Our Thankful Week

Our Mansfield Thiots
I'm not sure if there is any way possible that the Mansfield Thiot's could have possibly squeezed in any more fun this week.  They've had a great one including a trip to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags over Texas, a trip to San Antonio to Sea World, a trip to Austin on the way home to pick up cousin Tanner and then to our house for Thanksgiving which included a sleep over for the girls and a wonderful Friday morning with Graypa at the movies and the park and then going home for more fun on Saturday and ending up in the Hot tub at Nana and Papa's home.  WOWSERS!  They need a holiday to recoup from the fun.  It was great to see you!

Our Medford Granges
Our Medford Granges made a lot of fun memories too.  They had a trip to the library to decorate turkey cookies, they discovered new parks and playgrounds and had a ball and had a pajama and bounce house day which they all loved and had friends over for pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving eve, enjoyed a mini version of thanksgiving on Thursday and Decked their Halls for Christmas on Friday and then woke up way early and headed to Gigi and Bumpa's for the Grange Thanksgiving on Saturday morning.  Lots of good times and memories made.

Our Carmichael Thiots
Charlie's family had a bit of a different Thanksgiving week, but also were able to make some great memories although not altogether all the time.  Charlie has three giant old trees in his back yard which make for lovely shade in the summer time and beautiful autumn leaves in the fall and then when they drop off the tree, it makes for some fun leaf raking and jumping in piles of leaves but then the time comes to rake them and bag them.  Perhaps that is not the very funnest part of those trees but to have the job done, is very satisfying.  Charlie has worked hard on that this week and was able to attend Thanksgiving dinner with a family that he ministers too.  The kids were with their grandparents in Portland visiting family there.  They were missed.

Pierce & Stacy Scuba diving

Our LA Thiots

Pierce and Stacy hosted out of town cousins this week and as you can only imagine, Adelaide and Jackson have been in their glory.  They love having cousins in town and have had such a good time.  They planned their thanksgiving feast for the beach but the wind kicked up and they relocated back home.  Stacy and Pierce had a fun Scuba Diving date this week. What a fun thing to do together. On White Friday at the temple this week, a cute couple approached me and asked if I remembered them.  They were in our ward 21 years ago and Brother Lance Bradford was Pierce's 11 year old scout leader.  He was amazing.  They moved to San Antonio where he is now serving as Stake President.  What fun that was.  He wanted to hear all about Pierce.

Elie studying the American girl catalog after coming to check on me

Our Oak Lawn Thiots
Kara enjoyed her week out of school and getting to spend extra time with  Miss Elie.  They had a date to the zoo one day while Skyler had to work and enjoyed it a lot. Skyler and Elie came to check on me when I was feeling crummy.  She is good medicine.  They've enjoyed decking their halls for Christmas and Elie is enchanted with all things Christmas.  Kara's family went to Fairfield to spend Thanksgiving with her mama's side of the family.  We were lucky enough to get Sky and Elie to be at our Book End Thanksgiving Feast.  We had 10 of us and were missing 13 but we were happy with who could be there with us.

We Plano Thiots
It's kind of funny, but I am feeling like kids out of school do, that the time went by way to fast and now school is back tomorrow.  It's been a blessing to not have seminary this week as I have not felt well.  I've had time to take it easy and Dick has been a very good helper.  He told me he could handle the thanksgiving feast, but I was sure glad I felt well enough to be a helper.  I have an old tooth that is going to need to be pulled on Tuesday.  That will be a "fun" day.  Getting old is not for sissys my mom used to tell me.  She is right!

Dick and I watched the first half of the BYU vs Utah Football game last night.  The first half was by far the better half.  My dad loved BYU Football and we were certain he had a pretty great seat to watch from last night.  He didn't have to fight traffic or search for that last parking space or anything.  He loved his football tickets and going to the games.  I'm sorry the final score was not what we had hoped it would be.  If they could have ended at half time, we would have been thrilled!   Maybe next year.

