Shopping for Turkey Day

I always dread shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, but yet, I find myself looking forward to it as well! Hmmm, I guess that sounds a bit strange, but it's the truth.

I usually sit my kids down a month before Thanksgiving, and I ask them what do they want to make for our dinner. Some of their request this year were for pumpkin pie, apple pie, key lime pie, tapioca pudding, Fruit Gobbler, and Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats. Does it surprise you that most of their suggestions contain sugar?

After we've made the list, I'll usually pick up a few items at a time, throughout the month, to lessen the shopping just prior to Thanksgiving.

Well this year, unfortunately, I had to cram it all in today! The store was CRAZY busy, and it required me pushing two carts loads to the van.

Check out the goods!


Well all the kids were so excited, that they all decided to help. Which was great, except for this:


Katie ended up dropping it on her big toe! It's so strange, but it seems to me, that EVERY TIME I buy a glass jelly jar, one of my kids drops it! Why have I not gone to plastic? Well, since I'm basically cheep-- it's HARD for me to bring myself to buy plastic, since it's usually more expensive.

Poor Girl, look at the damage:

P.S.- I went back to the store, bought more jelly, and this time in plastic!

I Love My Anderson, I LOVE my Anderson, Truly, I DO!

That's what I had to keep telling myself this morning, after sitting down to check my email. I found my laptop looking like this!





Doesn't he just look so sweet and innocent...(don't let him deceive you)!?!

Cookies

I made some cookies yesterday afternoon for the kids. They were those Nestle cookies that are square. Just break them apart, bake, a viola-- you have yummy, warm, gooey cookies.

I had made both the chocolate chip and brownie chocolate chip, but for some reason, the brownie cookies came out smaller after baking.

Morgan: "Hey Mom, can I have two mini cookies instead of one regular sized cookie?"

Me: "Well, they may look smaller, but they're ACTUALLY the SAME SIZE."

It was so funny, Morgan had this blank look on his face, and then the words "huh" came out, and we all started laughing! He then said "right"!

They were the same size prior to baking, what happened? ;)

Setting up the Tree for FHE

It's that time of year again.. and we decided to get the decor up EARLY! I believe this is the earliest ever! We pulled out Bing Crosby, made apple cider, served pumpkin eggnog, roasted chestnuts, and ate cookies! What a fun night, and now I feel like I might actually conquer my mile-long "to do list"!

Look at all those stockings!!! I purchased them after Christmas last year on clearance. What a deal, especially when you have a family as big as ours, you need to hit the sales! I purchased one extra "just in case", we decide to have another baby (not feeling it right now, but it's better to be prepared).




Abigail's 1st Christmas-- she couldn't keep her eyes off the tree!




Aaron putting the angel on top of the tree.


O.K., this is weird, just look at it! Does this look like it has ANYTHING to do, whatsoever, with our Christmas decorating!?! Well...believe it or not, it does! We decided to open the attic, for the first time, since we moved into this house (long story). When Aaron opened the attic door, this is what he found! Strange, I know. I'm thinking it may be, one of those Saints the Catholics believe in, put up there to watch over our house! Actually..., I thought it was pretty cool, AFTER, we got over the initial "weirdness" of the whole thing.


Anderson, our little trouble maker (*see my newest blog entry*), still love him!


All Sarah wants for Christmas... teeth, not the chestnuts.

The chestnuts we roasted, only in the oven, not the fire. Never had them before, thought it would be fun to give em' a try. They are actually sweet, and I think taste like a cross between pumpkin and squash, very interesting, but good! Oh, and filling, I might add.

The Day We Left UT

We left Tara's house, and headed down to Provo. We wanted the kids to see the BYU campus, and it's bookstore. We spent a couple of hours walking around, and ended up buying chocolate covered Cinnamon bears (my personal fav), a hat for Morgan, a t-shirt for Aaron, and journals for the rest of the children. I was a little paranoid of us catching the swine flu, since it seemed, that everywhere we went there was a table set up with hand sanitizer and thermometers. My germ phobia came into play, and I was making all the kids use the hand sanitizer that was readily available, all the while, telling them repeatedly-- NOT TO TOUCH the handrails!


We thought this was hilarious! A GIANT, blown-up missionary!





(Christmas Card Preview, shhh, don't tell anyone!) I wish we had a better one, but I really don't have the time right now. We're planning on taking more family pictures in February (Ashlie, I guess I better run that by you, especially since you may not be up for it).


We had a good time in Cougarville, and then proceeded to drive to Mesquite, NV. We wanted to visit Kameron Mickelson and his family. I grew up living about five minutes from his parents. His dear, sweet father, spent many long hours fixing my mother's vehicles over the years. I don't know how my mother would've made it with out such a good hometeacher! She was a single mother, and we were often times without, and so she couldn't afford to take our vehicles to the shop. He truly was an Angel for our family!


