SWITCHING SEASON FUN

After Thanksgiving, it is officially Christmas season in my book.  John had to work a lot of Black Friday (downside of owning a mall store), but we still managed to work in some fun with our guests and kiddos.

In the midst of everything else going on, we actually closed on a house Wednesday of last week.  Don't worry - we aren't moving (not that that would worry you, but it would worry me!).  This house is going to be a rental for John's parents to live in starting sometime in 2017.  We took everyone to see the new home while they were in town.

After the tour, we hit up the park near the house for some solid playtime.

(her snot is legendary.)

On Saturday morning, I made cinnamon rolls (with enthusiastic help!) and everyone enjoyed hanging out in Christmas jammies celebrating the start of the season!

(Smiles for Smarties!)

(Being Christmas Trees.  Naturally.)

We are still trying to recover from a busy week, but there is a lot coming up, so we tried to get Christmas decorating mostly done yesterday.  The girls were surprisingly VERY helpful, making the process go more quickly than it ever has before.  Plus, they were so excited, which makes it more fun.  I LOVE their ages.

(These two found love on the tree.)

Looking forward to celebrating our Savior's birth all month and trying to savor the sweet moments!

EXTRA THANKFUL FUN

Thanksgiving had quite the run up.  Here are some highlights!

There was the Thankful feast at the school, and I brought Sonic, because the girls were not the least bit interested in getting turkey from a tray.




We hit up a Trojan's basketball game.

Since we had cousins in town all week, we definitely had a ton of fun planned.  Some was weather dependent, and some was energy dependent, but even with all factors combined, we still managed to enjoy our time together.  First up, impromptu hike in the woods behind our house.

A zoo trip never disappoints my crew, and last Monday was perfect for it!

(Can't stop this girl!)

Here are some turkey glamor shots in honor of the holiday.

William got a desperately needed haircut, which he now enjoys thanks to being able to watch cartoons the whole time.



We adults celebrated Rachel's birthday at Bravo and went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which I loved.



There was lots of hand-holding in parking lots.



And cookie making and eating.

On the whole, everything that led up to Thanksgiving was really a lot of fun (though also somewhat exhausting, which is just the nature of the beast).  I loved being able to spend time with the kiddos out of school and was thankful to have an excuse to do extra fun things before the actual holiday.

THANKSGIVING 2016

It's been a whirlwind of family and food for the past week, hence the quietness on the blog front.  I have baked what feels like a million things, and it's been fun, but I am glad that I only have eating pie still in front of me - no more pie baking at the moment.

John's sister, brother-in-law and their two sweet kiddos have been with us since Sunday.  We've had lots of cousin fun, but this post is just a quick re-cap of our actual holiday together.

It started with mimosas (virgin for the kiddos 😜) and the Thanksgiving Day Parade.  W and V love to do "Cheers" with fancy drinks.



I made a sugar cookie turkey platter that included "feather" cookies that the kids could write what they were thankful for onto.  This was a major hit and taken very seriously by the older children.  It is SO fun to see what they are thankful for.

We made boatloads of food, and Violet was so excited about eating that she kept sitting at the table before it was all ready, swinging her knife and fork around in the air.

Jessee took point on grilling the turkey, which turned out deliciously!  John carved it up, and we sat down, gave thanks and tucked into it all, leaving a wake of food destruction in our path.

Gran Gran stopped by with a few other family members for a quick visit.



We saw Moana this afternoon, which was ADORABLE.  Then we downed some leftovers for dinner and haven't been able to muster the energy for anything else this evening.

My heart is truly full of gratitude to the Lord for the great gifts of health for the moment and love for my family.  There are many hard moments in these days, but the good outweighs the bad, and I'm thankful for the ways that God chooses to lay out our path and walk alongside us in it.  Happy Thanksgiving!