Giving Thanks

 Thank God! He deserves your thanks.
    His love never quits.
Thank the God of all gods,
    His love never quits.
Thank the Lord of all lords.
    His love never quits.

Thank the miracle-working God,
    His love never quits.
The God whose skill formed the cosmos,
    His love never quits.
The God who laid out earth on ocean foundations,
    His love never quits.
The God who filled the skies with light,
    His love never quits.
The sun to watch over the day,
    His love never quits.
Moon and stars as guardians of the night,
    His love never quits.

God remembered us when we were down,
    His love never quits.
Rescued us from the trampling boot,
    His love never quits.
Takes care of everyone in time of need.
    His love never quits.
Thank God, who did it all!
    His love never quits!

Psalm 136

We have so many reasons for gratitude - being together as a family; amazing, resilient, and healthy kids; the way God is rebuilding our marriage and family for his glory; the promise that no part of our lives of love for God will every be wasted and that all things are worked together for purpose...

...but more than anything that God has done for us (and the list is long!) we thank God simply because he is God.  He deserves our thanks.  We thank him whether we feel like it or not, whether things are going our way or terribly and horribly wrong because he is alone God and his love never quits.

Ski Season Begins!

Wahoo!  Ski season has started for the Morningstar clan!

It's still definitely early season (we hit some rocks and endured some sleet) but we are not about to complain about a few nicked edges after a particularly crummy last year.  If today's season start is any indication, this is going to be a great ski year for our family!

This morning we decided to "worship on the mountain" (the ultimate cop-out for not going to church, but a poetic one nonetheless) and headed up to Brighton to catch some turns.  I was particularly proud of my tele turns and endurance - I didn't turn in until 3, which is a pretty long day, especially for the first day of the season.  I normally can't make it through a 6 hour ski day so maybe the biking is doing some good!

Sam had a good day as well.  My favorite part of skiing with Sam today was his enthusiastic participation in the tree skiing.  We hit some fairly tough glades (this is what happens when Mommy leads) and he did it all with style (or at least without death or injury, which is our definition of a successful run).  I was very proud.

And Steve hit the slopes for the first time in a year today as well.  Although his leg was really hurting him from the break in January, he muscled through and did a whole morning of lovely tele turns.  We'll have to play around with tele and alpine and snowboarding gear and see what feels best on his shin.  But at least he got to get back on the horse (skis) and spend a happy family morning in the snow!

Now to figure out how I can take the next 4 months off of work... still get paid... still have a job to come back to... and ski every day...

First Snowfall

The first snowfall of the 2012-13 season is upon us!

We got several inches of fluffy (if a little dense for Utah) white stuff on Friday and the kids spent a very happy evening making snow angels and attacking each other (and me) with snowballs.  It was a great start to a hopefully very, very snowy winter.

A very lovely snow angel

Do not trust this face when its owner is holding a snowball.

This face is equally mischievous... well, basically all the time... but especially when holding a snowball

Now that I think about it, just don't trust any of them, not when holding snow.

Thanks for letting me ride Simon

by Sasha

I like Simon.  He's the cutest horse ever.  Thank you for letting me brushing him and get all the dirt off and getting his foot all done.

The best thing about Simon is running.  It feels happy and nice and I really like him when he shakes his head.

I really like horsie lessons and I like getting treats like milkshakes.

Sasha Climbing the Tree

by Sasha

When you're bigger like my age you have to learn to climb trees and you can climb little trees.  But if you can climb big trees, you can climb around it and over it.

I use my strong feet and my strong hands to reach the branch.

I feel happy and excited to make it to the top.

Pumpkin Carving

We had quite the fine pumpkin carving party this year - excellent pumpkins collected from the corn maze pumpkin patch, nice warm weather, and kids who actually scooped out the pumpkin guts themselves!  A first for sure.  Maybe that's because Sam opted out of carving this year - he's always been squeamish around gourd innards.

Sasha was really brave with the pumpkin guts, as long as she had a glove to wear.  My favorite part was when she would use the gloved hand to steady the pumpkin and the ungloved one to scoop.  Whatever works!

WanYing admittedly had the right strategy - small pumpkin = fewer guts

Time to design the masterpieces

Ben always gets really... enthusiastic about the carving

Ben impersonates his finished product

Sash with her sweet kitty cat pumpkin

WanYing shows off her mini pumpkin

Our front porch had a fantastic assortment of very festive jack-o-lanterns this year.  Well done, Morningstar kids!

Halloween

Before you read the annual Halloween post here on Morningstar Happenings, I have a confession - there's nothing extraordinary here.  I mean, yes, we have some of the cutest kids imaginable clearly enjoying a delightful Halloween, but for all of you who have gotten used to our over-the-top costumes, well, this year we went easy.  The girls both wanted to wear costumes we already had in the dress up boxes and Ben had his heart set on saving up for a very cool flashing light Darth Vader costume... so this year we happily opted for convenience.  Adorable, adorable convenience.

The costume conversation with WanYing went something like this:

Mom: WanYing, what do you think you want to dress up as for Halloween this year?

WanYing (staring at Mom, incredulous that she could be so dense): My dragon costume

And that was that.  Thank goodness she could still fit into the dragon costume, otherwise we would have had a dragon-sized revolt!

Waiting for friends to come over so the trick-or-treating could commence

Finally, time to hit the neighborhood and collect (and consume) disgusting amounts of sugar!

We had a fantastic Halloween - warm weather, fun and excited kids, great friends and, of course, lots and lots of candy.  Sash was the champ of the evening, unflaggingly leading the group sprint from house to house and shrieking with delight at every stop.  She even occasionally remembered to shout a hurried "thank you!" over her shoulder while rushing to the next lit doorway.  Makes a mommy proud.