Turkey Day 2012

I have seriously been slacking with my camera this week. These are the only pictures I took on Thanksgiving Day. The Annual grand kid picture for my mom.

 Megan 13 m, Taylor 12, Chloe 23 mo, Gavin 5, Madisen 3, Mason 2, Bailee 16mo, Faith 9, Brigham 16 mo.

 This is probably the best one

It's literally impossible to get all 9 kids looking at the camera at once and next year there will be 10!!

We ate and talked and ate. Played some games, Imaginiff, ate some more, watched some football, talked, and ate some more. It was a nice relaxing day. 

We went to G&G Fry's after we left my mom's and were there talking and playing and didn't get home until after 10pm. All 3 kids were still awake and none of them had naps, that's how fun the day was. 

I did not join in the chaos and go Black Friday shopping but my mom & I did do some shopping in Rigby at all the little shops there Friday afternoon and I found Chloe the cutest hat! It was so cute I put it on her before we even got out of the store. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Turkey Week

TUESDAY

Gavin & Bud

Bud is really old, about  90 in dog years. Gavin drew a picture of him because "he wanted to remember him when he died." Even Gavin knows he is getting old. He can't even jump into the back of the truck to go play anymore without help. I took Gavin out to the back yard and we got a real picture of him and Bud.

WEDNESDAY

 

 This is how my kitchen looks every time I bake. All three kids want to be right there "helping" me. My kitchen is super small to begin with so it gets pretty interesting trying to move around with 4 bodies and a chair!

 I made two BEAUTIFUL peach pies, my first ever and they turned out fantastic! Despite the fact that my first critic told me "this is terrible!" (Gavin) I wish I would have remembered to take a picture because seriously they were amazing: perfectly brown crust, the cinnamon and sugar evenly sprinkled on top, the edges looked like something out of a magazine! I'm not bragging I'm just really impressed with myself that I actually made them, by myself, and they turned out! I'm not much of a baker or cook.

We also went to Pie Night @ Schnieder's for the third year in a row. They invite a bunch of people over to have pie because after Thanksgiving dinner you just don't have room anymore so they do it the night before. Every one brings a pie and we sample them all. My favorite this year was a "Snow Pie", it looked just like snow (hence the name) and was so good. There were over 20 pies there and I don't think we had two of the same

THURSDAY

 I have Thanksgiving pics for another post, but this is how Gavin dressed on Thursday. Winter hat and gloves, his favorite jacket and shorts. I have to pick my battles with this one!

 This was also Thursday morning. Chloe woke up with snot all over her face, her hair was even stuck in it. Super gross! I'm saving this one to show future dates.

FRIDAY

 Gavin changed Chloe's diaper for me while I was in the shower. Not bad for his first time. He even got it on the right way!

 The diaper change must have worn Gavin out because after baths I sent him to his room to get dressed and this is how I found him. Naked and asleep on his floor.

SATURDAY

Gavin and I decorated the house for Christmas. Cousins Madisen and Megan came over to play while Karen did some Christmas shopping. We cut out paper snowflakes and make sparkly snowflakes out of glitter and popsicle sticks. 

After Mason & Chloe were in bed Gavin was my date and we watched Arthur Christmas, just the two of us.

SUNDAY

I seriously don't know why I bother going to sacrament meeting. I spend the entire time doing damage control with my kids! They always want what the other one has even if there are two identical items and they are very vocal about it! Thank goodness for a couple of my former young women who came and sat by me to help because it is so hard all by myself. I don't ever get to listen to any of the speakers so I have no idea what any of the talks have been about for the past year. I'm voting for nursery during sacrament meeting, who's with me? OK I'm done venting now I just had to get it out there. I go because even if my kids aren't listening we are there and that's what matters. 

MONDAY

I purged like crazy all day! Now that my kids are in the house all-the-time it seems that much smaller and I am seriously getting claustrophobic! I filled the back of my van with stuff for the DI, threw another 2 bags away and have a box of stuff for the Santa Store at Gavin's school. It feels so good to have at least a little more space and no clutter. 

I also made 10 freezer meals for a freezer meal swap I'm doing with my girlfriends and you should've seen the mess I made of my kitchen!! It was an enormous mess with every counter top covered in dirty dishes and mess!

I also fed my kids Icee's and pumpkin pie for dinner!! Yeah me!

 A Construction Knight??

"I was just pretending to be a bad guy stealing people's recipes" - Gavin

TUESDAY

 I found Mason in his bed wide awake eating straight out of a box of Captain Crunch at 7am when I went in to wake Gavin up for school.

Chloe took the liberty of emptying the basket of FOLDED laundry in the boys room that I brought up to put away but was busy making french toast. 

And it's only 10am!!

Upcycled Pumpkin

Gavin and I got a little creative the other day and turned one of our Halloween pumpkins into a turkey!

BDP2...Again

Yep, we really did it. Chelsea, Ashley and I hit the theater for the 2nd night in a row to see Breaking Dawn again, but in our defense Liz hadn't seen it yet and we couldn't let her go alone!

The End of an Era

Yesterday was the end of an era...and a tradition. The Twilight Saga is officially over and we had our last big midnight premier...forever...

I have to admit I was actually kind of dreading sitting in a theater ALL.DAY.AND.ALL.NIGHT.LONG and I was secretly hoping that Mason took longer to recover from his surgery so I would have an excuse not to be there all day, BUT as soon as I met Chelsea at the theater at 10am to get our seats that feeling was gone. I don't know why I have to be reminded how awesome my friends are and how much fun they are to hang out with. I was bummed when I had to leave for an hour to get Gavin from school and get the kids to my sisters.

 There were 14 of us this go around

Back Row: Linda, Mindy, Kayla, Chelsea, Nikki, Teri, Ashley, Kelly

Front Row: Tiffany, Debi, Rhonda, Amanda, Amanda's sister, Taren, Tashlyn

 Nikki and Chelsea

 Ashley and I with all of our loot

Good thing we were in pajama pants so we didn't bust the seams out from all the crap we ate.

Mindy and Kayla

 Flashing gang signs for Sarah, one of our girlfriends that moved away. We were trying to spell "blood" with our hands (a Sarah trademark) but we pretty much stink at it.

 Amanda, Rhonda & Debi

 Chelsea and Nikki

 Ashley and I with our Twilight Bling

 Ashley, Chelsea, Nikki, me and Amanda

Nikki and Chelsea

"Tru dat YO!"

Me in my Rockstar stupor, no wonder people drink the stuff!

 Edward, Bella and Renesmee with "blood" in her bottle

 Rhonda, Chelsea, Edward, Bella, Renesmee, me and Nikki

 We left the theater for an hour and had a late birthday dinner for me. 

 They made me wear a hot pink birthday crown that I almost forgot to take of before we went back to the theater

Ashley, Stephanie, Rhonda, Nikki, me, Chelsea, Kayla and Liz

Kayla bought me a Rockstar to keep me awake and keep me awake it did. I had never had one before and it kept me up until almost 3am! The movie was over @ midnight and I drove to Rigby to my sisters where my kids were and I kept her up into the wee hours of the night talking and laughing.

P.S. Chelsea I "stole" a few pictures from your facebook page, hope you don't mind

My Twilight Paraphernalia

Mason's Surgery

Super happy even though he had to wake up at 5:30 am. Poor guy didn't have a clue what was about to happen!

 Mason with one of Dave's infamous "balloons"

It took for what seemed like forever for him to wake up, but when he did he was nice and mellow (Thank you Jared!) We got him some apple juice and he drank almost half of right off, he was thirsty. He fell back asleep with holding it and I tried to take it from him to put it on the table but he had a death grip on it. 

Later we gave him some yogurt (he loves yogurt). I tried to help him and even in his drugged stupor he said "I do it"!! So I let him, but he had a hard time hitting his mouth  with the spoon and was getting yogurt on his face, neck, hands, blanket, etc. and then was mad cuz he was getting messy, but Raini (Thank you Raini!) kept us supplied with wet washcloth's etc. to clean up the mess. He was acting pretty silly and it was hard not to laugh a little. 

 Once in the van he wanted more yogurt so I opened it and gave it to him and he fell back asleep. I tried to take it from him, but once again he was using his death grip so I left it. Unfortunately when he woke up it spilled (after it had gotten warm and more liquidy). It was all over him, his blanket, his bear, the car seat and onto the van seat cover. Nothing a thousand wipes wouldn't clean up!

