Thanksgiving

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend with my family, and we had such a great time!  Nothin' like being with family for the holidays.

Thanksgiving Day was a nice "warm-ish" day and the kids had fun being outside.





Kimbo helping fill the nut cups.



Emily and Darrell checking out the Black Friday ads



Tyler, Emily, Olivia and Megan checking out the homemade rootbeer.



Waiting.... (Tyler, Megan, Olivia, Emily and Kyle)



Yummy!





Kimberly, Brooke, Darrell and I headed out on our traditional Black Friday run (although all the sales we hit were still on Thanksgiving Day, so is that called Black Thursday?)  We left the house at 3:30 p.m. and drove 2 hours to get to the sales.  We arrived early (ahead of the 6:00 p.m. sale), but the people at WalMart were really laid back and let us start filling up our carts around 5:35.  We made quite a haul with 2 shopping carts full. 



Then we headed to Target.  We arrived at 7:15, but the doors didn't open until 8:00.  It was a little nippy waiting out in 28 degree weather, but it was still fun. (Darrell, Brooke and Kimberly)



We made it back from our excursion around 1:00 a.m. Friday morning.  You can say what you want about stores be opened on Thanksgiving, but I loved that they were open and we could be done with our shopping and back in bed.  In years past we've had to leave at 1:00 a.m. to go to the sales.

The rest of the weekend was spent with cousins and having fun.

Megan, Emily and Tyler eating breakfast with Samuel.



Playing Legos



Hanging out with the big kids around the table--doing their own thing.



Emily cutting up paper



Megan cutting paper and playing with the ponies.



Tyler writing and drawing



One afternoon we went swimming at the Y, but I didn't get any pictures.

The kids opened our family gift from Derek, Tansy and Samuel--ice cream sundae cups and all the fixins for yummy ice cream sundaes.



Samuel, Megan, Derek and Tansy



Megan and Tyler attacking Derek



Tyler and Megan riding Derek



Derek being such a great uncle.  Tansy and Samuel having fun too.



Traditional holiday puzzle making.  Tansy, my mom and Derek

 

Sunday before church (Megan, Tyler, Samuel and Emily)



I love, love, LOVE my family.  It was wonderful to be together for Thanksgiving!

BYU

One weekend in November we had a mini family reunion in Provo.  We had such a fun time!

Hanging out at the pool with cousins.



The kids thought hide-away couch in the hotel room was pretty cool.





Checking out the cold, wet weather.



Emily, Tyler and Megan



We had tickets to the BYU/ISU game.  It was a cold, wet day so we bundled up warm and had ponchos to help also.



Walking to the stadium



The kids loved being at the game, and they were such good troopers and didn't even complain. 



Tyler, me, Megan, Emily and Darrell











Tyler



Emily



Megan



My mom took the kids back to the hotel room around half time, but a few of us stuck it out.

After warming up after the game, we went to the BYU Bookstore for new BYU apparel.  Then we ate at the Cougar Eat.  (at least I think they still call it that.)



We also had the chance to attend a BYU men's basketball game that night.  The kids loved that too.  Unfortunately my camera died at the football game so the only pictures I have are very blurry ones from my phone.

 

 Tyler with his new BYU beanie



Emily and Megan on Grandma sporting their new BYU shirts

 

 

 A fun weekend coming to an end.  We had breakfast at the hotel before heading to church.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Mom and Dad for a wonderful weekend!

October

Here are some of the things we did in October

Cute Megan and Emily heading off to preschool.  The color of the day was brown.



Tyler's drawing for the PTA Reflections contest.  It is a picture of a deer family in the mountains.



Speaking of deer, my mom and dad gave Tyler his own set of deer antlers from my dad's collection. Tyler was in HEAVEN!  He was thinking of hanging them in his room, but luckily he decided that they would work best out in the garage, so that is where the antlers reside at this time.



Tyler, Emily and Megan enjoying a warm autumn day outside



Playing Candy Land



Walk to School Day.  Since many of the kids that go to Tyler's school don't live within walking distance of the school (like us), we met at a nearby Target parking lot and walked to the school.  The school mascot, Buzz, made his appearance that day.





Tyler participating in crazy hair day for Red Ribbon Week



A few days before Halloween we took kids trick or treating to a few businesses in a neighboring town.  Emily was Minnie Mouse.  Tyler was a firefighter, and Megan was Belle.







Carving pumpkins--the kids got stripped down to their T-shirts to avoid the getting pumpkin guts on their shirts.







On Halloween the girls and I went Tyler's school to see him in the school-wide parade. 





I took the girls to preschool for their Halloween party and then went back to the school to help with Tyler's class party.  Both the morning and afternoon kindergarten classes were there that day so there were quite a few kids to entertain.  We rotated them through different stations and everyone had fun.

Donuts and juice



Pin the face on the pumpkin



Keep the balloons in the air



Musical chairs



Limbo



(The only station Tyler didn't get to was ghost (toilet paper rolls with faces) bowling.  I didn't get a picture.)

That afternoon the kids went trick-or-treating at Darrell's work.



Our Halloween dinner




Darrell took the kids out while I stayed home to hand out candy.