Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day. We had a great day even though it went nothing like we had planned. Andrew was supposed to get home from work Wednesday morning and we were going to drive down to Caliente to spend a couple of days with my family.  On Monday night, we packed up our clothes, food that didn't need to be in the fridge and other misc. stuff. 

On Tuesday morning, it snowed here some and it snowed a lot where Andrew was headed.  He got delayed and the roads weren't good, so Tuesday night we decided we better not go.  I woke up on morning and thought, well if Andrew gets home early afternoon, maybe we can drive half-way and then the rest of the way on Thursday morning.  I called Andrew around 10:00 and he told me that the breaks on his trailer froze overnight and he couldn't move his truck.  So, with that and the bad roads, he didn't get home until around 6:30 that night. 

When we realized we were going to be able to go, we decided that we would go out to eat for lunch and then have the dips that I was planning on making for dinner.  Here are the highlights.  A few weeks ago, we made these turkey shirts for the boys.  Those on their handprints on their shirts.

 

We we are snuggling (or nugs and Deker says it) watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Here we are snuggling again after the boys got up from their nap.

The boys munching on Spinach Dip and Cheese ball while watching Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

We had a fun day, but missed my family terrible.  Now I need to face the task of unpacking all our stuff.

A few months ago, my sister, Vera, called around to her siblings and asked if she could make rubber band guns for the kids.  The general consensus was, what about us?  So, being the great sister that she is, she made rubber band guns for all of us (including the little babies).  She also printed out some targets to use as well.  When we were all together a couple of weekends ago celebrating my Mom's birthday, she passed out the rubber band guns, targets and a bag of rubber bands. 

My boys (me too) have been having fun playing with them.  Keagan and Deker probably ask at least once a day if they can play with them.  I actually remembered to take a picture yesterday. 

Vera, Thanks for being such a great sister and Aunt!  We love you!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My Mom turned 60 last week.  We decided to help her celebrate by having a Surprise birthday party in Salt Lake.  My dad rented a nice big 8 bedroom vacation house for us to all stay in.  Most of us arrived in Salt Lake on Thursday evening.  On Friday morning, my boys were very excited to learn that in the backyard, after the big lawn was none other than dirt hills.  Keagan very excited came inside telling me all about them. 

On Friday morning, the majority of us went to see the Hogle Zoo.  There was a bucket truck in the zoo putting up Christmas light.  This is what I saw when I looked at my boys.  All the rest of us was going in the opposite direction of the truck.

 I guess Bauer thought he needed a drink.

My sister Vera was being the great aunt that she is and bought tickets for all the kids to ride the Carousel.  I went with Deker and Aunt Vera took Bauer.

 

Keagan with his other 4 year old cousins.  Walking into the zoo.

Keagan in the lions mouth.

Aunt Vera with a lot of her nieces and nephews.

My Mom and Dad got to Salt Lake on Friday afternoon.  My Mom thought she was just going to see two of her kids and their families that live there.  It was decided ahead of time, that my Dad would call my brother Alma who lives in Salt Lake when they were getting close to Salt Lake. Alma then told him that they were headed to Artic Circle and to meet them there.  We hid behind the play equipment.  Then came out when she walked in.

There was lots of running around and playing games.  Getting VERY dirty playing on the dirt hills, etc.  We were very blessed to having amazingly good weather while we were there.  Friday and Saturday were beautiful days then Sunday was cold and windy. 

 

 

 

We had a great time surprising and celebrating my Moms birthday.  On Sunday morning, we took a big group picture before attending sacrament meeting with my brother, Alma and his wife.  Here is the big group picture.  The only person missing was my brother Neal who is serving a mission in Brazil. 

Gates

Keagan and Deker likes to take the pillows from the couch and put them up with the coffee table and use the pillows as gates.  These "forts", for lack of a better word are used for all sorts of things.  Sometimes it is to make a house where they can "babysit" each others animals.  Sometimes they are used in conjunction with blankets to make an even better fort.  There are other things they do in them, but I can't remember at the time. 

On Saturday night, Andrew and I were in the kitchen making dinner.  After a little bit, Deker started saying "Momma, Gates".  When I looked over this is what I saw....

Deker took all the pillows and put them up between the couch and the coffee table, took the helicopter in there and played for quite a while.  When it was time for dinner, he took a gate, moved it out of the way, came out and then slid the gate back in place. 

Happy Halloween

And for the crowning events of our Halloween week.  On Sunday night, we had "mice" for dinner.  Basically mini meatloaf with things stuck in them to look like mice.  I was really excited about showing these to Keagan and Deker, I put them on the plates, dressed them up like mice.  Then when I put their plates in front of them and said "Look, there is a mouse on your plate".  Their reaction was.... "Oh".  That is when I realized that it will be a while before they care about stuff like that, but I will keep doing it because it was fun for me.

Because Andrew wasn't  home for the Trunk or Treat, we decided to go out on Sunday evening.  Our friends Jill and Kelson and their two girls came along.  It was a very fun evening.  Here are some better pictures Andrew took of the boys.

 

 

Saturday's Activities

On Saturday morning, our friend Angela called and asked if we wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and do the Scarecrow stroll.  I said of course because it sounded like alot of fun.  I had a lot of fun looking at the Scarecrows and watching my boys running around.  Thank you Angela for inviting us to go with you!

This Potato head scarecrow was the boys favorites.  It had a second set of features and a hat that you could play with.  About the time that we came upon this, Bauer started getting pretty hungry.  Angela took Keagan and Deker to play with this while I found a bench close by to sit down and feed Bauer. 

 

Taking a much needed break.

Andrew got home from work that night and we decided to have a fun dinner.  I saw an idea to make a snake here from Paula Dean.  I think I either rolled it out to thin or didn't seal it up good enough, but all the cheese leaked out and it so it didn't turn out all that cute, but it tasted good. 

After dinner, we watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown while eating Pumpkin Fluff Dip (recipe found here on Smithalicious).  While also passing out treats to the few trick or treaters that came by.  It was a very fun night spent together as a family.