Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a great time of year.  This year we spent the whole weekend up with family and had a blast.  At my parents' house there are now 13 cousins, and the oldest ones are Bailey and Dalin at 9 and 8.  That makes for a lot of little kids running around.  

Wild times.  I'm glad my kid get to know their cousins.

Poor Daxton fell while we were camping in October and broke his femur and had to be put in a body cast.  I was impressed with his ability to get around with both legs immobilized.  

Me and my sister.  Do we look alike?  I don't think so.

Leslee with nephew Linkin.  This kid is still pretty petrified of me.  This is the look I get most of the time unless he just starts screaming.  I don't think he's very fond of me.

Landon and I.  He looks a little drunk.

My niece Bailey and I.

We made an attempt to get a picture of all the cousins.  I think it's funny to look at the different attempts.  Someone is usually crying.  I like how Landon is looking at Daxton in this one like "what the heck is wrong with you?" and Linkin is trying his hardest to get off Kyla's lap.

Cuties.  Kyla, Linkin, and Dalin.

Hey we're all happy!  No, wait Aubrey decided to cry this time.

She might be thinking about stopping in this one.

Getting calmed down.

And now the smile...

It's not Thanksgiving without some good ol' Thanksgiving movies and parades.

The kid table, enjoying some good food.  We've outgrown my parents' not so small house.

Piling our plates high.  Leslee, Ryan, Dan, Steven, and Alyssa.

Later on we had to watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and eat the Charlie Brown snacks.  The kids loved this.

Leslee and her crippled child.  Poor Daxton.

Let's see....which one his supposed to be sleeping?

I love that we get two holidays out of one.  Now we're off to the Coleman's for a second celebration.  Love us some good food.  Nomnomnom.

All ready to eat.

We also got to spend some fun time bowling with Grandma Anne.  The kids love to bowl.

Excited for his strike.

Ummm....is the ball in the gutter?  I believe it is.

We have so much fun every time we spend time with family.

Family Pictures

I don't do family pictures near as often as I should, so I decided to get some taken.  I have a decent camera and had my sister, Leslee take some while we were visiting for Thanksgiving.  I think they turned out pretty darn good.  And it didn't cost a dime, that's the best part, other than getting a few of  my favorites printed and hung on the wall.

Me and my hubby.  Aren't we the cutest couple?  

All of us together.  What a perfect little family I have.  I am so very blessed.

Little Diva

THIS kid just can't get enough of dressing up.  At our house it's super heroes, but at grandma's house there are no super heroes.  So we have to improvise.  Heels, skirt, sparkly top, devil's cape, real fur hat from Russia (I believe it's fox?), and of course we must accessorize with a purse.  Ready to go!

Hogle Zoo

The day before Thanksgiving we headed up to visit family for the holiday and stopped at the zoo.  They had a free zoo day so I thought why not take advantage while we were headed there anyways.  The zoo is so much fun and we haven't been for a couple years so it was fun to see Landon's reaction to so many animals.  He was very animated.  The whole time Dalin really wanted to see the snakes.  We like reptiles at our house.  I once asked Dalin if he could have any pet he wanted what would it be.  He said a python.  Oh boy.

Hear we are at the gorilla house. This was a really good time of year to go because of the cooler weather.  Not only is it better for us but the animals are way more active.  I will have to remember this for future trips.  

Dan's wingspan is almost as big as an ape.  

Landon really liked the elephants.  

And we finally made it to the reptile habitat.  Dalin just couldn't handle himself and he took Dan and ran.  Did I mention my mom came with us?  She did although I didn't take that many pictures.  She and I took Landon and Braden.  We had to check out ALL the snakes.  Not my favorite, but it was definitely the kids' favorite.  This tortoise was huge.  The picture just doesn't do it justice.  

We had so much fun and it really was a beautiful day.  It was crowded because of the free day, but it didn't really bother me because we weren't hot at all.  It's amazing how grumpy the heat can make you.  The kids had fun and I think the adults had fun too.  Glad my mom could come and spend the day with us.

Dan's Birthday

Someone had a birthday, shout hooray!  O.k. that was lame.  So Dan is 36....another year, another day and here comes another one.  

Dan's not a fan of cake.  This year he requested pie, so I made a banana slit pie.  Nomnomnom.   

It doesn't look like he got much for his birthday, but all he wanted was money so that's what we gave him.  

Most annoying card EVER!  Thanks for that Anne ;)

He was a bit of stink and didn't let me take very many pictures of him, but I hope he had a good birthday.  Here's to many more hubby of mine.

Titanic

Dalin built the Titanic out of Legos and then took some selfies with my phone.  Imagine my surprise when I found them as I was shuffling through my photos.  Funny kid.  He wanted me to point out the safety boats lining the side of the ship and also wanted me to mention there's not enough of them for everyone on board.  

Soccer and Snow

So Landon found these in my sock drawer.  He came running in to show me that he was a soccer player.  The only clothes he will wear are the ones that have sports on them.  He refuses to wear anything else.  My other kids like sports, Landon however, cannot get enough of them.  

The first snowfall of the year, and so far the last.  It wasn't much but the kids couldn't wait to go out and play.  They got all decked out in their gear and had some fun.

Leaky Faucet

Our shower faucet has been a constant source of frustration for the past 2 1/2 years.  It starts dripping slowly, then turns to a steady stream.  I call the landlord and he comes and fixes it, but then a few months later it starts dripping again.  Such a pain in my neck!  So this time rather than call the landlord and have him "fix" it (he's one of those that thinks he knows what he's doing but doesn't) again I decided to just do it myself.  Since I know absolutely nothing about even the most simple plumbing issues I jumped on YouTube and searched "how to fix a leaky faucet".  Baddabigbaddaboom  - I fixed the faucet.  The landlord had the wrong size washer in there.  So after pulling things apart and putting them back together we now have a perfectly good shower faucet.  I have to brag and just say that sometimes I impress myself.

November Day Camp

Have I mentioned we like to day camp?  Fun times, fun times.  Here is our latest adventure in November.  We went up Dry Fork Canyon where there's really good camp sites under the tall pines.  We ate hot dogs and roasted marshmallows.  Dan forgot his hat and complained the whole time that his head was cold.  I guess that's what happens when you shave your hair off.  I don't have that problem.  We had a  nice warm fire and just had some fun.  I really love fires.  There's something relaxing and soothing about them.  I'm really grateful that we live so close to the mountains and the wilderness.  I love spending time with my boys in the great outdoors.