Our American Thanksgiving 2008

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." --Abraham Lincoln


This extended holiday weekend has been wonderful. We have tried to take advantage of every event and occasion to get the most out of this Thanksgiving experience. The day before Thanksgiving, Kevin got off work early and immediately got busy putting up our lights. There is a "debate" going on now in our house as to whether or not Kevin should risk his life just to adorn the top two peaks of our house with lights- you can weigh in on the controversy on my newly added side panel poll.
After the lights at our house, we went to a nearby shopping center for their grand tree lighting ceremony. We met up with our friends, the Boyles and enjoyed a little parade, a lot of character spotting and of course, the tree lighting.

We saw Santa, and Rudolph and the Grinch and...the Easter bunny? (I know its from Alice in Wonderland but still - it seemed a bit out of place to me)

Brielle and daddy- oh so cute!

As you may have noticed- I am not the best photographer....sadly, this is the only shot of the tree and kids and I know- it's not great- but nonetheless you get the idea.

Now on to the actual big day. We were so blessed to find a few other dear friends here who were also "famililess" and sticking around for the Holiday so we all joined forces for a mighty feast!

I had a great time setting the table. It was so fun to use my nice dishes I have had in a box for years and never used...until now. I never knew setting a table could be fun- but it really was quite exciting for me.The feeding frenzy... everyone contributed so it was minimally stressful yet maximally delicious!
A plethora of pies... homemade...apple, apple crumb, caramel apple, pumpkin, blueberry, lemon meringue. Yum Yum Yum!

The kids table.

Pin the feather on the Turkey.

There was plenty of football played throughout the day. The ward did a turkey bowl in the morning and the kids played a lot in the backyard while waiting for dinner.

Black Friday followed with Kevin arising at 4am to hit Walmart for some great deals. It was his first time doing the early morning, after-thanksgiving sales. I hope we can make that a new tradition:) I headed out a bit later in the day and still was able to get everything I went for- a successful shopping day it was. When we werent taking turns going shopping, we were setting up our tree and other holiday decorations.

And lastly, we hit the city of Papillion Holiday Lights Festival. It was hmmm...how to describe it...small townish. Simple, and fun. Makenna got her picture taken with Miss Nebraska (really, it's true), we heard some inspiring words from the mayor, had a carriage ride around the block, huddled by the bonfire, decorated cookies, and drank hot chocolate.

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving too. We love you all!

Brielle Stands Up!

Tonight Brielle stood up for the first time on her own and we even captured a pretty good stand on our camera for you to all enjoy. She was just goofing around but when she started to stand and got big cheers she kept doing it and got pretty good at it. This girl loves to entertain!

I promise I am not getting political on here

I woke up this morning at 5 am and could not get back to sleep, and so this morning, I am using my blog to vent (my apologies).
Even after taking a full day off of the media, I am still so troubled by what is going on in this country with regard to marriage and prop 8 and all the subsequent related news and heat the LDS church is taking. So you may be saying to yourself- "the Brandvold's didn't move to California did they?" and no we didn't. It's really not all about prop 8 (or 102 in AZ) because next time it will be prop 11 or 18 or 647 and what happens in one state sets precedent for the rest. My issue is about what Marriage is and should be and why. Plus with the way my life goes, I may very well live one day for a time in CA.
I have been so troubled by so many blogs I have read, and people I have talked to that maybe if I blog it out, I can feel like I have had my say. Though since my blog is private and my audience definitely biased in my favor, I know my purpose isn't to change minds, just to vent, On the other hand if it wasn't private, I would be to fearful to speak my mind because of the hateful backlash that would inevitably ensue.
My reason for opposing same sex marriage is that I want my children to grow up in a world where families (with a mom and dad) are still the foundation of our society- where families are valued and recognized as the fundamental unit of society. Marriage is ordained of God, not of man. If its changing it now to any two consenting adults, how will it change in the future. I want to teach my children about love, sexuality, marriage, and family in accordance with my religious beliefs. I want to not be discriminated against because of these beliefs or told that my beliefs are old fashioned, out of date, intolerant, or discriminatory. I do not want to teach my children to hate people who chose to live their lives differently. I want to teach my children to love everyone as Jesus did. I want to teach my children from the Bible- the commandments of God and not to be contradicting the laws of the land or teachings of the schools. That's it in a nutshell.

