Thanksgiving Weekend

Before the official turkey day festivities, the girls each had a Thanksgiving Day feast in their classes. I was able to go to Ellie's and we were all able to go to Bailey's. It was fun to watch them in their environments with all of their friends. They both realized that they really like pumpkin pie. I think this was the first time they each had tried it. Bailey also made an Indian outfit to wear to her party.

On our way to Utah for Thanksgiving, we were able to stop at Mindy's parents house and see the new babies. I am so happy that we did. It was so fun to see them and hold them. They are so tiny, especially little Gracee, I have never held a baby that little. The girls had fun playing with Trae and taking turns holding the babies. Ellie even got to feed Brody. It was a great start to the weekend.

On Thanksgiving Day we went to my aunt's house. It is always fun to go there and hang out with my aunts and uncles and cousins. The food was great as usual, and the girls had so much fun playing. I love being able to just sit around and chat with great company and eat and then eat some more. It was a great day.

Friday morning brought on the much anticipated door busting. My sisters and I have been looking forward to this for quite awhile. We started at Kohl's, we were there for like 2 hours and someday was in line the whole time, then we hit Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Target, Michael's, Shopko, Big 5, Hobby Lobby, and Tai Pan. Oh, and Jenn and I did an Einsteins run while Mel went to Home Depot. 9 hours later we went home!! Good thing because I couldn't fit another thing in my car. This photo doesn't even show all of the stuff in the back seat. I will admit after noon I did start to feel dumb that I didn't have any makeup on, people were starting to look cuter at that point, but before that we fit right in. We were tired, but we had SO much fun. We did get most of our Christmas shopping done too!







The last activity of the weekend was to go to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season. This is one of my favorite things to do during the holidays. I knew that the girls would really enjoy this year too. Our whole family was able to go, and my aunt Kerm and her family came too. It was fun to hang out with everyone and really get into the Christmas spirit. My cousin Chelsea had surgery on her legs a few days before, she was a trooper to let Ellie ride on her the whole time. Ellie said it was her favorite part, oh and the purple lights too. Bailey loved seeing and listening to the nativity and seeing the Christus. Ryan and I got married in Salt Lake so every time we are there the girls say "there is Mommy's temple." Yes, it is my very own, they built it just for me : ) I am glad they know that temple's are special. You can always feel the spirit when you are around one. I am glad we were able to take them there and really start to teach them the true meaning of Christmas. It is also tradition that we have dinner at Crown Burger after we see the lights. This is always hits the spot and was the perfect ending to a great weekend.

The Fam and Ellie riding with Chels

I love the Nativity's that they set up from different countries and the red lights were my favorite

Ryan and Bay and Drew with his favorite Curious George monkey

Merry Christmas

First Snow

Before our Thanksgiving Holiday began we had to snap a few photos of the first snow of the season (Nov. 20th). The kids were SO excited. We were almost late for school because they would just stand at the window and stare at the snow. I told them to enjoy it while they can because it would be gone by the time they got home from school, and it was. Snow doesn't stick around for to long here. Thank goodness. It was still fun to see them so excited for the snow. I personally was not that excited, I do not enjoy the cold!! There are only 3 good things associated with winter, in my opinion, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the fact that my Diet Coke stays very cold in the garage!! Other than that not a big fan of winter.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This week will probably be pretty crazy for everybody as we try to get ready for the holiday. I wanted to take note of the fact that I have much to be thankful for. We have been truly blessed. Even though most days I am sure I say I want/need....... and very rarely say I am thankful for..... I am grateful that at least we are reminded once a year to give thanks!! Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and kick off to the holiday season. Travel safe, eat lots, and bring on the door busting :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Things Worth Noting............

I think this may have been the last week of our nice days. The kids tried to take full advantage though, and played outside everyday. Bailey had Thursday and Friday off from school for parent teacher conferences so she was glad she was able to be home to play. Ellie still had school on Thursday and when we picked her up she told us that school was bad because she had to be on Time Out. Lovely. I am not sure what happened the teacher didn't say anything to me about it, but we had a little chat about behaving at school. Who knows if it will help, not sure what to do with her most days. She has also started to develop her own sense of style, which is fine when we are not in public :) Anyway, here are a couple of photos of the nice outfit she chose on Saturday. In Ellie land all outfits must include a skirt in some way shape or form. This is a daily argument, which I use to have with Bailey as well, but I think Bailey is finally starting to out grow it a little, hopefully Ellie will too. After I made her change out of this outfit she got pretty upset while I was doing her hair because she wanted a short ponytail and not a long ponytail........ yeah I don't know the difference either and she was to upset about it to explain. Aghhhhhh life with Ellie, everyone should have to experience it.

Bailey's teacher said she is doing very well in school the only little complaint was that sometimes when they are in their reading groups and one of the other kids gets something wrong she gets a little "frustrated" and usually sighs and puts her hand to her head. Lovely. So, lecture number two of the weekend was treating others with respect. Hopefully that will not be happening again. I can say though that I think the light is finally on in the reading department. She was been reading like a mad dog this week and doing VERY well. Her teacher sent me home with three pretty long books for her to read, and that is all she has been doing all weekend. I think she has finally got it. YEAH!!! Part of me was worried this day might never come. This has always been one of our favorite books. Now Bailey can read it to us.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing and uneventful. We took the kids to see Ratatouille on Friday. Yes, I am aware that this movie is old news and that Bee movie is the one to see, but we hadn't seen this one yet and it was still at our dollar theatre. So for 10 bucks, our whole fam saw the movie plus got our choice of 4 snacks, popcorn, nachos, candy, soda, you pick. Not bad for 10 bucks. We probably will be seeing Bee movie here as well :) Bailey has been practicing spelling it all weekend so she can write it at school for her Monday memories.

The best part of the weekend was the fact that we had Stake Conference today so at 4:00 on a Sunday, I am home blogging instead of at church. I have forgotten how nice it is to not got to church at 3:00 in the afternoon. It was a really good Stake Conference too, it was a broadcast from some of the General Authorities. They all gave really good talks, and the girls were pretty good so we were actually able to listen.

P.S. This just in..........my sister-in-law Mindy had her twins today. They were planning on inducing in the morning, but her water broke. The baby boy was 6 lbs and the baby girl 5 lbs. Everyone is doing well. Names are still pending............possibly Brodie for the boy and Gracie for the girl. I will post photos and official names when I have them. Congrats Aaron, Mindy and Trae!!

Happy Halloween

The girls dressed up princess style again this year. Bailey was Snow White and Ellie was Tinker Bell. You would think at some point princesses would get old, but so far we are going strong. They were both adamant about what they wanted to be this year. The costumes were really cute and they both had so much fun so I can't complain. They were able to dress up a few times, church party, school parties, dance class, and of course for trick-or-treating. It was a nice day yesterday so trick-or-treating was actually not to cold. They went around with most of the kids on our street. Bailey and a few of the kids her age were really into, practically sprinting to the houses. Ellie and the littler kids couldn't keep up, hence while Bay's candy pile is a little larger than Ellie's. Also, Ellie refused to go to any house that had anything remotely scary in front of it, coming from it, or was anywhere near it. The candy just wasn't worth it in those instances, she clung to my leg until we were far away from it. She still got PLENTY of candy so I was fine with it. Now if we could all have some self control with all of this candy around!!! Hope you all had a great Halloween.

Tinker Bell and Snow White

All of the neighbor kids trick-r-treating. Good thing everyone had plenty of candy. It was a big group.

Look at our loot!!!