May I share a sweet Thanksgiving miracle?  On Thanksgiving, I put my beauiful but bald thankful tree on the table in the living room.  I put four packages of different colored autumn leaves, a hole puncher, wire hangers and a package or markers beside the tree.  I didn't say a word, but had hoped that by the end of our day, that tree might have been sporting a few leaves.  Like I said earlier, this was not my best week and even though I have a very thankful heart and so many blesssing to count, they had not been placed on leaves on our tree.  So it was kind of a Thanksful experiment you might say.  When I returned from the temple on Friday afternoon, quite exhausted, Dick had taken the girls to the movies and to the playground and then out to lunch so I could have an hour to recoup and regroup and there on my thankful tree was one red leave and written on it "everyone".  I could not have said it better myself.  Brooklyn, you are dear to my heart.  Thank you for adding one beautiful red leaf to our tree.  I loved it!   We then had the sweetest Thanksgiving story reading hour.  Each of my girls, grabbed a thanksgiving book and took turns reading it to us.  My Harper is a new reader and she did great too.  What a sweet thankful feeling filled my heart.  Thank you girls!
I hope your Thanksgiving was a day to be thankful for your blessing.  And now with thanksgiving behind us, it's time to let the Christmas Season Light our World.

If you want to be happy, be Grateful!

Our Mansfield Thiots
Saturday was a day of lovely weather in Mansfield after a very frosty cold start to the week.  Ricky took advantage of the weather and got our his ladder and was able to get this Christmas lights installed on his two story home.  This was the second year, so much simpler after having everything measured out last year and cords cut the the correct length.  I believe Ricky could be a professional Light Scapper.  I haven't seen it in person, but the photo he sent looked spectacular. When our boys were much smaller, we made a flyer to be light scrappers in our neighborhood.  They had one neighbor hire them. They put the lights along the boarder of the side walk and flower beds instead of on the roof lines.  It looked great.  Addison had an amazing field trip where her class went to i-fly which she loved.  She's hoping to have her 10th birthday there next summer.  Harper's class got to dress up in their Sunday best and attend a play.  She loves dressing up and loved the play with her class mates.  Brooklyn had a good week too.  She found a library book she had borrowed from my library many months ago and Brooklyn, I'm happy to report, its turned back in!  Brooklyn has been illustrating and writing some stories about cats.  She is a very gifted illustrator and I loved looking at her books.  WOW! I'm so grateful for our Mansfield Thiots!

Our Medford Granges
It's been a good and busy week in Oregon.  They enjoyed having Monday, Veterans Day as a school Holiday and loved remembering family members who have served in the military.  They had a wonderful weekend last when they were able to attend the West Coast Cousin Camp that was held in Carmichael California.  All three of our west coast Thiot families met up at Charlie's home and had such a fun time together.  Keelie and Callum had made some fun plans which were a little challenged by the smoky skies in Carmichael, but they managed to squeeze in plenty of fun and made some really good memories.  They loved playing with cousins and loved Charlie's amazing back yard.  I'm so grateful that they were able to spend time together. How that warms a mothers heart.

Our Carmichael Thiots
The first picture I received from the WCCC was a picture of my Charlie holding Tatia's Charlie.  Now that put a giant smile on my face.  Its a tiny bit confusing having two Charlie's in our family but it's a wonderful connection for those too.  I love it.  Keelie is a planner.  She loves to have things to look forward to and loves to make plans in great detail.  I loved getting to sit on her planning committee and be the secretary of taking minutes of the plans.  Almost everything was able to come to pass except for the scavenger hunt at the Sacramento Temple.  As soon as the company headed both North and South, Charlie bundled up his two kidos and took them to the temple grounds so they could go on the hunt.  They loved it and it made me smile when i got the picture of them in front of the beautiful Sacramento Temple.  They found everything except the wild turkeys who love to stroll about the temple grounds.  I was not surprised thinking how close to Thanksgiving it was.  I'm sure they are laying low.  I'm so grateful you hosted this fun West Coast Cousin Camp Charlie!

Our LA Thiots
Pierce, Stacy, Adelaide and Jackson were the first to arrive at Camp.  Stacy has such a gift of seeing what needs doing and is so gracious about doing it.  I loved that she has such kind and helpful ways.  I got a photo of Pierce on Charlie's roof with a leaf blower.  I think it was  a good thing that I was NOT invited to this camp.  Im not sure this mom could have approved that kind of fun.  Oh what fun was had, trampoline, swings, races, and just plain fun.  With no one to say, "don't do that" it was I'm sure much much better.  I'm so grateful for your making the big drive and for hosting the Gingerbread house decorating activity.  These are memories our grand kids are making for all eternity.  I'm grateful!

Our Oak Lawn Thiots
Our sweet Kara spent a good part of last week, sick sick sick.  It was not anything to be grateful for but what it does make us grateful for is to recognize when we are feeling good how grateful we can be.  Skyler was such a good trouper in taking extra good care of both  his girls.  What a good man you are Sky!  I'm glad Miss Elie got to come and hang out with me a couple of days.  How I love those special times.  I especially loved when we got to pick up our Mansfield girls after school one day and build a thankful tree together.  How grateful I am for 4 little granddaughters in Texas. 

 

We Plano Thiots
As I count my blessing, my family and especially my dear husband are right at the top of my list. This is our 40th Thanksgiving we will share together and how blessed I am to have him in my life.  I've had a crummy cold this week and things around the house have been placed in a holding pattern.  He was most helpful saturday morning when I was feeling better, to give me a helping hand for a couple of hours.  It was wonderful to have a cleaning buddy.  Thank you Dick! 
A friend of mine was teaching a class about family history games.  I had told her about the CAR BINGO game I had made for Grandpas 88th birthday two years ago.  Together Dad and I had found photos of  most of the cars he had owned during his life.  What sweet memories. It was fun to find a box to store it in and make it a family favorite to be played again and again.  My dear friend Dalia cut the vinyl letters to make it look so professional.  Thanks container store for the fun tin to store it in. 

I LOVED this video on lds.org this morning.  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/gratitude?lang=eng   Oh how grateful I am for each of you!  Happy Thanksgiving! SLY Robynn

Halloween Week!

Our Mansfield Thiots
After squeezing in as much time as possible with Becky's brother and her parents last weekend and half of this week, life is back to normal.  Ricky spent the first part of the week in beautiful Portland Oregon, just four hours north of Tatia's family.  I loved thinking of them being that close.  He's back home now and it was the Daddy Daughter Dance for the Activity Age girls in their ward on Saturday night.  After talking about it, they decided to they would rather have a daddy daughter dinner date and went and had fajitas.  Oh what a fun time they had together.  They loved it!  Way to go your three! I bet Harper and her mommy had a fun night together too.  I'm guessing they may have had a date to chick fil A, Harpers favorite spot.  I'm Looking forward to Thursday with you girls!

Our Medford Granges
Jakes parents, aka Gigi and Bumpa came to surprise the kids on Sunday evening.  Oh what a wonderful surprise.  They were able to be there for Penny's award ceremony on Monday afternoon.  I'm sure they loved being there to clap their hands off when Penny was awarded Second Grader of the month!  They were there to carve pumpkins, and go trick or treating and were a big help to watch the little boys while Tatia attended class parties on Halloween with Max and Penny.  I love Medford that alows  you to wear customes to school and party on.  Plano is not fun like that.  booo Plano! Thursday morning before returning home, they went on a fun hike in the beautiful autumn folage.  I loved the photos Tatia!

