Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving this year. We loved focusing on the things we love the most - our faith, family and friends. We enjoyed a visit from Allen's youngest brother, Jake and his wife Erica who spent their break in Seattle visiting with us and Erica's two siblings who live in the area. It was great fun to have them in our home for a couple days during their visit and they enjoyed taking a tour of MS with Allen, playing football together on Thanksgiving day and hanging out with us at night after their sightseeing. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of their visit but we loved having them with us. 

We joined Erica's family for dinner for Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed getting to know them better. Our family before dinner:

 After dinner we drove down to Vancouver to spend the rest of the weekend with my sister and her family. As soon as we got to Vancouver (at about 10 p.m.) Allen dropped me off at Target to meet my sister and older nieces to start the black Friday shopping madness. I'm thoroughly disgusted that stores are starting their shopping earlier and earlier and encroaching on families spending the day together but there I was shopping anyway. It was fun to be together until the wee hours of the morning and we stood in line for nearly 2 hours to make our purchases but it is a fun memory.

On Friday the little kids stayed in their pjs for most of the day and played games together and generally ran amok. My sister and I braved the mall for some more shopping and I was amazed at the stamina of my teen nieces. We got some good deals and had fun. The Jackson's very graciously cooked a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner for us so we could enjoy the meal together. Seriously yummy food!

On Friday night Allen, Carter and I joined the Jackson's at the Forgotten Carols. I have seen it several times but it was new for Allen and Carter. We had a great time and loved the message of the play.

 Saturday morning we got up and took the little girls to see Pinaklicious, the Musical. I was so excited when I found out it was being performed in Portland because I had heard so many great things about it. It was DARLING and did not disappoint at all. It was a small cast and only about 1 hour long so it was a great length for a younger audience.

 At the performances on Thanksgiving weekend there was an all pink Santa that you could have your picture taken with after the performance. It was adorable. We went out for treats after the performance.

We had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend and enjoyed so much being together with both sides of our family during the week. We are grateful for the abundant blessings in our lives.

Thanksgiving Recap

We had such a nice Thanksgiving weekend. It was very relaxing and fun to spend time with friends and family. I haven’t posted in forever (I have about 3 half written posts in my drafts folder – someday I will finish them!). First up a few Thanksgiving projects.

I saw this wreath post idea on Pinterest and I had Allen build me one a couple months ago. We made a few design tweaks and I LOVE it. This is actually my Halloween wreath on it and I had a cute Harvest sign on there for Thanksgiving. I loved my porch this fall!

I also made a Thankful tree with my kids at the beginning of the month that we decorated with leaves that we wrote the things we are thankful for on. The kids thought it was great and we really enjoyed discussing our abundant blessings. For the record, most of Addison’s leaves had to do with Disneyland!

Addison has been attending a once-a-week holiday preschool that a friend in my ward put together (separate from her regular PS class). She is running it October-December and has done some DARLING projects with the kids. One week they made pilgrim hats, Mayflower art and a turkey advent countdown to Thanksgiving (we pulled off a feather every day until turkey day). The next week they made these cute scarecrows and homemade pumpkin butter. Addison is having a ball with it!

The kids made these cute turkeys that we used as centerpieces for the kids table. I gave them the supplies, briefly explained the project and they did all of the work themselves. I was so impressed!

On to the main event! Adam, Laurie and Hyrum came from AZ to spend Thanksgiving with us. It was so fun to have them here. On Thanksgiving morning, the boys got up and played football for a couple hours and had a grand time. Carter loves that he is old enough to play now too! The girls stayed home to work on food preparation and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. My kids were such good helpers all day and really loved getting involved this year.

Makenna peeling sweet potatoes:

Addison scooping stuffing into muffin tins (my favorite way to make stuffing – bake in muffin tins for slightly crispy, non-soggy individual portions – yum!)

Carter helping with pies:

Laurie made SIX pies in the morning (apple, sweet potato, lemon meringue, chocolate pudding, pear and almond joy):Carter loved taking care of the babies while we worked:
I had fun setting tables this year. Adult table:


Kids table place setting:

I covered the table in brown craft paper so the kids could draw on it. The sugar cone/cornucopia was filled with some yummy trail mix that I made. This was a perfect addition because it kept the kids full and busy until we were ready to eat dinner.

Laurie, Adam & Hyrum (my only regret of the day was that I did not take a picture of my own family :(

Adult Guests:

We had 18 people at our house this year. Our family, Laurie & Adam, and two families from our ward. It was a fun group and we had an AMAZING meal. Afterwards we played games while the kids ran amok and had a grand time.

