join her book club.  I didn't get pictures, but I sure LOVED meeting 7 other wonderful women as we discussed Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.  I loved Marcellus, the octopus.  (But I will warn you that there is some language in the book that I wasn't fond of.)

Look!  It's my adorable grandson!

Cody made me feel soooo loved by sending this picture randomly last night.

He's so thoughtful that way!

And it made me laugh outloud!

My crazy daughter has already set up her Christmas decorations.

Yes, she's one of THOSE people.

But I couldn't resist posting a picture of Skittles with his stockings and Christmas countdown.

This is my grandson's preschool class!

He's the second one on the top row in a blue shirt.

Red Skittle!

I couldn't love this boy any more than I already do.

He brings me such joy!

HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION

This week has been a fun week, AND an exhausting week.  I wanted to post about Halloween on November 1st or 2nd, but instead I was teaching/subbing seminary.  It was so much fun to spend ALL day with the teenagers of Middleton High School.  I spent all my time preparing, and loving these great kids.  And I came home completely exhausted.  It took two days just to recuperate after "working" full time.

So here's a run down of the Lillywhites Halloween shenanigans:

Red Skittles wasn't too excited about the pumpkin guts.

But he was eager to have his parents cut out "Jack, the Pumpkin King" for him.

Cody and Kiara made Halloween fun for my grandson!

And Scott decided to doctor this photo of our son so that it reflected Cody's personality better.

Link from the video game, The Legend of Zelda

Two Links?

Yes!

One from the original, and one of the new games?!

I dunno.  I'm just grandma

So excited to Trick or Treat!

Look at that smile!

Red Skittle with his best friend, Pringles.

Friends Forever: Link and Buzz Lightyear (aka. Red Skittle and Pringles)

And Scott and I dressed up too:

My husband was such a good sport to dress up as a mushroom with me.

I really rocked my mushroom hat!

And I couldn't be more proud of my sister than I was on October 31st.  She actually dressed up as an identity thief:

Although she's trying to hide her identity, I will confirm that this is my sister!

And look at these amazing photos from Halloween Night taken from our loft: