dia de gordo y gracias

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melody Beattie

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for thanksgiving, we were lucky enough to have a TON of people visit us for the holiday. this is the first time this has actually happened. no one visits us(except you NATALIE that one time). which has it's perks. our garage never has to be that organized. 

grandma sandy was our first visitor and she was able to attend stake conference with us the next morning. 

unfortunately, we arrived an hour late for the service and it wasn't even our stake's meeting. somehow we missed the memo about the accurate starting time. but it totally explains how we scored such a sweet parking spot. plus, since my mom was in town we got to feel extra stupid. fortunately, we still got to hear a great, but somewhat abbreviated message. my favorite quote was, "we are like a block of marble becoming a beautiful sculpture. we must chip away the things that are not us to find who we really are."

grandma had m&ms for each kid and they sat as far away from us as possible. it was like a mini-date for thomas and me.

we got to spend several days with just grandma sandy. it is such a treat to be with her. she is one of those people who loves to serve. she just simply does. she finds things to do and does them. we put together almost all of our thanksgiving dinner the day before. there was no panicky screaming(related to thanksgiving prepartions)!

next to arrive was aunt heather, uncle daniel and baby cousin june. 

heather was quite the funster. my favorite activity was the cheerleading lesson scarlett gave heather and me on the tramp. heather was put in time out several times. and i won't even mention the set of keys that got misplaced and as soon as we got back from the dealership to pick up a replacement set, the original set turned up. no need to say anything about that here. 

ebony and ivory. 2 generations.

my brother mark rode a bus from NYC to south carolina. it was such a great experience that he bought a plane ticket for the return trip. i am so glad that he came. i don't know if i would have ridden a bus down my street, let alone 12+ hours to just sleep on my couch.

we also had my uncle sherm and aunt susan and their kids came for thanksgiving too.
i look at my darling cousin cami and i think, if i could have been half as put together as she is i wouldn't have spent so much of my high school years locked in my room writing poems about unicorns and working on not breathing exclusively through my mouth. 

plus, thomas' mother, my sister-in-law lauren and her two kids came too and round the group out to a nice even 17. they were good sports to put up with the chaos.

then we ate. and ATE!

instead of a traditional thanksgiving dinner we had mexican food, which is pretty much my all-time favorite. at least i was happy and that is what is important. it was the dia de gordo y gracias(the day of fat and thanks)!

and then wackiness ensued.

and manners flew out the window!

i am grateful for family!

and  naps!

and more naps!

later that night, reagan performed a thanksgiving-themed puppet show slash musical.

then we tortured extended family members with beck family home movies from the mid-90s. and they were ugly. being a perpetual nerd kept us from all the hazards and perils of popularity. thank goodness.

but my personal highlight was when the group sing along commenced. seriously. this is a beck family tradition. we can't walk by a person playing the piano without the hankering to bust out in a disney themed sing a long. if only we had the phantom of the opera songbook!!! regrets!

mark and i created a day after thanksgiving 5k. we found the biggest hills in my neighborhood and ran up them at full speed. which was about 2 steps above a slow walk on a stomach full of mexican food.

i'm a gazelle.

we both came in first place.

and then after all the the "real" adults went home, i felt like we were just a bunch of kids hanging out in a really messy house. 

my new favorite picture:

mark thought he was being funny by kicking scarlett's doll out of her stroller. scarlett made him rectify the situation.

fake adults masquerading as real adults. after this picture, reagan threw up all over my car.

poor marky was the best help around my house. i don't think he realized that his vacation would include running errands and helping out with my kids. 

we even gave him the flu. i got a text the morning after he got back home asking if i was barfing too. affirmative good buddy. (athena is playing with industrial size bag of wipes and a string of broken christmas lights. i was encouraging creativity.) 

then scarlett was lucky enough to get it too. and also threw up in my car.

and that was the thrilling conclusion to our holiday. 

some weeks

some weeks you're can't win for losing. 

last sunday was the primary program at church. scarlett was keyed up and ready to rock that podium with her memorized words of wisdom. unfortunately, the little girl before scarlett said scarlett's line and scarlett cried for the rest of the program. we take this very seriously at our house. bless her heart. 

"making good choices blesses my family by providing us food to eat." -scarlett age 5

she wrote that herself

reagan was also ready to bring down the house with his memorization skills. unfortunately, he woke up sick and slept through the entire meeting then had to be carried out to the car and into the house and then slept for an hour at the kitchen table. he later made a fully recovery. 

"after i am baptized, i will still make mistakes. That is why repentance is so important."- reagan age 7

on thursday i spent the day driving around like a crazy person because BOTH of the big kids forgot to turn in their special thanksgiving lunch money and were not going to be able to eat with a parent. they were both so upset so i tried to amend(even though i did my part by writing the check and sticking in their backpacks) the situation by promising to take them both to lunch that day. 

reagan chose chick-fil-a and wanted to eat it at the kitchen table at home.

scarlett chose wendy's and i had to pick her up at 1015 to get her back in time for classroom instruction. mmm, red onions at 1015. we were the only 2 people in the entire place until i needed to nurse the baby and suddenly a bunch of creepy looking men showed up and sat in the booths all around us. it never fails. 

she wore this pilgrim hat all day. she tried to convince thomas to tie it on again the next day. 

