Thanksgiving in Idaho

 We have had Thanksgiving at home for the last 3 years.  One was by choice, one was because we were planning to go visit Kent's parents and couldn't go because of snow.  And last year we stayed home was because both our parents were not home and we decided to stay home since we didn't really have anywhere to go.  We had a fun time doing it with just our little family but this year we really wanted to go somewhere and not spend Thanksgiving at home alone.   Since it was the "on" year with most of Kent's siblings at his parent's house we decided to go there.  After a busy first half of November it was so nice to go on a trip and leave our crazy world home for a few days.  I brought my camera with me but I didn't use it much. I was too lazy.  My sister-in-law Sally is a photographer and she took lots of pictures so I am hoping I can get her to send me a couple of the wonderful chaos of Thanksgiving dinner.  There were 12 adults and 22 kids.  My kids had such a fun time visiting with their grandparents and their cousins.  We don't get to see our Idaho cousins very often so when we do it is a big deal.  Also, our Wii has been broken for almost a year and the fact that grandma and grandpa have a Wii was a big hit too.  Ian went over to my sister Carol's house to have a sleepover with the boys and Hailey, the kids' 12 year old cousin came over to my in-law's house to have a sleepover with the girls.  We also invited another cousin, Jocelyn to sleep over.  The girls had an awesome cousin sleep-over party.

 

Kelly, Carl and Kent

It has been a long and trying year for Carl and his wife Julie since was diagnosed with leukemia in January and spent a good part of the year in the hospital.  He is in remission now and regaining strength and it was really good for Kent to be able to spend time with him, and 3 of his other 4 brothers.  We haven't had a get together like that in a really long time.  We had such a good time.  There is just something about being together with family for Thanksgiving.  We like having Christmas with our little family because our kids are big and we like to do our own traditions, but Thanksgiving just isn't the same without getting together with a big group of family. I am thankful for my own family and for the family I married into.

Eight!

Happy Birthday to my big dude Ian. Ian decided to follow in Adele's footsteps and have a holiday themed cake.  He wanted turkey cupcakes in honor of Thanksgiving.  I gave it my best shot.

 

 

We love this big guy!  The kids are growing up so fast.  Just a couple of facts about Ian at age 8:
He loves Phineas and Ferb.  His favorite food is cheese.  His favorite colors are blue, red and black and he has a contagious belly laugh that makes me laugh too.

Misc. Crafting

So I have kind of been on a sewing and crafting spree but I haven't posted anything (until today when I posted the jammie pants).  So, here's just a bunch of photos of stuff I have made recently.

I also made a skirt for Emilia but I guess I don't have any pix of it.

Mom of the Year

Yeah, that's me.

How could I be anything BUT mom of the year after making custom dolly clothes for this little naked baby (who used to be naked but now isn't)?  AND to score even more points, I made Adele matching pajama pants.   Never mind the fact that I bought pj pant fabric for all my kids in JULY and have just NOW gotten to sewing the pants.  That is what happens when your internet goes down for 3 days.  You get stuff done.

She even has undies and booties!

The line-up with their jams.

I love the dog pile.

The Partying Continues

How fun is this? I even dressed up for the party!  Can't let the opportunity to wear stripey tights pass without taking advantage of it!  Not to mention the awesome hair.

Here is Supergirl trying to convince Spiderman to come join us in the photo.  He was being shy and didn't want to be in the photo.  The bubbling brew was much more interesting.

Shrunken Heads

This year on Adele's birthday for a fun birthday activity she wanted to carve apples and make shrunken heads.  I showed her pictures on the internet of the  shriveled apples and ever since then she really wanted to make some.

 This might have to become an annual tradition.

My baby is 5.

I took the kids swimming today and I had one of those moments where you suddenly feel like your life is flashing before your eyes and your kiddos are growing up too fast.  My littlest baby is 5.  It is kind of weird.  Next year she will be in kindergarten.  I am happy that we have moved on from the difficult baby years but I'd sure love to go back and cuddle these guys as newborns again.

Happy 5th birthday to Adele!

 Happy 5th birthday to my crazy 5 year old!  

Adele:

Loves makeup, dress up, shoes and sparkles

Names her hands and feet and also the feet and hands of others.  And pretends her feet are dogs and cats.

Is very sneaky

Loves to draw and color (sometimes on walls still) and always wants to be with her friends.

Loves to chew gum

The breakfast candle in the strawberry

She asked for an orange skeleton cake.  I made the bones out of white chocolate

Modelling the tutu and new scooter

Rocking R Cabin

 My good friend Jodi's family has a cabin near Zion National Park and invited us to go up there with her this weekend since the kids were on fall break.  There are actually 3 small cabins but I wasn't thinking and didn't take a picture of the one we slept in.  The one below is the "main cabin" with the kitchen and sleeping area.  Kent wasn't feeling well, and he also had some winterizing yard stuff (and a BYU football game) so he ended up staying home.  Jodi took her 4 kids up and Jodi's sister Jennie was also there with HER 4 kids.  So, lots of kids, not lots of adults.  It was still lots of fun and we really hope Jodi will invite us again sometime (hint hint...)  And maybe if there is a next time everyone will be healthy and there will be NO puking or fevers, right Jodi?

 The main cabin was built by Jodi's grandpa who was a contractor and got a bunch of leftover stuff from jobs and brought it up to his property on the mountain and turned it into a cabin.  It's super rustic with no electricity and no running water.  Just a couple steps up from camping.

 Emilia was walking around with a roll of toilet paper because nature was calling and she was looking for a place to answer the call. While exploring she got sidetracked by a tree house and ended up packing that TP up and down the steep ladder.

Elise had a good time despite her bored face in this picture.

Hiking with a bunch of kids.  It was beautiful and adventurous!

Fun swing! 

Crazy bent tree

This was the cutest thing that Emilia built. It was a mini-fort that she built in the forest by the cabin.  She even built a tiny little fire pit with a little teepee fire made out of pine needles.

And of course, I had to get a picture of our favorite smelly place.  Nothing says togetherness like using an outhouse with your kids.  

And, on the subject of outhouses, Adele was the only one (besides myself) who consistently used the outhouse.  I was worried that she would be afraid to go in there and would freak out to have to go to the bathroom over a hole.  I guess for her no flush = no fear.  The other kids found it VERY exciting and entertaining to answer the call of nature IN nature.  They giggled and laughed at going to the bathroom in the bushes and in the forest behind the cabin.

Llama Vest & Ugly Pants

I was shopping at Kohl's last week and I think I may have possibly seen THE ugliest pants ever. WOW.  If this is the new trend count me out.

The llama vest was pretty awesome too.

Family Photos 2012

My good (and very talented friend) Kirsten A. agreed to take some photos of my fam so we'd actually have something for our Christmas cards and something to replace the 2.5 year old photos on our wall.  She did a great job and I am so glad we got everything I hoped for!