(Kameron, I hope you don't mind me swiping this off of FB, but it's a much more interesting read with pics. Let me know if you do, and I'll take it off asap)

Anyways, we arrived at his place just after 9 p.m., and I felt so bad, all but one out of their four children, had fallen asleep while waiting for us to arrive. It was fun reminiscing about "the old days", as well as updating each another on the whereabouts of lost friends. His wife was so sweet and friendly, and Aaron loved talking "woodwork" with Kameron, since they both share the hobby.

We stayed there for about an hour, and then drove to Las Vegas. We arrived there so late, it was quite hard to wake some of the children to see the lights. I have to admit, it was a bit scary for me-- just so worldly!



We then proceeded to push through to Tucson, and I believe we made it home around 2:30 p.m. (of course I HAD to stop by a Shades Clothing store in Phoenix, which slowed us down). We were so happy to be home and I so enjoyed my SHOWER!

What a wonderful trip, I'm sure we'll all have fond memories of it for the rest of our lives!

Now onto blogging about everyday life-- quite busy with the ucoming holidays!

Discovery Gateway a Children's Museum

After leaving Temple Square, we headed over to Discovery Gateway. It's just the best children's museum. They had all sorts of goblins running around making crafts and exploring all the many areas of learning and creativity the museum had to offer. Some of the areas had blocks to stack, and puzzles to build. There was a very elaborate water toy (the little guys played on that for a while), a T.V. news anchor and weather area, a helicopter, and a make-believe supermarket.

We went trick-or-treating towards the end, which my kids enjoyed. Eventually, the little guys, as well as us grown ups, were feeling quite spent-- however, we still had lots to do, before trick-or-treating yet again!

When we got back to Tara's house, we had to get kids dressed, make dinner, and carve a pumpkin. Tara made most of the dinner (an AWESOME cheesy-potato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches), while Justin took some of the kids outside to carve a pumpkin. I felt bad for not helping more, but I had to feed Abigail, so she would be happy while we were out.

After everyone was ready to go, we headed over to a neighborhood close to Tara's ward building. The little guys did well for being so tired. They eventually BEGGED to go home, and of course we heard the same things we hear every year, "my feet hurt", "I'm tired", "I can't walk anymore", or "I'm cold!" Justin kept them motivated, by saying, "when we get back, we can have hot chocolate in your P.J.'s", and so we did. When we got back, we put on their P.J.'s and made them hot chocolate, while older guys continued on with Aaron.

There was a kid that lives across from Tara and Justin, who is a deacon in their ward. He really wanted to go with Morgan, but I think he second guessed his decision about half-way through the night. He couldn't believe we had to go so SLOW with all the little guys, and told me at one point, "man, I'm not going to get ANY candy this year-- I usually RUN from door to door!" So Aaron was just the best, taking them out a little longer, so they could increase their stash.

I enjoyed coming home to the warm house and telling crazy, made up, ghost stories to the little guys. They were listening intently, and I thought it was so cute, seeing their little eyes, as wide as can be, waiting for whatever it was that I was going say next. I had them hooked! They begged for more, but it was time for bed.

After they went to sleep, the older kids and us adults watched the movie FIREPROOF (Fireproof Movie Overview), which I highly recommend (a little cheesy at times, but good)! The adults stayed up till at least 2 a.m. chating, so fun!

It was a wonderful Halloween, well, I'd say the best ever!!! It was just great, spending time with my Sis and her family!

Temple Square

What a wonderful experience, to go to Temple Square! I love to visit whenever we're in Utah. It's just so beautiful, and I think it's important for the kids to feel of the spirit there. I just love this picture, look at that blue sky! It was the perfect day!





Brother Hogan was our Tour Guide for the Conference Center (one of Justin's parent's neighbors).


Anderson's checking out the water formation in the main area.


This is what he was looking up at!


They're already getting ready for Christmas. I sure wish we could be there for Thanksgiving, that's when they light up Temple Square!




Our guide brought us up to the top floor. When we got up there we could look down at the bottom floor. When I looked down at the fountain, I noticed a husband and wife playing the hymn, "If You Could Hie to Kolob" on a grand piano and a violin. The music was so beautiful, and then I looked across the way from where we were standing, and there was a mirror, and I could see all of my family standing there together. It reminded me of families, and then of the eternities. I felt the spirit and emotions overcame me. I thought of the mirrors in the sealing rooms of the temple, and how if we are true and faithful, we will be together forever, with our loved ones.







I love this picture of Aaron and Morgan.





We then were lead outside. It amazed me that the ceiling of the Tabernacle could sustain the weight of the granite on this floor. There were many fountains, and even Evergreen trees planted. It was so lovely, I was in heaven!















I fell in love with this sculpture of The First Vision!


Our husbands's were just the sweetest! They took all the kids to Burger King for lunch and they ate at the park, while Tara and I slipped away for our lunch at The Lion House. We haven't gone out to eat by ourselves since we were both living at home. It made the perfect finish for the perfect day, well, actually the perfect morning. We crammed in a lot more on Halloween... more to come!