we got the kids school pictures this week. this picture represents the entire contents of their packages. $11 for each. 1 4 by 6 and 4 wallets. yikes bikes. 

this is the funniest thing the kids think i have done lately. i am an under-appreciated comic. 

octoverload

october where art thou? hunker down, this is long. * author's note. i tried to write this post over 5 days. as in, "it took me 5 days of dealing with interruptions to get this done", not "this post was artfully and painstakingly crafted over 5 days." you can tell because at the beginning i am trying to have deep thoughts and toward the end it devolved to the literary equivalent of a grunt describing the pictures.

october always means starting out with general conference. as a family we tried to watch as many sessions as possible from our own couch.it was controlled chaos. the big kids are typically pretty good about staying occupied during the talks, but i had forgotten how time consuming a little baby can be when you are trying to pay attention to something important. 

as per usual,  general conference gave me the answers and reassurances i needed, or didn't even know i needed. something that has been on my mind a lot as of late is teaching my children. elder l. tom perry gave a great talk a few years ago during conference about teaching our children in our homes. i was very touched by his words i've tried to heed that counsel as much as possible. this was before i knew what an undertaking it would be to teach a child who has some special needs when it comes to learning and comprehension. lately i've been quite stressed and discouraged about my efforts in teaching my children. i normally spend around 2 hours each day after school working on homework with reagan. it's not as glamorous as it sounds. i have learned to enjoy it but it doesn't make it easy and i often wonder how worth it it is. so when i heard elder perry speak again about educating our children, my heart was filled with comfort, knowing that our Father has heard my prayers regarding reagan. i felt renewed in my efforts. 

"parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility"- l. tom perry

i love his use of the word resolve. resolve- "to come to a definite or earnest decision about". that's how i feel about teaching. it's not my fave and not everything can be fun but i know it's important. and i will do it. 

another quote from elder perry that spoke to my heart was about strengthening my family:

"Our strengthened family cultures will be a protection for our children from “the fiery darts of the adversary” (1 Nephi 15:24) embedded in their peer cultures, the entertainment and celebrity cultures, the credit and entitlement cultures, and the Internet and media cultures to which they are exposed constantly. It will help our children live in the world and not become “of the world” (John 15:19)."

 i worry about the things my kids will encounter in the world that are wrong but will be confusing to them because they will be portrayed as normal or good or that they should have no remorse in doing bad. this quote reminded me to carry on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to them at every chance i get so that when they find evil, they will recognize it and know it for what it is and be protected from it.

on a lighter note, i've decided that i'm going to start making a decadent dessert for consumption during conference weekend. this year was "knock you naked" brownies from the pioneer woman.

they were pretty good after chilling in the fridge for 24 hours. then they were excellent after 48 hours chilling time. i omitted the nuts because nuts are gross,

i wasn't knocked naked after eating these brownies, but my pant's button was definitely popped open. 

we also had the opportunity to clean our chapel one saturday in october. the kids always think this is so fun.  this is our disneyworld.

whilst we were cleaning, some of the young single adults from church were showing up for a weekend conference. a couple of the ladies went up to thomas and introduced themselves. i'm very proud to say he's still got it.

thomas is a great dad to his kids. he makes such a great effort to play with them. and he's good at it. i find that when i play with them i have to train my face to look nice and smiley. thomas just smiles naturally. my fun is practiced. his goodness is innate. 

everybody has one fun parent and our's is not me. but, thomas always backs me up when i declare it is time to clean something up. our exercise ball now lives on the tramp. the step from "the firm" workout is the step stool for the kids to climb on the tramp. we also have a rusty wagon that greets you when you enter the backyard. we are "those" neighbors. 

this dang dog needed a bunch of medical attention in october. don't let that pathetic face fool you. he had an ear infection, an infection between his toes, weight issues(you can't even call a dog fat anymore) sensitive skin and all around old gross dog smell. merry christmas kids. 

for fall break we took a trip to waycross. the 6 hour trip down ended up taking 10. all part of the package deal.

have you ever nursed a screaming baby strapped in a carseat, driving down a very crowded highway? i have. i should have charged the other cars for the show.

and old pizza farts was in the back, rounding out the delightful crew.

waycross is always lovely this time of year. they are just finishing up summer and the weather was 80s the whole time.

scarlett was tricked into work by making real lemonade

we drove over to wild adventures in valdosta for  the day. one recurring themes was, "big man in a little ride".

it was funny every time. 

we convinced reagan to go on the flying carpet ride because we thought it was going to stay like this.

and then it ended up doing this and the poor thing was gripping that handle for dear life. no seatbelts or anything!

thomas and i went on our first date in months with a 5 minute roller coaster while mimi susu watched the kids. 

at the end of the month we had our trunk or treat at church. 

scarlett was a cat with items found in her dress up tub. thomas asked if she needed pants and i said no. mostly because the ones i wanted weren't clean. so that's that. and reagan was the pig from word world. he made his own costume out of contruction paper and tape. thankfully his pants were clean already/

more fun for other, less fun for some.

pumpkin masterpieces i carved minutes before trick or treating. the kids tried to paint them the same time i was wiedling cutting tools. author's note- pumpkins that are starting to soften and turn are WAY easier to carve than a nice, firm ripe pumpkin. almost like cutting butter with a hot knife. easy peasy lemon squeezy. smells good too.

grunt grunt grunt. the end/