I am so grateful for this time of year to reflect upon my many blessings and express gratitude to the Lord and my family. In no particular order, I am feeling especially grateful for: Allen, Eternal marriage, my children, motherhood, my extended family, good health for my family, forgiveness/repentance/mercy, humor, friends, good books, reliable cars, the scriptures, latter-day prophets, the temple, vacations, a comfortable home, modern conveniences (iPhone, pinterest & DVR), getting to stay at home with my kids, the Atonement, book club, cute clothes, General Conference, healthy food, Allen’s good job, my kids amazing school, modern medicine, my camera.

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

We had a fantastic long Thanksgiving weekend visiting my parents in Denver this year. We left after Allen got home from work on Tuesday and pulled up to my parents house at about 1:00 a.m. I love making that drive when my kiddos are sleeping - 6 hours is a breeze!

On Wednesday my parents had temple assignments in the morning (ordinance workers) so after sleeping in for a bit we took the kids out for some shopping and lunch. Al had a giftcard to spend from his birthday and we wanted to investigate the American Girl store with the girlies. We had lunch at Garbanzo's (SUPER yummy for all you Colorado folks) and made it home in time for naps and hanging out. That night we met up with our friends from CT, the Crockett's, for dinner and to let the kids play. We had a great time catching up for a few hours. We wrapped up the night by picking up my brother Steve from the airport and were happy to have him join us for the weekend.

Thursday morning we got up and began preparing our family feast. It was just our little family for the big meal this year and it was quite relaxing and fun to cook together. My mom had a little shadow all weekend! Miss Addie is quite smitten with my parents and begs to talk to them and visit them every day. My mom was doing Addie's hair here:

{on a side note, isn't my mom looking fantastic!!}

Our family before sitting down to eat {likely the last pic you'll see of me before I deliver this baby!}
Friday morning Allen and I got up at 4:30 a.m. to hit the Black Friday sales. For a husband who hates to shop and hates spending money even more, he is addicted to BF shopping. It is hilarious! He planned and mapped out our stores practically down to the minute for our excursion. It worked well though because we hit Target, Best Buy, Macy's, Staples and Office Max before 6:30 a.m., got every last thing on our list, went out to breakfast and were home before our kiddos woke up. It is early but we have so much fun together with this little tradition and we love doing it!

Later that afternoon we hit the US Mint for a tour. Carter is completely enamored with coin collecting lately and we knew he would love it. It is a great (and quick) tour and we all learned a ton about the process of minting coins in the US.

That night my brother, Al and I went to dinner and then to a showing of Harry Potter 7. We love, love, loved the movie. A lot of people I talked to thought it was too slow but we are die hard Potter lovers and thought this was the best movie yet and followed the book super closely. I can't wait for the next installment. After the movie the boys INSISTED I take this picture of them {totally dorky}:Saturday turned into a girl/guy day and was a total blast. My mom and I took the girlies back to the American Girl store. I needed to purchase some Christmas gifts and Makenna REALLY wanted to take her doll in for a new hairdo. It was super fun and that store truly makes you want to buy one of everything. I think she has a wish list for the next 5 years :)


Kenna with her doll, Sarah, getting made over:

After the store we went to lunch a fun gourmet burger place near my parents house and then hit a showing of Tangled. The movie was absolutely DARLING and I can't wait to see it again and buy the soundtrack and movie. My girls have been talking about it non-stop.


While we were gallivanting, the guys went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum. They said it was great and Carter has loved the little Egyptian writing guide that Allen bought for him (my entire bday card was written in hieroglyphics and had to be translated). After lunch at 5 guys they hunkered down to watch the disappointing BYU/UofU game.


We left bright and early Sunday morning to drive home, but only after Addie threw up twice in the morning. We were so worried that she would be sick on the entire ride home but she was fine and no one else got sick! Overall, fantastic weekend, though we did not get to see many of our friends we were wanting to connect with!

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

We had a very fun and busy Thanksgiving weekend with my parents in Colorado this year! We arrived late on Wednesday night but the kids were so excited they were bouncing off the walls for a couple of hours before we could get them to bed.

Thursday: We got going on food early in the morning. Allen and Carter went to play in a turkey bowl with my cousin and his friends while we watched the parade and cooked at home. After they got home, I got busy with my kiddos making these turkeys for our favors. They were loads of fun to make and EASY. The kids also colored placemats for the kids table for everyone. We had a YUMMY dinner late in the afternoon with my cousin, his wife and 6 kids. Pathetically I did not take a single picture the rest of the day. It was a great time though.

