Family Service Project

So what we thought was a sacrific ends up being a great blessing..........

on the day of the big Turkey Shoot which was also the day of Kiersten's dance recital.........we were suppose to do a family service project as part of our 25 Days to Bring Christ into Our Christmas. Because there was so much going on that day we told the kids we'd need to decide to either go to the Turkey Shoot or do our family service project, but there wouldn't be time to do both.

I couldn't believe we had a great discussion with the kids.........we talked about the cost of entering the Turkey Shoot, $25 per person and without any coercing............ they decide it was too close to Christmas to be spending that much money and that doing a service project was the better thing to do. I was so happy with their decision!

The kids thought it would be nice (and fun) to rake someones yard.

We happen to have gone by my Aunt Ann's house a few days earlier to look for snails.....when it rains she has a ton of snails and the kids LOVE to find them.

When we were there looking for the snails Kiersten noticed Aunt Ann's yard had a ton of leaves and needed to be raked.

My Uncle David had been sick since October and was unable to get out and do it.

So we decided their yard would be the perfect spot.

We got our rakes, plastic bags, gloves and hot chocolate and away we went.

Grammie Boswell watched Mr. Grant for us.........

and Justin showed up with his leaf blower/sucker. What a blessing that turned out to be.

The kids had so much fun raking the leaves and of course..........

JUMPING in them!

It was actually a pretty nice day. Kiersten was so happy to finally be jumping in leaves. She has wanted to jump in a pile of leaves for months, but our trees aren't very big yet so their isn't enough leaves for a pile. Look at that air......... They just had a blast! Hunter was a serious worker! He worked the hardest out of all the kids for sure. I think he wanted to impress his dad..........and he SURE DID! Of course it wasn't all work! Nice One Kiersten! This ones looks like it might hurt on landing?

Hunter kept trying karate moves...

Sweet toothless grin!

Aunt Ann came out a lot to visit and express her gratitude.

It was a great feeling to know how much this meant to her and Uncle David.

The kids love Aunt Ann's house!!!

Aunt Ann is always so sweet to my kids! She asks them about school, dance, what they like. It was just a sweet time. Little did we know that Uncle David would pass away shortly after this.....on Janurary 9th.

We were so grateful we had decided to go clean Aunt Ann's yard that day!

As I visited shortly with Uncle David he expressed his gratitude and kept saying we, "needed to take our pictures into the newspaper so they could write up a story about what we did." It was a sweet gesture and made us know how truly grateful he was........... I was thankful my kids got to experience the true JOY that only comes from SERVING OTHERS!

We of course did not submit anything to the paper, as that was not our purpose in the least degree.

Thank you Aunt Ann and Uncle David for your examples and love.

Truth be told I believe Justin thoroughly enjoyed using his power tool! And man did it make cleaning up the yard much easier.

Hunter loved the leaf sucker right along side his dad!

Hunter could hardly hold the leaf sucker up because it is so heavy, but he work as hard as he could and did it for quite some time until he became too tired.

We all were very impressed with Hunter's work that day..........and every one's desire to serve.

It was fun to visit with Aunt Ann and Uncle David. I am so thankful to know of Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness. What comfort it is to KNOW Uncle David is in a beautiful, sweet place. Uncle David's passing is a bitter sweet reminder to us all to better ourselves and Come Unto Christ..............so we can be found worthy to enter into the presences of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ once our probation period here on earth is through.