Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!

Wow.. What a day! Kaniela had a great FIRST Thanksgiving Day. He is very grateful for his family and food. Kevin was on call, so we asked our family to come to us. We are so grateful for them, and their willingness to come and hangout with us. We has so much fun with them. We love you guys so much!

Kaniela is a food lover, and he was in heaven yesterday! He hardly slept at all, but he ate a ton! He loved the mashed potatoes, turkey, Rebecca's rolls, pumpkin pie, and his favorite was Uncle Thayne's sweet potato casserole (because of the tons of brown sugar and butter).

The last of the family just left, and my little apartment feels so empty now! Thanks family for coming, we love you!

Now... I'm off to the storage unit to get the Christmas decorations!! YAY!!

Piano Lessons..

We just got home from visiting my parents and had a lot of fun! We were excited to be able to relax a little while we were there. Here are some cute pictures of Kevin playing the piano with Kaniela. It was very cute and very sweet, of course I had grab the camera. The pictures are not the best, because the lighting in there, but it's the moment that counts right?

Sweet Sister Shaffer

Can anyone guess what today is? November 10th.. It's a big anniversary for me! Anyone???

FIVE years ago today, I officially became a RM!! Yep, November 10, 2004 was the day I came home from (at that time I thought) the best time of my life (now I know it was just the best time at that time)!

Because that day was so significant in my life, every year I ponder back on the mission and that day I was sent home. The other day I was thinking about that, and the person I was when I was a missionary. I started laughing thinking about Sweet Sister Shaffer... O to be the person I was on my mission again..

For those who don't know and remember, I did N

OT want to come home. I felt like they were kicking me out of the Garden of Eden into the Telestial world.. (sorry for the LDS terms..). I was so determined to stay 'perfect' and not indulge in the things of the world. On the way home from the airport, I didn't even want to watch 'Finding Nemo'... So they put on 'Finding Faith in Christ'... Haha! When my mom asked me if I wanted a new dress for my homecoming talk, I told her I had plenty of dresses... She and my sisters were SHOCKED, to say the least. Yes, I was one of those weird RM's, and it lasted for a long time.

What I'm trying to get at is as much as I make fun of Sweet Sister Shaffer, it's not a bad person to be. The perspective that I had was what I would

hope that I have kept all these years. It's hard to not be a missionary, yet keep the missionary rules... Some are impossible... But the perspective of serving our Heavenly Father full-time, whatever your mission may be; wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, sunday school teacher, neighbor, etc... And the perspective of wanting to be, 100% obedient, so that you are not the leak in the faith pool! We might not to be able to be a missionary the rest of our lives, but we can have a missionary mind. Always looking for opportunities to love and serve those around you!

I know that being able to serve as a missionary helped to be a better wife, mom, sister daughter, friend, sunday school teacher, neighbor, and PERSON...

I'm grateful for that Sweet Sister Shaffer, that I can look and reflect on and remind me what really is important in life.

The Camera is Back!

Well we got our camera back... Thanks Jacki! But have not had the chance to take some cute costume pics. Don't worry it will come! I've learned that this camera is not just a fun hobby, but it's a way to document Kaniela's life in a fun beautiful way. What a cute boy he is, and I'm so glad I can capture that!

He was watching TV the other day and it was so cute, and I was so glad I could grab our camera and quickly take some quick shots... As you know kids do stay in one place very long, so well it's nice to have something that is quick to shoot!

He's SOOOO CUTE!!!

DUUUUDE!! That's the cutest Turtle (Honu) EVER!

We had a great and memorable first Halloween with Kaniela! The best part, of course, was that he made the cutest little turtle!I didn't really want to take Kaniela trick-or-treating, because really, he's not going to eat it, and I didn't really want all the candy; so, I decided that we were going to make treats and take them around to people. So I spent the whole morning and afternoon doing that. I attempted something that I had never attempted before, and it wasn't as easy as I anticipated.... SOOO, it took a little longer than I thought. I think next time I try something new, I better start the week before, just to learn all the tricks. I better start working on Kaniela's birthday cake now huh?! But they turned out pretty cute!

These are cake pops. I got the idea from bakerella. My favorites ended up being the Jack Skeletons. (If you decide to make these, let me know, I'll tell you the tips that I figured out during the making process.) The little marshmallows are mummies and then below, are little witches hats!

So I accidentally left our camera in CA when I was there a couple weeks ago. SOOO, we had to make due with our little camera. BUT I did take a video so you can see the WHOLE costume.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!! Can't wait to see all your post!