Friday: Allen and I were up at 4:00 a.m. for some Black Friday shopping. We hit about 5 stores and were home by 6:30. We got everything we were looking for and had a really fun time together. The rest of the day was spent at the park, helping hang up Christmas lights, more shopping with my mom, grabbing a quick nap, etc. We had a babysitter for the kids (my cousin's daughter) and went to dinner with my parents at the White Chocolate grill. YUM!

Saturday: Another early morning as Al and I did an early morning session at the temple. After lunch my mom, Makenna and I headed to downtown Denver to attend the matinee performance of the Nutcracker. It was so, so, so fun. Makenna enjoyed every second of it. I'm so glad that I bought a simplified Nutcracker book a couple of weeks ago so she could be very familiar with the story. She knew exactly what was going on during the entire show.

After the show there were quite a few dancers down in the lobby and Kenna got to meet them all. She LOVED it and gabbed their ears off about their performances and costumes (she looooved the costumes)
Saturday night we were able to have dinner with our dear friends the Howell's. It was such a fun night. We talked and talked and finally parted ways after nearly 4 hours. We love getting together with them and only wish it were more often. Melissa and I know each other from my mission but we've thrown our husbands together on enough occasions that they enjoy getting together too. Good thing they both really like sports :)

Sunday: My birthday! Allen let me sleep as long as possible (7:30 a.m.) and then I was woken up by the kiddos and their cute homemade birthday greetings. We quickly packed our stuff and were out the door by about 8:45. We were able to stop by and see Allen's Aunt and cousins (who he lived with in Denver the summer we met/dated). We also drove out to the Denver Children's Hospital to visit with Allen's cousin Shaina who is at the hospital with her new baby Kimble. He was born 4 weeks ago with a severe heart defect but is doing MUCH better this week and gets to go home soon (check her blog for more details). Shaina and I have become blog/facebook buddies but had never met until yesterday! Allen and I even got to hold Kimble for a little while. I could have held that baby all day long, he was the sweetest thing ever! We're so grateful we got a chance to have a quick visit.

After the hospital we stopped by Panera bread to get some lunch and then got on the road home. We made it home just in time for bedtime. It was a wonderful weekend spent with so many people that we love so much!

From My Turkeys to Yours.....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Makenna's Preschool Thanksgiving Program:

Thanksgiving Lunch at Carter's School:

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend around here. Allen's sister Laurie and her new husband Adam came down to Phoenix for the holiday.

On Thursday, Allen and Carter left bright and early to play football with some guys in our ward. Both of them were in heaven - Al got to play football and Carter got to hang out with the little boys from our ward. While they were gone I caught snippets of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is a tradition from my childhood to watch it and I remember loving it. I don't remember SO MANY commercials though and I only lasted about 30 minutes before getting annoyed (next year maybe I'll DVR it). We spent the rest of the morning preparing our parts of our feast and just enjoyed being together.

My greatest blessings:
In the afternoon we got together with several of our friends for dinner at the Higgins' home. We joined with the Higgins, Jeppsons, Headricks and Smiths for dinner. It was the best of both worlds having Thanksgiving with friends AND family this year. The food was incredible! After dinner, Becky turned on the hot tub so the kids could swim. It was unseasonably cool this year so we didn't think the kids would last long. How wrong we were! The kids swam, in the unheated pool, with occasional warm ups in the hot tub for a LONG time (probably a couple hours). We were shocked. The water was freezing but they didn't seem fazed by it at all.



After we drug them out kicking and screaming (literally), we had a fire in the fire pit and enjoyed dessert. The Pace's and Baird's joined in on the fun for dessert. It was such a great day. We're so thankful for amazing friends and for Adam and Laurie for coming down.

We went home and got the kiddos to bed and then I hooked up with some of my girlfriends for a little midnight madness shopping at the outlet mall. It was absolutely insane. We got up there around midnight and the line of cars to get off the exit was at least a mile long. The crowds were astounding and we stood in line for a long time. We ended up getting home at about 3:30 a.m. It wasn't worth it for the shopping but I had so much fun being with my friends!

Allen, Laurie and Adam decided to hit a few stores early Friday morning for some BF deals. They hit Target and were in and out very quickly. Al decided to drag them to Toys R Us to check out some bikes for the big kids. And ended up being in line for 2 1/2 hours. Never again. He saved us about $40 but it wasn't really worth it.