Our Carmichael Thiots
Charlie reported that the Chili Cookoff was a good time.  However, he said the recipe I shared with him was only ok or maybe he said good.  No trophy this time but maybe he'll use Stacy's recipe next time and bring home the trophy.  He did say there is one good thing about making only ok chili, and that is that he had a little left in his crock pot to bring home and he loves frito pie and chili dogs and navajo tacos that you can make with left over chili.  Now that is almost as good as a trophy I do believe.  Go Charlie!  They had a fun evening of trick or treating with thieir good friends.  Love that crayon box and Darth,  you look like the real deal! Charlie ran in his first Spartan Race this weekend.  Run Charlie Run!!!!!

Our LA Thiots
Ok, it's happening, I can share..... Stacy has added a couple of new products to her Poppy Lane bracelet shop and this weekend was kind of the kick off in Sandy, Utah.  There is a Pinners Conference where you have  a booth and what fun that was.  She invited our Utah Family to come and see her booth.  I LOVED the photo that Stacy sent of my sister, and my neice and my grand neice who got to come and see her darling booth.  Go Stacy. Those blankeys look amazing!  I just want to touch them all.  So soft and such pretty designs you made. LOVE them all!

Our Oak Lawn Thiots
Skyler and Dick rode in the Dallas Bike Ride Saturday morning.  It's a 20 mile ride all around Dallas.  They did it last year and have been looking forward to this year of participating again.No Cars, No Worries, Just FUN!  Kara got to Proctor an SAT test at her school and so I got to hang out with Miss Elie.  We had a fun time but not nearly as much fun as the biker dudes had.  They came home tired but happy.  I'm glad they got do do that.  Dick said there are probably 100 intersections that they close off to make it safe for bikers.  What a fun way to see the town and cross the bridges without the fear of being run over. On a harder note, Miss Olivia who Sky helped write the book about Olivia's Heart has been back in the hospital this week.  She has some tummy issues.  They performed a surgery to help and we are praying it works and that she is coming home soon.  We love you Olivia!

Skyler may have snuck mr. Beto's sticker on Dick's helmet:) 

The ride began right by Sky and Kara's old home

We Plano Thiots
After saying goodbye to Daylight Savings Time last night, my crazy body woke up at the same four o'clock hour only it was now only 3:00.  I'm not sure I'm going to like this time change.  ugggg.  I told the Seminary kids it will be like coming at 7:00 instead of 6:00 but they didn't really believe me.  We  can dream anyway.  Our Temple reopens on Tuesday morning.  It's been closed for 2 weeks for a fall cleaning and it's been very unusual on Friday mornings.  I simply didn't know what you do on Friday mornings since I've been at the temple on Fridays for so many years.  Last week I spent the morning in my laundry room cleaning and organizing.  For such a small room, it can sure get into a mess.  It's much better now and I teased Dick that I called a plumber and had a sink installed.  Previously, my sink was filled with "stuff"  it's much nicer now to have a useful sink.  This past Friday morning I spent looking over Seminary lessons for this coming week.  We have from Section 47-58 to teach.  That's quite a bit of great principals and scripture to teach.  I'm looking forward to learning much.  Tomorrows lesson is about calling a church historian and recorder.  It's teaching about the importance of keeping accurate records and a record of our history.  I'm looking forward to teaching my love for recording history in the form of Our Thiot Times.  Our Family History that I've been doing almost every Sunday for the past twenty years. I also got to go over and visit with my Uncle Mike who is in town visiting taking care of his two grandson's while his daughter, my cousin Pammy has gone to her friends 40th birthday party.  It was so good to see him and catch up with him. 
Elie and I loved making monster krispy pops for my seminary kids and I loved making broken leg bread sticks for the Primary kids after their program last sunday.  Our chorister fell and broke her knee cap and I wanted to do something that she would have done if she'd been feeling better from her.  So fun!

 My darling neice Carissa had her baby girl and what a sweetie.  Thea Jane was born on the 28th of October!  She makes number 76 in our big family.  Hope your week of Halloween was a BOO-tiful one.  Sure love you, Robynn