Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday this year. First off, for the 2nd or 3rd year in a row we've carried on my Mums tradition of having a turkey box filled with construction paper cut in pumpkin & leaf shapes. Each night we would each write down one thing we were thankful for & put it in the box. We had a FHE lesson one night before our trip & we talked about being grateful/thankful & then Jeremy read all of the pieces of paper & the rest of us had to guess who had written what down. I loved it! This was the first time that the boys were really able to participate the way I imagined them participating. I think it's great to write them down & then go over them as a family.

San Antonio

We drove down to Texas for about 9 or 10 days. We spent the first 3 1/2 days with my brother & his family & my parents who had flown in for a few days. Texas finally got some rain they've been needing & the kids loved playing in it too-warm rain, gotta love that.

Here are the kids posing outside the military hospital Zac works in. He gave me an echocardiogram (is that the right word?) to check out Baby #5's little heart. Luckily he seems to have a strong healthy heart! We also caught a glimpse of his profile & he's awfully handsome. I'm really curious about his hair color. This one will tip the scales to whether we have more red or more brunette-ish headed kids.

We did lots of playing in the backyard, at the park, eating delicious food & chatting. As usual here is Pa with all the kids. This guy knows how to have fun! It was really funny-Emma called Pa 'Ma Ma' almost the whole trip.

One night we went to Aspen Leaf frozen yogurt-just like Orange Leaf & just as delicious

Leander

Next up was spending 5 days with Jeremy's family. I love this picture of Justin! All the kids love this swing but with all that loving the rope finally broke this trip.

Nana & Poppie have quite the little farm going on these days. In addition to four horses they now have chickens, roosters, turkeys & ducks. The kids liked to watch them, feed them & gather their eggs (a couple of them getting cracked in the gathering)

Aunt Jennie prepared some fun activities for the kids to do. We went on a fossil dig down by the river & saw the dinosaur footprints. She had them make edible turkey treats, color turkeys & they did a bunch of games during the Turkey Olympics on Thursday. Hyrum even won the pie eating contest - makes a Momma proud :)

And Nana took us to ride the train as well on a windy blustery day. I guess they do have those kinds of days in Texas :)

Jeremy's brother Steven gave us the best, most thoughtful Christmas present ever. He bought us tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival that was THREE hours away! Nana, Poppie, Alison & Steven were willing to watch all four crazies while we spent almost 12 hours away that day just the two of us. It was nice it was such a long drive - it was fun to be able to talk uninterrupted for so long. We saw some parents at the festival with screaming children & we just smiled & thought we were so glad that was not us.

I got my face painted-I know it's childish but I love to get my face painted & it's been a really long time. I picked something I knew the boys would love when they saw it. We saw a jousting tournament, a Parisian clown/magician/comedian perform, another comedy act & a Fire Whip Show. That was my favorite-what a random hobby though! We ate too much delicious food & walked & walked. Can you tell how excited Jeremy is to have his funnel cake? The first thing he said when we drove up was 'can I get some funnel cake if we can find it???' It was great for people watching too. There were all sorts of costumes-elves, fairies, witches, pirates, knights & traditional Renaissance clothing. Boy, people really get into this! But my favorite was this guy dressed up as the superhero Flash Gordon. It had nothing to do with anything there & that's why I thought it was so great.

We spent the night with Joel, Brooke, Cole & Kylie to break up the drive home & it's good to be back. But it was so much fun while it lasted! The only people in both our families we weren't able to see was Brigg, Hava & Little Luke - we missed you guys!

And now on to Christmas!

Fall Leaves!

And we had our own Thanksgiving dinner since we'll be on vacation during the real deal. This was the first time we all sat at the table together & I think the babies really had fun. A little too much fun, the next day they were back to their trays again :)

FHE

We have Family Home Evening every Monday night at our house. We have a lesson about Jesus or the gospel, have a treat, sing a song, have a prayer & have an activity. Last week we went to the park until it was too dark & then Hyrum did the lesson for the first time. He did such a great job (we practiced a few times). He talked about families & how they're important to Heavenly Father. He made little finger puppets-one for each member of the family. We talked about how it's important that families are nice to each other & that they have fun together & then he had us act out ways we could do both of those things with our puppets. Everyone had fun with it & then he talked about how our family can be together forever by being sealed in the temple. I was so proud of him!

(I love how he made a puppet for Baby #5. And every time he draws a picture of our family he always draws Mommy, Daddy & five kids. It's like he's already here with us. I love it!)

H A L L O W E E N

I just have to say I felt like I couldn't get a good shot of any of the kids this year so these will have to do! And despite Hyrum's new rolling his eyes look everyone (including him) had a very fun week!

Thanks to my Mum for the Thing shirts & thanks to Jeremy for being a good sport. Even though he didn't want to be the Cat in the Hat he did anyway & even helped me make my shirt, his hat & bow tie :) Oh & I love letting the kids design their own pumpkins-they're so cute & funny. Sad we have to take down our decorations now but Christmas is just around the corner.