What angers me the most is the hatred that we are now seeing specifically targeted toward our church- burning book of Mormons, vandalism against churches, protests outside of temples, white powdered being mailed to temples, anti-mormon propaganda throughout the media, members under attack, jokes at our expense. Why us and what are we to do? Interestingly enough, shortly before the election, I read Boyd K Packer's conference talk. I even re read it- trying to figure out what he was trying to say. Now, in light of the recent attacks on our church, I think I understand it a bit more and I think it applies. Ill just say I recommend it and leave it at that.

I know that there are members of the church falling away over this issue. I can see the struggle. I understand it. I "get" the arguments. When I was talking to my brother the other day on the phone, he said to me..."It comes down to following the prophet or not." I think that is so true (as a sidenote to this -if you don't know, the first presidency issued a letter to the members in CA asking them to support Prop 8 with their time and means- click here) and it was affirmed to me when a friend of mine emailed me this quote from Elder Maxwell from 1979. It's such an applicable quote- and the primary reason I wanted to post.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.' "This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as un-trendy and unenlightened....

Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints "A More Determined Discipleship", Ensign, Feb.

1979

Now before, I publish this post and get going with my day, I just wanted to address a couple more things. There are a lot of lies being spewed by every celebrity and media figure out there. The first is that the issue is all about equal rights- well, read for yourselves California law and see if that is true..

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/fam/297-297.5.html

hmmmm- seems they already have equal rights. Maybe I am wrong but it reads that way to me.

And another argument which I feel needs a little reality check, is that Gay Marriage will not be taught in schools because marriage isn't even taught- well watch this clip about what is now happening in Massachusets...

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1784521903

And of course the ever-present argument of tolerance. The word tolerance is used a lot in this whole battle. I really like what is said about Tolerance here: ( You'll have to scroll down to the tolerance part or you can just read the whole thing which is a great document):http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-divine-institution-of-marriage#_ednref16

Okay, I need to go get ready for the day- three kids ready for church with no husband around, oh and dinner needs to be in the crockpot- yes I better get going, but if you arent "linked out" here are a few more great links:

http://www.preservingmarriage.org/
http://www.protectmarriage.com/
http://lisalongll.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/an-analogy/

Elfie

Today I put this sweater on Brielle and when I put the hood on, Makenna broke into riotous laughter and said she looks like an elf. So all morning, Makenna has been calling her "elfie" and Brielle has enjoyed the laughter so much she hasn't let me take the hood down yet.

A little humour...

Often Makenna shocks me with the things that she says- for good and for bad. Yesterday in the car, she was talking to her friend Emily and this is how their conversation went:

Makenna: Did you know, my mom knows everything Jesus knows.
Emily: My mom does too.
Makenna: Well, did you know my mom could beat up a thousand guys.
Emily: Well, all moms can do that.
Makenna: Well my mom's mom, my grandma, she can't beat up that many.


No offense to grandma, I am sure you could beat up a thousand guys too :)

Happy Boo to You!

This year's Haloween festivities were particularly fun-tastic as we had Grandma and Grandpa join us all the way from the great country of Canada.

On Thursday night we went to the Trunk or Treat activity at the church. This year Brayden rewore his good ol dragon costume (despite a new self consciousness over the bulging belly), and after much costume drama, Makenna settled on this sweet Pink Poodle.
On Friday we let the kids skip out on school so we could enjoy a beautiful day at the pumpkin patch. The weather was gorgeous, the crowds were gone, and the activities were a-plenty. It was a PARTY!

On Friday night, of course there was Trick or Treating. It's hard to tell from the picture but our pumpkins were spooktacular!

Brielle was just the cutest little chick-don't you think. It's too bad she hated her costume with a passion. The only thing that could distract her from her costume-induced misery was candy...which fortunately seemed to be everywhere in great abundance. I guess it all worked out. I hope you all had a Happy Haloween too!