The rest of Friday we hung out as a family. We took the kids to lunch and to see Bolt and we LOVED it. Such a cute, cute movie. We will definitely be purchasing that one! After naps we took a late afternoon hike and finished up the day with some board games. It was such a fun and relaxing day (although very sleep deprived for us crazy shoppers).

Saturday was my 33rd birthday! Allen, my family and friends TOTALLY spoiled me. Last year, I had a horrible birthday. Chalk it up to pregnancy hormones or something but I was in such a bad mood last year. Having a bday right after Thanksgiving totally gets lost in the shuffle. So this year Allen went over the top making sure I had a great day. I got breakfast in bed, got a pedicure with a cute friend, did not lift a finger ALL day (seriously, I did not change a diaper, get any kids ready, clean anything, prepare any food - the best gift of all!!), got a nap, had free time to read my book, had laundry washed, folded and ironed for me, had my car decorated by the kids, got sweet notes left all over the house for me and got to go on a date with my awesome hubby last night. I also heard from lots of my dear friends. Thank you all for making my day special. Laurie made me a delicious pear pie (oh my gosh, soooo good) for a treat and then joined us for dinner/shopping last night. It was an awesome birthday!

My car:
At dinner:

I am really going to have to pick up the pace to make up for my extremely relaxed weekend. I have lots to get caught up on and except for having my shopping done, I have not done a single thing for Christmas. I've got to get going. This week the holiday busyness kicks off in full swing!

Thanksgiving Weekend (now with pictures!)

Happy Very Belated Thanksgiving! We had a great, busy weekend. Allen's mom and little sister Laurie joined us for the weekend and we had a great time.

Earlier in the week we also decided to tackle some home improvement projects this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday night we painted Carter's bedroom. On Thursday morning we TOTALLY broke tradition since I didn't watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade (a tradition from my childhood) and Al didn't play football (a huge, huge tradition from his childhood). Al was pretty bummed that he missed the ward Turkey bowl but it started a couple hours earlier than he thought. Anyway, we spent the morning setting up all our office shelving and unpacking our hundreds of books. Incidentally, Allen has finally decided he can part with his engineering text books and even some of his books from MBA school - hallelujah!!

Allen's mom and sister came down at about noon and we headed over to our friends the Nobles house for dinner. Al's family and the Nobles have been friends for decades and we have hung out with them a lot since we've moved to Phoenix. It was SO nice to be invited to have Thanksgiving with them. The best part for me is that I didn't have to do ANY cooking. Al's mom made 8 pies and I provided some ice cream and toppings and that was IT!! We had a great time. The weather was great, we got to eat in the back yard (in the 70s and quite pleasant), the kids got to play with their friends for hours, good food, etc. Here we are before dinner:

On Friday, LJ decided to brave some Black Friday shopping with me. We actually only hit a few places so it wasn't bad. I finished up ALL my Christmas shopping except for a few things for Allen. It's so nice to be done and know I don't have to brave the crowds unless I want to. We went to Costco, Gymboree and a little home decor store here in town and that is it. Early Friday evening we headed to Mesa to eat at yummy Rosa's (my SIL Tess' favorite AZ restaurant)

and see the lights at the Mesa temple. It was so much fun and we were actually COLD. It's funny because it was in the 50s but it felt really cold to us - I guess the climatization really has begun for us. The kids had a great time and loved the lights. Carter in front of the manger scene.

Saturday was just a whirlwind of projects. Al, LJ and I finished up Carter's room -- I seriously love it so much I could cry. I cannot wait to share pictures of the kids' rooms as soon as we get everything on the walls. Al's mom was a real trooper and kept the kids totally entertained for most of the day by taking them shopping and out to lunch and then later to the park, etc. We had a nice family dinner and spent hours visiting.

Yesterday was so super busy. Al and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting and I taught Relief Society on Elder Oaks' amazing conference talk Good, Better, Best. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies for the entire RS to illustrate the principle of Good, Better, Best (good =Chips Ahoy, better=toll house premade cookie dough, best=homemade cookies). The ladies LOVED it and I was happy with how both the talk and lesson went. We were both so relieved when church was over yesterday and spent the rest of the day together as a family. Now we're ready to tackle decorating for Christmas and finishing up the kids' room. We had a great Thanksgiving and are grateful for all of our abundant blessings. Hope you had a great one too!

(ETA: I'm still having major issues uploading to blogger-hence the missing pictures. Would really love to throw the router out the window--except I like surfing the internet from the comfort of my own bed occassionally. Anyway, LJ has better pictures of the family that I will get from her and add later.)