Canadian Thanksgiving

The awesome Clark family invited us and 5 other families-without-extended-families (Lybbert's, Meissner's, Montminy's, Wilde's, and Williams') over for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast!  There was 36 of us in total.  Look at all of those beautiful white plates ready to serve us all!

I brought my camera, but didn't take a single picture.  Thank you Rita for letting me use your pics for this post.  My plate looked almost identical.  We were definitely fed well!  We brought Noé's favorite- green bean casserole.  We offered to bring Kaleb's favorite- sweet potato casserole but the Wilde's beat us to it.

The kids table.

The weather was absolutely glorious!  Usually it is already freezing cold, but we were blessed with a couple days of Indian Summer.  (A week later we've already had snow flurries for a couple of days, sigh.)

The men had some lively conversation- Greg, Rick,

Marty,

Oliver, Dave,

and Len.

We all ate our fill, it was just sooooo yummy!

Renée, Sheri, and Jackie got the dessert ready.  I made my favorite- coconut cream pie, Jackie made my other favorite- turtle cheesecake, and Renée made the seasonal favorite- pumpkin pie.  There were also a couple of delicious chocolate cakes.

Me, Grace, and Mellonie,

Rita, and me again.

One of my favorite couples- Ruby and Hiram.

Talia is definitely the prettiest Darth Vader ever!

Rita and her handsome Liam.

All of the kids had so much fun playing in their amazing backyard.

I'm gonna get you!

 

Here I come!

We love Thanksgiving and are so grateful for such dear friends!  We're also grateful we get to celebrate again next month!

Life Story #1

I read this article today and decided to take the challenge!  Each Friday for the next year I'm going to answer one question and get more of my life history recorded here on this blog.  I would love to challenge each of my readers to do the same!  If you do take the challenge, please leave me a comment, I'd love to read your story!

1.  What is your full name? Why did your parents give you that name?

Jennifer Lynn Pittl Reil.  Well, my maiden name was Jennifer Lynn Pittl and my married name is Jennifer Lynn Reil. 

Jennifer is the most popular girl's name for American baby girls born from 1970-1984!!  I remember asking my mom why she named me such a popular name (growing up I had so many friends named Jennifer, including 3 best friends- Jennifer Brennan, Jennifer Strain, and Jennifer Leavitt)?  She told me that it wasn't a common name when she named me (I guess that's what all the moms thought).  She watched the movie Valley of the Dolls and one of the characters was named Jennifer North and she thought it was a pretty name.  I don't think it hurt that the character was played by Sharon Tate.  She was a beautiful woman.  I always feel haunted when I think of her though, because she was murdered by Charles Manson and his crew.

 

Lynn wasn't chosen for any particular reason, they just liked the sound of Jennifer Lynn together.  I was called Jenny as a little girl and one of my teachers called me Jenny Lynn (which made me cringe, as I felt like a country hick, ha).  However, I called my best friend Bethany (Jean), BJ and she called me Jenny Lynn, and I loved that!  My littlest brother called me Jenna too.  Now most people call me Jen.

 

I'm glad my maiden name was my father's last name, and I'm glad when I got married that I took my husband's last name.  I have friends that have chosen to hyphenate their last names and others who have just kept their maiden name, but I like the symbolic unity that having one family name gives.

 

Some other choices for my name were Dawn Michelle and Melinda Jo.  Those are both nice names, but I'm glad my parents chose Jennifer Lynn.

Hidey-hole

My friends joke that our house is Fort Knox.  You see, Teague got into EVERYTHING when he was a toddler.  One time he got the toaster out, plugged it in, and put marbles in it.  Another time he got the blender out, plugged it in, and turned it on (luckily, the blade wasn't in it).  To have enough peace of mind to use the bathroom, I had to put child locks on every kitchen cupboard and drawer.  Ali seems to take after Teague, but since most things are locked up she's had to be more creative with her exploration.  She had been using the bottom part of this cabinet to hide little treasures in.  Then one day I found her in it!

Don't mind me, I'm just having fun in my hidey-hole!

She keeps me on my toes!

Just call me Bob!

I think my favorite hairstyle was when I had long, blonde, curly hair.  However, my hair needs high-maintenance to look decent, but I am a low-maintenance girl at heart.  I have been trying to find a simpler style that still looks okay.  I went back to being brunette, cut bangs, started growing them out again, but I was still wanting more of a change.

Bob it is!  I do like the shorter, straight style.  However, my hair is still a frizz-ball naturally, so I don't think I'm saving much on maintenance to get it styled.  Sigh.

Got Milk?

Ali loves her milk bottles and Hiram loves his milk sippy-cups!  I thought they were so cute snuggled up together on the couch drinking their milk.

Hiram wanted to read his books on the stairs and Ali wanted him to read to her.

He wanted to read to himself, but Ali kept chasing him.

Such cute little friends (Ali looks so big!).

Hiram loves making silly faces for the camera and I love that he can wink.  Such fun kiddos!

Toys 'R Us Kid!

