Madeleine’s Blessing Day

We were so blessed to have so much family come in town for Madeleien’s blessing.  Shane’s parents were in town for Thanksgiving, and my parents came up for the day from Ashland.  Jake and Stacey and Kelly were all there too.  As Shane gave the blessing for Madeleine, he blessed her that, among other things, she would:

• Be a peacemaker,
• Have a cheery disposition
• Be a source of joy and encouragment and love to those around her
• Bring the light of the gospel to her home and to her friends
• Have strong faith in the Savior, in Heavenly Father’s plan, and in the family

 

After church, we had a delicious Cafe Rio type dinner, and we all had fun visiting before it was time for everyone to go.  It was a beautiful day!

   

Madeleine is so lucky to have two great sets of grandparents who are a great example of living the gospel with true faith. 

 

Tree Cutting

We had a cold but dry week for Thanksgiving, so we decided we better take advantage and cut down our tree before the rain started.  It was a crisp afternoon, and we found the perfect tree before too long.  We cut it down and then stopped in the barn for some hot chocolate before heading home.

       

Shane set up his phone in a tree to take our group shot.  It worked pretty good!

       

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksigiving this year at home celebrating with Kent and Christie and Kelly.  This was Madeleine’s and Grandpa Malan’s first meeting, and they were both happy to finally meet each other.  I had some good helpers with the bread for the stuffing again, and the boys now remember this as their job each year.  Asher kept busy counting candy corns for his activity while we prepped.  We had a delicious spread of food, and we all ate too much.  One new thing that we tried was to put out a jar that said “Give Thanks,” with little slips of paper on them.  Everyone wrote down things they were grateful for throughout the day, and during dinner, we passed the jar around and read what we had written.  It was fun to read the different things we had all written.

           

I was a little worn out by the end of the day!  Shane caught this picture of me taking a quick nap on the couch after all the festivities were over.

Family Pictures 2015

We met up with the Morris clan at the barn in Sherwood for some family pictures for our Christmas cards.  We were super efficient, snapping each other’s family pictures and then each taking some of our own kids at the same time – in and out in less than thirty minutes.  We took Madeleine’s later after we got home.

           

Landon – 10 years old                                          Davis – 7 years old

          

James – 5 years old                                                        Asher – 2 years old

 

            

                 Madeleine – 2 1/2 months old

Soccer

This year was the first year we had three boys playing soccer.  It was a bit crazy, with James practicing on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5-6, Landon practicing from 5-6:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Davis practicing from 5:30 to 7:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays also.  Dinnertime was always interesting with taking boys to and from their practices.  Luckily, each boy had a couple good friends on their team, so with Madeleine’s birth only a couple weeks into the soccer season, there were always people willing to take or pick up the boys, and I felt comfortable leaving them at practice without me. 

The boys learned a lot and had a great time playing this season.  It was fun to watch them learn and gain more confidence as the season went on!

Landon: 

I somehow didn’t take many pictures of Landon playing soccer.  This one below shows him with the ball, playing at his old school, Fir Grove.  Landon’s season went the longest, and he had his last game the second Saturday in November.  He had some great friends on his team, including Sam, Vance, and Carson, among others.  He had a fun time playing and improved on his competitiveness as the season went on.

Davis:

Davis learned a lot this season, as this was his first year where they played with a bigger field and more players.  He learned how to stay in a position on the field, and he got pretty good at dribbling and looking for the pass.  He even scored a few goals.  He has his good friends Ian and Kyler on his team, and their dads were the coaches.

   

One of Davis’s favorite positions was goalie.  He did a pretty good job of stopping the ball when he was in!

 

James:

This was James’s first year playing soccer, and boy was he excited.  For weeks before soccer even began he would ask when he was going to go to soccer.  Once practices started, he asked every time if it was a game, and he could hardly wait until their first real game.  He unfortunately fractured his arm before his first game and had to sit that one out, but luckily it was a tiny fracture, so he was back in the next week.

James was a good defender, and he would stand mid field and run back and forth, following the ball, waiting for it to come to his side.  He could dribble the ball down, pass it, or score pretty accurately by the time the season was over, and he would score a couple goals each game.  Most of all, it was fun to see his excitement for the game!

        

James was lucky to have his best friend Ty’s dad and brother as his coaches, and his friends Hudson, Owen, and Ty on his team.  It was a great team!

   

Now on to basketball season …