Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving with Neil's family this year, and it was short but sweet. Neil's parents' house is the gathering place for any get-together, and probably a week or two ago they reminded us that they were going to be leaving for Hawaii the day after Thanksgiving, so it was a short trip.
First of all, I have to mention that Neil was so excited to get a deep pit finished in our backyard. That corner of our yard has been an eye-sore for the past 3 years (okay, not just that corner- most of the yard is still under construction- I sure wish Idaho builders included fences like in Arizona! There's no way to hide the mess unless you put one up!). So, he finished digging the hole he started years ago, and told his mom that we would provide a smoked turkey for dinner. But, just in case, he asked her to cook a backup. Good thing. Now, when we were first married, Neil helped the scouts with a fund-raiser every year that he served as the varsity scout coach. They would smoke dozens of turkeys in a huge deep pit in this family's backyard, and he loved it. He told me he always wanted to have a deep pit so he could smoke his own turkey and things. Then my brother-in-law put one in his backyard, and cooks turkeys every year for friends and neighbors, and Neil has helped with those. Those pits are in Arizona. I guess the ground is a little different in November in Idaho. Neil burned lots of wood, made lots of great coals, and set our turkey and some elk roasts in the pit, covered it, and let them cook all night. Thanksgiving morning he opened up the pit, and it was pretty cold inside. He took the meat out and we drove out to his parents' house. Once he opened up the wrapping, we knew it wasn't even done. How disappointing! Thanks, Mom, for having the backup! We enjoyed a great meal with family, played games, and made fun of each other one way or another.
Neil's dad offered me $100 if I would eat a whole spoonful of habanero hot sauce, and I almost did (he always pays up), but then Neil's mom told me that I shouldn't, seeing as I'm nursing a baby. Then everyone else agreed with her, so I backed down. His dad was so grateful, he told her, "Honey, I owe you $50 for saving me $100!"
That night we put the girls to bed on the hide-a-bed, and I guess in the middle of the night, Kortney got sick and threw up. I didn't even hear her, but my sister-in-law, Rhonda, did. She heard Kortney crying, went in to check on her, then got her mom to help her change the sheets, then bathe and change Kortney, since it was in her hair, too. The bedroom they were in and the bathroom they used were right next to the room Neil and I were sleeping in! Now, I wake up to every little noise Rhett makes, but I didn't hear a thing from Kortney or anyone else that night! I didn't find out that anything was wrong until I woke up to go to the bathroom much later, and found Kortney in new clothes! Poor thing! But she never had a fever, and never threw up again, so I think it must've been too much food.
It snowed up in the mountains that night, so our drive home on the dirt road was mostly snowy and slick, but Neil had fun freaking me out until he finally put it in 4-wheel drive!
What a great Thanksgiving! I'm so thankful for family, food, transportation, home, and the gospel. We are very fortunate to have all that we do, and I know that Heavenly Father looks out for us.

Utah Family Reunion

Note: This is one of those posts most non-family will probably read and think, "Uh, that was boring..." It's mostly for journal purposes. But there are some old photos at the end that you can laugh at if you want!

My dad is one of 10 children, and eight of them stayed in Arizona to raise their own families. Two ended up in Utah. Now that all their children are grown and moving around the country, lots of my extended family has ended up in Utah. Crazy mormons. Now we have enough relatives living in Utah to get together for a reunion. So this last weekend they finally did get together. I was glad, since I'm so far away from the rest of my family, and my cousins and I were pretty close growing up. Even my aunts and uncles that were there are as fun-loving as kids! I mentioned to my mom once that my aunt Linda liked to do tricks on her husband for April Fool's day, and she told me that it didn't surprise her, because my dad's 5 youngest sisters were always doing things like that when they were growing up. I laughed, because I could picture them as teenagers doing tricks on Grandpa. I was excited to go and see everyone. We got a late start from home on Saturday morning, though. The whole thing started at 10:00, but we didn't make it there until 11:30 or 12:00. My cousin Denise, who told me about it on facebook, told everyone else that we were coming, so they held off with the fun magician until we got there. The magician was a guy in my uncle's BYU ward, and he did a great job. All the kids loved his whole show, and they each got an animal balloon at the end. Then we had lunch and I tried to visit with most of my cousins, aunts and uncles, but couldn't. Something about four hungry and excited kids messed up that plan. We let the kids ride in my other uncle's barrel car train behind a 4-wheeler in the church parking lot, and then it was time to clean up and go home. I wish it would've gone longer, but that was all that was planned, and we had been late. So, in all, I think there were 60-65 people there. Thanks, Denise, for letting me know about it! And it was so good to see you, Denise, Emily and Rachael! I'm so glad I made it! And I'm so sad I didn't take any pictures! But here are a few from years past, just for kicks...

Besides the reunion, Neil's sister was blessing their little boy on Sunday, the 16th, in Salt Lake, so we went to her house from there, stopping at Cabella's on the way. The girls loved that place! So much to see! Most of Neil's siblings were there for little Lucas' blessing, and we hung out together that night, and the next day after church. It was great to be with family.