September's parent-child date was Gavin & Mommy.  When Gavin went on his date with Leonard in March, they finally had to settle on window-shopping at Toys 'R Us because both the swimming and bowling they wanted to do weren't open for them (darn swimming lessons and league bowling, tee hee).  So I was a little surprised when I asked Gavin what he wanted to do for our date and he answered with visit Toys 'R Us!  I'm a Toys 'R Us kid at heart too, so off we went.  We looked at all of the Thomas the train sets for him, and he even obliged me with a quick walk down the doll aisles.  I do wish I put my foot down for dessert though.  I wanted to take him to Marble Slab for ice cream, but since Leonard took him to Tim Horton's for doughnuts and hot chocolate, that's what he wanted to do again.  We went and it was so disappointing.  Since it was so late at night they only had one option of doughnuts available- pumpkin spice.  I enjoyed them, but Gavin- not so much.  The guy that ordered in front of us ordered a frozen raspberry lemonade.  That sounded good to me so I ordered the same.  I was given regular frozen lemonade that was very bland tasting, but very cold (major major brain freeze!).  Gavin stuck with hot chocolate that was SCALDING hot and also very bland.  The service was friendly but EXTREMELY slow.  The tables and chairs were filthy dirty too.  Tim Horton's is a big deal in Canada, but every time I go I am disappointed.  Where is a good Winchell's Donuts when you need them?  Gavin, let's get ice cream next time!  Love you sweet boy!

The Montreal Temple is Reopening!

Our church's temple in Montreal is reopening, so I made up some new bulletin boards for our Relief Society room.

The OPEN HOUSE is from November 5th-14th (except the 8th).

Kaleb and Noé will be performing in the CULTURAL CELEBRATION on November 21st.

The DEDICATION will be held on November 22nd.  Leonard will go with Kaleb and Gavin to one of the sessions, while Noé and I will go to another (you have to be 8 years old to go, so we'll take turns to be home with Teague, Hiram, and Ali).

I can't wait to have our nearest temple be only 2 1/2 hours away instead of 4 1/2 hours away!

Cubaree

Gavin got to spend the WHOLE day at a city-wide Cubaree recently.  We dropped him off at church at 7:45 in the morning, then we picked him back up from the church at 10:00 that night.  The poor guy was fast asleep in his leader's car and I had to wake him up to get into our car.  He quickly fell asleep in our car and I had to wake him up again to get him up to bed (he's too big for me to carry anymore).  He kept trying to curl up on our staircase and just sleep there, but I eventually got him up to bed.  The next day he told me all about it and he had a great time!!

Photo Badge

At one of Kaleb's YM/Scouts activities recently they learned a little about photography.  They were challenged to take some photos of their own, edit one, and then print it out to share.  They could earn their Photography merit badge if they did this.  Kaleb asked if he could take our camera (the spare one, not the good one, tee hee) to school to accomplish this.  Sure!  I love to see the things my kids capture.  I was expecting unique nature or architecture shots.  Instead he brought home pics of his friends.  Bravo Kaleb!  You know what really matters in life...

PEOPLE!

 

 

 

These are all the raw images.  I'll add his edited one(s) soon!

Busy at Work!

Ali is ALWAYS busy at work!  She is into absolutely everything, and she climbs up on everything, and she wants to help me with everything.  Of course, this keeps me SUPER busy at work!

But just look at this sweet little face.  How can I resist it?  Life with a toddler is definitely harder than life with a baby, but it is so rewarding too.  It is so fun to see her own little personality and opinions develop.  Even though it is tough at times to keep her occupied, safe, and for me to get other work done, I am so glad to have this little partner beside me.

The Priesthood is Restored

We had planned to go out of town for Labor Day weekend as one last summer hurrah.  With it also being the last weekend before school starting though, I just didn't feel right about it and thought we should stay home and get the kids and their back-to-school gear all prepared.  We did end up going out of town the weekend after school started, so we had a win-win with getting the kids ready for school and having another hurrah!  We went to Palmyra, New York to finish the temple work we started there over a year ago for my Granny's 8 siblings.  It was such a wonderful moment to kneel at the altar as proxy for my great-grandmother with Leonard representing my great-grandfather to have all of their children sealed to them.  This is what the gospel of Jesus Christ means to me- Families can be together Forever!!

 

  The new historical sites in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania had just opened 2 weeks before so we took a little trip within a trip to visit there.

This is where John the Baptist ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the Aaronic Priesthood.

Peter, James, and John also ordained them to the Melchizedek Priesthood later on.

The church re-created the home of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, the parents of Emma (Joseph's wife). 

This is where Joseph and Emma lived when they were first married.

They were a well off family as you can tell by their lovely dining room...

...and their SECOND room for company to visit in.

Joseph and Emma moved down the road to this house.

I wish we lived that close to our parents!

I love seeing these "historical" houses and imagining what it would have been like to live in them.  I think I would have always been cold.

I don't enjoy cooking, but I am so glad I don't have to cook over an open fire!

I do enjoy laundry, but that's because I love my washer and dryer!  I'm so glad I don't have to do my laundry this way.

Joseph translated most of the Book of Mormon in this home.  It was really neat to see this replica of the golden plates.

Oliver Cowdery was Joseph's scribe and these are copies of his written pages (his handwriting was very nice!).

We also visited McKune Cemetery where Isaac and Elizabeth are buried.  Teague looked so sweet skipping through the graves.

This is also where Joseph and Emma's first child was buried.  I can not imagine the pain of burying a child and I hope I never have to experience it!  One day while translating, Joseph learned the doctrine that children who die before the age of accountability are saved in heaven, and not sent to limbo.  I can not imagine the joy that Joseph and Emma felt then after learning this beautiful truth.

We took a nice stroll through the Sugar Bush where John the Baptist appeared to Joseph and Oliver.  I have a similar picture of me walking with Noé when she was Ali's size.  Ali is reminding me SO much of Noé these days!

 

I found that picture and had to add it here.  Deja Vu!

 

Wildflowers always make me smile.

The Susquehanna River where Joseph and Oliver baptized each other.

My cute hubby having a moment of reflection.  He didn't know I took this picture and it reminded him of his dad when he saw it.  We miss you Arlie & Marlene!  Again, I am so grateful that families can be together forever!