(For the record I did not know that my face was going to be in this picture when it was taken!)

I spent the entire day with Mason on my lap. He probably sat on my lap more then than he had in his entire life, he is a mover and rarely sits still. I gave him some pain meds at 2pm and that was it. By 5 pm he was up running around chasing Gavin like nothing even happened (except when I would change his diaper). He finally let me take his "sticker" (band-aid from IV) off his hand right before dinner.

My Baby

Chloe absolutely ADORES her daddy. When he is home, I practically don't exist to her, but that's ok because it melts my heart to see them together.

 Found them snuggling together on the extra bed

 Look at that happy content little girl!

Chloe kept patting Cody on his face and saying "my baby."  That is one big baby!

 More snuggle time

Love these two

Goodbye Ford

Cody has had over 25 vehicles since he first started driving and this is the ONLY Ford he has EVER owned! It was a BIG deal when he bought it and his buddies gave him tons of crap for doing it. He actually ended up liking it, but alas, it was time to go.  He put it on craigslist and the next night it was sold.

Goodbye Old Buddy, Goodbye

The XLT use to be red, but faded to pink and my brother & sis-in-law teased Cody all the time about his "pink' truck. I figured I should take a pic for memories sake.

It FINALLY came!

My brother-In-law Connelly finally got his mission call! It took longer that we thought it would, but luckily it came the day after Cody got home so he could be there when he opened it.

 It's here! It's really, really here!

Just in case you couldn't hear over all the excitement

Randomness

She has a thing with other peoples hats and shoes

Daddy's hat and mommy's shoes

Nighty-night Mason

Having a snack after their nap

(popcorn, Corn Chex, Kix, and Spiderman cereal)

I took a nap on the couch Sunday afternoon. Gavin closed all the curtains and blinds for me so it was "dark" and I could "rest better". When I woke up he was on top of the cushions right behind me asleep. I just LOVE this little guy!! He takes such good care of his mama!

Chloe "dressed" herself!

She has on Mason's hat and one of her dresses

Skeleton Ninja

I wish I could say that I was busy making a 5 star breakfast for my kids or scrubbing my house spotless while this was going on, but I wasn't. I was still in bed... Cody comes home today so I couldn't sleep last night because I'm excited for him to be home so it was after 1am before I finally fell asleep. The boys were up at 6:42am. I know that because I heard them and freaked out thinking I had slept through my alarm and I was running late, but I wasn't. I still had 18 minutes before my alarm went off and I had to get up. Chloe was still asleep and I could hear the boys running around chasing each other so I wasn't worried.  I must have dosed back off because I woke up to Gavin tapping me on the shoulder and proud as a peacock  with a big grin on his face saying 

 "Look at me mom, I'm a skeleton ninja".

 At first I thought it was just on his face, but once we were upstairs I saw it on his arms and his legs...

 ...and then he showed me his belly.

 I asked him to bring my the marker he used hoping it was a washable one

 No such luck!!

 Next I went to Google for advice

 And he wanted more pictures

 

 Judging by this one I'm assuming he was naked when he drew his "skeleton"

 Scrub away buddy, scrub away

At this point I was laughing AND crying at the same time

 His "skull" that he drew

 Still noticeable. Did I mention he had school today AND I had to meet with his teacher for parent teacher conference?

 Google suggested all sorts of things,but I figured rubbing alcohol and salt would be the easiest on his skin. While he was in the tub I used the Magic Eraser to get the marker off my floor and my sis-in-law suggested I try it on him.

 So I read the WARNING and it said NOTHING about using it on kids and /or skin (which actually surprised me....

 ...stupid blind me didn't read the BRIGHT RED CAUTION underneath the warning. Too bad I didn't see this until after I tested it on his hand and then used it on his face. I broke EVERY rule on the box! Luckily I didn't use it to much, but look what I did!!

 In my defense I figured it would be the safest of the 3 because I didn't want salt and rubbing alcohol to get in his eyes and Magic Erasers don't drip. I get the BAD-MOM-OF-THE-DAY award!!