A Place to Call Home

We are pretty settled in here in St. Joseph. The fun part of moving for me, is to find a way to make the new place FEEL like home. Our new place does feel like home :).

Our snowman's carrot nose fell off, but he is still cute :).

Even Hannah loves it!

Moving

Moving is stressful. Enough said. We have felt the added strength of our Savior as we have gone through this period of transition. We love our new home, even though we will only be in it for three months, we already feel at home. We were blessed to find such a wonderful place.

Here are some pictures to tell the story of our move :)

Since we were moving, we didn't decorate for Christmas and we were feeling deprived, so we made some temporary decorations:

We had a goal to have everything packed into boxes or our suitcases to live off of until we left Monday. We were burnt out around 2pm so we took a break for the Christmas Parade. We were so glad we did. We all needed to get out and have some fun!

We LOVE these kids! They were true champs though all of the moving Chaos.

Bolivar's Impressions

Bolivar Missouri will be forever imprinted on our hearts. We have grown so much during our time in Bolivar. There are such good people in Bolivar. We loved our ward (church congregation). We loved the opportunities we were given to serve and learn. Our Father in Heaven sent us to Bolivar. We saw His hand guide us there. We have a better idea now as to why He in His infinite wisdom sent us there. Our testimonies and faith have been tested and strengthened, our talents have been stretched and strengthened, we have been privileged to know some wonderful people. We have been richly blessed by our time in Bolivar, away from our comfort zone of Clovis, California.

People in Bolivar that I will never forget and hope to keep contact with: Karen Jacobs (bubbly, hilarious, charitable, friend), Michelle Guerra (classy, intuitive, friend), Sheena Reisner, LaDawn Moak, CarolAnn Moak, Rebecca Duncan, Kerri Goodman, Sundee Gallion, Rebecca Kamerer, Amy Axom, Deena Vogl, Ireene Vogl, Caroll Wilkins, Rachelle Bolton, Tristian McGill, Misty Sortz, Catherine S, Jana Gosney... I feel I could go on forever. There are so many people that have left permanent impressions on my, mind, heart, and soul.

Thanksgiving 2014

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year but we had more family than last year! We had almost all of David's family. His older sister, Annie, and her family visited before Thanksgiving and weren't there for the actual holiday, and David's little brother, Scott, is still on his mission in Minnesota. We missed Scotty!

It was great having so much family around! It always is :). We made a lot of food and probably ate more than we should have... we played a lot of games and celebrated with some festivities. We read through the Thanksgiving story and had some fun Thanksgiving snacks (thanks to Pinterest).

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/6c/f4/04/6cf40482a0bf56095e42b0974f7be049.jpg

http://meaningfulmama.com/2013/11/turkey-treats.html

http://www.thecasualcraftlete.com/2013/11/24/frugal-crafty-home-blog-hop-51/
Ours wasn't quite as pretty... We peeled more apples than needed for our apple pies so we used those. It was not as colorful.

Our feast consisted of homemade mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and coconut cream pie bars. Needless to say it was all delicious and we had more than enough food. We ate our Thanksgiving meal for lunch so we munched on leftovers for snacks and dinner.

This was my first time making coconut cream pie bars. And they are worth the effort! They were a big hit. I will definitely be making them again. Recipe from Willow Bird Baking.

David requested my mom's blue-ribbon apple pie. My mom makes delicious apple pies! We have missed her pie! But we came out with some great apple pies this year. Kate and Janet, two of my sister-in-laws, helped make the pie crust the night before Thanksgiving. The next day my mother-in-law joined the fun of assembling the apple pies. They got crafty :). Janet made a polk-a-doted top crust and my mother-in-law made a latticed top crust. They looked great and tasted even better. It is always fun to make things with others :).

We all put leaves on our Thankful tree. It sure makes a beautiful tree when we all reflect upon our blessings :).

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the park and had some more fun!

It was truly a marvelous holiday!

A Spiel Visit

Cousins in pajamas! Ready for bed!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we were treated to a visit from David's sister Annie and her beautiful family. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. And David and I had so much fun playing with Annie and Adam. We were dying to play some basketball! We played a game two on two, girls vs. boys and Annie and I won! Of course! But it was a supper close game :). It was so great, we wish they lived close so we could play ball all the time.

We went to Springfield where we played at Jordan Valley Park and at Bass Pro.

Already friends :)

We put leaves on our thankful tree, sang together, prayed together, learned together, laughed together, played together; it was truly a treat to have the Spiel's in our home.