November and December (So Far) - Little Things

 

Here's random pictures from my phone or camera from the last month and a half...

First a picture of a sleeping baby. Because that's one of the best things ever.

 



Eli picked his scab again, for the twentieth time. He bandaged it up himself this time.

(We're actually taking him up to Primary Children's Hospital next week

to meet with a plastic surgeon about the big growth that has formed where his scab used to be.

I'll blog more about that later.)

 



Until last month, Avery wouldn't pick up and hold the bunnies.

She's become a lot more comfortable with them lately.

The bunnies have also become a lot more docile since we got them.

 





 

Here's Avery playing with Alma and Roonie after school. Both boys live next to us and are her age.

 



Before church picture when we all kind of matched.

 



 

Eli didn't match so well and he didn't want to cooperate for pictures. Oh well.

While Avery's hair was still curling, I wanted to get some more pictures of her.

And she asked me to take pictures of her in bed that night.

 



 

Lexi got a turn too.

 



These are the last pictures of I have of the girls in their old beds.

Last month they switched beds. Now Avery is on top and Lexi is on the bottom.

 



Here's Avery ready for school the next day.

I just wanted to take advantage of her curls and get more pictures.

 



It only took me about seven months

 but I finally got pictures put in most of my frames in the dinning room.

 



Here's Avery with Annika.

Her family just moved to Tooele and our building a house in our ward.

These two girls became instant friends.

 



Lexi looking fancy.

 



Sean and the girls went to a BYU basketball game together at the beginning of December.

Lexi's been talking about going to a game again all year long.

 



Sean brought out his childhood marble run one day when Avery and Eli had friends over.

 





 

Here's Roonie with Ruby. I'm pretty sure he has a crush on her.

He's so sweet to Ruby. He even made her a card and brought her a present on her birthday.

 



Last Saturday I took the girls to go see the Nutcracker at one of the local high schools.

A few of the young women from our ward were in it.

 





 

 

 

 

Lexi was so excited to be matching Ruby. Ruby was less than thrill to be getting her picture taken.

 



This week, I volunteered in Lexi's classroom (I switch between the girls' classes each week).

The kids made gingerbread houses.





 

 

 

Lawsen and Lexi are in the same class at school. And they're carpool buddies.

They're turning into really good friends.

Here they are with their gingerbread houses from school.

 

 

We pulled out our Wii in November. It's been in storage for years.

We bought Just Dance and the girls LOVE it!

Here they are playing with Lawsen and Sydnie Hansen earlier this week.

 



I did a lot of online shopping for Christmas this year. It's been exciting getting all the packages.

Until I felt like wrapping them, I just put them up on the cabinets in our kitchen.

 

I've been reading a new parenting book. Here's some of things that I'm trying to implement...

 



 

We made homemade play dough earlier this week.

Lexi was really excited about her creations. A wedding!

 

Eli and Sean wearing matching one day and they didn't even plan it.

 



Ruby is cutting her third molar right now.

And we've had a lot of sleepless nights and missed naps around here.

So it's exciting when she sleeps.

 





Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.

Sean and I were so excited.

We've been dreaming of having a house big enough to have huge family gatherings.

The day before Thanksgiving, my in-laws arrived.

Thanksgiving morning my kids got to spend some one-on-one time with their grandparents.

That made me so happy.

They haven't gotten a lot of that since Sean's parents have never stayed with us before.

 



 

 

Lexi had so much fun dancing with her grandpa.

 

 

 

 

 

Sean and his dad did the turkey.

 

 

I was instructed to buy a bag to cook the turkey in.

I didn't realize that I had bought a brining bag and none else realized it either.

After the turkey had been in the oven for a little bit Sean saw that the bag was melting.

We quickly pull the bird out and cut off the bag.

Sean's dad went to the store and got use a new bag.

 

 

After that little mishap it was smooth sailing.

 

 

Josh was first to arrive that day.

He had a fuzzy tail key chain on his fanny pack and Eli thought it was a real animal.

He was fascinated by this animal that was "sleeping" in Josh's bag. It was hilarious!

 

 

 

Next Jared and Val's family and Michelle and Justin's families arrived.

The adults hung out and chatted while the turkey cooked.

I love Michelle in this "candid" picture.

 

 

The kids played in the basement and prepared a cousin concert for the adults.

 

 

 

That afternoon we did Ruby's smash cake which I blogged about here.

...

The dinner preparations went smoothly. Our kitchen accommodated several chefs at once.

We put all the food on our island and set up four tables and fit everyone perfectly.

 

 

 

After dinner a few people took naps, the kids played together and several adults played games.

 



My Vegas nephew and nieces were so excited to see snow.

Even if it was old and there wasn't very much.

 





 

 

 

 

 









That night we did dessert, birthday presents for Ruby and Christmas pajamas.

 

 

 



 



We're just missing Harrison.

 



 

That night all the adults but Sean and I and my in-laws went to the movies.

Sean and the kids had a really good game of Hide-n-Seek which is awesome in our house.

Nana and Grandpa read books to the kids, Sean played a board game with the boys

and Grandpa taught the kids to play "Birdie, Birdie, My Cup."

 



 



That night all the kids except Austin and Lyla spent the night.

Eli was so excited to have Devin sleep in his top bunk and Parker sleep on his floor.

The next morning we played Hedbanz with the kids.

 



Friday we had our big ping pong tournament.

Sean was so excited for this.

We bought a used ping pong time before Thanksgiving so we could have a tournament.

Sean put everyone's name in a hat and that's how we were assigned which house we'd go into.

We were in house like Harry Potter.

Here's the final four.

Justin - Slytherin, Kristi - Ravenclaw, Garth - Gryffindor, Josh - Hufflepuff

 



It was Gyffindor verses Slytherin in the finals.

Slytherin won. So wrong!

 



The tournament was a lot of fun.

I can't wait to play ping pong next summer outside when it's warm.

We'll have to host some sort of big party.

 



That day the kids also did an art show in the basement. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures.

The girls were down in the basement getting ready for hours.

They each colored several pictures and arranged them like in a gallery all over the basement.

Having a basement for the kids to play in is awesome!

...

Friday was also Devin's 10th birthday. So we did cake and presents that night.

 



Saturday we went over to Michelle and Justin's.

The guys went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the BYU game.

Michelle, Val and I took the kids to the movies to see The Good Dinosaur.

It was Eli's first time going to the movies.

That night we went down to Temple Square to see the lights.

It was cold but fun.

 



It was such a fun weekend. And one of my favorite Thanksgivings.

Thank you to everyone who came to our house. We loved having you in our home!