Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Ben had to work on Thanksgiving Day, but he did have the day before Thanksgiving off of work... so naturally, we decided to do a Thanksgiving dinner on his day off. Considering we were cooking much of the day it really was quite a relaxing time. Ben invited a couple of his single friends from work, who also wouldn't be able to travel home for the holiday, to come over and join us. Ben's parents and cousin Adam also feasted with us... it was a great evening and the food was delicious. I always feel like we've accomplished quite a feat every time we pull together a full Thanksgiving dinner, but when Ben is helping it's actually fun and not very stressful. I definitely have a good cook of a husband! I'm just a bit disappointed that I didn't get a picture of our guests... I guess we were too busy chatting to bother. :)









Becca was anxious for dinner, so I gave her a piece of bread to hold her over till we were all ready to eat

Before dinner the kids colored these Thanksgiving placemats, which I printed off from this great site.

Ben's dad carving up our turkey for us :)

On Thanksgiving Day we went to Ben's parents home to hang out, help cook, and eat, eat, eat. :) Ben was busy at work while we were busy celebrating - he said that the hospital cafeteria was nice though and offered some great Thanksgiving food, however, that's all they had all day... so he ate Thanksgiving food for lunch, dinner, and midnight snack (he was on call so he stayed overnight). Even though we missed Ben, we had a great day -



Ben's mom made another lovely pilgrim dress so that Becca could match Emma this year... Jake then got to be our token Indian ;) (I can say that right? Since I'm a small part Native American myself?)











On Friday night we put up our Christmas tree and decorated it all pretty... with the kids help. They are remarkably helpful in getting ornaments on the tree - it's a good sign for later on down the road. Someday I'd like to just lie around on the couch and watch as the kids get our tree all decorated. Wouldn't that be nice?









Becca lining up the nutcrackers in a nice straight row... very Becca-like

On Saturday we went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox (Ben had Saturday and Sunday off of work, so he was able to join us this time). Everyone really LOVED it... I missed most of it due to a cranky 8 month old (who I really thought would sleep through much of the movie.. darn!). Anyway, the parts I did see were hillarious and FANTASTIC.


The kids posing in the theater lobby... we don't see movies much, so yes, we were a bit excited. :)

Ben's parents then treated us all to dinner at Macaroni Grill (my favorite!). It's tradition with dessert to all dive in with our forks - when Ben does this, he'll often try to knock my food off my fork... rude!


Emma and Becca slept over at grandma's house that Saturday night, so Ben and I stopped at Target to do a bit of Christmas shopping for the girls on our way back home... we got a few things to get us started, but I definitely have a lot of work to do till we're really ready for Christmas morning. The next day we got to go to church without wrangling our two girlies into dresses and hair-doing. :) So, it was a pretty relaxed Sunday - we picked them up from Grandma's on Sunday evening, where we also enjoyed another family dinner and our first Advent of the Christmas season.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, Ben told the kids the story of Christ's birth and we put up our nativities. I'm always amazed when they come out of their packaging without any cracks or breaks.




Ben brought this nativity home from his mission in Guatemala

.. also from Guatemala



Ben's brother Peter got us this one from Ukraine (where he served his mission)

To sum up - we had a great Thanksgiving weekend! And now that we're decorated for Christmas, I'm ready for more holiday fun! :)

Haven't heard enough about New Moon?... well, let me help

Three hours of sleep feels so good when it's as a result of having a late night with great girlfriends! Amanda wins the award for the best party thrower and putting together the most awesome vampire and werewolf decor - woohoo! She even made us individualized treat bags to take to the movie. :) Kiana wins the award for getting us the coolest matching t's - her hubby is a graphic designer and designed us some pretty sweet apparel. It's nice to have friends with connections. hehe. Let's start the countdown to Eclipse! *just updated below with some new pics from Tessa - thanks!*






Katie blowing out the candles on her New Moon cake - Happy Birthday!! You know this party was JUST FOR YOU!

"Find Mr. Turkey"

To Play: One person (we'll call this person "the farmer") hides, while the rest of the group hides a turkey. The farmer then tries to find his lost turkey by following the sounds of the gobbles. The louder the gobble, the closer he is.
The video below shows our attempt at playing :)

He stands!

Look at my new helper! I can't believe he's already pulling himself up to stand all over the house - in his crib, at the coffee table, chairs, and now at the dishwasher. I'm anticipating an early walker with this guy... he seems to be doing every physical milestone much earlier than with my girls. He was rolling over at about 3 months, sitting up at 5 1/2, army crawling at 6 months, and now pulling himself to standing at 7 1/2 months... so walking at 9 months seems like a logical next step, right? We'll see I guess - he's definitely keeping me on my toes... and I love every minute of it! He's so great.

So, since it's nearing Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to make these with the kids. But when I got to the grocery store to pick out the candies I'd need to put them together, I changed my mind - 'cause I'm a scrooge lately and decided I didn't want to pay for the mini peanut butter cups, candy corn, and white chocolate chips necessary to put them together per the instructions. So, I opted to just buy candy corns and let the kids decorate their "thanksgiving" cupcakes with those. See? On mine I put the candy corns sticking up like turkey tail feathers... so we used our imagination... and by placing the cupcakes next to my ceramic turkey and indian corn, they become very 'Thanksgivingy' indeed. :)