Grandpa - totally looks like my little brother, Trent!

Grandma - I lived with her after Grandpa died, while I attended ASU,

before I got married.

Singing "Surfin' USA together with little faces painted on our chins, at a reunion at the family cabin in Greer, AZ when we were about 12 years old.


Wendy, Edith, Denise, me, and Karen after a family meeting (12 years old)

Edith, Emily and me in a skit for Halloween, I think (13 years old?)

Edith, me, Karen, and Denise in '98

me, Emily, Edith, Denise, and Rachael after church in Utah in '94


me, Karen, Emily, Denise, and Edith in the summer of '93, I think.

The Lord's Hand In My Life:

I must say this almost every time, but it's true. I've been blessed with great family. It's so good to have my extended family close by (well, kind of close by). It's hard to explain how close my cousins and I were growing up, but we were like best friends, and I was lucky to be one of seven girls who were the same age. We got together once a month for "family meetings" at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and had lots of family outings and reunions through the years. I'm grateful for an awesome family.

Rhett's Blessing

Angie came and took some cute photos of Rhett for me a while ago, and I thought they turned out so good! Thanks, Angie! The first three are photos that she took, and then I took him to a studio to get his photo taken in his little blessing suit last week. Neil blessed him last Sunday, on November 2 in our ward here, and it was very sweet. None of my family made it up here for the blessing, but most of Neil's family was there, even his grandparents who drove 2-1/2 hours for it, just to turn around and head back home before dark. They are so supportive of us. Neil doesn't like to be emotional, but he sure had a tough time blessing Rhett without getting choked up. After he finished, I laughed when Bro. Worton, the counselor conducting that Sunday, commented sarcastically afterwards something like, "It's obvious that Bro. Price is not at all proud of that little boy." We sure love "baby Rhett", and are grateful he's a part of our family!

Handsome little guy

Snoozin' in the truck


Woah! Where'd he go?

In his blessing suit

And the whole family - never the best of everyone...

(and I'm sure Neil hopes this is our final family photo shoot for the year)

The Lord's Hand in My Life:

I see the Lord's hand in my family every day. I have four wonderful little children, and I'm blessed to be here to raise them. I have an awesome husband who is so proud to be a dad, and who has the best family I could ever wish to marry into. I'm so glad that they are always there for us. It makes it not so hard to be away from my own family. We love you guys!

Halloween 2008

Okay, it's a little late, but here are the photos. I wouldn't be a true blogger without Halloween photos, would I??? Kortney had to go as a fairy, Taylor was Snow White, Emmrie was a "baby fairy" according to Kortney, who put together her costume from the dress-up clothes downstairs, since Mom never did get her a costume this year, and Rhett was "Daddy's Little Monster" who stayed home with me to pass out candy. This was the warmest Halloween we've had here. Kortney didn't even wear a jacket! It was awesome! Neil pulled the girls in the wagon from house to house, and they loved it. He said they were all very good at saying, "thank you", so that made me glad. Happy Halloween!

There Goes the Neighborhood!

I registered to vote today, because I know that I have no place to complain if I don't fulfill my civic duty. So I finally got it done, and then I voted. So, now that I've fulfilled that very important civic responsibility, I will now exercise my unalienable right to speak my mind. I'm getting on my soapbox. I know some of you out there who read my blog are happy today, but I'm sorry. I'm not. Not that McCain was my first choice for president of the United States, but Obama was definitely my last. I voted for the lesser of two evils, in my eyes, and I'm afraid for what lies ahead in our country. I worry what kind of world my kids are going to grow up in, and I realize that now I have to work even harder to put some real moral values into them. I can hear myself wording things in the future to my children along these lines: "...and even though everyone else in the world may think this issue is okay, as a human being I hope you know that really, it's not." That's my biggest concern. If people think his ethnicity is at the heart of everyone's dislike and opposition, that's not it at all- at least in my case. It's his lack of foresight and morals. In my opinion, he has no idea where he's going with this country, and he doesn't even seem to care that he has no straightforward answers. I fear that his "change" is going to be for the worse. Why are all these crazy liberals out to change the Constitution just because they've changed their own opinion (again)? Isn't the Constitution there to help guide us to stay on course and govern our decisions? I'm sure our forefathers are rolling in their graves, wanting to shake us all and say, "Idiots! Can't you see that we wrote what we meant? How in the world did you interpret it that way?" These next four years are going to be a real wake-up call for all of us. Where will we be then? Seriously? I think I'd better quit right there, before I start rambling and say too much, and not make any sense. I'm just really disappointed, America.

Disclaimer (because we've always got to have one of those now, so we don't get sued): I don't claim to know all the issues. Most of us don't. I haven't researched it all. Who has? I only know what I've heard. Isn't that what we all go by, anyway? I could be totally wrong. Then again, I wouldn't be the first.