So Thankful . . . .

Ask Dave what his favorite holiday is, and he'll tell you it's Thanksgiving. He's a huge fan of turkey, followed by laying around all day! I love it too, it's a no stress holiday (when it's not at your house)! This year was spent with Dave's family, and it's always a good time. We were just missing Janet's family in Arizona (we were thinking of you!)We feel blessed to have such a great family. Here's Avery on her horse, Aunt Jessica.

After stuffing ourselves, we went to the movies. All of the grownups went to Twilight, while Grandpa took the kids to see Bolt. (How great is that?) The guys weren't sure how they got talked into seeing Twilight, but given the alternative to be with the kids, I guess it was a no-brainer. Not to mention they just wanted to check out this Edward guy and see what their wives have been talking about! This is the second time for me, I also went last weekend with about 20 girls in my neighborhood. I promise I am not obsessed, but it was a really good time! And I liked the movie more than I thought I would, the casting was perfect. Dave said he was a little scared. Yea right.

The day after Thanksgiving, we continued the fun by going ice skating all together. Now, I personally did not want Avery to try ice skating (she'll crack her head!) .......but look at her go!

She thought it was HILARIOUS.

She liked to fall on purpose, and she tried to make her feet go really fast like the Flintstones pedaling their car.

After ice skating, we came back to our house for soups and hot chocolate, yum. Thanks Hayley for the recipes! Avery loved all the attention she got from her Aunts and Uncles this weekend! Jess and Sheri started a game of "Hide & Seek with the horsies" and had Avery squealing. She was one happy little girl. Too bad you guys don't live closer, we had so much fun!

So far I've just gotten the trees up, the rest will have to be another week because I just feel like hanging out this weekend. On Saturday, Bailey rode her horse all day long, Dave messed with the lights on the house, and I watched Star Wars III for the first time with Cade explaining the whole thing to me. I have a whole new respect for him, I was blown away by his knowledge! And it was a really good movie when you have someone to interpret for you.

My Chocolate Tree, isn't it delicious?

This is the kids' tree and it has about a million ornaments on it, lots of "treasures" to find. It starts out pretty, but after a few days, the bottom half has become a forest for the kids to play in and they pretend their stuffed animals live in there. I always find lots of missing toys when we take the tree down!

Of course, the kids have to sleep under the tree the night we set it up. I love the magical feeling the tree gives to the room. I hope you all had a magical weekend as well. We are grateful for all of you who are reading this, as well as all of our friends and family out there who haven't made friends with their computers yet.

Meet Snickers

Call it an early Christmas present, call us crazy (go ahead, I know you're thinking it!) but we are the proud owners of this little beauty named Snickers. It was love at first sight for our kids, and Dave and I still shaking our heads over this one. We own a horse! It really was inevitable I guess. The great thing about it is how quickly the kids get their chores done after school so they can go down to see Snickers every single day. He's a sweet little old horse, part quarter horse, part Arabian. He's not winning any beauty pageants, but he's really great with kids, and short too, so Bailey can saddle and bridle him. We're boarding him down the road, and the guy who owns the place (would he be Snickers' landlord?) feeds and waters him every day, which means all the enjoyment with out all the work for us!

Halloween Fun

What a fun, busy month! I am finally going through my pictures (how can one person take so many pictures?) I swear, I have more pictures of this one holiday than I have of my entire childhood put together!


This was taken on Halloween day, the kids were out of school (what's up with that?) So to entertain them, we went trick or treating downtown during the day. Bailey is a "good witch", Cade is Luke Skywalker (he's been growing his hair all year long for this costume!) and Avery was the cutest little bat I've ever seen.










This is at Avery's dance recital- yes, she is the black bat amoung all the fairies and princesses. (She wanted to be Stellaluna and fly around). Do you love the confused look on her face? Ha Ha, she was always about two steps behind everyone else. Sorry Av, you get that from your mom!







I am Princess Leia, and this is my sexy sidekick Indiana Jones. He does look a little like Harrison Ford, do you agree? We went to a really fun adult party and laughed at everyones costumes. I forgot to wear my super cool Princess Leia belt in this picture, dang it.

Avery is fishing for prizes at our ward Halloween Carnival.

Sidetracked

While trick or treating downtown, we got majorly sidetracked for awhile when the kids spotted a humongous pile of leaves that they just HAD to jump into. I'm sure we were a sight right next to the road with my kids having leaf fights in their costumes!

Leaf pictures are so fun!

Avery is keeping a close eye on her sucker so it doesn't get any leaves on it. It's real tricky to play in the leaves AND keep your sucker clean, but she managed.

Trick or Treat!

Cade said this was his best Halloween EVER because it was so warm. No coats, yippee!! Dave and I both wanted to take Avery & Cade door to door this year since the weather was so perfect. So I put the bowl of cheap pixie sticks on our porch while we're gone. Maybe it's gone after the first group, who knows, who cares? (After we get home, I hand out the chocolate bars :)

I am beginning to see how fleeting this moment is that you get to accompany your kids trick or treating, and I fear this may be our last time with Cade before it's not cool to go with your parents!

Bailey wanted to go with her friend Brynlee and not us. (sigh) We bumped into them along the way. These two witches are too cute to be scary!