Gwen, Thanksgiving, and Asher listens!

Gwen turned two on November 19th. We still had some sickness in our house, so we didn't have a big party. As it was, she enjoyed opening her four gifts (Mrs. Potato Head, 2 books, and a baby doll- plus a card from G&G Hixon) and wearing a tutu all day. She also enjoyed stuffing cake into her mouth, as pictured. We enjoyed having Mom and Dad Hixon there, as well as cousin Ericson.

Gwen is a very sweet child. She has her moments, of course. She yells like a demon monster when she thinks she is being ignored, and she freaks out when her brother gets too close to her sometimes. But she is also a singing, dancing, hugging, communicative, happy little girl. She likes all things girly and sweet. She loves books and she loves playing. She loves the park, and she is finally brave enough to go down the little slides by herself.

On to Thanksgiving...

I want to document this because Dan and I seriously had a hole in our minds where last Thanksgiving should have been. I looked to my blog to fill in the gap. NOTHING. Seriously, how did that happen? Anyhow, our memories were jogged as soon as someone reminded us that it took place at the Stecks house. Right.

So this year it was at Stephen and Rachel's. We (I) made stuffing and an apple pie. The stuffing ended up a little soggy, but it had a good flavor... and the pie was delicious. My pie is not pictured in the spread, but let it be written. I made one.

The food was delicious, the company was awesome, and Jake and Hannah fed Gwen so that I didn't have to. She would have been good with a booster seat, but we are lame and didn't bring one. Three things that I loved were the personalized letters we got at our place setting from a member of the S&R Hixon family (mine was from Jake, and it was so sweet), the cork "thankful" tree that you can sorta see in the above picture (More than one of their children is thankful for the show "Lost"), and the chalkboard featuring a scripture on gratitude (it looked like they changed the scripture at least a few times this month).

(This is Gwen getting love from Hannah and Grandma.)

Lastly, I was shocked by something Asher said today.

He really seems like he is never listening. Sometimes he asks "What you said?" and I have to repeat myself at least three times before he actually tries to listen to the answer. So today I told Gwen to be patient about something, and Asher turned to her and said, "Yeah Gwen. Don't you remember about patience from Family Night? You have to wait and wait with a smile on your face." I was astounded. I hardly remember that lesson, and I really doubted he was understanding it, but it must have gotten into that brain of his somehow.

Now if he could just show her patience by example... that would be something.