Thanksgiving

We certainly have a great deal to be thankful for this year. We had so much fun with Grammie, Poppa, Grandma Yancey, Eric, Angela, Jeff, Heidi, and Maylee on Thanksgiving. The girls thought it would be fun to have everyone dress up for the dinner, and although there was a little grumbling (I won't say who from), I think in the end everyone really enjoyed it. The food was delicious, but the best part by far was being with loved ones. Thanks, everyone, for making the trip to be with us!

Kids and Dogs

Nathan is always telling us how much he would love a puppy. Whenever we see a dog he asks, "Can I please have one of those?" Unfortunately for Nathan, Daddy isn't in love with the idea, and Mommy is overwhelmed by it!

The girls are in on the begging too. A puppy is on their Christmas "wish list" .....as well as other lists. Every time I go to the store and pull out my grocery list I see the following: milk, eggs, bread, etc. (my handwriting), puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy, etc. (Anna's writing.)

The logical side of me thinks that we're just not ready for that level of commitment. But then I look at these pictures of Nathan and Toolie, and all "logic" goes out the window. Lucky for me, he still has to talk Daddy into it.....

We get pretty territorial about our cookies around here.

Happy Birthday, Aimee!

Aimee's chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. (She decorated it herself.)

Waiting for presents....


Daddy made us his yummy breakfast burritos in honor of the special day.

Seven things we love about our 'seven-year-old':

1. She has a very cute and contagious laugh.

2. She loves to have fun.

3. Aimee is an entertaining big sister for Nathan and a best friend for Anna.

4. She makes a mean fruit salad (her own secret recipe).

5. Aimee is great at spelling. She even out-spelled most of the third graders in her 2-3 combo class's "Spelling Olympics."

6. She has a remarkable fashion sense for a little girl. She's been putting together her own cute outfits for four years now! (I should ask her to lay my clothes out at night...)

7. Aimee has a very vivid imagination. She loves to play everything from school to church to "Rachel Ray." I love to eaves drop in on her "conversations" when she plays.....you'd think you were listening to a 30-year-old!

We love you, Aimee!

Halloween

Pre-Trick-or-Treating party with Friends (Nathan, the only boy once again, refused to pose for the picture with all of those girls!)

Carving the pumpkin with Daddy's Dremel (it's great to have power tools around...)


Our beautiful (and good) witches.


The bag started getting a little heavy...

Halloween Project

Here are some pictures from the art project we did last week. Quite the little artists I have. They love to paint.

UTAH

At the airport...

Sweet Baby Ava

Much more effective...

Bella to Nathan: "Come on, Nathan, let's get out of here!"

A cool map that shows where the dinosaurs lived.

Not sure about the Dinosaur museum.....those things are a little scary! This reminds me of when we took Aimee to the museum when she was Nathan's age. Before we went in she asked (with concern in her voice), "Are the dinosaurs in cages?"

Funny faces.......

Completely exhausted!

Scott was scheduled to do some continuing education stuff at BYU a couple of weeks ago, and we were lucky enough to tag along. The trip was made even better when Grammie found an amazing deal on plane tickets, and we got to fly. The kids were in heaven!

We got to see Aunt Fifi's sweet new baby, Ava, which was definitely a highlight. The girls could've sat and held that baby girl all day long! And, of course, Nathan and Bella played their little hearts out. So fun to be with cousins!

We met Scott for some bowling at BYU one night with Grammie and Poppa. Nathan discovered that it was much more effective just to kick the ball down the lane. All three kids ended up beating me! Hmmm.....need to brush up on my bowling skills.

Saturday evening we took Grandpa to the BYU vs. New Mexico game for his birthday. We had so much fun. I'm hoping the game (and the hot chocolate, and the nachos) helped our efforts to convince the girls that the Y is where they want to be! (ha-ha)

We were also able to squeeze in a trip to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, an early birthday party for Aimee, and a visit with Aunt Karla and Uncle Pete. And Sunday morning we woke up to about two inches of SNOW! The kids were in heaven and played out in it until it was time to come in to get ready for church. Toolie (mom and dad's dog) went out with the kids and started scooping up mouthfuls of snow. Aimee ran over and said "Toolie! Don't eat all the snow!" (They loved it that much!) It was great to pack so much fun into a short trip......