Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Thanksgiving Arizona Style

This year for Thanksgiving Lexi came home and we headed to Hillari and Keith's new house.  We left on Tuesday night so we could go to Sareny's school for a picnic on Wednesday.














All the kids were there with their families, and it was pretty fun to see her friends and school.
Lexi is so good to her neices and nephews. They are lucky to have her for an Auntie.


















After we ate, the kids had fun playing on the playground. Sareny ran off to the "big kid" playground at first, and Isaac didn't want to play on the "baby" one. But before we knew it, they were all on the "baby" one, which looked pretty fun to me.
Pretty sure this little cutie was having a good time.
My favorite first grader.
And sadly, this is what comes of giving gum to Isaac on the way home. I'm afraid I will have to fess up that it was me who gave it to him! I knew he wasn't allowed to have gum in the house, but as soon as we got in the car he started begging for it. So I caved. But I learned my lesson. At least he didn't get it in anybody's hair!














One last picture of the picnic. After we got home from that we discovered that I had forgotten to bring my shirts that had been hanging by my suit case, so of course we had to make a run to Kohl's to get me something to wear. (This is a pretty good trick ladies, when you want some new stuff!) We made pies that night and got a few other things ready for the big feast day.
Hill and Fin getting the table ready with the cute name cards they had made.
Lexi taking a break from doing Sareny's hair (and makup! She begged, and Lexi or maybe Hillari, caved) and helping the kids make crafts of turkeys and tee pees for decoration.

Jeff making his yummy deep fried turkey.

Carving the yummy deep fried turkey. We all kept snitching tastes, at the peril of losing a finger when he threatened us.

The cooks take a break to pose.
Waiting patiently.......

We had such a delicious dinner we couldn't eat dessert, so we went for a nice walk around the lake near Hillari's house. It was so pretty at night, and we figured we walked off enough that we could have pie when we got home. Then we pored over the newspaper deciding where we were going to head to first for Black Friday, which is a tradition when we go to Hill and Keith's for Thanksgiving. Jeff and I opted for starting at 3:00 am, but Hill, Keith and Lexi stayed up all night to go to Toys R Us and maybe Walmart, I can't remember. They came back at 3:00 and woke us and the kids (yeah, we took the kids. Can you imagine??) but in reality they were excited to go and were pretty good too. Plus none of us wanted to stay home with them and miss out on the fun (!?!) Wish I had some pictures of that, since I'm sure we were a little scary looking, but no more so than all the other crazies.

 We all took naps after the shopping bru ha ha, then the guys went golfing, we had dinner, and popped popcorn and watched a movie. Saturday morning we took the kids to see "Tangled" before we had to pack up for home. Before we left, Bampa taught Sareny how to ride her bike with no training wheels! She was pretty excited. We also took turns riding on Hill and Keith's new bikes. They got some great deals on them on Friday.

Hillari with her sweet bike. I want one!

When we got home we put up the tree so Lexi could help decorate it with us. Lexi and I have a long time tradition of stringing popcorn for the tree while watching Little Women and Prancer, two of my favorite Christmas movies. The only way we could fit it in was to do it on the way to and from Hillari's. So we strung popcorn and watched our movies in the car. It was actually pretty fun.
The Thanksgiving weekend was very fun filled and we were thankful that we could be togther with some of our family for the holiday. Thanks Hill and Keith for a great time!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Time For A Change..........

Is everyone as sick of seeing the same post on our blog as I am? I'm sure the answer is yes, and I vow to blog more frequently this year. My goal is to blog more often, and not necessarily include a jillion pictures, since that is the time consuming part. We'll see how I do with my resolution...........
Anyway, here are the highlights of the last few months. We went to San Diego right after we got back from Maui, and here's the proof:  This is Jeff at the Padres game we went to.
And here's me at the newly renovated Mormon Battalion. It was was really cool and we were glad we got to see it.
We of course had a wonderful time in San Diego, but eventually we had to come home and school started and life got busy and hectic again.
The next event I want to highlight was on October 1st......














The football field and stadium was dedicated to Jeff at the football  game that night! All the kids were able to be here for it, except for James. Both sets of parents came, and most of Jeff's sibblings. We all felt that Jeff's Dad, who would have been so proud, was there with us as well. It was really a wonderful dedication to a great guy, who has given so much of himself to the students and athletes at MVHS.


















I'm so proud of my fantastic husband! It's hard to believe we have been doing this for all these years, and still going strong! He's been coaching football and track out on this field every year for 36 years, and I've been in the bleachers supporting him.
Here's a picture of the whole crew waiting for the unveiling of the sign, and the touching dedication read by Principal Grant Hanevold. What a great night, and one we won't ever forget.
 
I'm so grateful that this many family members could be there for their Dad, Son, Brother, and Uncle. It meant a lot to him.